Video: Ben Heck amazes with Atari 800 laptop -- again
By Tim Stevens 
posted September 14th 2009 8:34AM
posted September 14th 2009 8:34AM
Of all the legacy platforms that have been massaged by modder extraordinaire Ben Heck, it seems the Atari 800 is his favorite. One got the portable treatment back in November of 2005, and he then re-worked it in late 2006. He's done it again, creating the third revision of the 8-bit luggable, completely overhauling the mod in period brownish/beige plastics, with old-school LED lights and an authentic keyboard that even pops up after the laptop is opened. Inside things are a bit more modern, with a 2.5-inch HDD serving the games (no more pressing PLAY on the cassette drive) and a GameCube power supply, of all things. It's a lovely creation that Ben himself rather enthusiastically demonstrates after the break and we, like him, wish we could add one to our collection.
[Via technabob]
[Via technabob]
Must. Have.
only for a museum
Very very nice! Great design and the HDD is a great idea. Wonder if there is a USB interface for the HDD to copy more games across or not.
great design except it needs to be aluminum and have a glass screen.
/fanboi rant
Ben Heck is a theif!
Stealing Sky Mall catalogs from airplanes... for shame.
Go go Engadget commenting system!
thief*
I've read my share of SkyMall and they actively encourage you to take the catalogue.
'Cause like, maybe you you want to buy orthopedic shoe inserts after you land.
Heh once I flew first-class on Delta and apparently the Sky Mall catalogs vary by section (or maybe I was just very lucky), but an Italian eye glass manufacture was giving away free sunglasses (some worth up to 400$ on the retail market, I checked later just to see), all you had to do was pay S/H for each. So my family ended up buying 5 (there was no technical limit but you shouldn't be greedy just because it's a good thing) and we all (3 of us) have ours today and I gave 2 away to good friends.
Yes, Sky Mall is free to be taken from the plane. Anything to get you to buy their crap.
The amusing thing to me is that such a talented modder has a copy of SKY MALL laying around. Not MAKE magazine or anything that might make sense. Funny!
Also, is he using a Sega Genesis controller or do Atari 800 controllers just look like that?
Genesis controllers are compatible with the Atari controller port. Don't ask me how but they just are :P
A lot of Atari products work pretty good with sega genesis controllers. Not only do the plugs match, but they /work/. Very good when you don't feel like using a stiff joystick thing on a weird box with a single button to the side.
The Atari 800 game controllers were Atari 2600 controllers. Boxy joysticks and the dial one.
Works with Amiga classic too.
Atari and Genesis controllers are also compatible with a lot of hardware from that era by many different manufacturers including Commodore (64,128), all Coleco, Apple (II, GS), and many PC's used the same connector and electrical serial communications protocol. Those controllers were kind of like the USB controllers of their day, they worked with everything.... Until the NES came out and then proprietary (licensing) was in.
(I know there are a lot more, consoles and computers that can use SEGA-ATARI controllers, but that's all I can recall for this moment)
Ben Heck The man, THE LEGEND.
It's widely known that Ben heck does not seek out consoles to modify, they actually come to HIM.
Like the very similar "Killing Word" Ben Heck's name uttered aloud is a "Modding Word" and has been known to make soldering iron stations start up and nearby devices to spontaneously start shedding screws.
"Benheckendornium" will be the name of the next discovered element of the Periodic Table, and will have properties that only Ben Heck himself will actually have the ability to make use of.
The legend continues...
Simple: Come up with a better solution and submit it to Ben Heck!
Until then try and build something and get back to us, mkay?
I can´t believe it ! u guys complaint about ps3 slim and the ipod touch those gadgets are really cool and modern even futuristic, and u praise this bulky ugly thing and his creator ! gosh !!!
does Ben Heck have a job? A Girlfriend? I meen to each man his own, but...
(sorry these projects look more and more like 40 year old in moms basement; basing it off of the hanging photo of the cat in the yard)
its monday, I'm in a mean mood X_X
This IS his job, and no he does not have a wife. But he's self employed and single, ladies
You're a douche.
Many of his projects are requests and sold to others. His Commodore 64 laptop fetched $6000 for the Child's Play charity. His single-handed Xbox controller modification benefits the disabled and veterans so they too can play (and a portion of the proceeds of which go to childrens hospitals and veterans affairs).
Even if he didn't have a job, didn't have a girlfriend, and was cooking these projects in his mom's basement (more power to him), he's done more good for the sake of others than you probably will in your lifetime, judging by your lame post.
Wait, he's using a hard drive instead of carts to play the games? There was usually this line of nostalgia VS practicality with his projects, but now he's moving swiftly into "just get a normal fu&$#ng laptop and install emulators" territory.
Actually the cart ports are on the front of the system (that rounded slot up front in the middle, but 99% of the "games" or "apps" that you aquired for Atari 8-bit back in the day was on floppy disk. Now a days it's easy to "rip" those floppy images to a really small HDD using an interface adapter that groups like AtariAge make. I'm sure he put an SIO port on the laptop so if you wanted to you could plug in a floppy disk drive, but why bother when you can hold just about every app made for Atari on a single 2gig SD card.
The only carts I had for my system was BASIC and SpartaDOS and a couple games, though I had disc copies of said carts that I usually used instead.
"why bother when you can hold just about every app made for Atari on a single 2gig SD card."
Soooo, again, we are at the question "why not just buy a netbook with an emulator?" The PS3 laptop and whatnot - those make sense because they bring in the factor of physical media. And, of course, those can not be emulated well. So if it defies emulation, the idea of physical media for practical (or nostalgic) purposes is a sound reasoning if you must. But a giant, clunky, hideous Atari system? We are bordering on pointless now.
Who would win in a fight to the death? Ben Heck...or CHUCK NORRIS?
My bet is on Ben.
Ben will build an Iron Man suit out of cardboard and a Commodore Amiga and destroy Chuck Norris.
Ben Heck's tears cure glitches.
Man, I would love to visit Ben's "Imaginarium", aka basement. I mean I live nearby, but I can't just go up to this door and say "You're awesome. Can I look around?"
I don't dispute the quality of Ben's work, it is definitly top notch! My question.....who would really want it? Yes, it's "retro" cool and can run some "REALLY" old school games, but after the novelty wears off, then what? Are you really going to write BASIC code on it? I see it sitting on a shelf collecting dust somewhere in favor of a modern laptop and/or gaming console.
I saw some cavelord in there.
I miss me some German spelunking upon a griffon.
Ballblazer!!!! That game so rocked. It's amazing it still looks good after all of these years. I remember being very impressed with the 3D rendering of that game back in the day.
You go Ben Heckendorn!
-Scott
Agree, that game was sweet, though I played it more on my 130XE.
The 800 was my first computer; we had the cassette drive with and a copy of Frogger that took like 20 minutes to load. Still, after it loaded it was almost exactly like the arcade version.
Now, for those of you who don't know why this is awesome, please get off of my lawn.
Sweet!!!
Goes well with the retro furniture in the background ;)
What year is this ?? 1982 ??? heloo !! we ´re almost 2010 i thought atari was 100% dead
I can´t believe it ! u guys complaint about ps3 slim and the ipod touch those gadgets are really cool and modern even futuristic, and u praise this bulky ugly thing and his creator ! gosh !!!
Steve Jobs is way better than this unknown guy
Simply awesome work!
Personnaly, I would have liked a laptop based on the much more stylish 600XL/800XL models, with the fancy metallic start/select/reset buttons on the right side, but this is really really impressive.
The keyboard that pops up is a great idea and I wouldn't be surprised if one of the current laptop manufacturer was to copy this idea.
I'm also glad that Ben shares the same opinion as me as Ballblazer being the best Atari 800 game of all time