Hasta La Gadget!

Technabob contributing author Conner Flynn has a hidden talent – and I’m not talking about walking and chewing gum at the same time. The man knows his way around an Atari 2600 like it’s nobody’s business. Now it’s been a while since he built his epic Atari 2600 guitar, but his latest mod looks like it was worth the wait… I give you Atar-E…

Conner found this Wall-E Learning Laptop at a thrift shop, but he didn’t see a laptop at all (neither do I). Instead, he saw the home for his next portable Atari 2600 mod. Inspired by the modding prowess of Ben Heck and Bacteria, he tore apart the Wall-E toy and gutted it.

His design incorporates an actual Atari 2600 circuit board, along with authentic Atari woodgrain pieces. He went off the board with the controller and used an NES D-Pad instead of a traditional Atari joystick. Isn’t that sacrilege? Dogs and Cats sleeping together!

The controller replaced the original keyboard found on the toy, and he even rigged it so the controller section can still fold shut when there’s no cartridge in place. One thing Conner struggled with was where to put a battery pack for the system, so he gave Wall-E a little backpack. Isn’t that cute?

Games are displayed on a tiny color LCD screen, mounted where the monochrome display on the original toy was located. On the one hand, you’ll have to squint a bit to play on this thing, on the other hand, the pixelated 8-bit graphics look so much better when they’re shrunk down like this.

While it would probably take you a ton of work to try and build one of these for yourself, Conner says he may soon list it for sale over on his online toy store over at Botropolis, so keep your eyes peeled. On second thought, peeled eyes sound like a really bad idea.

[via Botropolis]

When I was growing up, the Atari 2600 was a staple in family rooms everywhere. But despite the countless hours of entertainment these gaming systems provided, there’s no question they had primitive graphics. Imagine though if the Atari 2600 could have had real-world backgrounds for its games. It might look something like this…

For his Atari World series, digital artist Carlos Pérez combined idyllic real-world scenes with the rudimentary pixel graphics from an Atari 2600. The end result is both surreal and beautiful.

It would be cool if somebody went back and remade classic Atari 2600 games with these backgrounds. While their gameplay still might lack depth, they’d certainly be a feast for they eyes.

[via it8bit]

If you had an Atari as a child, the vast differences between the gaming console of today and the digital substance of your youth is enough that every 2D game threatens to break out the waves of nostalgia, and Atari’s Breakout is no exception. To commemorate the game’s 37th anniversary, Google created a playable online version. Rather than parking it front-and-center on Search, however, it decided to go the Easter Egg route.

The game first came out in 1976, offering players a blue paddle and gray ball with which they would slowly destroy multiple brick layers. Such is the same in Google’s version of the game, with one small difference (playing it on a modern device aside) – the bricks are especially small thumbnail versions of the Google Image results that show up upon searching for “Atari Breakout,” the same search that pulls up the game. If it doesn’t show up for you immediately, be patient – it will.

Not surprisingly, you get a chance to pit your brick-shattering skills against other Google users, with a Google+ “Share Your Score” link being offered at the end of your game. There’s audio just like you’d find with the original game, as well as the ability to pause, which helps guarantee that your procrastination will hit a whole new score of its own.

This nicely augments the Pong game iOS users were blessed with back on November 29 via Atari, which released the free app as a way to celebrate its fourth decade. Of course, quite a few Pong games were already available for iOS users, but none had the honor of being titled “official.” That release was in addition to a contest for an Xbox 360 with an integrated LCD made to look like an Atari console.

This isn’t the first time Google has recreated a classic game online. Back in 2010, for example, the Internet giant celebrated the 30th anniversary of Pacman with an in-logo game complete with a two-player mode, audio, and all the little yellow dots you could eat. Even better, the game featured a “coin slot” via a transformation of the I’m Feeling Lucky button into an Insert Coin button.

SOURCE: Tech Radar

Google brings the nostalgia with Atari Breakout Easter egg is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ahhh, the venerable Atari 2600. The godfather of console gaming has, in recent years, seen a resurgence as a hacker’s muse — mods to its innards and controllers are legion on the web. Recently, a new mod emerged: a controller that combines the capabilities of the Atari’s joystick, paddle and keyboard controllers. It’s crafted from a small wooden box, a cannibalized joystick, an Ethernet cable, some switches and a smattering of other electronic bits, and there’s a full how-to on making one of your own on Instructables, courtesy of user x2Jiggy. If the mere mention of such an all-in-one has those DIY juices flowing, head on past the break for a construction video and see how it’s done. It’s high time you dust off your stock 2600 and break out Pitfall, Adventure or, well, Breakout.

Filed under: Gaming

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Via: Hack a day

Source: Instructables

Back in 2010, Ed Fries – former Vice-President of Game Publishing in Microsoft and one of the co-creators of the Xbox – created a “demake” of Halo for the Atari 2600 called Halo 2600 (Fries also talked about how the project came about on the linked page). Previously Halo 2600 was playable on PCs using an emulator or via its Flash port, but now the game is out as a legit Atari 2600 cartridge.

Here’s some gameplay footage of Halo 2600 courtesy of YouTuber dsdude1107:

Atari Age worked with Fries to release a cartridge version of the game. The first batch of cartridges were sold in a limited run in 2010, but they seem to be back in stock. You can order them from Atari Age for $50 (USD) each.

That’s pretty expensive, but at least each cartridge comes with a glossy label, a box and even a full color 8-page manual, all of which feature art that are waaaay better than how the game itself looks. Seriously kids, if you think the videogame trailers are misleading, imagine the crushing disappointment some of us suffered back in the day.

[via Retro Treasures]