Monday, February 07, 2005

sitting on a corn flake, waiting for the van to come

Okay...so since I will admit to growing up with some of the original home video game systems (Atari 2600, Commodore 64, etc), I have to say this is too damn cool:
Five years ago, Ben Heckendorn of Verona opened up an Atari 2600 and started snipping. The result was a fully functioning game system about one-third the size of the original and twice the size of Nintendo's Game Boy.


The Atari portable was the first of its kind and started a new hobby for video game enthusiasts. Heckendorn, 29, turns vintage Atari, Nintendo and Sega game systems into portables that sell for $300 to $500 each - putting him in the enviable position of having a hobby that makes money.
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He has been interviewed by a handful of magazines including Wired and Popular Science, and appeared on TechTV (now G4techTV) twice. The television appearance led to a book deal and with the release of "Hacking Video Game Consoles: Turn your old video game systems into awesome new portables" in mid-February, Heckendorn is making his hobby available to even the most technophobic individual.

You can also check out Heckendorn's website.