Space Invaders and Asteroids are back!

Loved that Atari(r) when you were a kid? So did Ben Heckendorn - so much, in fact, that he successfully resurrected it as a slim, go-anywhere portable. When Playstation(r) and Nintendo(r) aficionados got jealous, he created miniaturized, fully functioning, battery-powered versions of those too. Now it’s your turn. Every secret is here - complete instructions, materials lists, tool tips, even advice on finding parts. Just wait ’til they see this at the high school reunion.

Ready? Let’s get started

Plans and instructions for building eight handheld, classic video games
* Choosing a game system - Atari(r), Nintendo(r), Super Nintendo(r), or Playstation(r)1
* What you’ll spend
* Electronics and soldering 101
* Hacking portable TVs for their screens
* Building the case - CNC or freehand?
* Yank the cord, install the batteries

Space Invaders and Asteroids are back!

Loved that Atari(r) when you were a kid? So did Ben Heckendorn - so much, in fact, that he successfully resurrected it as a slim, go-anywhere portable. When Playstation(r) and Nintendo(r) aficionados got jealous, he created miniaturized, fully functioning, battery-powered versions of those too. Now it’s your turn. Every secret is here - complete instructions, materials lists, tool tips, even advice on finding parts. Just wait ’til they see this at the high school reunion.

Ready? Let’s get started

Plans and instructions for building eight handheld, classic video games
* Choosing a game system - Atari(r), Nintendo(r), Super Nintendo(r), or Playstation(r)1
* What you’ll spend
* Electronics and soldering 101
* Hacking portable TVs for their screens
* Building the case - CNC or freehand?
* Yank the cord, install the batteries

Space Invaders and Asteroids are back!

Loved that Atari® when you were a kid? So did Ben Heckendorn — so much, in fact, that he successfully resurrected it as a slim, go-anywhere portable. When Playstation® and Nintendo® aficionados got jealous, he created miniaturized, fully functioning, battery-powered versions of those too. Now it’s your turn. Every secret is here — complete instructions, materials lists, tool tips, even advice on finding parts. Just wait ’til they see this at the high school reunion.

Ready? Let’s get started

Plans and instructions for building eight handheld, classic video games

1. Choosing a game system — Atari®, Nintendo®, Super Nintendo®, or Playstation®1
2. What you’ll spend
3. Electronics and soldering 101
4. Hacking portable TVs for their screens
5. Building the case — CNC or freehand?
6. Yank the cord, install the batteries

Space Invaders and Asteroids are back! Loved that Atari® when you were a kid? So did Ben Heckendorn so much, in fact, that he successfully resurrected it as a slim, go-anywhere portable. When Playstation® and Nintendo® aficionados got jealous, he created miniaturized, fully functioning, battery-powered versions of those too. Now it’s your turn. Every secret is here - complete instructions, materials lists, tool tips, even advice on finding parts. Just wait ’til they see this at the high school reunion. Ready? Let’s get started Plans and instructions for building eight handheld, classic video games 1. Choosing a game system Atari®, Nintendo®, Super Nintendo®, or Playstation®1 2. What you’ll spend 3. Electronics and soldering 101 4. Hacking portable TVs for their screens 5. Building the case CNC or freehand? 6. Yank the cord, install the batteries

Excellent book, everything you need to know!

Benjamin Heckendorn put his heart into this book. The love I have for my NES and SNES playing days (which still occur about every weekend) is felt from Ben’s words, and it makes the in depth details even clearer. Written with a passion and understanding for all things video games, this book is just about all one would need to build a game creation of their own. Fallowing the book step by step is made easy and shameless, but even making your own creation can be easily supported by this book. With photos showing you each step, tips & tricks to get you by, and even corny jokes now and again that lighten the mood (Sorry Ben, but I did laugh at some of them!), this book is inspiration and information at their best.

Tinkerers rejoice!

This book surpassed my expectations. If you are a tinkerer this book will be great for you...if you also like retro-gaming, this book becomes a must have. He is so thorough in his descriptions of the projects, that even if you aren’t already handy with electronics you will have no problem completing these projects. I also liked the fact that for each project he has two versions: one full-scale project; and one that can be accomplished without any expensive tools. Highly recommended!

Recycling video consoles

A great book for instruction on how to use old video game systems and transform them into new game systems.

the real deal!!!

this isnt just some book that puts all the weight on your shoulders to make sense of it and track down hard to find parts and make this some kind of impossible task. its the real deal!! you really can do this yourself with only basic electronics skill. the best skill probably is a love of video games, which will pretty easily overcome any challenges for technical expertise you might not have...tho little of that is necessary anyways. stop by his web site asap!!! the real thing!

Hacking systems? This is a must own!

This book is simply incredible! If you have ever wondered what to do with your old systems that are around your house, this book provides the answer.

The book is extremly easy to follow, ever for people like me who have never soldered anything in my life. The book describes step by step how to take apart a screen from either a portable tv or a portable PSOne screen. He also gives two different portable ideas for each of the four different systems featured in the book (PSOne, Atari 2600 - 4 switch, NES, and SNES Mini).

Just by showing how to take apart the units and describing what is being done, this book opens up posibilities for making any system you own portable (Check his website for proof).

The only complaints that I have about this book is that there are a couple of misprints for some diagrams. All of this is fixed in erratas on his site. Other than that, I wished he would have shown more systems and how to make them portable.

I just couldn’t get enough! And I bet you’ll love it as well!

the 80s still live!

The 80s are over. But apparently not to some of you. The book is dedicated to those video gamers of the 80s, who wish to enable their second childhoods. Assuming they ever vacated their first.

The discussion is all about hands on hardware modifications. To take some classic video game system, dismantle it, and grep the key parts into a snazzy new and portable gadget. You must realise that the author is writing to a select few. Even a typical 80s gamer is unlikely to lavish the time demanded by this book. It really does describe a labour of love. While you could undoubtedly resell a working gadget that you built, it’s a toss-up whether that would justify the time you spent on it. At some level, the cost of materials is overshadowed by the construction time cost.

One day, future historians might regard books like this as research material. For these capture snapshots of a gamer subculture, as it interacts with itself, and attempts to propagate itself forward in time. [A meme.]

Great Resource, Great Augmentation to the Website!

I’ve been following Ben for almost 2 years now since I found his website for the original PSp (PlayStation Portable). The humor on his site is great and he did an excellent job of carrying over his writing style for the new book. It’s a good light read, and doesn’t require a whole lot of previous knowledge. Specifically in the department of understanding electronics. I can personally recommend this book if you love tinkering with electronics or if you actually plan on building one of these portables, it’s clear and the pictures corresponded amazingly well to the descriptions. Great Book, Great Work.

I can’t wait for this to come out!

I’ve been watching Ben Heckendorn do this since his old Atari 2600 Portables site launched almost 6 years ago. It’ll be awesome to finally know how to do everything he does yourself!