Atari 2600s get PC innards, 22,857 times more processing power

Atari 2600s get PC innards, 22,857 times more processing power

Atari games redesigned in HTML 5 may bring back a flood of nostalgia, but they leave out a key part of the gaming experience: the classic hardware. Hard Drives Northwest filled that void by gutting a limited number of authentic Atari 2600s and stuffing them with modern PC components. Packing a Core i7 3.4GHz processor, the retro console now boasts 22,857 times more processing power than it did in its heyday, according to Microsoft’s calculations — more than enough oomph to handle the recent remakes. Other internals include 8GB of RAM, a 120GB SSD and a Radeon HD 6570 graphics card with 1GB of video memory. With support for USB 3.0 and 2.0, eSATA, DisplayPort, DVI and HDMI, the system is well stocked on the connectivity front. Finally, the signature of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell acts as the cherry atop the faux wood grain-toting package. While the souped-up machines aren’t up for sale, a pair of them are slated for a giveaway. Glamour shots and the full set of specs await you at the source.

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Atari 2600s get PC innards, 22,857 times more processing power originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SRK contest produces a 26-button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won’t stop Zerg rushes (video)

SRK contest produces a 26button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won't stop Zerg rushes video

Almost as a dare, Shoryuken (SRK) challenged its fans to produce a fighting game-style controller for Starcraft II. Mauricio Romano took them up on that contest and won with a surprisingly polished arcade stick of his own. Its cornerstone is a heavily modified Ultrastik joystick that’s turned into an on-controller, two-button mouse. You didn’t think a PC gamer would cling to a plain joystick, did you? In the process, the usual 101 keys of a typical keyboard have been pared down to a set of 26 buttons most relevant for Blizzard’s real-time strategy epic. Packaged up in a single, polished USB peripheral, the one-off prototype’s design is good enough to imagine a Major League Gaming pro taking it out on the road. We’d put that idea on ice for now, though: as Mauricio shows in the video below, the learning curve is steep enough that most players won’t be fending off diamond-league marine and zergling blitzes anytime soon.

Continue reading SRK contest produces a 26-button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won’t stop Zerg rushes (video)

SRK contest produces a 26-button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won’t stop Zerg rushes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CyanogenMod plans a quick leap to Jelly Bean for version 10, existing devices likely to tag along

CyanogenMod new logo

Whenever there’s a new version of Android, Steve Kondik and the CyanogenMod team tend to swing into action almost immediately with plans for a major revision of the fan-favorite platform overhaul. For Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, that swing will be faster than ever. The crew’s early looks suggest that there will only be a few minor tweaks needed to merge Google’s latest with the custom Android code, making CyanogenMod 10 a relative snap to produce. The update’s release is still very much up in the air without the Android Open Source Project code available to modify; that said, device compatibility also isn’t expected to be an obstacle. Any device that can run CyanogenMod 9 should run version 10 when it’s released. As long as we’re willing to wait for a stable 9.0 to emerge first, there are few barriers to making Jelly Bean that much sweeter.

CyanogenMod plans a quick leap to Jelly Bean for version 10, existing devices likely to tag along originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CyanogenMod’s Steve Kondik and crew talk Android hacking in Google I/O video

cyanogenmod-crew-talk-android-mods-video

If you’ve ever slapped a CyanogenMod ROM on your Android phone instead of waiting months or longer for an official update, you may have wondered who was behind it and how they did it. Well, CM founder Steve Kondik spilled the beans to developers at Google’s I/O conference, and the first half of that presentation is now up on YouTube. It not only provides the modders’ MO, but also reveals a few things about the green robot itself. The second half of the presentation will be coming soon as well, but this one is must-watch territory for tinkerers — go past the break to check it out.

Continue reading CyanogenMod’s Steve Kondik and crew talk Android hacking in Google I/O video

CyanogenMod’s Steve Kondik and crew talk Android hacking in Google I/O video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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