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.

What happens when you take 2 great tastes and mix ’em together? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for one, and my new NEStari for another.

My NEStari portable. Click to enlarge and magically add a flashbulb.

I’ve been working on this unit for awhile now… you can read the full story after the jump. But yes, this is a combo NES and Atari 2600 portable that changes modes via a switch and uses a built-in rechargeable battery. How advanced is that? I’m sure you’re all amazed. Actually this probably the most difficult “small” portable I’ve ever done. Lots of crap to wire up. Oh and it also uses a hacked-up Flashback 2 (the Atari on a chip thing) instead of an original 2600. Been wanting to try one for a while now…

This unit has been sold, thanks for your interest! For the rest of the story click below.

Continue reading The NEStari →

OK by now some of you may be thinking “Ben is becoming the ultimate Xbox 360 fanboy with all these articles” and yeah, maybe you’re right. But is it really any different from any number of political blogs, or bumper-sticker-encrusted cars, where someone is screaming “Don’t vote for [whoever], it’ll be bad!” Well I think if the Wii won it’d be bad for gaming (the reasons for this being beyond the scope of this article, maybe later) so I’m promoting the 360 any way I can.

The new heat sink on an HDMI Premium 360, slightly highlighted. Remember, look for the copper “ball” on the side.

Picture aboved is a new heat sink found in a new HDMI Premium Xbox 360 by “Sloopydrew”. The manufacture date was 7-9-7, pretty new. So if you’re still on the fence about getting a 360 this fall, get off! The new ones seem to be locked, cocked and ready to rock. Still sucks GTA4 is pushed back, but plenty of other cool games are coming out this fall.

Or as I call it “DIY Xbox 360 Endoscopy”.

Click below for the rest of the amazingly difficult steps.

Continue reading See if you have the new Xbox 360 heatsink without voiding the precious warranty →

Seems like the Xbox 360 Elite article has gotten a lot of attention of late so I decided to talk about it a little more.

Just blowtorch your 360 and you too can look under the GPU.

In this “addendum” I’ll talk about the heat sinks, wicks in the heat pipes, and the DVD drive, since the scratched discs thing is also a concern.

Continue reading More about the Xbox 360 Elite →

I’ve started the next Xbox 360 laptop and it’s going to use the Elite guts, allowing for a digital video connection among other things. I was very curious to see what changes, if any, were made inside the unit to account for the infamous “Red Ring of Death” problems. What I found was reassuring, at least for anyone buying the Elite, and provided some clues as to what might be happening in the defective units.

So for a guided tour in classic Ben style click below. I made the pictures nice and big because I personally can’t stand it when I try to find out what something looks like inside only to find postage-stamp sized pics that were probably taken with a 1997 Mavica.

Continue reading Inside the Xbox 360 Elite →