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Mini-ITX PC in an Atari 800
tgeller writes "As case mods go, this one's not the weirdest, But it has its own retro charm. Musician and geek Andy Hutson slipped a Mini-ITX motherboard into an Atari 800 case... and used an old cartridge as the mouse! Too bad the original keyboard's not functional." This almost makes me want to tear apart my old Apple //c and see what I can make. Almost.
Man, as if using an Atari 800 to house your ATX wasn't bad enough.. but to use a game cartridge, Star Raiders nonetheless, and transform it into a MOUSE? MY GOD MAN, I'm dripping in geek just reading this page!
At least nobody will steal your computer! Well, at least not after they find out you ruined an Atari and put all the modern crap inside! ]:3P
Pretty Pictures!
...so the graphics may be prettier, but it'll still run at the same speed.
Karma: Oldschool
Man puts ITX MB in old plastic box.
Sorry, but I would have been more impressed if he'd restored the Atari 800 to working condition.
Ok, so putting a modern PC in an old computercase is cool and all, but running modern style software on the actual old computer is much cooler! Check out the Contiki operating system for such old computers (including the Atari 800): it is a multi-tasking graphical operating system with full Internet access (web browser, telnet client, web server!) that runs on a a bunch of different old computers. They even have a web server running on a real Commodore 64.
http://mini-itx.cx ... guess where the mini-itx pc will be! ;o)
'Scuse my ignorance, but I'm curious as to just how incompatible the original keyboard was...
Would any of the people that know about hardware care to enlighten me on how hard a keyboard translater would be to build - something that would read the output of the Atari keyboard and spit out equivilent input that the Mini ITX's keyboard controller would understand?
There's a lot of really cool looking old gear out there (well, specifically, under the desk here) with built in keyboards that would make pretty nifty little machines for those of us who want to relive the days of sitting crosslegged on the loungeroom floor 3 inches from the TV screen tapping stuff into a machine like that, but with all mod cons...
You know they call 'em fingers but I've never seen 'em fing. Oh, there they go.
Mini-ITX site has a lot of links to similar projects:
http://www.mini-itx.com
This almost makes me want to tear apart my old Apple //c and see what I can make. Almost.
Why not just keep your old Apple IIc and spend the five bucks or whatever buying one on ebay? There are tons of "classic" computers on ebay that you can get for rediculously low prices (well, considering...) A while ago I almost got a lot of five sparc ipx's for $20. The winning bid was something like $25. Stuff like that is up there all the time.
Of course, I have some sort of weird ethical qualms with gutting old machines. Someone else usually has to throw them out. Why not try this mod on a nice toaster or even a cuisinart (double props if the thing still works without ruining the mobo)
just my two cents (adjusted for inflation)
I think it's sad to see old hardware ripped apart like this. It's just as sad as people ripping nice old cars apart to make butt-ugly hot rods...
Martin
The Atari I/O chip (POKEY, for POrts and KEYboard), was fed a row/column matrix from the keyboard, and then read directly by the CPU.
In order to make the keyboard compatible with a PC, you would need a microcontroller that scanned the row/column matrix and then generated the serial data stream that a PC's 8042 keyboard controller wanted to see.
Not really a very difficult task for a hardware guy - a PIC would probably do quite nicely.
I wonder if the guy was able to use the interior potmetal shield of the Atari - the 800 was designed back when "Class B computing device" MEANT something - Atari took no chance that the computer would fail to pass FCC regulations. The 800 was the quietest (in the RF sense of the word) computer I'd ever seen - ANYTHING that could generate RF was on the inside of a eight-of-an-inch thick metal box.
But using a Star Raiders cart as a mouse?!?!
BLASPHEMER! SINNER! YOU SHALL BURN IN HELLFIRE ETERNAL!
www.eFax.com are spammers
as someone who has owned every production 8-bit Atari sold in the US (800,400,1200XL,800XL,600XL, 130XE, 65XE, XEGS... other models that are out there that I haven't owned include the 1400XL, 1450XL, 800XE...) this is just WRONG. WRONG, I tell you.
The 800 is one of the very best of the Atari 8-bit line. Funky seventies industrial design, lovely keyboard, great video and audio quality out of the box (Atari boogered the video and audio amplifiers on the XL and XE models)...
They're built like tanks, too. Remember, the MSRP for them in 1979 was something like $2000. In 1979 dollars. 1/4" and 1/8" aluminum shielding in there to pass the old FCC regs from before Apple paid off the FCC to get the Apple II series passed... We used to joke that the 800 could probably survive the EMP from the inevitable nuclear war that was going to happen in the eighties...
About the only "case mod" I could understand on an 800 is gluing the Star Raiders cartridge into the slot, and even then, I'd use a 400 for that...