Ben Heckendorn's Atari 800 laptop
By Evan Blass 
posted Nov 14th 2005 6:35PM
posted Nov 14th 2005 6:35PM
Ben Heckendorn, master of stuffing old gaming consoles into portable packaging (see: NES Micro, N64p, PPS2, Phoenix 2600), has just revealed what is arguably his most
intricate project yet, a homemade laptop filled with Atari 800 guts. This throwback to the early days of video games
sports an 8-inch TFT screen, dual speakers, full QWERTY keyboard, 2-player controls, cursor control knob, CompactFlash
"disk drive," and two joystick ports. Even better, Heckendorn included an error reference list right next to
the display, which would be super-handy to have on regular laptops, except that a list of Windows error codes would
probably require a 500-foot tall screen.
[Thanks, Jeffler]
Amazing.
"a homemade laptop filled with Atari 2600 guts."
Why would it be filled with 2600 guts when the 2600 and 400/800/5200 are completely incompatible?
Time for a folding at home update maybe? ajimas hit 100000
DAMNIT!
ben said: One thing, don't distribute this photo beyond these forums until the official announcement Wednesday, thanks. I want the full story up before people see it.
DAMNIT JEFFLER!! also, its an atari 800!!! not a 2600!!!
I have one of Ben's 2600 handheld units, and the thing is amazing! It gets more looks than even my PSP, especially when people see the cartridge sticking out the top...runs forever on it's Sony camcorder li-ion battery, too...
are you sure its an atari 2600 and not a atari 800 personal computer inside of it?
That space game for the 400/800 was the coolest game I ever played. I can't remember the name of it (a grid and you went from grid to grid, then flew through space shooting stuff).
Fu*king amazing. I'm in awe!!!!
I got my working 800 in my closet along with a working 810 drive.
Space Raiders
btw, he's got it sitting on top of the same Compaq laptop I'm typing this on. That thing's gotta be pretty small, judging from the relative sizes of the two.
Did you guys read this part???
"One thing, don't distribute this photo beyond these forums until the official announcement Wednesday, thanks. I want the full story up before people see it."
STAR Raiders
Cool!
Why?
#7, the game was STAR RAIDERS.
I got an Atari 800 for Xmas when I was 10...that thing was sweet...and built like a tank! If it wasn't for that computer, I don't know what I'd be doing today. I learned BASIC, LOGO....and ran it all off cartridges and my bad-azz tape-recorder! And when I got my 5.25" floppy (the Indus GT), I was the king of the neighborhood!
So many good memories.
way to go jeff you are a fool a bonafide fool ben asked you not to show anyone and you cross him and by the way its a damn atari 800 not a 2600 get it right damn it
jeff submited this befor eben had posted that notice, while it still was a bit foolish he didnt just disregard Bens request, he DIDNT SEE IT, it had not yet been posted, please lay off him ok?
clicclic,
did the game use two controllers (one for flying, one for firing). There is one called "space dungeon" that sounds like the one you are talking about... awesome game.
-pear
Star Raiders was a great game (the hardware was pretty much optimized to do what that game needed, kinda like Mario 64 did for the N64). But it's a shame he made it of an Atari XE instead of an Atari 800. You need FOUR joystick ports if you are going to play a proper game of MULE on that thing... Maybe next time he'll get it right.
#19
No doubt, M.U.L.E Rulez!!!
I still have my Atari 400 hacked to an 800 with percom SSSD floppy. Really got to move M.U.L.E, Jumpman and others to some more permanent medium.
This is damn cool, if he'd only make a mouse that looked like the old atari joysticks... then were talkin!
I have the translator disk and too many lzh'd squashed and compacted files to mention. It is likely that I have almost everything that was ever written for the Arati 8-bit. I once sold all the 8-bit hardware from a pirate BBS, and kept the software. Brings back many good memories.
now that is a spacebar to be admired!
Nice Burl wuud!
Jeff you shit, I hope ur f'n banned..
i retract my statement, if you read his post, he sent it in AFTER ben edited it with the warning, its NOT his fault, just like triton said.
I love that wood with the color scheme its freakin awesome, if anyone made a laptop with those looks I'd buy it.
Freaking awesome. Now, if he could just make an Apple IIgs laptop/portable....
I would love to buy one! Any chance of that?
the game with the grid graphics was called "Tempest" and it used vector graphics (plotting lines on the CRT) rather than raster graphics. That is why the original arcade game looked so bright. Another cool game was called "Gyrus" with beethovens Toccata as an audio track... way cool.