Of all the portable videogame devices I’ve ever built over the years one system has always been my “Holy Grail” to make - my “dream portable” if you will. (Yes, even more so than my Neo Geo arcade machine) And now after a couple years of tinkering it is complete!

Without further ado - the Atari 800 XE Laptop!

Click photo for full-resolution version in new window!

Measuring 11 3/8″ x 7 1/2″ x 2″ my Atari 800 laptop kicks major butt and includes the following features:

	Uses (what’s left of ;) an Atari XE GS (Game System) the last model Atari 800 type computer from 1987.
	8″ TFT active matrix display
	Compact Flash “hard disk drive” utilizing MyDOS 4.53 for maximum drive size of 16 megabytes. Card is removable for swapping.
	Built-in NiMH battery pack and charger (uses external plug like a normal laptop) Also battery is removable from base as with most laptops.
	Full (Atari 800) sized keyboard
	Built-in Player 1 & 2 controls, plus joystick ports. Built-in joypads great for playing Robotron 2084!
	Brushed aluminum and wood grain everywhere! A weird combo style, sure, but I like it!
	Cursor control knob - Allows you to move the cursor around the screen without pressing control+arrow keys. That’s awesome if you’re an old-school Atari programmer “from the day”
	Slim (compared to an original SIO port) DB25 printer-style port for connecting to disk drives, printers or PC’s using an SIO2PC cable.

Top of closed laptop, and rear ports, including Compact Flash card.

If you’d like to read the whole story of how I managed to knock this thing together click here: WHOLE STORY
(about a 15 minute read, I promise it won’t be too boring)

If you’d just like to skip ahead to more photos of the detail click here: JUST PHOTOS
(if you’re in a rush)

In case you were wondering, this article was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 and is filed under "Gaming". You can follow any responses to this entry through this RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.