The gAtari is a "musical instrument" that basically consists of an Atari 2600 playing pre-programmed tunes, which has been hacked together with a few guitar effects processors. It's kind of like an Atari keytar. The resulting music is scatterbrained weirdness that's impossible to describe.
These days, GameCube and PlayStation portable mods are a dime a dozen, it seems, so it's rather quite refreshing to see the craft applied to their "grandfather," the Atari 2600.
Need a remote shutter for your Canon dSLR? One modder hacked up a classic Atari 2600 joystick to focus and fire—making us question, where's that matching laser reticle when you need it? [Thiago Avancini]
I don't want to say that ILM and Weta did a bad job on Avatar's visual effects, but an Atari 2600 edition of Avatar would still get most of the point across. [Penney Design via GameSetWatch via Kotaku]
While the majority Atari 2600 users stuck with the standard, stiff joysticks, the most militant opted for the Terminator Grenade controller.
After the first Pong cabinet was placed in Andy Capp's Cavern in 1972, video games exploded, reaching their full stride by the late '70s. Here are some of the notable games/systems you played (or would have played) back then:
In the days of touchscreens and wireless data, our heroes of yesteryear find solace in the companionship of one another.
Geek tees: can we ever have enough? I already own this, but I'm digging this exploded 2600 schematic shirt. Actually we probably can have enough, but one more never hurt. It's $23 shipped. [Exploded 2600]
It's not just some unfounded stereotype that video game controllers have gotten more complex over time, just look at this fantastic chronological illustration.
If your co-workers don't already know about the soft morsel of love for late-70s gaming consoles deep in your heart, why not load up the company's color printer with some heavy-bond and fold up an Atari 2600 to stand proudly by your enterprise Dell (and your HAL 9000). These patterns by Marshall Alexander feature cool…
An awkward cross-breed time-travelling mongrel is a fairly fitting description for this mod that's jammed an Atari 2600 emulator into the shell of a Sega Game Gear. Sure, it's not the prettiest of mods, but taking the '80s-era Atari and squishing it into the '90s-era Sega took some tricky work: it has a built-in…
The finicky, rubbery controls of the Atari 2600 were as much part of its charm as the classic arcade ports it's known for. And now, for a mere $15, those bittersweet memories can come to your Windows, Linux or OSX system through this faithful-looking USB recreation of the original Atari 2600 joystick. The peripheral…
Super Genintari is the latest mega-console mod by Richard DaLuz, a perfect cocktail of Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis and Super NES enclosed in a retro-'80s bronze acrylic case, "formed and shaped on a homemade stript heater." It connects to a TV using a single cable, running four games…
Console modding extraordinaire Ben Heckendorn is up to it again; reminding us that, yes, he is still selling his sexy revision 5.1 Atari handhelds for $350 and a sacrificial 2600. The Atari Rev 5.1 really is his most complete system yet, including built-in paddle controller, difficulty switches and player 2 port for…
That man, the myth, the legend, Ben Heck, is at it again. Now he managed to cram the Atari 2600 into a somewhat small, handheld, portable device. Heck went a little old-school with this mod. It may be a little bulky, buy how else can you enjoy some Pitfall anywhere in the world. He also made ran a little Thurderdome…
No sooner do I receive an Atari Flashback 2 in the mail, than someone homebrews an Atari 2600 emulator for the PSP. This is a port of the Stella Atari 2600 emu—so there is a flickering kink that needs to be worked out, and not all the games are running at full speed. But the creator (Alysa Habraken) is promising…
