Articles

The end of 2006

Well that was quite the year, wasn’t it? I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make more portables, between finishing the music for Port Washington and doing the Xbox 360 laptop a lot of my time was eaten up. Also the Ghost Documentary is still in the works, sigh… And I never made any “mass producible” portables like the Phoenix either. (Venting my regrets)

However we had over 1 million visitors this year, which I think is a record, so that’s pretty cool. Top projects were the Xbox 360 laptop and the single-handed controller. (I’m making another version of that BTW)

2007 should be better. For starters I always enjoy odd-numbered years more, not sure why. Probably because I always have the difficult projects on even numbered years (Lizard of Death 2000, Port Washington 2002, book 2004, Xbox stuff 2006) Strange how I become more superstitious as the years go by…

I’ve got several projects in the works at the moment that will emerge during the first few months of the year. The new makings-of for my projects will include about 75% more detail than before.

Also later this week we’ll have our first new podcast of the year which will cover our impressions of all the new systems and HDTV.

So thanks for the ride, be reasonably safe for New Year’s and have a great 2007!

Podcasts

Benheck.com Podcast – Episode 9 “The Christmas Special”

I’ve been waiting to do this podcast for quite a while now. It has a super-sized intro that is relevant to the holiday season, gaming and the podcast topic (for a change). Enjoy! (Note: As with most of my podcasts it’s intended for older listeners)

The actual meat of the podcast involves the hot coffee-flavored topic of violence and adult material in games, our take on it and the whole “blame game” mentality. We also discuss the ESRB ratings and how effective we think they are, or aren’t.

Article Links:

Benheck.Com Podcast – Official Site

Video Games

Atari VCSp Revision 7

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Here it is, only the second Atari 2600 portable I’ve made all year:

VCSp Rev 7 - Slowly But Surely
Click image for a larger version

I had a request to build a new VCSp a few months ago and the person said I could “go nuts” with the design. So I decided to use my long-lost “folding screen” design as sort of seen below.

Drawn during an earthquake it would seem

For whatever reason this was going to be called the “VCSp Liquid” and I did this sketch on my PDA back around the 2001 Classic Gaming Expo in Vegas. Years later (last month) I thought it’d be cool to try and make a small as possible VCSp along these lines.

It's like a mini Atari laptop!
Top lid of the closed unit.

To see internal photos, read the making of and check out the bonus section click the link below. While this unit was too highly customized to make it “mass produced” I am curious to see if there’s still an interest in the old 2600. All I get these days are emails about Xbox 360.

Article Links:

VCSp Revision 7 – “Making Of”

Articles, Video Games

Attention TV producers, I have an idea!

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Why not make a show about people who go around modding and building things? They could take viewer requests to make things as “challenges” and there’d be a couple teams to allow 2-3 projects per episode. Thus if a project fails and is unusable there’s always a backup. Naturally the teams are assembled in such a way to create drama and arguments along the way.

Everything they build would then be auctioned off for worthy charities. So basically it’d be like American Chopper in that you see things being built, with a healthy dash of Mythbusters since everything is by viewer request. Then of course throw in deadlines to create a “ticking clock” a la Overhaulin’. It would also create a great community of people following the work and trying their own versions of it.

Of course I’m suggesting this here on my site because I would want to be involved. Maybe I’m off my rocker but I think it would be interesting – I’d certainly watch a show like that. Let me know what you think.

Podcasts

RSS feed and subscriptions for the Benheck.com Podcast

After several months of spewing it out 1890’s style you can now actually subscribe to my Benheck.com podcast in the normal way. Amazing, isn’t it? Use the link on the right side column for both it and the Sonic Boom podcast of which I am a co-host. You can also visit my podcasting site at www.benheckpodcast.com.

Thanks to George of the Sonic Boom podcast for setting this up! In other news there is one more portable project coming before the close of the year, based off “the system that started it all”. (And no, not the Altair 8800)

Video Games

Super SCART Switcher

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Check out my 10 input 1 output electronic SCART switcher:

Quite the item

SCART is a type of plug on TV’s and electronics equipment in Europe. It includes audio, composite video and even RGB signals. This device lets you plug in 10 SCART sources and select which one goes to your TV. Internally it actually uses bus switches to bank the signals, instead of mechanical switches as signal switchers often use.

Frugality gets its revenge on me

Above is a really good example of why it doesn’t always pay to “go cheap” and not have a circuit board professionally made. A few hours of this and $100 for a board starts looking really nice. Oh well, maybe next time!

Are multiple input switchers like this something people would find useful? Let me know your thoughts (maybe I’ll order PCB’s this time)

Video Games

Latest Atari 800 Computer Laptop

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Somehow I’ve been working on this since June. It was a commissioned project that took forever. There were a lot of bugs to work out but I believe I’ve squashed them all.


Click here for larger version

It looks similar to my original Atari 800 laptop but was actually designed from scratch. It’s still built from an original Atari XEGS computer. Several things are different, such as the keyboard and the hinge, which might explain the delays. It also is “back in black” (and silver) so it resembles the XL line. Has the latest MyIDE custom OS, Compact Flash disk drive, SIO port, plus a “New for O-Six” cartridge add-on slot.

Silver and black - ah the 80's....
“The stylish 2006 Atari laptop will be the hit of the presentation!” – ANALOG Computing, were it still around.

For a lot more pics and the usual “making of” tour click the link below. I’m sure many of you are wondering when I’ll do something with the *other* 8-bit computer – I guess only time will tell, because I sure won’t.

Article Links:

Ben’s Atari 800 Laptop – Revision 2.0 “Making Of”