Sunday, February 2, 2014

Atari "Video Computer System," Indeed!


Today's quickie post is not RPG-related or OSR-related or even tabletop-game-related, but it IS mega-super-nerdy-geeky cool, so here we go:
 
My pal, Phil Hergatt, surprised me on Friday with an Atari 2600 VCS with a set of paddles. He knows I love the old retro gaming systems, so I was surprised and pleased with his gift:
 
He smiled and explained that this wasn't an Atari VCS anymore, but rather he had converted it to a TRUE Atari "Video Computer System" by gutting the non-working electronics from the game system and replacing the innards with a high-speed, Intel-driven computer. The cart slot now held two fans to cool the system, the joystick ports were now UBS ports, and those paddles I mentioned were converted to a pair of speakers. Here it is up-and-running:
 
And how well does it work? Well, what do you think I'm making this blog post on? ;) Thanks again, Phil!

7 comments:

  1. damn! That is amazing and I'm more than mildly jealous.

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  2. Now that IS super-geeky-cool. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. I had a regular Atari 2600 as a kid, but it burned out from overplaying. :)

    Also a minor heads-up for the post-apocalypse fans here, the 1988 PC game "Wasteland" has been re-released to run under DOSbox over at GOG.com.

    It's even on sale price for 12 more hours.

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  4. Sweet! And ingenious use of the paddles too.

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  5. The coolest thing since the Nintoaster or the Super Genintari. As a PC, it could play classic games, regardless of system, through emulators.

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