A pocket-sized Atari 2600 Portable: Stella

[Mario]

Making a new portable, this time it's Atari 2600! The Atari doesn't seem to get much lovin', so that's one of my reasons for making one.

I actually will not be posting my worklog here! It's all going to be over on Benheck.

vvv HERE IS THE WORKLOG. vvv
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38001
^^^ HERE IS THE WORKLOG. ^^^

I will, however, occasionally post pictures of progress over here, for those of you too lazy to click the link.

So, here's progress so far!

Proving everything works:

The case so far:

Next is sanding and painting the case!
Yes, that d-pad and paddle trigger are from a GBP.

 

[Joeyjoe9876]

just asking. is that the casing an Ipod comes in?

 

[Mario]

Reading Skilz 101

FITS IN A POCKET! The case is what an iPod Touch comes in, and it's pretty small. The dimensions are 5x3x1-1/8".

Unless you were being sarcastic. If not, I see you're one of the ones that I'll be posting stuff over here for.

EDIT: Also, by noticing your location (which I now remember has been the same for a long time) I have concluded that you were, indeed, being sarcastic.

 

[Joeyjoe9876]

i was just too lazy to look
also i just took a quick glance at it because i was working on a story for the pokehack

 

[βeta]

I spontaneously REALLY want to make a case out of one of those now.

 

[Joeyjoe9876]

remember my "Top secret NOAC"? it uses one

 

[XCVG]

That paddle sticks up A LOT. I would slim it down if you want it to go into a pocket.

 

[J.D]

You're an admin on Modretro...

...who makes worklog almost Benheck exclusive.

Good job helping out our forum there!

 

[samjc3]

You're an admin on Modretro...

...who makes worklog almost Benheck exclusive.

Good job helping out our forum there!

i would complain, but sprocket64 was here, and its incredible.

i looked into using an ipod touch case once. but i decided nothing i wanted to portableize was small enough.

 

[Mario]

XCVG: I thought about that, but moving it down much further makes it really hard to grip. It's not too bad.

JD: I know, right?

So, when I "moved" to ModRetro, I pretty much disappeared on here. I decided to pay homage to the site that originally fathered me and post my Stella worklog here! I also noticed that some older members are returning, so perhaps I'll hop on the bandwagon.

 

[J.D]

But would it kill you to update here too?

 

[Mario]

I probably will.

 

[Mario]

Audio amp built today:

I'm going to paint the front half tomorrow. I need to sand it first, though.

 

[samjc3]

AWESOME. i like how it looks so jerry rigged.

 

[Mario]

It's smaller than a penny. I love soldering like that.

First coat of paint on the front, since I don't need to put any more holes in it:

I wet-sanded both halves with 600 grit sandpaper. It looks cloudy, but not scratched, so it's perfect.

 

[βeta]

SEXMACHINE

 

[themadhacker]

you should put a cart slot on the back. It will be a bit thicker, but worth it.

 

[samjc3]

SEXMACHINE

 

[BenFTW]

Just looking at this makes me want to make a tiny portable. But I would fail. Nice work!

 

[Mario]

TMH, I have a cart slot planned, but the cart will be sticking straight out the back. I don't want it any thicker.

So today I chopped the FB2 board up ""something fierce"" and it still works just fine.

Here is everything wired up besides the cart slot. The audio amp in the corner has a 5k pot that acts as a voltage divider for the volume control, but I was too lazy to hook it up for this test shot.

Close-up of the FB2 board:

The regulator and audio amp hooked up. I had fried my first GBC step-up because of a short, so this is a new one. Good thing I have 5 GBCs laying around.

I put a couple more coats of paint on today, but it's still not 100% opaque. More like 89%. Tomorrow I do some more painting then I'll cover it with clear coat after 2 days.