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Atari 2600 Mac Mod
XxtraLarGe writes "MyMac.com has videos of a couple of guys modding an Atari 2600 case to a Mac OS X System. The cool thing is, it looks like the 2600 can still play cartridge games too!"
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Hmm, their site does not have any images, just movies and mentions that they were already having bandwidth issues before it was posted on slashdot. So you probably want to use the coral cache links below. I managed to get the first three links primed before the story went live.
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MacMod - The Atari 2600 Macintosh
Building the iAtariMac
What the heck is this? Actually, it is the LONG overdue, been sitting in development hell purgatory, first MacMod.
What is MacMod? An idea and concept that sprung to life in the minds of Tim Robertson and Chad Perry way back in the summer of 2003. The idea? Wouldn't it be cool if there were a video show online that was like a combination of American Chopper and Junkyard Wars, but about Macs?
What? You don't think that is a cool idea? Obviously, we did, so we actually did it. We created a show, named it MacMod, and filmed the whole thing over a six-week period starting October 2003 and finishing December 2003.
The goal? Turning a vintage 1970's Atari 2600 game consol into a Macintosh computer, running the latest and greatest Mac OS X. The catch? Try and keep the Atari looking stock, up to a point.
The problem? Neither Chad nor Tim had ever done anything like this before. Not just "how to build it" but "how to film and present it" were questions they pretty much made up the answers to as they went along.
Firstly, they had to obtain both an Atari 2600 and a Macintosh. The first was easy, Tim already had two Atari 2600's, and they used one of those. The second was not as easy. Neither Tim nor Chad wanted to part with a perfectly good computer to use and, probably, destroy. Neither was confident that the build would be successful, and it was asking too much for either of them to give up a working Macintosh for this show.
The solution? A sponsor! Enter Tekserve! Who is Tekserve? Only one of the best Macintosh resellers in the world, located in New York City, but servicing clients worldwide. They started out as a Mac service company, but have grown well beyond those humble beginnings. Today, they sport over 125 employees!
Tekserve became the silent partner during filming MacMod. Without them, this project could not have happened. It was Tekserve who supplied us with the needed Macintosh to use for this project. Please visit their website today for more information, and be sure to tell them it was MyMac.com who sent you.
This project should have been online a year ago, but it was not meant to be. We ran into many more problems after filming wrapped than we want to go into here. Suffice it to say, we did finish the project, but not alone. Special thanks go to Jim Allard, who was present every day during filming. While you the viewer never see or hear Jim, he was the invisible third man of the show. This would not have happened without him. Tad Scheeler was the talent behind our animated opening, as well as helping film during day two. MacMod would not look the same, or have whatever polish is present, without Tad. Adam Karneboge lent his help in technical matters, as well as providing a part we sorely needed. And Chris Seibold stepped in at the last minute to provide the over-the-top narration the show needed. Without these people, MacMod would never have happened.
Now you can watch, in four parts, the entire build process. There is both a large and small version of each episode. If you are bandwidth challenged, view the smaller one. If you don't mind downloading a large file, enjoy the better detail in the larger ones. And if you would rather have a DVD copy of all four episodes, email us and we can give you more details. (Detail may be posted here in the future if there is enough interest.)
Warning! You will either think this is either really neat, or really stupid. If you think it is stupid, that is Tim and Chad's fault, not those who helped us.
QuickTime is required to view MacMod
#include sig.h
The Atari 5200 Supersystem was named for its part number in the Atari catalog, CX5200. Following this trend, Atari renamed the VCS the 2600.
It was called the Atari VCS until the 5200 came out...and the 7800 is just a continuation of the 2600 mulitples
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
The official name of the 2600 was the "Video Computer System" (VCS) and that was indeed the official name until the Atari 5200 came out. However, the catalogue/part number for the VCS was CX2600 right from the start, and that is where the name came from. When the Supersystem was announced/introduced (part #CX5200) the part numbers became official model names probably to emphasise the difference between the two.
Atari was known to employ some engineers with a twisted sense of humour and perhaps a history of cracking/phreaking activities (Steve Wozniak for example). Given that they allegedly code-named their products after well-endowed female coworkers it wouldn't surprise me that the original product number was inspired by the frequency in Hz that opened up the telephone system to phreakers.
In any case, I believe there was no real marketing angle to the choice of model numbers apart from simply using multiples of the number 2600 to indicate successive generations--1st gen = 1*2600, 2nd gen = 2*2600, 3rd gen = 3*2600. No compatibilty was impled, as a base 5200 couldn't play 2600 games and a base 7800 couldn't play 5200 games.
> Also the 7800 is 5200 + 2600, even though the 7800 didn't play 5200 games.
Minor nitpick: the 7800 does play 2600 games. It's the 5200 that doesn't.
Ok, that's an acceptable explaination I think, but its just weird. Especially considering the timing. I mean, if you look up Steve Jobs in wikipedia.com, it has this paragraph:
"In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the "Homebrew Computer Club" with Stephen Wozniak. He took a job at Atari Inc., designing computer games with his friend, Wozniak. During this time period, it was discovered that a slightly modified toy whistle included in every box of Cap'n Crunch cereal was able to reproduce the 2600 Hz supervision tone used by the AT&T long distance telephone system. Jobs and Wozniak went into business briefly in 1974 to build "blue boxes" based on the idea which allowed for free long distance calls.
Which almost links the two together. Were did the catalogue number come from? Did Atari make 2,599 items before they made the 2600? Also, seeing as Jobs and Wozniak liked to hide numbers in their products, like the Apple I's price being $666, I would think that they could have done the same with the Atari VCS. Perhaps only they know the answer to this.
btw, http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/?p=Pismo*00 is a nice place with good pics and step by step instructions for taking Apple Laptops apart... it has already helped me twice this year...
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -Anon.
Meh, I interviewed Tim about the mod a few days ago. Here is a link: http://macmod.com/content/view/219/
"Tuez-les tous; Dieu reconnaitra les siens."
It's a good thing that somebody has actually already listed a ton of games that you can play on the Mac.
:(.
Unfortunately, it appears that Enemy Territory never made it to the Mac. But RTCW did. The only game I really miss from my PC is HL2, which doesn't play in Linux either (at least, I can't get it to work)
Don't count your messages before they ACK.
Yes, it came with two joysticks and a pair of paddles. Actually, the paddles were cool in that both plugged into the same port, so you could connect four to the console. The 2600 doesn't get enough credit for being an early four-player console.
The Apple I was priced at $666.66, not $666.00. I also remember that this price was arrived at via some formula involving the price of all the parts, not picked arbitrarily. When they discovered that the formula produced this number, someone suggested they change it, but Jobs wanted to leave it alone because it was a memorable number.
That said, I think its pretty doubtful that Jobs and Woz had influence over the part number designations at Atari. First of all because Woz never worked for Atari. He designed breakout as a favor to Jobs, but its was work that was assigned to Jobs. At the time Woz designed breakout he was working at HP.
So, did Steve Jobs have the power to influence the product designation of the 2600? I think its pretty doubtful, considering the various descriptions of his work at Atari that I have read. It seems like he was Nolan Bushnell's "eyes and ears" into the engineering department. During the period when Jobs worked there, Nolan had been asked not to visit the engineers and "bother them" because often his suggestions were taken as orders of how things should be done. So, he was asked not to drop in anymore. Because he was a curious person and wanted to know how things were going, he had Steve Jobs give him reports about what was happening. From what I have read, this was Jobs's main role at Atari and he was otherwise not very popular there.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score