Well sort of. I was cleaning my basement and realized I had a few extra Atari 2600’s laying around. Imagine that. So I slapped a composite video and stereo audio mod onto one of them, using a Playstation-style cord. Now both channels of the Atari’s audio go to separate speakers – it’s just like a 5.1 surround system, circa 1979. There’s also a potentiometer on the base of the unit to adjust the video, if need be.
This unit has been sold, but if you’d like to find out how to do the stereo audio mod yourself, please visit this site. Fairly simple diagram. For the video mod please see the book section of my site, specifically the bottom of this page.
I’ve been meaning to mod up a 2600 into plug’n’play just for the hell of it. I have to get around to that…
Don’t you think you’d get more money on the eBay for something like this, Ben? I’m sure Atari fanatics would crawl all over it.
I don’t think ebayers would care, or even know about the great BenHeck(.com :P)
Is the motherboard hacked down to 4×4″?
“Too Many 2600 joysticks” you say? You should make a one-handed 2600 joystick! Either just slap a round, red SPST switch on the top of the stick, or add that switch and out some sort of tilt switch into the body of the joystick handle.
You should sell 2600 composite mod kits and packs of tactile switches. (Those buggers are hard to find in real stores unless you hack up old VCRs.) Bulk parts + Xeroxed instructions + bags from http://www.uline.com = relatively easy and cheap to put together product = profit!
Yeah, I just want a few bucks and a few less things taking up space in my basement. If anyone wants to buy a huge amount of cardboard boxes, or enough RF cabling (from Ataris) to go around the Earth several times let me know! 😉
I love beef stew but I hate Diet Pepsi.
Whats the scoop on that C64 Laptop Mr. Benjermang?
I just got an idea! Mod a nunchuk into a one-handed controller! Thank you, bicostp.
Heh now I’ve got modded Atari controllers on the brain. I can think of a few driving games for the Atari I’d like a wii-mote for. :/ Gah!!!
Say, how much did you get for that? (Considering it’s a fairly simple mod…)
You should just open a store on ebay.
Hi Ben,
I am an Atari collector from Germany and want you to build me a portable 2600.
But I want a PAL system not a NTSC. I have all the working components Casio EV 680
and Pal 2600.
Please contact me!
Regards
josh
i dont care about surround sound or anything, its an Atari for cryin out loud. but i would like to know haw to make an av cable for mine (2600) as running it thru the converter box kinda takes away from the whole HD cable and tv feature. please help :>
for what i know, manny older game consoles like the atari and nes soundchip has a stereo channel output,but the main question remains why are those soundchips capable of stereo sound if the games and the consoles itself were never made for it???
for what i know is when nintendo had choosen the 20a3 soundchip for their nes,those soundchips were allready in production,so i guess those soundchips were possibly made for thosee fm keyboards back in the 60,s and 70,s.