[Dablio] sent in an awesome console mod he made. It may just be the smallest Atari 2600 ever (Portuguese, here’s the Google translation).
The build began with a Dynacom MegaBoy, from the same company that put out many less-than-legal 2600 clones. The MegaBoy PCB is an exercise in parsimony consisting of only a single IC, a crystal, and some resistors and caps. [Dablio] made a new PCB board based on the schematic he reverse engineered and this thing is tiny. It’s much smaller than even the smallest [Ben Heck] 2600 console build.
[Dablio] now needed a case for his new console. He had originally planned to mount the whole thing in an Atari controller like this commercial product. Serendipity intervened and he realized the entire system (sans cartridge port) fit inside a plastic tube of m&m minis.
Currently, [Dablio] has two ports on his ‘Atari tube of m&ms’ – the largest is the cartridge slot, and a small VGA port sits in the lid of the tube. This VGA port carries the power supply, controller, sound and video signals to and from the console.
[Dablio] sent in a bunch of pictures of his build which are in a gallery after the break. Now for the million-dollar question: anybody know where to buy one of these Dynacom MegaBoys?
MegaBoys are quite rare even here in Brazil. However, not so long ago you could buy the 6592 SoC over the counter, but I believe that’s not the case anymore…
Very cool, but I think he’s still shy of being the world’s smallest. About a year and a half ago I found an entire Atari 2600 on a keychain.
It’s an Atari 2600 on a chip, mounted in a miniature joystick. Came with several built in games and played pretty well. You used it together with a little box that housed AAA batteries, but all the rest of the components are housed within the joystick itself.
But that is more of a recreation. And not very practical.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that the chip in the Atari Keychain is a NOAC (Nintendo on a Chip) running ports of the original games. ( http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/92582-atari-keychain-games-from-basic-fun-stay-away/ )
The best place to find a single-chip 2600 solution in the states is to pick up a Flashback 2 (According to the link, the Flashback 1 was also a NOAC running ports)
HD15M != “VGA port”
On topic:
A nice build, but a waste of time (the 2600 is junk). At least this one uses sane controllers.
It does remind me I need to make something with my NoaC, though…
That’s your opinion. I think it’s Zen.
NoaC is so overused and overdone by this point that it’s not impressive. The 2600 can be made to be much more capable too – No framebuffer and it can display far more colors than the NES (128 instead of 25 on screen).
The atari SOC can be found in many Atari 2800-ripoffs, with anything from 64 to 256 games. I’ll put some photos in my site as soon as I can touch it.
Leandro, the “Brazil” Butt-Lift guy???
All bow down………………..
PCB board? Seriously? It also features an LCD display, right?
;)
I like it. Good on him for building it. Love the dead bug projects-less fluff and for me it is easier to make the metal image of the connections and interactions than some white paper. This plus synthcart could be a fun and portable option for gigs or jamming out (with earphones) on the bus :)
Anyone have any info about 6591 ?
Very interesting.. anyone can tell me where i can find the 6592? i cant find megaboy either.
In Europe – Rambo TV Games or A2600B TV Games…
Has anyone found the chip? Could a different chip be used? Why can’t it be found if it was at one time an over the counter component?