Hey do you have a videogame-loving tinkerer/experimenter/computer nut  on your holiday shopping list? You do? Well then, why not surprise them with a copy of my book “Hacking Videogame Consoles”?

It’ll keep them busy all winter and then in the summer they’ll have a cool portable game system to play on the school bus, airplane or during all those road trips to see the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota. Along the way they’ll learn interesting facts about the systems, refine their soldering and hot-glue techniques and maybe even have a laugh or two.

The “Hacking Videogame Consoles” book.

There’s even a website for the book that contains files, links, updates and tips, plus a forum where people working on the projects can share their information and help each other out.

So why wait? Visit a fine bookseller today and grab yourself a copy. Or order one online if it’s snowing real bad and you’d rather just be cozy with your hot cocoa.  Either way you’ll get a full 553 pages of videogaming goodness to share with a loved one or just use yourself for that manner!

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)

Unfortunately the cat was let out of the bag on my forums as to what my latest creation is, along with a photo. Yes it’s an Atari 800 laptop. It’s been on Engadget and now Digg. The single photo I quickly took Sunday night isn’t even all that great. Thankfully it hasn’t been on Slashdot yet, I’d know as that usually tears my bandwidth a new one.

I was, and still am, planning to have my official unveiling on Wednesday, that is tomorrow. I’ve been quite busy in the last few days, but I knew I would be thus why I didn’t expect the full story to go up til tomorrow.

If you get the chance to stop back here, www.benheck.com on Wednesday you can see not only many more, and better photos of the unit, but if you’re got a lunch hour to spare you can read the story on how (and better yet WHY) I built this thing.

If you’re a webmaster of some type of gaming / tech site who is checking out this Atari project for a story on your site I’d appreciate it if you didn’t link to me until tomorrow (11-16-05) so those who come can all have the photos and things available to them, instead of just 1 photo and some text buried in my forum. Thanks…

No big updates (yet…) but I wanted to say a few things to maybe answer some usual questions I get lately:

1) I am not building, nor will build any more N64 or PS2 portables. Both of the projects were ungainly difficult and not really worth it in the end. Only 1 of them each was built, and they’ve both been sold. The end.

2) My book (site for it found here) describes making portables systems out of the Atari 2600, NES, SNES and PS1. It does not contain N64 or PSP2 instructions. Again those 2 systems are very difficult to work with, N64 motherboards die at the drop of the hat, just ask anyone in my forums.

3) I am not currently making cases for, or creating “how to’s” for the N64 or PS2p. This is two-fold: A how-to would conflict with my book, and cases would require me to write the how-to, which I’m not doing.

OK that should answer 90% of the email I get. Sorry if it sounded a bit blunt but I am really trying to put the N64p and PS2p out of the picture.

Ultimate Portable System of All Time Coming!

The thing to remember here is that it’s what I consider to be the best project ever. Something I’ve wanted to do since the days of the first VCSp. Anyways I’ve got all the parts now and it looks like it’ll work, so expect to see it soon. Trust me – it will rule.

Not to come right out and say what it is, just rest assured I won’t be pokey in my construction of it and I promise my usual antics won’t get in the way either.

Finally I’ve made some changes and done some updates to my book site as well. Enjoy and see you all soon!

By now you’ve probably all seen my G4 appearance, complete with my, hm, “colorful” analogy for videogame emulation. I must say though that emulation is a great method for playing games you might otherwise never get a chance to (on cartridge / original media) If it weren’t for emulation I probably would have never thought to buy “Neo Turf Masters” for my Neo Geo arcade machine – and now it’s the game me and my friends play the most!

Anyways I’d like to thank the people at G4 for having me on – they treated me very well! Thanks!

Also I’d like to use this recent up swell in popularity to push my independent films I work on. If anyone has info on good ways of releasing / distributing them, let me know! It’s always a part of the process I’ve sucked at. Port Washington is done except for its musical score.