atari 800
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Retro gadget orchestra nails House of the Rising Sun, puts your garage band to shame (video)
YouTube user BD594, also known as James Cochrane, is no stranger to pushing retro tech to its musical limits. Back in 2009 he coaxed a scanner, an Atari 800XL and a host of other antiquated gadgets to perform Bohemian Rhapsody. The results, while certainly enjoyable, were a tad tone deaf. Well, in the years since he's tweaking his "musicians" and his orchestra has just issued its second single -- a stunning rendition of House of the Rising Sun, in the style of the Animals. Seriously, this staple of '60s high school rockstar wannabes is absolutely nailed by the assortment of hard drives, oscilloscopes and the scanner. Cochrane isn't alone in his quest to turn obsolete tech into musical magic. Christopher Mitchell managed to hack a Ti graphing calculator and floppy-disk drive into a monophonic media player. While his accomplishment is impressive, he loses this round for wasting his skills on the saccharin stylings of Cold Play. Check out both videos after the break.
Ben Heck's Atari 800 laptop is 800 kinds of awesome
We find it hard to keep from gushing about every Ben Heck project, and his latest is no different. Heckendorn crams the inner workings of an Atari 800 (mostly rainbows and magic) into a laptop-style case (much like every other project of his), but what makes this one special is that we want it and we don't have it. Seriously, look at that sweet keyboard. We can totally imagine the siren's song of those keys clicking and clacking as we boot up some Centipede. If the image above only managed to whet your appetite, head past the break for a pair of videos showing it in use.[Via Engadget]
Video: Ben Heck amazes with Atari 800 laptop -- again
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]
Donkey Kong Easter egg cracked 26 years late
Who knew? You can put a price on obscure video game secrets, after all. Buried in 25,000-odd lines of game code for twenty-six years, an ancient "Easter egg" has been uncovered -- thanks to a modest cash reward -- from the Atari 8-bit port of Donkey Kong. Hint: You're looking at it (pictured above). Don't see it? It's the initials: LMD. Yeah, that's it.Last year, in an unabridged blog post about early-80s programming for Atari, celebrated coder Landon M. Dyer offhandedly remarked, "There's an Easter egg [in the Donkey Kong port], but it's totally not worth it, and I don't remember how to bring it up anyway." Still, game databaser Digital Press thought it worth it enough to offer up a $75 reward for discovering the hidden treasure; or, more accurately, a reward for discovering the process by which the Easter egg is triggered, as it was known that the bonus itself was simply the programmer's initials displayed on the title screen. In turn, the seventy-five bucks was worth it enough to a Mr. Don Hodges to scour the game code and dig up the dusty trail to the Easter egg. There are plenty of eggs left to crack, too, if you're looking for adventure that pays.Head past the break for the suspenseful reveal. The video's got quite the build-up. Be patient.
Antiquarian peripherals play Bohemian Rhapsody
Like many things in life, the whirrs and noises of old computers that were formerly annoying now inspire a nostalgic sense of retro glee -- the bleating of a fax modem, the blatting of a large-format dot-matrix printer. It's this sort of nostalgia that inspires some users to make them sing, like a YouTuber going by the handle of bd594 who orchestrated a collection of outdated gear to emit the soulful strings of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. It starts with an HP ScanJet 3C playing the part of Freddie Mercury, then an Atari 800XL makes the organ sounds, TI-99/4a handles guitar duties, and a selection of other archaic goodies make visual and aural appearances. While the scanner did need to be recorded four separate times for all the "vocal" tracks, nothing was pitch-corrected, meaning your old scanner is officially more talented than three quarters of the Weekly Top 40. See for yourself after the break. [Via Boing Boing]
Ben Heckendorn updates the Atari 800 laptop mod
Will the myriad of modded consoles from Ben Heckendorn never cease? (We sure hope not.) The man who brought us the NES Micro, N64p, PPS2, Phoenix 2600, (not to mention an ongoing series of how-tos for Engadget) has finally updated his November 2005 hack of the Atari 800. That laptop, which combined a screen and the guts of the 1980s gaming system, has now been brought into the modern age (read: 2006) with a new case, a cleaner keyboard (with round keys!), and a breakout cartridge case. We particularly admire the Atari logo on the top, and Ben's usual attention to detail and a clean, efficient, design. Still, we can't wait for the day that Ben's talents get noticed by Apple, Dell, or another big-name laptop maker, so that more of the masses can be showered with his talent -- but then again, perhaps it's better that we keep him to ourselves. Check out a few more snaps on the next page, and then head over to benheck.com for his always thorough and entertaining build diary...[Thanks, technick29]
