Following his creation of a portable Atari 2600, Ben Heck was hesitant to make the 7800 portable due to the complexity of the motherboard. But Ben didn’t let that phase him as he’s finally finished the portable Atari 7800. The motherboard was larger than the 2600’s thus the unit had to be larger, so Ben slapped a 7-inch wide screen onto it to make up for it’s bulky size.

The system, with its corpulent form, still weighs less than a gallon of milk and runs on rechargeable batteries.  Even the Sega Game Gear is jealous of this thing! Though Ben claims it’s portable; it will never fit in your pockets like a Game Boy Micro will. Then again, the Micro doesn’t have quite the game library the 7800 has.

Link (via)

There’s nothing I love more than making good electronic music from classic video game consoles. This video is a great example of someone using circuit bending techniques to generate sounds from an old Atari 2600. Using Paul Siocum’s Synthcart, the user is able to create original pieces using the 2600’s built-in sound chips.

Nothing beats the DIY instrument movement. If you have an 2600 collecting dust in your home, you should seriously consider getting yourself a Synthcart. At $25, it’s a dirt-cheap investment that will allow you to get started at creating your own chiptunes. The author even offers a downloadable ROM for free in case you want to try before your buy.

Link (via)

The Atari 1980 masterpiece Missile Command is given a whole new take on interactive gaming thanks to Steven Mason. Steve wrote the clone for the multi-touch wall at Obscure Digital. It’s the same classic game, except you touch to shoot defending projectiles at incoming missiles. This adds a new element of game play and also gets your lazy ass off the couch. Chances are it’ll have you frantically slapping your hands against a wall for both exercise and entertainment.

We’ve seen this sort of technology before, even some with some newer games like Warcraft 3, but a classic such as Missile Command gives us a retro game with a fresh take on gameplay. I don’t see this kind of technology boosting the gaming industry’s innovation anymore than the Wii (a modern-day power glove), but seeing old Atari classics brought to life again makes me nostalgic.

Link (via)

The King of Gamer Mods, Ben Heck, has returned to his triumphant days of Atari hacking. Known in the past for this Atari portables and other gaming mods, such as this one-handed Xbox controller, Ben Heck is back with a brand new Atari portable, this time for the 2600.

Running off of 6 batteries, the new Atari portable now has paddle controls, which Heck’s past mods never included. I’m really liking that little wood paneling too. Nice addition. Now, to get back to Asteroids. — Andrew Dobrow

Link

Productdose has put together a cool little collection of retro gamer themed belt buckles which we would be honored to sport on our waists. Included are Pac-Man, Mario, Atari, and Space Invaders, plus a few more. Our favorites are pictured here, but we are in love with all of them so we recommend checking out the whole bunch.

(more…)

Talk about nostalgia. These Hang & Play Atari Wall Hooks bring back a lot of memories of a lot of sleepless nights in front of my 13-inch TV. And what a cool piece of decoration and design to showcase in your home. Make your house reflect who you are.

And who are we? We are nerds. Through and through. Which is why the Hang & Play hooks caught are eye. Of course the hooks are not operational joysticks, but the memories of Space Invader are worth their electrical inability.

They also seem they’d look cool at pretty much any angle. If you don’t have a nice section to set up the hooks, a vertical set-up would be fine. We don’t think the Hook is for sale, but damn do we want one. — Andrew Dobrow

Hang & Play [Coroflot.com]