Hacking instructions originally made by Ben Heckendorn himself
Thanks to HK-47, you can easily access the how-to's Ben has made over the years for hacking your 2600. The index can be found here, or choose what you want:
Of course, feel free to search and check this thread (and, if you still can't find your answer, make a new thread) if you are having troubles with these guides.HK-47 wrote:Hey HK-47 here,
I uploaded all the How to's so its easier to get to stuff... Maybe you should make this a sticky, Gannon? Anyway heres the menu.
Please tell me how to make an Atari portable Step-by-Step?
How do I cut down an Atari 2600 4-switch board to 4x4"
How do I rip apart my Atari?
How do I get composite video from my 6-switch Atari 2600?
How do I get composite video from my 4-switch Atari 2600?
What is all this 4-switch 6-switch he said she said stuff?
How do I get composite video from my Atari 2600 Junior?
How do I run an Atari 2600 of batteries?
Why do fools fall in love?
Official vLink Pinouts
NEW Atari 2600 video mod
Completed/WIP Atari 2600 Handhelds
Of course, everyone could use a little inspiration here and there, so here are a few examples of completed 2600 handhelds.
All of Ben's portables in their glory
Jsoper's Atari in Dreamcast controller (scroll down to bottom)
My 2600 SP (which broke down 2 weeks after being done ) and SP+ (scroll down a little)
If I missed any others, please let me know, I'll fix it ASAP
Ben Heckendorn's Vlink pinout
If you ever make 2 portables, or know somebody else with a Heckendorn portable 2600, or just want more stuff, the Vlink is right for you! This lets you play your portable 2600 with other people, in a way similar to what you have on the Gameboy. The official post with the pinout is here
The main post within:
Atari Flashback/Flashback 2.0benheckc wrote:
You can see the standard Atari pins there, which means you can plug a normal joystick into the port for player 2 as well as use it for linking.
Have (2) 9 pin jacks on the unit, Master and Slave (or whatever you wanna call them) The Audio and video pins of both jacks should goto the a/v inputs from the TV.
Hook the Slave jack's control pins to the built-in controls of the unit. Hook the Master jack's control pins to the Player 2 spots of the Atari.
Put a microswitch or something in the cartridge slot. Wire it so when a cartridge is not inserted the Atari cannot turn on by the screen can.
This way the Master unit sends A/V down the link cable and it goes to the TV on the slave unit. Even though the slave unit's A/V is still connected to its Atari the Atari is off so it doesn't matter (I suppose you could use diodes and get fancy)
The slave unit sends its built-in controls back to the Master jack of the other unit, basically becoming a 2nd player joystick with screen.
This keeps a vLink Atari from using a second-player paddle controller. Oh darn. I suppose if you used SVGA jacks you could cram in extra stuff.
Pretty simple really. This pinout is the same I've used since I came up with vLink in 2001, though I don't even think there's more than 5 or 6 units out there with the linking feature. But if you run across one you'll be set!
Note: This cheap/easy technique could work with pretty much any system, especially one like the SNES where all you really need is 3 lines as the other 2 are +5 volts and GND.
Any further questions please direct to my PM's on this board. This is easy stuff though!
I'm sure you have all seen or heard about the Atari Flashback, and I just thought I'd start (and pretty much end) by saying that the Atari Flashback will not work for your handheld 2600 because it does not have true Atari 2600 hardware. It uses other hardware, probably NES on a Chip, that emulates the 2600.
The Flashback 2.0, however, is much more promising once it comes out. It uses true Atari 2600 hardware, and even has a place where you can wire in your own cart slot, assuming you have one (Atari understandably doesn't want to have to support 20 year old games that people found at a flea market if people are having troubles, otherwise it probably would be there already.) It will also be very small, so this is definitely something to look into
If you like the 2600...
There are a few sites you may want to check out. First of all, there is AtariAge. Which is probably the largest Atari related site, by far.
Next, there is Digital Press, which is more of an all-around gaming site, which has stuff for systems other than what was made by atari.
If you want more sites about portablizing Ataris, check out the Atari 2600 CE site This project has been discontinued long ago, but it has a good read and is good for if you are hungry for portablizing information or what have you.
Atari 2600 Schematics
One of the most handy things in building a portable atari is the complete schematics. You can find the 4-switch schematics here if you are interested.
Trick out your Atari 2600!
Believe it or not, you can teach an old dog new tricks... that is, make your atari do new things! Of course, there are a wide variety of video mods, and you can decide which you want to try by looking here.
Next, you can have true stereo coming from your Atari 2600. If you do this, be sure to have a switch for mono, since sometimes the sounds are too separated. The guide is here.
Of course, you may want to try to put LEDs and stuff in your 2600, just as an idea.
[size=0]This guide made by SpongeBuell... and my parents never thought I'd amount to anything[/size]