Winner Announcement: Ben Heck's Atari 2600 Portable!

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The Contest

Win Ben Heck's Atari 2600 Portable!

The 1978 release of Space Invaders, followed by the first use of vector technology for games like Asteroid a year later, ushered in the golden age of arcade games. It was during the late 70s running up until the mid 80s that arcade games experienced their greatest popularity and technological innovation. Prior to this time, pinball machines were more popular than video games.

Capitalizing on the popularity of coin-operated video arcades, manufacturers like Atari brought the arcade experience home with affordable consoles that plugged directly into the TV. Originally dubbed the Atari VCS, the Atari 2600, would dominate the console industry of its time.

Atari wasn't the only game around at the time. By 1979, the Atari 2600 faced increasing competition from rivals Mattel Intellivision and the Magnavox Odyssey2. By 1980, Atari was looking for a mega-hit to set it apart and remain dominant. They found one with the home release of a game from Japan called Space Invaders. This became the first videogame killer-app and led many people to purchase the Atari 2600 just to play it.

The Atari 2600 is often called the godfather of modern videogame systems and is credited with helping spawn a multi-billion dollar industry. It would become the best-selling American made console by selling 30 million units. A record that would not be displaced until the Xbox 360 sold 84 million units.

{gallery} Ben Heck's Portable Atari 2600

Giveaway: Ben Heck's Portable Atari 2600

Watch the Ben Heck Team Build a Portable Atari 2600:

Do you prefer retro games to modern games? Let us know why for a chance to win Ben Heck's portable Atari 2600.

Share your retro gaming experience in the comments below. Feel free to talk about anything related to retro gaming and share your memories with the rest of the community. You can talk about a high score, a level or game that was difficult to beat, or games you enjoy playing to this day. We want to know what retro gaming means to you.

Bonus points if your retro gaming experience includes an Atari 2600.

Directions:

Step 1: Log in or register on element14, it's easy and free.

Step 2: Post in the comments section below and tells us why you prefer retro gaming to modern gaming. Videos, pictures and text are all welcomed forms of submission.

Step 3: Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show! We will accept entries until 3:00pm CDT July 8, 2016 and announce our winner July 13, 2016. If you need something to do between now and then make sure to check out what is happening This week on element14 Community, or watch more Ben at element14.com/TBHS.

The Winner

Congratulations notaseriouscollector you are the biggest fan of retro gaming and winner of Ben Heck's Atari 2600 Portable! Join the conversation on the element14 Ben Heck Show page and participate in upcoming contests to win more giveaway prizes!

Here is why I love retro games, as a kid (born in 1983) I grew up during the Atari 2600 (the first game console I ever played was an Atari Pong Machine!), NES, Sega Megadrive and it genuinely was the best time in gaming, simple games to learn but insanely difficult to master. Sometimes taking ages to learn the patterns to beat the Bosses (Megaman 3 on NES was a nightmare!).

So as a kid I didn't have a lot of access to these consoles in my own house but in friends houses on weekends and after school we would play for hours if we could get away with it.

Seriously I have racked up at least 120+ hours playing various games like River Raid, ET (don't judge me, I wanted to know how bad it truly was), Barnstorm and so many more.

This handheld Atari 2600 console would help me take that addiction along with me on road trips, on the train to work, it would honestly be the best and mean the world to me. Not to mention be the very pride of my collection.

I have a few pics below of my collection and hopefully this will show you how addicted I am to retro video games and that I hopefully am worthy of such a cool custom handheld Atari 2600.

Cheers, Dan - Retro addicted for life!

I have also included a link to one of my games room videos from a few years ago!

Retro Games Room All Setup -

The Ultimate Games Room -

The Highlights

barnbrnr writes:

Retro gaming is the bomb! Back in 1977, my dad was an electronics buyer for a US department store. That Christmas, he brought home an unknown (at the time) family present that was the Atari 2600. We had no idea what it was, or what it was the beginning of... I just knew that it was the most amazing Christmas gift that we played for many years on a 13" color TV. We played Tank, River Raid, Ateroids, Pitfall and Breakout for hours on end... getting palm and thumb blisters from the joystick. It was magical.

So... with all the high-end, 3D, multiplayer, realistic games out there... nothing beats the feeling and memories of playing retro Atari (and NES) games. I'd love to play on that hand-held!!!

shadygrove424 writes:

Not only do I absolutely love retro gaming, I love modding retro consoles! From Ben's Atari 2600 composite mod (I've since upgraded to an s-video mod) to RGB modding my PC-Engine Duo R to play on my Sony BVM-D20F1U Multiformat CRT monitor. In the past I would modify Sega Genesis consoles for S-Video and Composite output and sell them inexpensively on eBay for others to relive their childhood (without buying proprietary cables!)

Most recently I've jumped into retro computing. Saving a Commodore 64 from the dump was really satisfying and I'm waiting for some spare time to install the SD2IEC drive replacement.

Although I do have a few modern consoles, I still prefer retro gaming. The Wii U is mostly used for Mario Maker and my PS3 is essentially a Netflix box right now.

Kindly enjoy these few pictures:

My retro station setup: NES, SNES, N64, GCN, Genesis + SegaCD (not pictured: 32x), Saturn, Dreamcast, PSX, PS2 and hiding in the back is my model 1 Intellivision. Not shown is my Atari 2600 (see next photo) and some neat little old pong consoles I've found at thrift stores.

Tear down of my Atari 2600 in preparation for S-Video mod (and a closeup of my favorite tool holder.)

IT LIVES! Fixed a botched reset button mod and it booted right up, after some good cleaning that is.

Lastly, one of my favorite pictures from my childhood:(I like to tease my wife that I've been playing sonic before she was born! I'm six years older)

Love the show, love the site;

Cheers!

thethirdstrike writes:

I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember. Hell, the Atari 2600 and I share the same birth year. I've gamed through the 2600, to NES, to Saturn, to Xbox... There aren't many consoles I haven't grown up with. I even got a chance to play a Pippin. =]I will always be a retro gamer at heart. There is something about the old games, especially the 8 and 16 bit era that feels like home compared to the recent generation of games. There was so much more creativity, so much more challenge. Games were hard and felt rewarding to beat because you could rarely save your game, regenerating health didn't exist, and there was no such thing as GameFaqs. Retro gaming is True gaming. When I die, I may not be able to leave my children a lot of cash, but they'll be receiving a fortune in retro gaming equipment. =]

tanj666 writes:

I remember sitting for hours trying desperately to move that thing we called a 'joystick' on the Atari 2600 so that my ship/man/whatever-those-blobs-were would not hit some other blobs on the screen. After a long time I was actually good enough at Atari's version of Space Invaders that I could play for hours and hours without losing a life. I never did get to be as good as my little bro at Asteroids though. But, much fun as we found the old Atari, we loved watching our dad play Space Invaders. He would move from side to side trying to dodge the missiles, instead of making his ship move. He always blamed it on the Nelson's Column joystick, but he still did this sideways moving when we bought some other joysticks. Thanks dad, you died with grace and aplomb and never broke a joystick by throwing on the floor in frustration! (Actually he did this a lot and so we bought cheap joysticks just for him)

kilokahn writes:

Simply put, retro games remind me of my youth. It took imagination to play Adventure and actually think that big dot was actually a person.

Here's a picture of me (on the right) from 1982 playing Breakout.

athornton writes:

I'm a big fan of the craft that has to develop in highly resource-constrained systems. Let's take the Atari 2600 as an example.

It has 128 bytes of RAM. Not MB, not KB. Bytes. The stock cartridge is 4K of ROM (many of the early ones were 2K, including _Kaboom_, which is basically the same game as _Guitar Hero_ or _Dance Dance Revolution_). Later games were sometimes larger (they'd do some fancy bank-switching to address more memory, since to save cost, the 2600 used a 6507, rather than a 6502, and could only directly address 4K).

Making that even more insanely restrictive, video display on the 2600 is basically a one-D graphics card tightly integrated with the mechanics of analog TV. The majority of a game's code would be loading the player or ball registers with data before the raster got to the point on the screen where the item was to be drawn. Cramming more stuff on the screen could be done by changing the display registers mid-scan-line; this technique was called "Racing The Beam" ( also the title of a terrific book about the Atari 2600 (https://www.amazon.com/Racing-Beam-Computer-Platform-Studies/dp/026201257X ) . The practical upshot of this is that your game logic would go (a little) in the horizontal refresh interval (when the TV raster was repositioning from the right side of the screen back to the left) and (mostly) in the vertical refresh when the electron gun was going from bottom right to upper left. You had to count cycles pretty carefully in order for all this to work.And still, some of the most absorbing games ever written were made under these constraints. My personal favorite is probably David Crane's _Pitfall_. Using a multi-tap pseudo-random number generator, he made a game with 255 screens in a nice mix of screen types (pits, ropes, gators, etc), a subway system allowing fast travel (a single below-ground screen goes three screens above-ground) which is the only way to get to all the treasure rooms in the 20 minute time limit, and graphics that are crisp and instantly recognizable. All this in 4K of ROM, and 128 bytes to store variable game data (e.g. time, score, position, which screen you're on). This is almost certainly the most fun per byte of any video game ever made.

Plus, I'd like to have the portable system so that I can play the Atari game *I* wrote (long after the console's heyday: https://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=2023 ) without an emulator and without being at home. (OK, so "wrote" is a little strong; I started from Greg Troutman's _Dark Mage_, which was itself a hack of the text generator from _Stellar Track_; but the game logic is mine.)

techfanpodcast writes:

I have taken to creating my own mini arcades because retro gaming is just the best. Quick play, not overly complex, and just plain fun! Here are two mini-arcades I made using iCade's and two different multi-boards.

ldiazpaez writes:

Ben and Team,

I must say watching this build takes me back to a terrible time in my life. At 7 Years of age my father left my mother and I, He took all the furniture Tv's and even took our dog and went to live with another women. I remember my uncle came over the following day and dropped off a TV and a Atari 2600 with Missile Command and PitFall. I remember sitting in front of the TV playing those games for hours and escaping the reality of what truly was happening. I must say the winner in this has to be hands down Retro Games the fact being that you need to have a strong imagination, actually becoming one with the game which is something todays Youth is lacking. I am now 35 and a United States Navy Veteran with a 1 month old son.

Thank you so much for this opportunity

Luis Diaz-Paez

Miami, FL

rutang writes:

As a very young child, my dad ponied up what must have been a fortune for him at the time, to get my sister and I an Atari 2600. We could play Combat or Pac-man for hours, but what I really remember is my dad, who never before or since seemed to be captivated by video games, was enthralled by the puzzle nature of Pac-Man. I watched for hours sometimes as my father would work his way towards mastering the game. It was truly an anomaly for such a hard working, cerebral man who preferred to spend his leisure time reading philosophy.

A few years later, My father and I were in a convenience store, and we spied a new Arcade game. In my childhood addled memory, I'd say it was Spy Hunter, but I don't really know, He gave me a quarter and went to buy something at the counter. I didn't even survive long enough on the quarter for him to get a chance to watch me play the game, and it was clear then, that he was a little bit disgusted at how little fun I got for the money. I, on the other hand, was only encouraged to learn how to play the game and get better at it... something I would do for most of the rest of my childhood, with various games... but our connection on video gaming was gone. The various boxes hooked up to the television were mine alone, and this particular passion of mine would never again be shared with my father.

Many years later, when I burned up a reasonable amount of my own hard earned spending money to buy a Super Nintendo, He did stop in to check out what it looked like. I made the comment that Super Mario Brothers might be the most fun game of all time, and I may never tire of playing it. He laughed, a little too much, and wandered down the hall shaking his head. I'm fortunate that my father is still with me. We have a great relationship, and every few years when I play a game of Super Mario Brothers, possibly for the benefit of that memory, I bring it up with him, and now we both get to share the laugh.

andrewhannay writes:

Ben Hecks Projects have inspired me so much to get on and build something.

I built my own retro games based on my childhood memories which is why I love retro games so much - They are damn easy to code and take up very little memory yet you can get some of the greatest game play all in that tiny space measured in K, not M or G.

Look at some of my attempts:

The Game & Watch and Pong Watch I coded myself as well as building them.

The Hackvision Gameboy was based on the Arduino Hackvision schematic.

C64 portable based on the C64 TV joystick game

Here is a link to the Game and Watch in action:

Here is a link to the Pong Watch in Action:

Finally here is a link to my instructables page with step by step(ish) photos of how I built some of these:

- Instructables Member: Andrew Hannay

Cheers,

Andrew

bobbyblouin writes:

i retrogame because it brings me back to the 80's , when i was a kid and life was simple, some of my best memories during that time was playing the atari 2600 my sister had. During the christmas vacation ,during big family party and the kids would gather on the carpet of the living room and we we're just amazed at what that thing could do. i really don't care so much about gaming now, my girlfriend has a playstation 3 but i rather work in my shop and weld some stuff rather than play, it just don't have the same appeal to me. i play Nes with my daughter, she's so amazing, she just turned 4 years old and she almost able to finish level 1-2 at super mario bros. i got my old collection of atari games somewhere, but i have not played in years because the atari i bought later on died. so i'd like to win for that, to play with my daughter

mightywiz writes:

man what can't you say about the 70's, 80's, & 90's early gaming!

I was there to see it progress from pong at our local bowling alley to present time now. i'm 47 and my kids don't get my infatuation with retro gaming. I still own an atari 2600 and have my original colecovision and atari module #1 + adam computer module #3. I've hooked them up and let my kids experience what I saw as new technology. they love the old games as much as I still do. new games you play to accomplish a goal. old games we played to beat someone elses high score. my brother would play missile command on atari while i was at school just to prove he had the highest score in the house then i would sit down and beat the crap out of his score. the retro games (which i can't believe they are retro now, i don't feel that old) are the best!

barny15 writes:

There are several reasons I prefer retro games to modern ones; I guess the simplest answer is that I was born in the 70's and grew up in the 80's and 90's, so the nostalgia factor is the biggest reason retro is my preffered style of game. The first console I ever interacted with was the Atari 2600 in the early 80's; I have fond memories of Pole Position, Knight Rider, and Pitfall. The first console I ever owned was an NES, and I adored it. My favorite console is the SNES; too many amazing games. The other big reason I prefer console is the sheer variety of games available for retro consoles versus more modern ones. Every genre is covered in hundreds of different ways in retro games, whereas modern games are all very "samey". I enjoy modern games, but the lack of variety means that I really only enjoy the best of the best when it comes to them. Smaller reasons include my lack of skill with modern games, the sheer number of available retro games, the low cost of retro games, and the simplicity of retro games.

random-maximus writes:

I enjoyed the fact that you could play your favorites at the arcade or bar as well as at home.

gharsh writes:

My first experience with videogames was at Disneyland around 1978... there was a cabinet in FrontierLand called DeathRace (perhaps the StarCade didnt exist yet?). It was a b/w top-down vector game where you drive a car with the goal of running over tiny fleeing people. When struck, the people would emit a small electronic scream. I had never seen my parents laugh so much. I don't think the game was at the park for long, and I have never seen it again (I had to do an internet search by description to find its name). It was an oddly bonding experience for the family.

I lived in Alaska in the late 70s and early 80s and arcades were not a thing during the classic arcade heyday. The local Shakey's pizza parlor, however, had around 5 arcade cabinets that changed every few months (although Tank Zone never left). I discovered a reason to save my allowance when asteroids appeared. I was hooked on these big, warm-to-the-touch machines. Through the years Shakey's saw Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Tron pass through their faux saloon swinging doors.

Later that year for Christmas Dad bought my sister and I an Atari 2600 (well, the Sears version of a heavy sixer). Apart from the occasional game of Monopoly my Dad rarely sat down and played with us, and the Atari 2600 changed that (I do suspect the paddle-controlled Blackjack title was the influencer). That was a big deal for me an activity - that I could share, and actually compete with my Dad. Armed with Air-Sea Battle and Combat, I played the heck out of those two titles for a full year until the following Christmas when I received Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman (still a favorite), and Adventure. Memorizing the Adventure maze and playing it on Hard difficulty was an obsession. From there, I began buying my own games (and unfortunately my attention span diminished as my title options grew).

As the years passed I bought my own console (Atari 5200 from JC Penny's) but as the Atari age faded so did my interest in videogames. My friends had Nintendo which I would play at their house, but I hadn't felt the same grip that my Atari 2600 provided. From time to time I would tackle a cocktail-style Ms Pacman in a family restaurant bar (a good value for my quarter), but videogames, I thought, were my past and not my future. Then, after college, my first job was to help with advertising the launch of the Sony PS1. Suddenly I was back in the videogame world as I spent hours every week writing game manuals, creating packaging templates, and eventually designing logos and illustrations. I even did work for Atari! (sadly it was for the short-lived Jaguar). Imagine a kid from Alaska working in the birthplace of Atari! Eventually I had the opportunity to work in video game development and worked on several AAA titles for multiple platforms.

Now I'm out of the industry, (and back in Alaska) but this year I actually bought a refurbished Atari 2600 heavy sixer (with added composite video output). I still have a few favorite carts that I saved (albiet slightly mildewed and scuffed)- Superman, Adventure, Popeye, River Raid, MegaMania, Raiders, and E.T. (no comments please). I've tried software emulation and have built a pi-based console as well as a pcb-based cocktail table, but there's nothing like the hand-cramping feel of an Atari 2600 joystick, and messing with the b/w and difficulty switches of the ORIGINAL home game console. Thank you Atari!

odkin writes:

Would love to win the 2600 portable!

At 54, I started gaming on the Atari 2600 and even owned the 2600 BASIC cartridge, which let you input a whopping 128 bytes (not Kilobytes, BYTES) of programming! But that was enough to keep me interested until my Apple ][+ a few years later.

Nostalgia aside, retro games took advantage of their primitive graphics and sound to embrace the abstract and the surreal. When modern games try to depict realism, they sometimes lose the imaginative power of simple symbolic graphics. I actually find it easier to relate to a simple basic depiction of a person like "Pitfall Harry" than with the sometimes grotesque "uncanny valley" human-simulations in modern games.

The modern popularity of "casual games" and mobile games recaptures some of the retro magic. As adults, we often have a few idle minutes to burn while waiting. The old games were built around a similar arcade model of a single play experience only lasting a few minutes. This actually fits modern life better than the console model, which expects you to invest hundreds of hours sequentially progressing through a game.

Retro games also used their abstract graphics to embrace abstract designs. 2D overhead views and sidescrollers are only believable in the simple cartoon worlds of retro games. The more imaginative and memorable the characters and game mechanics are, the more fun the game is. And games should be fun, or what's the point?

superhampster writes:

My browser was messing up the other day, so I will post again in case my previous post didn't send.The first reason I love retro gaming is because when a retro system, with its limited hardware, produces an awesome game it means a little more than a modern machine. Sure a modern console or PC can produce amazing graphics and games, but when you get amazing graphics and games that push the hardware to its limits on an old machine somehow that's just a little more special. Pushing it to its limits just means a little more. Secondly, I remember fondly being 5 years old and coming down stairs Christmas morning and there in the corner was my very own TV for my room and an Atari 2600 connected to it with a whole stack of games. Then came my NES. Christmas morning of 1991 I was sure my parents didn't get me a SuperNES because they put it into an odd shaped box. I remember the joy as I opened the oddly shaped box and there was my SuperNES with Super Mario World and F-Zero. There is something special about those old machines.

To me retro games are cool because they push limited Hardware to its limits. I would expect the modern game to have great graphics and sound and be a good game, Modern Hardware is insanely powerful. When they push such limited Hardware to its limits and still turn out a wonderful game that a little cooler. It means a little more.

beano38 writes:

Ohhhh! How I remember the days of Adventure!! That was my favorite. I can recall trading games with friends to play all of the different games and running to Service Merchandise and KMart to drool over the displays. <grandpa voice>"Back in my day, we didn't have video rental stores and internet delivery services for game rental" </grandpa voice>

When I stumbled across the Ben Heck show a couple of years ago (while looking for ideas to do something with my first gen RaspberryPi) I have anxiously waited every Friday to watch the new episode. The show has encouraged me to dive into the world of electronics. I have since built a full standup Arcade and a cocktail table style "Barrel of Kong" (again inspired from another's idea).

I enjoy playing the retro game systems for it's simplicity, the mere fact that you can turn on the console and start playing the game! No long story to watch or tutorial to get you started. I still have many systems and keep my eye out during yard sales to acquire anything I can. I have the original 2600 I played in my youth, even the box and some games. And btw, if I am chosen as the winner for the Atari2600 portable, I have games that I can actually play on it.

I now have my own children and from time to time, I can break them away from their tablets, Netflix or Nintendo Wii to play a retro game on the Arcade and even pull out the old console and play some games. Hearing some of their comments cracks me up. Our typical family activity is to go camping (ok, "glamping" in a camper) and I bring a RaspberryPi with RetroPi to entertain the kids sometimes.

Barrel of Kong is a work in progress. I used a former Bourbon Barrel from Four Roses Distillery and constructed the arcade portion using MDF plywood.

acortest writes:

I have many more and MUCH FONDER memories of Retro gaming as compared to modern day gaming. I used to LOVE to read every last word of the Atari 2600 manuals. A lot of times there were really good hints on strategy as to how to beat the game. If I got stuck (which happened all the time), I would go back and re-read the manual and look for something that I had forgotten or was not aware of.You will LOVE this Atari 2600 / VCS story: When I was in 4th grade (it was 1981 and I was 9), I was on a crazy long session of Asteroids and my parents called me to dinner. I never showed up. After everyone ate, my mom came in and found me still playing the same game. I was going so long that my food was cold. She went back, heated it up for me and fed me, one fork/spoonful at a time while my eyes stayed glued to the television. It was great!I've been bugging Ben to build me a 2600 portable since 1998/99 when I first heard about his Atari VCS Portable. The closest I got was getting some spare Atari portable parts from him at the Midwest Gaming Conference in Wisconsin in 2008.Maybe I'll finally get one now.

Thanks and keep up the great work on the show!

AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOUR PODCAST!!!~Tony C.Wichita, KS

stebu writes:

I have my VCS2600 collection still down in the basement (not even sure if the VCS2600 is still alive.

Some of the titles:

3D Tic Tac Toe, Adventure, Air Sea Battle, Asteroids, Berzerk, Centipede, Championship Soccer, Circus Atari, Cosmic Ark, Crystal Castles, Defender, Dodge 'Em, E.T., Frogger, Grand Prix, Hounted House, Joust, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, King Kong, Laser Blast, Maze Craze, Moon Patrol, Ms. Pac-Man, Night Driver, Open Sesame, Phoenix, Planet Patrol, Pole Position, Popeye, Sky Diver, Sky Skipper, Space Invaders, Spider Fighter, Spider-Man, Star Raiders, Super Cobra, Superman, Surround, Threshold, Vanguard, Video Chess, Video Pinball, Yars' Revenge

My favourites where clearly Space Invaders, Asteroids, Frogger, Moon Patrol, Super Cobra and Adventure.

I even have a copy of the infamous "E.T." ...oh boy, I remember how I hardly couldn't await for the release date after I saw the movie at the cinema... and how much I was disappointed.

strra writes:

I'm not sure if it's the nostalgia goggles talking, but i feel that, though simpler, games were better made in the past. I do enjoy me a new game from time to time but I always find myself going back to the classics.

I recently made a PiCade for all my MAME/SNES needs.

lawprotector writes:

I love retro gaming. Reminds of my childhood when my brother, father and I would play frogger and pong. I like retro games in that they are easier for even non gamers to enjoy.

1997. Our whole neighborhood flooded. The flood of Piggsville in Milwaukee, WI. I was seven and we lost everything. We were eating bag lunches from Red Cross and drinking tap water from glass jugs provided by Miller brewing up the street for a month. Everything was soaked and ruined. A neighbor saw how i, a seven year old had lost everything. He then gave me his Atari 2600 and games, which I still have today. This created a bond between me and my father that was once non existent, and we played for hours. So yes, vintage gaming is truly dear to my heart. Its the simple things in life. This new stuff is complicated and going online prevents you from bonding with another physical person, friend or family.

ttv69 writes:

Retro gaming rulez! I personally love the challenge and accessibility of the older titles (along with a healthy dose of nostalgia)

Raspberry PI + dodgy woodworking skills = my dining room retro bartop machine

I would like something a little more portable (hint hint) though

Please keep up the great work Ben & Co...

thoriatedflashwrites:

I am an 80's kid and my first gaming system was an Atari 2600, so whenever I see one I am reminded of fond memories and am given a sense of nostalgia. I am glad I stumbled upon your Atari 2600 video and learned about the element 14 community as I have recently taken up electronics and computer programming as a hobby. I started of learning about basic circuits using simple ICs like the 555, but then discovered arduino and raspberry pi. I am amazed by how much you can do with these devices relatively simply. My interest in electronics led me to discover some of the retro gaming mods out there for systems like the NES. Many of these mods seem to focus on improving the consoles and expanding their capabilities to make them more compatible with modern technology, such as a NES AV or RGB mod. There are some many things you can do with and learn from retro consoles that would be impossible with modern consoles; especially for someone who is just learning about electronics. This is why I have a renewed excitement for retro gaming systems and why I prefer them to modern consoles.

foxtwin writes:

I can't help but prefer retro gaming because I grew up with systems like the Atari, Odyssey 2, and the NES. It's not only that I'm nostalgic for games from those eras, but that I can still discover new and exciting games for them that I originally missed. For example, I didn't play Tiny Toons on NES back in the day but playing it now is a lot of fun. And on the Atari, it was fascinating to see adventure games in their infancy with the likes of Pitfall 1 & 2 and Adventure. And it had games like Warlords, a 4-player game that was loads of fun while destroying your friends' fortress. The 2600 even had early shooters like Air Raid, shoot-em-ups like Berzerk, and of course arcade ports: good ones like Frogger, Ms. Pac Man, and the still-addicting-to-this-day Space Invaders and Missile Command. Such good memories playing these games, but what's satisfying is finding that some of these games still play pretty darn well and the programmers sure had their work cut out for them and pushed their imaginations solely for us to have fun. Good times then and now.

xotwrites:

I love retro games. The limitations of the systems forced some very interesting designs, especially on something like the Atari 2600. Pitfall is an obvious example of a game using every trick possible, but other less celebrated games like Stampede and Space Invaders also make masterful use of the Atari 2600's unique capabilities. I probably spent more time playing Asteroids than anything else but Adventure is my all-time favorite Atari 2600 game for inventing my favorite videogame form: the action-adventure.

Ben, I love your new portable and enjoyed watching it being made. I'm glad you've had a chance to work the kinks out. I remember when you made your first VCSp and its been a pleasure seeing it revisited over the years in its numerous iterations. Who would have dreamed back then where you'd be today? Here is to another 15 years of amazing builds. Cheers!

macntosh47 writes:

The reason I prefer vintage gaming over modern gaming is because I really respect the challenges that the programmers had to create such masterpieces on limited hardware. Today modern game designers/programmers are spoiled with the latest and faster hardware, and for the most part don't have to worry about the limitations of the machine they are coding for. Getting the most out of the hardware they had is just amazing to me.

Another reason I prefer vintage gaming over modern is that i am a sucker for the music. I would put the soundtrack of Mega man up against any modern game's arrangements.

thanks for considering me.

unconquered writes:

Because retro games had less to work with, there design was forced to be simple and straight forward. In addition, I could pick up an play whenever I wanted for 5 minutes or 5 hours. These days games want me to dedicate my life to them just so I can achieve adequate game play. If I sit down to play a game of Pitfall, River Raid, or Lode Runner I could sit down and play, have fun, then stop. If I sit down and try to play Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, or Skyrim. I have to set-aside large chunks of my life and it becomes taxing instead of fun and relaxing.

lawprotector writes:

I love retro gaming. Reminds of my childhood when my brother, father and I would play frogger and pong. I like retro games in that they are easier for even non gamers to enjoy.

thoriatedflashwrites:

foxtwin writes:

xotwrites:

notaseriouscollector writes:

Ok, *waves hands* LOOK OVER HERE!

So as a kid I didn't have a lot of access to these consoles in my own house but in friends houses on weekends and after school we would play for hours if we could get away with it.

But in my late 20's / early 30's I discovered I could find these old retro consoles and games I loved so much but never owned as a kid! I went on a mad collecting spree at flea markets and garage sales and eventually amassed a decent collection (57 consoles, 8 arcade machines, 3500 games) and the Atari 2600 is still my fav console to play.
Seriously I have racked up at least 120+ hours playing various games like River Raid, ET (don't judge me, I wanted to know how bad it truly was), Barnstorm and so many more.

I have a few pics below of my collection and hopefully this will show you how addicted I am to retro video games and that I hopefully am worthy of such a cool custom handheld Atari 2600.
Cheers, Dan - Retro addicted for life!

I have also included a link to one of my games room videos from a few years ago!

Retro Games Room All Setup -

The Ultimate Games Room -

kilokahn writes:

Simply put, retro games remind me of my youth. It took imagination to play Adventure and actually think that big dot was actually a person.

Here's a picture of me (on the right) from 1982 playing Breakout.

stebu writes:

I have my VCS2600 collection still down in the basement (not even sure if the VCS2600 is still alive.

Some of the titles:

My favourites where clearly Space Invaders, Asteroids, Frogger, Moon Patrol, Super Cobra and Adventure.

I even have a copy of the infamous "E.T." ...oh boy, I remember how I hardly couldn't await for the release date after I saw the movie at the cinema... and how much I was disappointed.

strra writes:

I recently made a PiCade for all my MAME/SNES needs.

ttv69 writes:

Retro gaming rulez! I personally love the challenge and accessibility of the older titles (along with a healthy dose of nostalgia)

Raspberry PI + dodgy woodworking skills = my dining room retro bartop machine

I would like something a little more portable (hint hint) though

Please keep up the great work Ben & Co...

gharsh writes:

dionelr writes:

I prefer retro games because they were just more "fun" (Fun being an unquantifiable property). A lot of games today focus on graphics than game mechanics. I think the video game industry suffers from a lack of fun (no different in the music, movie, and other entertainment industries). My first console was the Atari 5200, followed by the 7800 (which had backwards compatibility with 2600 games). Good times.

LordMortus writes:

As I stated on the original YT video, if Atari re-makes the 2600 like this portable build I would consider buying all those old games again I wasn't lucky enough to have an Atari 2600, but my friend was, and I loved playing Defender! It has to be my all time favorite game for the Atari.The only real reason I love retro gaming, is because I was there when it WASN'T retro heheThis build would be absolutely perfect for Defender, and that's my Defense for my entry into this contest.Good luck to all!

Grunteh writes:

I love retro video games because of how the technology was created. Underneath their plastic (or preferably fake woodgrain) shells, they contain just barely enough logic to create an image on the screen. I currently have a Fairchild Semiconductors Channel F just sitting on my shelf that has a short somewhere between the cartridge slot and the rest of the "logic". I swear, a toaster has more logic than this thing. I have a couple of 2600 games (Pac-man and E.T.) but I've never been terribly interested in the console. After watching you two play Bezerk, you have piqued my interest again. I would love to get an Atari Supercharger and try out some of the titles for that add-on that no one has ever heard of. Love the show, keep it up!

Kosta writes:

The memories, the nostalgia, the halcyon days of losing yourself within an era.Sliding the foam clam shell out from the crisp new box, making that distinctive squeak as you tentatively pulled it out from its home. You save the box, just in case. The shear excitement as a kid while unpacking the peripherals was matched by little else. You line up the console on top of the family tv as if its a prized trophy, and it was. This console was now your friend, your main focus for leisure. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were mere distractions and annoyances getting in the way of you playing and honing your craft. This was it, this was the beginning for the love for gaming. Memories forged in grey and black plastic.

robertj1138 writes:

I love retro gaming, because, to me, the games are just better. To be honest, it is more about nostalgia and the good times I remember playing those games with friends.

ddemarco5 writes:

I'm going to go against the grain and say I enjoy modern games, but with a retro game level of difficulty... and here's why. Videogames have always been about creating wonderful forms of entertainment using cutting edge technology. Retro games created a great sense of accomplishment when you beat them because they were typically very hard (usually due to limited system resources), and they needed a level of replayability, while modern games typically hold your hand through most of it.But to say "modern games are inferior to retro games" is no different than when your grandpa said "sure these moving pictures are great, but it doesn't hold a candle to throwing rocks at birds."The true spirit of videogames will always be providing great fun with bleeding edge technology.

hifeno writes:

I will always prefer retro gaming to modern gaming. Almost every day when I go to play a game I look at my Xbox One and my NES and the NES gets turned on. We only use the Xbox One to watch Netflix anymore. I love the music and the old school graphics. All in all retro is the only way to go. I remember playing the Atari at my grandma's house so many years ago. She loved Pac-man before I knew what Pac-man was.

PolishDon writes:

I grew up with an Atari 2600. My late father preordered a Atari 2600 and all of the available games on release back in 1976 or 1977 and we got to open it for Christmas. The great thing about retro gaming is that the games are quick and actually require you to use your imagination.I still play my Atari 7800 quite often. As many Atari 2600 portables that Ben has made, I never get tired of it! Thanks Ben !!!!

tony379@gmail.com writes:

retro gaming! the time i spend playing 2600! one time i had got the chess cartridge. four hour in, the first chance to win? no missed check may 2600 wins!

campm writes:

I grew up on the Atari 2600, and I love the games. I still own a console and hundreds of games. My Kids even prefer the old Atari games an constantly want me to break out the old console. It is getting more and more expensive to repair the joysticks, but it is worth it.

srpsco writes:

I love retro gaming partly because of nostalgia (they are what i grew up on - and were some of the first computer programs I created). I also like them because of the hardware and software limitations they are easier for me to play (I have severe arthritis and I can't play newer games for as long or as often). I think my abilities started showing with the triple jump needed to complete mario on the nintendo 64 - which i could never do.

mniskane writes:

I love retro games since my favorite ones (Gravitar, Xevious and Donkey Kong) are relatively easy to start, but mastery requires quite a bit of practice. Also, what you miss in the UI bells and whistles you get back in the gameplay.

KnuxKitsune writes:

I grew up with cartridge-based systems. No installing, no loading times, just pop the game in and play. I still have all my old consoles hooked up. I use an HDMI upscaling converter which works with composite and S-video input to play on my modern HD LCD TV. Systems didn't RRoD or Blue Light bar of Death, or whatever they called it with the PS4. They simply worked. I keep them clean and maintained and they just work as they should. These days, games aren't even run on the disc they come on. The system installs the game, and the disc is just there to verify that you own it. Shoot, these days, that's about all they put on the disc is verification code so they can ship early and finish the game in the meantime to release a 10+GB "Day-one Patch", which is actually the completed game in its entirety. This didn't and couldn't happen in the old days. If a game was rushed, or unfinished, it'd simply be a bad game. You were receiving the final product when you bought a game in the old days. Yes, there might be multiple versions of a game, such as Donkey Kong Country 2 v 1.0, v1.1, and v1.2 depending on when you bought it, etc. But v1.0 would be pretty much perfect, and the updates rather minor.Games in the old days were also more imaginative both in how the game plays and how the user interprets it. That cluster of pixels there is a man, it's you. You'd imagine you are the man, because the man has no distinguishing features. You are playing as you. Games were also more colorful. What's with all this brown and grey these days? Colorful, creative, imaginative. You are the hero... Blow on the connectors, the game works. Whatever! Just do it!

acortest writes:

Thanks and keep up the great work on the show!

AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOUR PODCAST!!!~Tony C.Wichita, KS

brucethehoon writes:

As someone who cut his gaming teeth on the Intellivision, I have a huge weak spot for classic systems. The simplicity of the controls is something that is so refreshing after switching between modern games like Destiny to MGS where the entire control paradigm changes. The simplicity and challenge keep bringing me back to my roots!

plexar writes:

My love of gaming started when my mother used to give me quarters for the arcade at the one of the first malls in Brooklyn in the late 1970s. It inspired me to want to understand how they worked and ignited my passion for gaming, computers, and electronics. Eventually it led to a degree in computer science and career in computer programming.My first game I owned was called blip. It was a mechanical imitation of pong, and as soon as I had it out of the box I knew it was terrible. I had begged my father to let me buy it with my meager allowance money. It was a lesson in buyer beware. After that I got a 2600 and found true love! It was amazing for it’s time! We think of its the graphics today as blocky but the 2600 and the systems of that era had gameplay. The graphics didn’t matter. Games of the day gave you the feeling that you could control objects on the screen with split second timing. It was an addicting feeling of ultimate control.After the 2600 I got an Atari 800 computer and was blown away by the upgrade to graphics and sound. The games had so much more depth because the system had so much more memory and disk drives. I have great memories of the games on the Atari 800. Getting to the end of a game of Zombies! It was hard but epic! Seven Cities of Gold was classic adventure, M.U.L.E. was fantastic one of the best 4 player games! Bruce Lee. Star Raiders! Fort Apocalypse! (where my screen name “Plexar” comes from) All of them had magic that some games today do not. One game was truly mind blowing for the number of object that could be moving on the screen simultaneously. It was called Gauntlet (aka Gauntletek) written by Donald Lebeau. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet_(Donald_R._Lebeau_video_game)There is a Q&A with Donald somewhere on an Atari message board where he describes how he created it. It is an amazing read. He squeezed every last ounce of computing power out of the Atari 800, more than anyone had before and probably since. I still love games and still work in the computer industry. Games led me to a great career and a good life.Thanks Ben, Felix, and Karen for keeping the faith and bringing back great memories! Plex

applekeith writes:

I love retro gaming. Especially the way it brings you back to your childhood. The Atari 2600 was my first game system. Talk about taking you back!

Blacksheep32 writes:

I shall not tell a lie, I love retro newer games! Retro games offer a level of difficulty that is not usually present in newer games, however newer games have a greater set of tools to tell a story. I remember going to my cousins house to play frogger and tank battle, never much story there, but then I got the NES for my birthday. This was the system I cut my teeth on, 1943 I remember destroying the final battleship only to learn it was a fake! Bionic Commando, I saved Super Joe, but was crushed by Ghosts & Goblins, Metroid, and Castlevania. These games bridged that difficulty/story gap in a perfect blend that never relied too much on graphics but let the music, action, controls challenge us. I would love to have this, but am just as jazzed that so many people are continually interested in this period of gaming.

bitbanger writes:

Retro-gaming: because they build engaging stories and entertaining game concepts with limited technical resources.

jferio writes:

A four switch Atari was my very first game system, and hence the retro gaming will always have a place in my heart. Yes, I do modern gaming, but there will always be a good number of the old systems in my collection, particularly as console makers attempt to make their offerings so much like PCs as to no longer make a difference. I will always want at least one system where I can just plug it in and play it.

zilveruno writes:

Cool build. I am My self looking into building a rasp pi retro gaming device.

bubish writes:

I love retro games! I feel like they put more time into making playable, fun games instead of being only concerned with graphics. It's also way easier with retro games to just jump in and play. No long tutorials were needed.

Haioboy1989 writes:

My first ever video game system was an Atari 2600 that we found at a roadside yard sale in the middle of nowhere Illinois. I was 7 years old and together with my grandmother we took it apart and cleaned it out since it had obviously been spending time in their barn. I played with it until it met its unfortunate end when we moved to California and it was obliterated by a falling couch in the back of the uhaul. I love retro games and still make RetroPie machines for my friends little kids from time to time. I think there is a lot that can be learned in the simplicity of the games and how we interact with them, when I play them I find I'm not paying attention to graphics or story. Instead its just me interacting with the game in its most fundamental form. When my friends kids play them they learn so quickly and form their own strategy and its so much fun to sit there and listen to them explain their harrowing tales of victory. To me Retro games are timeless and I'll always go back to them no matter how old I am.

Mtoaster writes:

Retro gaming is a reminder of a happier time for me, My first video game system was Atari Pong (which I still have.) I graduated to a Atari 2600. and still have many games for it , even a working copy of ET. (Tank pong is my favorite though)I love the hand held aspect of your build. would like to see more of them.

santod writes:

I prefer retro gaming- retro games that were good had to be designed very well. I had a flight simulator for my TRS-80 Model 1 (1979) that ran in 4K not 4M but 4K of memory with a resolution 128x48. There was a 10x10 flying area with a mountain range and an enemy air strip.

shywolf91 writes:

Great build. I loved playing with my friends on the n64 or gamecube. I have an atari 2600 in my garage. Newer systems may have better graphics and faster hardware but I perfer the older systems

pcbookworm writes:

I grew up playing retro games. They are simple games and yet they can keep you busy for hours. I still have my Atari that my dad bought.

MuckiSG writes:

I Love retro gaming because of that easy controls. One joystick, two button, one function -> FIRE!!! That's all i can manage! :-)

Mex5150 writes:

The games look far better now, but usually, the old games play better. They play better because they had to, the graphics wasn't there yet, the sound wasn't there yet, hell, even the hardware they are to be played on wasn't there yet.

slymer writes:

I prefer the retro games mainly for the simple controls and generally better story lines/plots for the not quite so retro stuff. But the nostalgia factor for the 8-bit games is also strong. I just wish the port of PacMan on the 2600 wasn't so horrible. I even did the RF delete/composite out mod on a 7800 so I could play Pitfall on my big flat panel without all the blurring. I have since given all of my old game systems away to my little brother and some other friends, so I don't currently own any consoles. I did keep the NES Zapper I converted to a flashlight though (CREE LED - nice and bright). ;-)

I did goof a little on the battery positioning. If I had it to do over, I would use 2 single battery holders or one 3V battery holder. Maybe set up a CR2032 slot load in the handle.

sjames1958 writes:

I prefer retro gaming to modern gaming for a couple of reasons. 1) it is what I grew up with, atari 2600, apple IIe, etc. 2) there where no in game purchases - you paid you played.

benammiswift writes:

Retro gaming is better because of the sheet diversity in the games available on which systems. For example if you wanted to play Mario you bought Nintendo, or sonic was Sega and so on. Modern games apear on every system and they're almost identical. Retro games are also simple and fun, requiring imagination to make the graphics into what you want to see them as.

kiefeda writes:

I prefer retro gaming to modern gaming for a lot of reasons. There is the nostalgia factor: playing games again that I played as a kid and remembering all the challenges of trying to beat a game. There were no blogs, no websites, no streaming services or FAQs to help you. In rare instances you could call a hint line (and face the parental consequences for running up the phone bill), but mostly you had to figure it out for yourself if you didn't have any friends who had the same system as you.There is also the quality factor: modern games look and sound pretty, but we shouldn't play games to look at pretty graphics and hear surround sound. We should play games because they are fun to play, regardless of the quality of the graphics and sound. It doesn't matter to me that the jets on the screen are nothing more than monochromatic triangles with a nub on one end to indicate the nose and the engine noise is little more than static: I loved Combat because it was fun to play. I loved Pac-Man regardless of the terrible graphics because it was fun to play. I loved Pitfall! despite not being able to see Harry's face in any detail whatsoever because it was fun to play. I loved Barnstorming because it was hard. Steering my plane behind the pylons to improve my time was a major discovery and I remember taking a Polaroid of my best time to send in to Activision as proof that I was the best Barnstormer around. Modern games are far less fun in a lot of cases because there is so much to think about, it's more like work than gaming. When something starts to feel that way, it is time to stopBut mostly, I love retro gaming because it feels like going home after you've been away for awhile and you find that everything is exactly the same as you left it. The blips and bleeps of sprites dancing about on my screen is the music of my soul.

blixten writes:

Ahh, the good old Atari 2600, it definitely bring back memories. Back in the day, I used to go over to my neighbor and play games like Pole Position, Space Invaders, Yars Revenge, Combat, etcIt's so impressive what games could be done with so little resources (memory, CPU-power).

Molex writes:

I grew up on "retro" games. I didn't know being old was retro.

ramgarden writes:

The old games were much better. My favorite part of retro gaming is LESS BUTTONS! There are so many now that if you stop playing a game for a few months then come back to it you have to use the controls menu option to remind you what all the buttons do - if the game even has that! The Gameboy SP was the best since it was actually pocket sized and didn't require a whole carrying case / backpack, and just the right amount of buttons! hehSince Atari only had ONE button, it was the easiest to get up and going and having fun.

Fireb4ll455 writes:

I had an Atari 2600 and played Space Invaders so much that I've rolled over the score back to zero and kept going! Now I'm a Dad and my kids think I'm lame at gaming. I'd like to be able to show them Space Invaders on your portable!

thewp writes:

Our first home PC was a 386 running at 66MHz. I was four years old when I first went in to the BIOS and accidentally changed a setting to do with 'telling' the PC how much RAM was available. To my father's amazement I was able to tell him what I changed and what the original value was. I have been interested in computers and electronics ever since and it was a big part of my childhood. Nothing beats Commander Keen, Duke Nukem (first side scrolling ones) and when Wolfenstein, ROTT, Blake Stone and finally DOOM came out I amazed. I feel most games nowadays are missing that awe-factor which was probably due to those games making technological jumps for their time. I can definitely say that growing up in the 90s and watching as advancements were made inspired me to become an Electrical Engineer. I'm currently in Term 6 (out of 8) and have been watching the Ben Heck show for years now - Ben, you're the reason I switched from Computer Engineering to Electrical. I just finished setting up my first 3D printer and saw this 'contest' - can't wait to try it out. Anyways, all the best.

fullysquared writes:

I prefer the basic design of older retro gaming

duckyvirus writes:

So, I love retro gaming more than modern gaming for many reasons. but to startyou could just pick it up and play. only had 10min... GO... modern games you often have like an hour or opening sequence, tutorial level, etc.2nd, boot/start times. cartridges were instant. power on there you go, play. modern systems give a ton more features and power and 99% of the time they go unused. how many people stream their ONE / PS4. less than 10% i'm sure. 3rd. they taught you to think. often think around the problems. modern games spoon feed you. and lastly4th creativity/imagination. you had to figure out what that red/green blob was and IMAGINE it was a boy with a sword and shield, or an alien with an oversized head and beer belly. modern gamers it seem are losing their own imagination and only creating versions of pre existing characters/etc.now please dont take this as some rant against modern games. I love games. i own nearly every system from the Coleco up [and a pong clone] (unless someone wants to give me an odyssey) they all live in my basement gaming room and even get played regularly [Atari 2600 / SNES get the most time i think] I even have a gaming PC. i'm just a game junkie. but something special like bens hand crafted portable 2600 would become the jewel of my collection. something no one else really has. BTW Ben, can you not bring awesome new tech products so often, my wifes starting to complain about all the devices/platforms I order to mess with. (my fav is still the Edison so far)

crashwg writes:

Ain't nobody got time for the games they make these days!

ElectroRetroNerd writes:

I prefer retro games to modern games for the following reasons:Retro games are more constrained by size than modern ones. The smaller size required the developers or developer to employ ingenious ways to keep the game engaging. In the 2600, the logic of the games were placed in the vertical blanking portion. This means that the logic has to be kept rather simple. To make a complicated game, the developer(s) had to use clever ideas.Retro games require a bit of imagination. Games from the 2600 especially required more imagination than what imagination games require now. The early games (such as the ones for the Magnavox Odyssey) required a large imagination to make the games fun and engaging. It was similar to playing "cops and robbers" the fun was the imagination that you put into it. Games were interactive imagination factories. Taken at face value, there wasn't much there but with your imagination, that tiny square man was on an epic adventure or fighting an alien hoard. The games also sucked you in further by all of the sounds and colors that flashed across your screen and when you played the Atari 2600 with the lights off and the sound of an exploding city or your spaceship gun firing with a rainbow of colors reflecting on your face, you couldn't help but get immersed into this imaginary world.Modern games do this too but, as with time, better processing speed and more memory available to the developers, games are more visual than they used to be. While games still can be made rather immersive and engaging such as the Fallout game series there are several games out there that are all pretty graphics and not much depth. They don't require that same level of "cops and robbers" imagination that the great older games did.

bjwhite211 writes:

I love retro games because they always found away to make playing games fun. Now a days you get games with great graphics but poor gameplay or stories, every once in awhile you'll see a The Last of Us which offers a great story, nice graphics, and fun gameplay but these are few and far. Retro games though offer not the best graphics compared to today's standards but were impressive at the time they were released and are still reasonably nice to look at especially considering how much room the graphics took up on the carts. But what retro games lacked in graphics they made up is easy to pick up gameplay that was fun and games that offered solid stories. But most of all I love retro games because they paved the way for current games and innovated new advancements in technology in general.

DPgame01 writes:

Love this build, it brings back lots of great memories.... Wish I still had my games with me.... I still play a few retro game, when I find them. I always keep my eyes open when we go buy games for my son, specially those old school arcade games like galaga, pacman, asteroid... used to play them for hours...

Eyedoll writes:

I enjoy the simplicity and straightforwardness of retro games. They entertain and encourage play by their own merits, without the need of fancy graphics or expensive cut-scenes. I still own a fully-functional Commodore 128, some cartridges, a few disk drives and a monitor for it. I used to have some programs for it but I seem to have misplaced them. I may have to build a new power supply for it because I can't seem to find that either.

atillad writes:

i prefer retro games over traditional games for a big reason often you can pick them up and just play where as today's games you often cant do that. its also very fun too have the good memory's of playing games on the retro systems. i have so many memory's of making a portable game system with the old nes system. i had a 8 AA battery holder i used for a 12 volt power source for the game system and the tv originally i was going too use my Sega genesis for the game system but i didn't want too ruin it so i packed that away for the trips i went on. good memories in the old game systems.

teknoguy1212 writes:

Retro games are amazing. They're usually cheaper than modern games, they're easier to play on low powered hardware with emulation, they are iconic in ways that modern shovelware games can't come close to being, and they actually require some sort of brain-power to play. However nothing compares to the feeling of completing a retro game. I would much rather beat the original Zelda or Mario 3 than Halo 4.

aguerrero810 writes:

Retro games have a certain charm to them. The crispness of the sprites moving along the playfield, the colors, the simple yet hard gameplay.

qsilva writes:

I enjoy both new and old games. But, for the most part retro gaming has started to become a hobby for me in the last few years. I started modding my Atari last year and have been working on NIN64 this year. Every month me and my boys pull out the Atari and play some old games and next year we will be working on creating a game room to start collecting old systems and games. Still trying to repair my old TI-99 computer that i have had sitting around with some old games i used to play. so to answer your questions yea im a retro gamer for the most part but still play world of Warcraft and Diablo 3 .

hotrodman106 writes:

I personally prefer retro games over more modern games because classic games focus more on actual gameplay rather than graphics or fake advertising.

yoshifan501 writes:

Well where do I begin. My first encounter with Retro Gaming was back about maybe 10 years ago when I first went into the storage room of our house and saw an old box. I thought the box was for a printer, so I took it out of the storage room and opened it up to investigate. It was my dad's old NES. I went up to my dad and said what is this? And he told me all about the games that he used to play. It was then when I first hooked it up to my TV, grabbed the controller and started playing Mario. I remember that the set had the light gun and I lay down on our coffee table sniping in Duck Hunt like I was a shooter or something. Ever since then I became enthusiastic about Retro Gaming. I now own a top-loading NES, a Famicom and disk system, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and many more. I had an Atari 2600 but it broke on me a while back and I haven't had the time to replace it. I hope to continue with my enthusiasm and Retro Gaming as that also ties into my interest DIY Electronics as well. I always wanted to build my own portable or table top emulation station out of a Raspberry Pi. Your videos and tutorials over the years have been an inspiration to me and I can't wait to see what you come up with next

bitgod writes:

I'm 36 years old but I will always prefer the retro games because they were more fun to me. I started off with a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985 when my dad came home with one as a surprise, spent good time w/ Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt. A year later my father got both a Atari 2600 Jr. and a Atari 5200, sadly the controllers for the 5200 did not work correctly but loved playing on the 2600 with games like Gorf, Frogger, Pitfall, Yar's Revenge, Centipede, and even Pac-Man (the horrible port). A few years later we got a Commodore 64 w/ a bunch of disk based games including Raid over Bungling Bay, Beachhead, Racing Construction Set, and Spy vs Spy. This got me interested in creating my own games for it, even though they were in BASIC for it's time. Flash forward to today, I don't have any room for retro consoles where I love, but if I could, I'd love to start collecting them all.

Adding to my previous post (not sure how to add on here yet). As I got older and more electronically inclined, I took apart the original Atari 2600 and to my amazement learned that it was running with a 6507 CMOS CPU running at 1.19 MHz which is almost similar to a NES 6502 1.79 MHz. I never learned programming until a few years ago and I want to try to make a game for the Atari 2600 format (first via emulation until I get carts). The concept of the portable 2600 is terrific and would be great to have for my collection and to play original carts on when not on PC. Ben and his team, did a great job making this possible with their engineering skills, skills which I will never have it seems.

blinkmanx writes:

I prefer retro games because they're easy to just pick up and play as well as the fact that most of the games are made to be fun. Also, most retro games would use elements of the game to teach you how to play instead of having to rely on tutorials or text that will constantly pop up to hold your hand and tell you how to do things that you've already learned how to do earlier in the game.

caseykoons writes:

I love retro gaming for the creativity the limits of small systems imposed on game designers. Games needed to be FUN, have solid mechanics, because they couldn't rely on spectacle to impress their player.But the real reason that I would love to win this build is to share with the teens and adult patrons of the library makerspace that I run. It's an excellent example of a a great build to inspire a generation of young makers, and to introduce them to the history of video games!

esp4p3 writes:

I like retro games because it reminds me of my childhood. The first console I played was an Atari 2600 back in 83. I have fond memories of playing and watching my older brothers play as well. Retro gaming is simple, fun and you can play in short bursts.

ajbade writes:

I definitely prefer retro games to modern games. There's a simplicity to it that's incredibly satisfying. Growing up during the 80s meant I got to see the emerging years of home video games and computing. You were given just enough to stimulate, but not so much that nothing was left to your imagination. Due to many hardware limitations and the fact that software coding wasn't quite as evolved as it is today, there was an element of mystery to many games that required an extra layer of critical thinking. Sure in some cases it was just frustrating(The overly-complicated RF box...man UHF/VHF was such a pain), but other times it was pleasantly surprising (Wait, my Sega Genesis Controller plugs into the 2600, and works?!)I would have to say some of the best moments of my childhood were playing Frogs and Flies with my older brother on the Atari 2600. We don't see each other much these days, but looking back it was one of the rare moments that we actually got along and had fun together.

martinpaoloni writes:

I prefer retro games over modern ones because they are more casual, meaning you can pick them up and play them without needing to invest a lot of time learning and getting involved a complex story. Also, since graphics are usually pretty non distracting, one can appreciate the gameplay and logic cleverly designed by the developers.From a technical point of view, I find retro games fascinating, due to the extreme limited resources. Particularly on the 2600! One takes for granted the many GHz our modern CPUs run at, when older systems barely run at 1 MHz.

ehabcharek writes:

I prefer retro gaming because I grew up on it. And the games are generally more fun. I mean, you rarely get to see good platformers nowadays, whereas there are plenty of great ones on older systems

b4blue writes:

Spectrum 48K was my first computer. I played games on it and programmed a couple of mine. Graphics in those days had to be entered manually first, before making a game. and if you had some glitch when saving the game, your typing effort was useless when you turned off the machine. Next time, type all of it again... Now it doesn't work anymore. Can't find the time to fix it although it should be an easy task. So many other projects seek my attention.I remember I used it to make scheme for my mother to knit a pullover image. There was a drawing program that was perfect due to low resolution. I would draw something and then take out the 1's ans 0's for the scheme, when I was happy with the result.I know I once had an OS for Spectrum, which was pretty much all you could load into the memory, so it was the one and only software on the computer. I think it was called ZX Tracer.I plan to make a console just for playing Rick Dangerous, but it will be a better version than the one I played on old ZX. At least Amiga graphics or a complete remake. Or maybe Moon Cresta. It's really great you guys still play with old consoles. I pushes me to make and old dream come true.

Retro games have a new life, a new incarnation every time a technology changes:

1. Console with only one game

2. Console with cartridges

3. Microcomputer

4. Dekstop computer

5. Java on mobile phone

6. Flash on web

7. Art installations with camera and projector (Director, processing...)

8. Native on smartphone and tablets

9. VR...

vggundar writes:

Love older games- they are more about the level of fun. Many were innovative within their technology constraints. Controls were simpler but sometimes still required near impossible reflexes. And most of these systems were easy to repair if they weren't working. Replaced a few transistors on my 2600 and boom- back to playing games.

ryanthornburg writes:

I love thinking about their limitations and how they are sometimes more fun than modern games. The games also tend to absorb the culture, the consoles had interesting designs and developer's were a pushed more towards a more game mechanics type game play. The games over all can have a seamless transition, like when I was younger I got a Genesis system (probably in like 2003) and I played it till it conked out out on me. I still wish I'd get around to fixing it (or getting someone else to...) because despite the graphics, it was a lot of fun. Older games also go to teach some basics in video game design and enjoyment. Plus they're easier to mod and do what Ben and his group did, and much more.

db35m writes:

Why I love old games...I guess it is because my parents in order to teach me the value of working hard did not "Just buy" me one when i asked for "Santa" for it. My mother told my father to give me a job at his shop and get paid as everyone else. She then also told me that she would put the rest of the money if i brought back good grades...I did both. but the most curious thing happened my father started playing duck hunt with me. but the best part was when the N.E.S broke my dad just told me you gotta fix it and he got me a getting started with electronics book from radio shack, a soldering iron and a Craftsman screwdriver set. it was the power plug that had developed a what i now know to be a colder solder joint. but that N.E.S and my parents where responsible for my interest in electronics and modding stuff.-Daniel

rmelick writes:

For me, I prefer retro gaming to modern gaming because it takes me back to my childhood and a more innocent time in my life when the wonder of new technology was met more wholeheartedly with optimism and hope for the future. Secondly, intuitive gameplay, along with exceptional game mechanics, appeal more to me now than making a huge personal investment into a complex, epic, mega-game on a contemporary platform. I guess I have learned to value simplicity, as life has become more complex in nearly every measure. Finally, as we all have become more technically savvy in the past 35 years or so, I am even more impressed by how much fun could be squeezed out of the software and hardware systems of the day. Therefore, admiration and respect are big components my preference as well. Thank you.

Anonymous-201513 writes:

I'm quite young, but I personally prefer retro gaming because you get to see what the past was like. Plus, so much optimisation had to go into those types of games, because the hardware which was available could be quite limited for some consoles/devices at the time, and I simply love that type of low-level optimisation and tinkering !Modern gaming just seems to have lost some of the best elements you used to see in retro games. Such as local multiplayer, good stories, and the sense of accomplishment you'd get from completing a hard game without any external help. Sometimes I wish I had been able to experience some of the little things—and big things alike—of a time which seems long forgot now.

blueokiris writes:

I'm a bit of a "youngster" as far as most people here would consider (age 16 soon to be 17 in July), but growing up, I didn't have an x-box, ps2, or gamecube like my peers. I didn't even have a gameboy advance until I was around 8. Instead, I grew up with the joystick and button from my parents Atari 2600. My games weren't 3D graphical masterpieces, but games like Frogger, Asteroids, Adventure, and Tennis. Retro Gaming for me brings back those memories of when I was a much younger child, my mom was a stay at home mom, and my dad worked at an office where he would often bring me to work. It lets me reminisce of my childhood before school and the stress of the college search and staying top of my class. That's why I love this build, because despite my young age, I grew up with the same gaming experience as my parents did, on the Atari 2600.Nowadays, my Atari is old and rusted. There isn't a jack for the power anymore. I tried fixing it, but my soldering and electronics skills are only so far. I guess that's what emulators are for. Right now, I'm working on a portable wii-u inspired retro-pi build so I can relive my atari days and take a look at some of gaming's other major contributors like the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Genesis, etc.Retro gaming to me is about remembering where you come from and where modern games come from. It is a nostalgia attack, a history textbook, and a connection to the millions of others that also enjoy playing old games.

anovell writes:

Retro gaming is a reminder to a simpler time. Modern games you'll eventually get bored of and the violence in these games one can debate. Retro games, the simplicity of play never gets old!!!!!

kamballz writes:

There are benefits to both modern and retro gaming. Modern games can quite often tell a more complete story or more easily evoke an emotion from a player however I find myself much more drawn to retro gaming for several reasons:1. Nostalgia: This is obviously the largest draw but it is personal to each person and what games/systems they grew up with. It does not make them better or worse but definitely provides the warm and fuzzies.2. Simplicity: Games can be picked up for shorter sessions and more games can be played in parallel.3. Learning: Games at the time had technical limitations and its always a great lesson to see why games were engineered in the way they were to get the most out of the hardware to still provide a level of immersion. 4. History: Politics in gaming industry, release schedules, legal issues are all great topics in history of gaming. I would recommend a web series "The Video Game Years" to anyone who has some time and interested in early gaming.5. Variation: Until recently it seemed that gaming was converging into a small set of "safe" genres that each had a set of similar games in them due to a gmae being such a large investment for developers. Indie gaming has helped with this a bit, but retro gaming still has a very wide variation on games since the genres were not set up yet.

richerp writes:

Like most people here, retro gaming reminds me of my youth. The first gaming system I can remember playing is the Atari 2600. Asteroids was my favorite game (oddly not Space Invder). But in the recent years, retro gaming took a whole new meaning for me.Nowadays, it means time with my kids. My son just turned 9 and is already an EE enthusiast. He learned to program an Arduino when he was 6, switching on and off an LED at his will. He is so passionate and enthusiast about it, he still impresses me everyday. For the past years, we took time together to build a modified NES casing to host a rapsberry pie for playing the games I used to enjoy on the SMS when I was a kid. We created an interface to connect old controllers for the Atari, NES, SMS, SNES, etc. to USB. I programmed the embedded soft for this interface with my daughter who loves to program.So, to me, retro gaming takes family fun to a whole new level. I think that the creative process is essential to kids mental development, but creating with my kids objects they can actually use to have fun is gratifying for them (and learn, I'm still a geeky dad).

glennlake writes:

Ah yes... I remember when the Atari 2600 was first released and playing Space Invaders and Asteroids with my daughter (yes, I'm old enough to have a daughter to play these games with in the 70's). I remember having to turn the controller around and use the other hand because one thumb would get a blister and you can't stop play because of that! Unfortunately, it went the way of most old tech (my wife thru it out with all the game carts in one mad cleaning spree). This build is so cool and I would love it!! I just can't git into the newer games with all the realistic cg graphics. I doesn't leave much to the imagination.

dougw writes:

My favorite game of all time is still Emerald Mine, which was originally an Amiga game. Action strategy genre - like Boulder Dash. I bought it for $3 at an Amiga convention, after driving for 5 hours with a couple of buddies to get to the show. (which meant we got on the road at 4am) The original came with about 80 levels, but the really great thing about it was it also came with a full level editor that allowed you to create your own levels. I ended up creating hundreds of much more interesting levels (IMHO) and never played the original levels again.I developed several custom game controllers just to improve game playing performance and reduce fatigue. Eventually the game was ported to the PC - about 15 years later when the PC was starting to catch up with Amiga graphics. I re-acquired it and went through many commercial game controller types searching for one with decent performance. Sadly I have not been able to keep it running through all the Windows upgrades and generations of new computers.My favorite Atari game was probably Centipede - played with a track ball. I have no idea why - it isn't even in the genre I typically like. There is just something magic about that game and a track ball together.

snesfan writes:

I'm relatively young, so most of my gaming experience as a child is stuff from after 2000s, may main childhood console being the PS2, but for the past few years I have been really interested in retro gaming. It happened when I went to the National Museum of Computing and they had a retro game fair, and I got to play on many classic consoles, like the NES and Atari 2600. Since then I have slowly begun collecting, mainly older Nintendo stuff, but I have also started to like the Sonic games, so Sega comes next. The games just feel more wholesome. They are very fun, while being simple, and don't always need to take up hours of your time, but it is incredible how some of those developer back in the day squeezed every bit of power out of their consoles, and inventive art can portray complex scenes with only a few pixels. And then there is the music. I mean, many modern games have great soundtracks, but for most it seems to be an afterthought, but there is so much great music from the 8 and 16 bit eras, and they way it is programmed makes it feel almost responsive to the environment and the players actions, it a way that modern technology cannot achieve with full waveform audio. I also love that although modern gaming communities ( I'm looking at you xbox and ps4) can be really acidic and nasty towards each other, and there own members, the retro gaming community is one of the friendliest I have met, and always seem to want to help each other out with configuration tips and game recommendations. Emulation is also a great modern achievement, playing PS2 games again at 1080p shows just how bad, but also how good they were, but nothing beats holding a cartridge or disc in your hand, and knowing that you own a piece of history, sorting that will never happen with modern digital downloads.

pulpfunktion writes:

As many have said, retro gaming is much more simpler than modern gaming. That being so, allows one to enjoy the simplicity of a game without getting overwhelmed.

rickseiden writes:

I like retro gaming for a few reasons. First, it brings back memories of my childhood. I actually played games on a 2600 as they came out--I remember my dad spent $50 (in 1980's money) on Pac-Man for me. Second, games were simpler then. Your mission objective wasn't so complicated, and there was no such thing as a cut scene. Sure, the graphics were kind of lame by today's standards, but gameplay was so much easier! Finally, I like retro gaming because I think it took more ingenuity to product quality games back then. Things were so limited and difficult to work with. It's amazing some of the stuff they pulled off (and some of the stuff they didn't pull off).I'd like to win this hand-held, hand soldered Atari 2600 to give new life to the stack of cartridges I have in the basement, and to show my kids what gaming was like for me "back in the day." I had to get up, walk across the room (uphill both ways) and change the channel to enjoy this stuff. It was work!

willjohncron writes:

Retro gaming is great, because the programmers had very limited resources to bring a story to life, but they did it so well... usually(I'm looking at you E.T.) They also had much purer game mechanics and design, which helped to make them memorable, because they had to stand out amongst their competition.

chalei writes:

Reason to love retro gaming is really simple, most of the game focus on the fun element not cosmetics. Because the most basic reason people to play video game is to have fun not to become more stress.

brandonking25 writes:

That was an awesome build, loved watching it and learning! I started out on the Atari 2600 in the 80's on an old unit that my uncle and aunt had at their house. My brother and I would play Frogger, Pitfall, Pong, and Combat among others. I have such great memories of those games that I still like to go back and play them every now and then. I love using emulators to play the old favorites and this project has me wanting to build more things like it!

b4ux1t3 writes:

I have to choose between retro and modern gaming? Crap, I guess I can't win, then.Video games are what got a lot of people my age into programming and software development. Not me though. I got in to programming as a lover of puzzles. From coding challenges to code golf, I grew up using programming as a game. Don't get me wrong; I played a lot of video games as a kid. Some of my fondest memories from childhood were going to my grandfather's house and booting up his Commodore 64 to play some Duck Tales, and finding the secrets hidden in The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers. But it wasn't until I was already an adult that I realized "People actually make these games. I could make these games!" Alas, I don't have the game development gene.So no. Video games didn't get me in to programming. I'm not a programmer with dreams of becoming a game developer, like so many people my age. No, video games were a whole different inspiration for me. A few years ago, I was looking for a good emulator for NES and SNES games. I found a few, but the experience of playing Super Mario Brothers on a keyboard wasn't. . .right. It didn't feel right. So I tried using an Xbox 360 controller. While better, there was still something missing.It was the screen. It was the controls. it was everything. Everything was missing. So I kind of put that hobby aside for a little while. Fast forward to three years ago. I stumbled on a video by a channel called "The Ben Heck Show". I don't even remember what I was originally looking for. The episode was about building a portable Raspberry Pi. I'd heard of the Pi, but I didn't know how cool it was at the time. But after watching that video (and the ones that came after it), I immediately opened up Amazon and ordered one, along with a few bits of electronics gadgetry. I found my dad's old soldering iron, and I built myself a portable Raspberry PIWhat had driven me to do such a a thing? Well, I realized what had been missing the last time I had tried to get back into retro gaming. That feeling of exploration and discovery. That was gone, since I'd already beaten all those old games years ago. The feeling of discovery that I got form learning how to wire circuits together helped me rediscover parts of my childhood.Thanks, Ben Heck and Element 14, for helping me find part of myself, and for helping me find a new obsession.

retrogamer writes:

I prefer retro gaming. The reason i like retro gaming more than most newer games is that, they are simple and fun. The game play is simply fun. I tell people its like this, with newer movies, they use computers to make the movie look great, but rely on that to pull you in, but if you see pass that, you see not much story to the movie. I find a lot of newer games rely on graphics to get you to play, but under that, not much game play. The 2600 was my first game console when i was 5 years old by in 83. I love that console so much. All the great games on it, like sea quest, frogs and flies, frostbite, Donkey kong, warlords(paddle game), berzerk (my favorite), defender, Q-bert, asteroids, and E.T. I really enjoyed watching you build this handheld, and would love to have it. Thanks for making the video.

beano38 writes:

Barrel of Kong is a work in progress. I used a former Bourbon Barrel from Four Roses Distillery and constructed the arcade portion using MDF plywood.

Looking forward to new episodes and further inspirations!

Thanks,

- From a fellow "Bengineer" - Ben E.

mitch91z28 writes:

Used to reminisce about huddling around the tv Saturday mornings and take turns on the one paddle we had as we beat mario world over and over, now my wife and I share my favorite snes games, super mario world and tetris attack! Its fun to replay old games and forget about the world of xbox live trolls, achievements and pay dlc.

trinkal writes:

Love, no its not Love, it is Addiction in first and curiosity behind I opened very first day my first NES game that my father gifted me

cwilbanks200 writes:

I prefer retro gaming because all of the games were mostly different, the controllers were very simplistic and felt good to hold, and finally ROM cartridges are very, very hard to break compared to the blu-ray discs and DVDs we use today. When i was little i had a N64, a SNES, and a NES, but i never had any of the Atari consoles but I knew people who did and every game I played on them were very simple and fun and I've used emulators, but you just don't get the same feeling playing an emulated copy of the game. Pitfall is one of my all time favorites for the Atari along with asteroids, and I might just have to see why E.T. was such a horrible game . I would just like a console that reminds me of simpler times when i didn't have all of the responsibilities and obligations i have now.

arduino21. writes:

I love the retro systems for 3 reasons. They are simple, easy to hack and have some better games like super mario bros. Would love to see a similar build but it being the nes. Super mario 4 Life!!!!!

dogrox writes:

WAY KEWL, I love this handheld system!!! And of course all Ben's videos are cool! :O) I think both retro games and Modern games have their place in society. To me i could go either way depending on the situation. I like specific modern games that take me away from real life and immerse me in a world that i COULD NEVER do in real life. And I love those type games.. But then there is the other side of me that LOVE the retro games because at least with retro games you just pop in a cartridge and you NEVER have to worry about updates, servers not available, backups of your game saves that you spent hours and hours on only to have corrupted due to relying on a net based backup system. I always say to my friends :"What happened to the good ole days when all you did was pop in a cart and play? Yeah i miss them days!

muessigb writes:

I prefer retro gaming, as the games are more challenging and also more fascinating. They make more fun for a lot more time than modern games do. Also, the developers put more heart and thought into them compared to modern games.But a retro game wouldn't be as much fun if the platform wasn't limited and made the developers use every single resource and trick possible to make awesome game games that are so much fun to play. Another important feature of the old games is the sound which is often quite awesome (e.g. on the C64).

freddruppel writes:

I personally prefer retro gaming to modern gaming because of the "hacks & mods" that are possible on the consoles or cartridges. Also, I think it's a bit easier for people to develop their own game cartridges, emulators, ...If I where to win this project, I would probably get deeper in retro gaming etc. because it seems very interesting to me.

falon writes:

I would be supper happy if I won, It would let me go back to my younger days of when I would wipe the board with my mom on Pacman, and she could wipe the board with me on Frogger. I miss them days. I still have my cartridges and the controllers but the Atari hasn't worked in many, many years.Thank you for this opportunity to have a chance to win such a awesome DIY Build, even cooler is that its by Benjamin Heckendorn.

mayermakes writes:

I personally absolutely love retro gaming , new games and system have their point as well but, old games make me feel like a child a gain. and now I'm much more capable of beating the levels I never have beaten as a child. (completed DKC2 on SNES finally after 15 years)And reason to why I prefer retro gamin is the technology they used, you can dig into the circuits find out how the systems exactly work, mess with them, rebuild and modify them.All things you can't really do with modern systems,I would describe the Dreamcast as last system that is really hackable hardware-wise.On last Friday my Boss donated a Sega Master System II to me to mess with, on Friday evening I did the composite mode and played it until sunday midnight, so first mode within a few hours and in this week, I will do any other mod I could find on the Web . 8Goal is to run the (SC-3000) BASIC on it and develop a Keyboard for it.This is why everybody should do it like Ben and myself, dig deep into the old systems and gain understanding of electronics a you could with no other way.

fdeabreu2u writes:

I both love Retro games and modern games, but in retrospective retro games turn out to be more fun when you are on a party mood whit friends, due to the fact that in retro gaming the objective most of the time turns out to be who get´s the high score, wile modern games in a party environment whit friends, is a bit lame due to the fact that the main objective will be to finish the game in a weekend long session, making retro games more shareable among all the friends attending the party, wile modern game at most one or two mates will be the only ones playing, and we know how that ends up, those two friend will be on the game and wont have time to socialize, and will only be seen again at the end of party.

gilliammcilheran writes:

I prefer retro games because they teach you about electronics through there limitations. Like when you wonder why the Atari 2600`s graphics are not as high quality as today's systems and you find out it is because it has an 8bit processor and then you find out what an 8bit processor is. Or when your system with composite output has scan online issues you learn what NTSC signals are and how they work. Also classic consoles are hackable they use through hole components and circuits simple enough that you could build one yourself there is no way you could build a portable ps4 or Xbox one with hand soldering. Today's consoles and games are so polished and streamlined that they dont provide any opportunity for learning.

misfit writes:

I have fond memories of my first experiences with an Atari 2600. I had been staying with my Dad in the old house his grandfather had passed on to him and one day he took an old Atari 2600 that had been stored up in the attic and brought it down for me to play it. I played countless hours of Rampage and some other games I can't remember the names of and had a blast. Before that, I was privileged enough to have a Mom willing to buy the original Nintendo system for me and it wasn't long before I had a stack of Nintendo games that was taller than me. As cool and amazing technically that modern games are today, they'll never be able to give me the same feeling of wonder and awe I had as a child with my first exposure to those old school games. I'm much too jaded with technology now. Doesn't mean I can't appreciate it, just means I'm so used to it that I tend to take it for granted. I didn't have that as a child and I think that's what I'm most nostalgic about. If I win this item I'll be treating it as a prized collector's item. I'll probably be too tempted to play games on it to resist though. Thanks for the chance to win.

jakeydoodle123 writes:

Being a young teenager with a love for engineering, are just much more exciting to me in how they work and how to programmers made the most interesting decisions to make it so the game would work without breaking, like Ben said with the game they were demoing they had only 1 bullet shot at a time because there wasn't enough RAM. Modern games do not have to worry about that issue as much because there is so much you can do with modern hardware. I also have a deep love for pixel art and 8-bit/ lo-fi music that is in retrogames.

shisnick writes:

LOVE this build! Combining both the electronics engineering aspect with retro gaming on top of case design and portability of a legacy, priceless! Seeing the screen light up with the retro game reminded me of firing up my Atari 2600 for the first time with Kaboom. Only to realize that I was way in over my head at the age of 5. HA! Talk about an eye opener to the art of gaming! Kaboom, River Raid, Star Command, the list goes on. From that point, I graduated to the NES and went uphill from there. I technically went backwards a bit from the Atari before I fired up the NES for the first time (Christmas present around the year it came out). I say I went backwards as I found my parents' old Pong systems, the Pong "classic" black box with wheels/controllers integrated into the main base, and the Pong Sport where the controllers were able to be removed from the main base unit. Spent a few nights with that one, but had to put it away in fear of breaking a classic and because my friends thought it was lame. Still, seeing the full-solder Atari 2600 portable episode brought back so many memories! I've seen the previous Atari portable video as well as other episodes based on the retro gaming turned portable idea. All great in their own way. A big "Thank you!" to Ben and the entire team for keeping the love alive, and giving geeks of the world amazing content on a regular basis! Keep up the great work!

ozayturay writes:

What i love in retro games is with some imagination it feels better than 4K. For example with less than 10 pixels you can feel the facial expressions of a Lemming. And unlike modern games retro games are difficult and challenging and most of the time you can't even save the game. Nowadays games are easy an they became consumables. You play and finish once and you never play them again. But i can still play my childhood games over and over again.

slaeyer writes:

I love retro gaming because of the nostalgia it brings. Like many here, my first console gaming experiences were on the Atari 2600. Our family acquired a large collection from friends and thrift stores and we played every one of them. Racing games, runners, pac man, even pong! These were the platforms that inspired the games and imaginations of today and I love sharing my vast retro gaming knowledge with my own children. While they're nowhere near as flashy as their iPad and 3DS games, they love the simplistic art and challenging game play. We've even begun learning basic programming together to start them developing their own games!

ebob writes:

I love retro games because I can trolls friends hehehe. I am also a more story driven type person, and I find fancy graphics sometimes get in the way of that. Also! what ever happened to games having endings?! That is all. Thank you guys for everything you do, never miss a video. Now, that is all.

tim687 writes:

Sadly enough I missed the retro gaming when I was young. My parents wouldn't allow me to get a gameboy let alone the Atari 2600. Last couple of years have been great regarding gaming for me, I built my own gaming PC, I bought a racingwheel and I installed a 5.1 setup in my room.However, I missed the retro gaming completely and I would like to experience what it's like to play retro games whenever I want.Since I haven't got any retro gaming console, I don't known much about the games (apart from sonic and Mario) so that's another journey for me to do.Thanks for the awesome show, I've learned a lot from you.Tim

jerrag writes:

WOW that looks like fun! Way back when the Atari 2600 first came out, we couldn't afford one, so we bought the clone from Sears. That was a mistake, within the first three days, the blasted thing was broken, the wires on the controllers just could not hold up to my meaty hands trying to keep the games under control. So it was back to the Sears Catalog store (small town no real Sears) and we traded her up to the Atari 2600, from which we never looked back. We purchased the machine for our kids, who were putting us in the poor house running down the street some three blocks to the arcade, and every quarter that wasn't locked up ended up in their machines. Well that Atari did cut down a bit on the quarter situation, and when ever I was on duty (I was a cop at the time) the kids had full access to the Atari and we kept Sears happy ordering new games on a monthly, then weekly basis. When I was home, I pulled our yellow butterfly chair up next to the television and spent HOURS playing the games on that machine. I went through controllers like Sherman on his way to Atlanta, breaking them left and right. I could not convince myself that pushing harder didn't make the hero go faster! Eventually my good wife tired of that chair being in the middle of her pristine living room, and my atari was relegated to the spare room. I found an old HUGE television and hooked that up to the machine, and my wife never saw me again, well I did manage to come out for meal time, and on weekends when it was the kids machine. Eventually we had to find another 2600 so the kids could play downstairs while I kept my machine busy, but usually one of the kids was in the spare room with me, running the other joy stick.You know I never upgraded like many gamer's, the 2600 was MY machine, and I did love it. I had a bookshelf lined with games, I think we had nearly every game ever put out for that machine. But then came the PC, and the atari was put aside. Eventually it went at a garage sale, and while my kids are now grown and buying game machines for their kids, I never went that route. I went straight from the Atari to STELLA! I still play with Stella on my laptop when I have a nostelgic urge, Demon Attack and Haunted House are among my favorites. OH my daughter did give me her old Nintendo Gameboy Color, and I do play Pac-man on it once in awhile when we are in the RV, where the gameboy lives.

chadmasta5 writes:

I love retro gaming because it is much more simple and a bit more fun . People didn't focus on having 4k graphics or massive framerates. It was about playing the game and having fun. I feel like nowadays people obsess way too much over little things like if the background of a game is slightly more blurry than it should be or if one system's shadows are more shadow-y than the other's. It almost makes playing video games no fun.

calemon writes:

I remember when I was a kid, maybe 10 when I got a 2600 for Christmas. Purchased by my mother as a distraction from events that plagued my early youth, little did she know the impact it would have on me and my love for technology, it was an amazing experience that defined, specific to video games, who I am today. I love retro games because it still relies on the players imagination to get an immersed experience that the younger more "high tech" generation struggles with today as their whole experience, from visuals to audio is set in stone for them. Having a 2600 portable would transport me back in time to those days where I would escape the heat of summer, chasing white dots around the screen with my yellow ghost chomping hero, or the adventurer like Indiana Jones jumping across pits and crocodiles.Good times.

clem57 writes:

My favorite retro game was Silent Service using Nintendo while my son like the Megaman series.

It was a bit difficult because it used 2 controls and the graphics were so cool. I found the game so realistic.

I would give this Atari to him to enjoy the games of his youth.Clem

thundersqueak writes:

One of my earliest memories is sitting in my mother's lap as she played on the Atari 2600. To this day I still get that same feeling as I play games that she would play. PAC-man, Yar's Revenge, Q-Bert. Years later when my baby brother was old enough, we would play games together on the same 2600. Combat, Pong, Dodge'Em. It was a fun experience and one that I still look back on from time to time with warm memories. Then the teen years, it was the late 80's. Life was more colorful and neon than it is today. I would hang out with friends and play at the arcade near the local pizza place. Centipede, Donkey Kong, Pole Position. People would gather around and watch you play while they waited for their turn. I loved the feeling you would get when you reached that new highs score and everyone would cheer you on. Games were far more simple, there was a more pure feeling to them that modern titles just do not seem to be able to capture. Retro-gaming to me sends me back to those more innocent years, when things were more carefree and the world seemed a whole lot bigger. There was more wonder in using your imagination as you created the story yourself. They did not hold your hand like they do today. There is a brutal honesty to those old games. That honesty is what makes retro-gaming great.

mypi544 writes:

Retro games are more straightforward and enjoyable, from Pac-Man to Final Fantasy there is always something for everyone, variety is getting worse these days with everyone making the same game from the same formula, trying their hand at making the next big thing, it seems like it's all the same game with some differences. And controls were simpler and consoles were cheaper.

djcrimmy writes:

for me retro games are the only connection i have to my childhood. because of a head injury while i was in the navy my memory of my life before the injury is almost gone but playing certain retro games like berserk on the Atari 2600 allow me to relive some of my childhood memories. i am also a collector of many retro things like games records, and laser disks you can see my collections on my YouTube if you would like here is a link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZbsUb-95mrcp5ys66tnOPw?view_as=subscriber

elvizz writes:

Retro games for sure It's just great how much love was put into details of most games. Also the way they were able to squeeze the very tiniest bit of power out of those devices.Of course it's also great to be reminded of one's childhood and all the great games there were to play. I have to dig out my old NES console... kthxbye

lightlynx writes:

I maybe cannot express exactly why I LOVE retro gaming, but I know the feelings I get when I come to my old consoles or emulators. These games usually start right after you turn on the device, then you can stop them anytime you want (almost anytime) and you aren't losing anything or there isn't anything you cannot catch up quickly, when you wanna play again. Playing a modern game REQUIRES more time. Boring cinematics, storylines gameplay.. etc. In comparison to a retro game you WANT to spend more time with it, because it is so easy to keep playing (and I am not saying the old games were easy) Watching Ben's videos made me start building my own arcade machine and my own workshop. So! If I don't win this, I will surely build it myself sometimes!

m2monkyman writes:

I prefer retro games because 1. no dlc 2. you can just plug them in and play 3. they are way more fun

mikedawg writes:

There is something to say about the mechanics of older games. Less time building the most expensive graphics intensive rig on the planet, and more about solid gameplay and/or story.

crayman122 writes:

I absolutely love retro gaming. It was so much better back then, and completing a hard level in a game gave you that awesome sense of achievement. Modern gaming is filled with DLC and content locked away on the disk where you have to pay more to unlock the full game, where as with older games, you only had to pay for the cartridge. My favorite part about retro gaming is sitting and playing for hours on end, trying to find a secret or easter egg that nobody else has found, just to brag to my friends about it.

muffenme writes:

I love to have this, I remember playing the Atari 2600 when I was young.

cmm1215 writes:

I adored this build. I play a huge mix of older and newer games, but I tend to enjoy older games more. There was just a lot more personality and imagination in them. Actual challenge and focused gameplay were also prevalent.

rider51 writes:

Having to decide whether to pick modern or retrogames is difficult. I'm growing up in the time of Virtual Reality, and realistic looking shoot em up games. It would only be natural for me to like those. However, I have found an interested in many of the older games and consoles such as the Atari. When I was younger my grandparents still had an Atari 2600, and my favorite game on that was "Adventure". I have yet to find out why that the game was so addicting. Their basement where the Atari was ended up being flooded and that was the last of it I saw. I recently had bought an Atari Flashback which I still enjoy playing Adventure on. So in the end, I think I need to pick retro. No modern game has instantly drawn me to it like the way Adventure did.

j209177 writes:

It was a simpler time back then. and the games currently do not cost 60 bucks.

svardskampe writes:

To say to PREFER it is difficult, as both newer and retro games have their charm. Next to my vast collection of retro stuff I still have just bought Overwatch for example.But I do love retro games as it were. It started with my dads NES that I got. It grew out to be a collection of all the Nintendo consoles at least, 2 pong systems and an atari 2600jr, so I have a couple of cartridges already. What retro games do offer, is like an interactive little time machine to the time it was popular culture. You often walk around a museum, seeing artefacts from a different age or time. Wouldn't it be cool instead to walk through those in the real world, in say the appropriate clothing and experience it instead? That is what retro systems are to me. It's own little time machine to the daily life when it was released.

superhampster writes:

glonch writes:

I like reliving the easier times in my life playing my AtarI VCS (Not 2600!!!). My friend had the Sears version of the unit and we would play from Friday night well into the early Sat mornings. AC/DC, Iron Madien, and Steve Miller band playing on either cassette or (gasp) 8-track (Steve Miller).I visited my friend recently and he gave me his Sears unit and it doesn't power on - one of my many projects on the list to fix.

ludachris79 writes:

This was a great build! The 2600 was the first game console I played (the apple IIe was the first time I played video games ever)! I like modern games, but I really love and miss the retro ones. When I play them it really takes me back to being a little kid playing games as they evolved through the ages from the 2600, to the NES, to the Genesis, and Super Nintendo. My childhood was filled with so many memories of playing those retro games and having a blast!

hakugin writes:

I've always loved the older games. My first having system was an Atari with Pac-man, which I still have an occasionally play. Nowadays there are SDKs that are used to make the games but back when having gaming consoles first came out nearly everything was coded by hand. You have to appreciate the amount of effort involved. In fact, I think I'll go play pac-man for a bit..

boltspinner writes:

Like most others here, brings back memories. Used to play Asteroids for hours with my father and laughing when the motors blew-up on Dragster.

dj505gaming writes:

This portable is one of the best looking ones so far! I especially like the Game & Watch look! I remember trying to get an Atari from a garage sale, but it had no price so I asked how much they wanted for it. They told me they'd accept it for no less than $60 because that was the average eBay price at the time.My favorite and most memorable retro gaming memory is probably the time I got the ultimate high score on the Galaga machine at the arcade. I managed to squeeze 2 hours out of a single quarter without losing all my lives and getting the number 1 high score. Each time I went back to check, nobody had beaten it until a few (probably 5-6) months afterward. It was the best game of Galaga I'd ever played!I still love playing retro games, even to the point where I modded an old, broken down arcade machine into a brand-new looking MAME machine, which I use for a variety of games, from Pac Man to DDR. I've even got a collection of old Sega and Nintendo consoles and games.With modern games, it's so much harder to enjoy playing without waiting hours for DLC, patches, and connection tests. With older games, you could plug it into your TV and be playing in seconds. Or you could go to the arcade and play with a few quarters instead of spending $100+ on new releases that require something extra to be able to play, like an active Wi-Fi connection.

tibi2007 writes:

I love retro games because my first console was the Atari 2600

bpopilek writes:

My love for gaming started all the way back in the early 1980's. One fall evening, my dad surprised us by bringing home a shiny new Atari 2600 from Sears. Until that night, I was unaware that you could have an actual video game system in your home, as I was only familiar with the arcade machines that I rarely got to play. The whole family spent the rest of the night, taking turns and playing the awesome selection of 3 games he bought to go with it. And to be honest, I can only remember Pac-Man and Combat but not the 3rd game. I remember spending many hours playing through the excitement of Pac-Man, and the same number of hours enduring the boring Combat game. However, I enjoyed every minute of it. The fascination of the system made up for the lack of exciting game play that was Combat. From that moment on, I would beg my mom to buy a new game cartridge every time we went to the store, and luckily for my siblings and I, she would often give in and get a title or two if we had been good. Except for He-Man, that was a $30 game and it was too expensive. Yes, I still hold a little bit of a grudge over not getting it!If we flash forward a few years to Christmas 1985, my brother and I received a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) as a joint gift from my parents. After hooking it up to my Grandpa's 10" black and white TV, we were in business. Being used to how the Atari worked, it literally took us 20 minutes to figure out that you had to push down on the cartridge to lock it in place before the game would load! Once that obstacle was out of the way, there was no stopping us! We spent hours, days, and weeks trying to beat Super Mario Bros. I was around 10 years old at the time, and looking at my 10-year-old son play Minecraft and other games today, his skills are far above and beyond what mine were at his age!As a teenager, I begged my parents for the original GameBoy when it came out. After several months of waiting, and proving my worthiness with good grades, I finally got one! The joy of taking actual games on the go was beyond exciting, the only thing that could make it better was color. So, a few years later, I spent an afternoon and rode my bike 8+ miles to a local pawn shop where I picked up a secondhand Sega GameGear, carrying case, and a few games for $120. Even with the long ride there and back, I still managed to get several hours of gameplay in before the day was out. Sonic, in color, and portable, what could be better?!I have always been a lover of video games, and I have worked hard to get the latest and greatest consoles, even if I rarely get time to play them these days. Most recently, I have spent countless hours and dollars searching eBay and other sites, looking for those games and systems that I sold years ago to help fund my time off from work, while I attended nursing school. I regret selling them now, but at the time it was a necessity, and luckily one that I can rectify. Even if I now have to spend more than I sold them for to get them back! I currently own an Atari 2600, every home console that Nintendo has put out, some of the GameBoy systems, Sega GameGear, every xBox console, a PS3, and a PS4. Eventually I will have a room where all of these can be played and enjoyed simultaneously, but in the meantime, they are stored away and pulled out individually to play when I get a moment of free time. My kids also love to come play these retro systems with me, which makes it that more enjoyable!As part of the collection I mentioned above, the Atari 2600 is the same one my dad brought home all of those years ago, and the Nintendo is the original one we received for Christmas. Additionally, I still have every game that we ever got for these two consoles. These are two systems that I will NEVER part with! And because I have owned the Atari since it was new, there is no way I would ever think about chopping it up into a portable. That is why I am hoping to win Ben's custom Atari portable, so I have a way to more conveniently play my Atari collection, and share some of the joy that I felt as a kid with my kids today. Even if I don't win, this was a great opportunity for me to walk down memory lane and share some of my experiences with the game consoles from my childhood. Thanks for the great videos and content you provide!-Brian

P.S. My ultimate accomplishment was beating the original Legend of Zelda all the way through without dying! I'm not sure I could pull that feat off ever again!

f5kn writes:

I like them because they're simple and straightforward (well, most of them), and fast to get to. No time wasted waiting for the game to load.The first time I played a video game was on an old machine from Philco, I think, that had Pong and a bunch of other variations of "stick and square". But one of my earliest memories is from seeing my older sister asking my dad for a videogame, either an Odyssey or an Atari 2600, which were "pretty cheap" back then (1982, maybe?), after seeing them on a newspaper ad. But nope, that was a waste of money. A couple years later my cousin brought a 2600 home, and we played it day and night, breaking so many of those white plastic sticks that sat on top of the controller boards.We also played on controllers that were long rectangles and had buttons on the sides (one on each side, I think...) and sort of an analog stick. Which was neat and seemed more precise.As an adult I prefer old school arcade games like Robotron or Rally-X, but I played a lot of Sega and Capcom machines back then, until the mid to late nineties.

legonickd writes:

I pefer classic games, although it was a very close call since there are some very good modern games like portal, but nothing can beat some 8-bit gomba squashing, or some good old atari games.

nemmons writes:

I love retro gaming. Reminds of my childhood when my brother, father and I would play frogger and pong. I like retro games in that they are easier for even non gamers to enjoy.

tordre writes:

I love retro gaming, because i just love the look of the dot matrix grid of the gameboy

RParkerE writes:

I am a bit young to have grown up with retro gaming consoles, however, as a child the only console we had was my fathers Super Nintendo. As a young child, when my parents would leave, my babysitter and I would stay up late trying to beat Super Mario World, and save Princess Peach from that wretched Bowser. The Legend of the Mystical Ninja was also one of my favorite games, alongside Donkey Kong Country and Pac-Man. These games and this console are really the type of stuff I enjoy, and still played up until recently. I never did get into any of the newer consoles, like Xbox or PlayStations. However, I also did enjoy my friend GameCube with games like Mario Kart and Mario Party. I also played Ms. Pac-Man one a video game cabinet at an old diner that I used to have lunch at as a child still in Daycare. The classics to me are so interesting because of the "hackability" of them. They are like puzzles just pieced together, that can be taken apart, inspected, reassembled, and altered. They were much more open and modifiable than the current gaming platforms being released now-a-days.

bobobyte writes:

I remember playing with the 2600 while in high school and almost not graduating. Apparently they forgot to put Missile Command and Space Invaders on the list of final exams! The build looks great, have to admit I am jealous of the skill level of the Heck team.

kouruu writes:

The games were more simple straightforward and a better challenge. you spend more time trying to conquer the game, today's games though beautiful and flashy, you have to spend more time learning the controls before you can get to the object of the game. Not to mention so many different avenues to escape you away from the main plot which prolongs the game but it takes more of your time. It also just does not have that same flare. My nephews still don't understand, but it's what I grew up with. Just wish I could find my box of games and my Atari.

escapist writes:

jonlorusso writes:

I prefer retro gaming because you can almost see the programmer's hand in the final product.

thenosepicker writes:

I prefer retro gaming because the games are simpler and easier to dissect how the work.

axlenick@gmail.com writes:

I would like to win this because I am collecting old game systems because they are better in some ways compared to newer games....

charlie50964 writes:

hi my name is David and I am 13. I don't have any games consoles but I make games and some times electronics. I like retro games because they are easy to pick up and not as stressful. I also find it easier on my eyes because usually the games aren't that bright.Great build any way Ben and the rest of the team. David

rockinricky writes:

I love retro gaming because the games make up in fun for what they don't have graphics and sound wise. They had to concentrate on making the game fun, and getting all that fun into only 4K of ROM.

cfavreau writes:

My first video game system was a Pong unit from maybe Atari. We played it on a 9" black and white television. My dad and I used to go to flea markets and thrift stores a lot and I think we found it at a flea market. It was fun. I spotted an Atari 2600 (Sears Telegames version) at a flea market sitting on the top shelf tuck away in a back room of a vendor. They wanted $20 for it. I saved my money and waited a few months to get it. I cannot remember what games it came with however that system started a collection. I eventually had over 450 Atari 2600 games, 50+ intellevision games, and 30 to 40 Colecovision games + NES as well. I sold the collection in 2014 to buy a 3d printer. I miss the collection. I kept a 2600 Jr and about 20 games. It is a lot of fun to take it out and play.

buliaras writes:

Honestly, I don't call it "Retro" gaming. I call it life. It truly is a lifestyle and gaming in general has been with me since I was 5 years old. I've read that some people remember playing and interacting with games at the age of 2 or 3, so I suppose I was late to the game, so to speak, but that doesn't diminish my love for gaming as a whole. I know retro is simply a term that defines an era but at it's core, it's gaming and so long as we all love and enjoy at least a single game or system from "back when," I think that lifestyle will never die. I never did play the Atari, but always wanted to own a system so I could experience what children felt when they first hooked it up to their tvs and popped in their first ever title, whatever it may have been. Golden opportunity to finally play the Atari 2600? Perhaps. We shall see how the gaming Gods favor a long time worshiper such as myself

galactimouse writes:

As a youngling I don't have much experience with super-old consoles like the Atari 2600. My first memory of a computer game is playing Tux Racer (which could almost be called retro now) on my dad's PC. More recently, I've been able to play some older NES and gameboy games (pokemon, mario etc.) through emulators for PC and IOS and it always makes me appreciate the huge scale and effort of the game design process, especially when games had to be written and designed at machine-level and by hand. I love the way games like these use the hardware to its full potential and it is amazing to think that they were once the forefront of technology. Projects like this are important for preserving the history and the skill of those early console developers while presenting in a way which is easily accessible to people today. The feeling of using real buttons and cartridges while watching the game play in real time is something no emulator can ever achieve.

xxdab0mbxx writes:

I just love the charm that retro games have had long before the days of modern consoles and shooter games flooding the market.

holtjer90 writes:

I like new games like call of duty, but I think retro games are actually better in quality, because new games update constantly and back then a game was either finished, or not.Also retro games cost less computing power, so even at max settings they always work well. I actually even like the graphics better than modern games, because it is really cool how they get so much detail with so little pixels. Also modern games get me bored pretty quickly, because of the many many options and gamemodes, but with the retro games I can lose myself for several hours.I never played on an actual Atari, but I love to play the Atari games on emulators.Awesome show and in my holiday I will start my hobby with electronics.Greetz,Mark

crimsonwraith writes:

I have never been super interested in the high end graphics. Maybe it gets to close to my uncanny valley, I don't know. I have found that newer games are all about the pretty realism. Retro games didn't have the option. You couldn't make a game super pretty to get players to buy it. It was all about the gameplay. A good game was good to play. I would take 8-bit game play over 60 bazillion bit graphic nirvana if just for the fun.

stabbyjack writes:

Retro gaming is the best, you couldn't present someone with a copy of a modern call of duty and have as much fun as we did one night with an atari.This was recently a couple of weeks ago, we were drinking at a friends house party and we go to check out the gaming room that had been setup. Inside the TV displayed sea of enormous pixels in vague shapes; there was a tree, some green squares and a yellow character. What was this mysterious game? We could move the character and as he moved his rod pointed to a blue pixel. Intriguing. We spent the next 30 minutes bewildered until one of our group sussed it out "it's flipping minigolf" he slurred triumphantly, we didn't believe him of course - how could it be. As he seized the one buttoned controller and played we realised he was telling the truth. A winner stays on tournament commenced and we had a small group crowded around the crt like nerdy moths to a flame. That was us for the evening - roaring laughter, many traded insults and of course a counter that looped round many times from 99 to 0. If by any chance I win this a copy of golf is going straight in, for those who think we're a bit simple for not grasping what the game was, check out the video and imagine someone had sat you in front of it and not told you the rules.Simply amazing!

kolec94 writes:

I Love retro gaming because of replay ability compared to modern games where you play through and you are done. where as in retro games you can play the same game multiple time and get better and sometimes find new things.

kobishmaster writes:

Why do I love retro gaming, the answer is self-explanatory in the video I made above. In fact I made a whole YouTube channel called "This Olde Console" because retro games mean so much to me, plus the mod tutorials featured on the channel are all inspired by Ben to hopefully bring more folks into the maker community. In summation, it's merely because there's nothing better to do...

jezt48@gmail.com writes:

I would love this as i travel a lot and my sister loves games as well. As currently we have to use a raspberry pi with retropi installed.

gearsfc3s writes:

Retro gaming reminds me of our gaming past where games were unforgiving, and finishing a game might take a significant amount of time and effort. Gaming today, for the most part, rewards everybody without putting in much effort (maybe any if the game is pay-to-win). So retro games represent to me a non-watered down core of what gaming was, is and should be. That's why I love it and have held on to every console that I've owned since my NES. (Never had an Atari though.)

mtbevins writes:

I love the older games.... as I am older One thing I think new game makers could learn from the older games is that simple can be as fun or more so than complex and convoluted. Today's games are written with an army of people and millions of dollars. Back in the day it was one programmer who did it all. He was coding graphics and music. Designing interface and game play. The things that make a game engaging and fun are not super amazing graphics or a story that no one can follow. Growing up in the 70's and 80's I got to see it all unfold; the home console games and the arcades came of age as I did.

My earliest memories of home console games was playing a Magnavox Odyssey. A kid in the neighborhood had one. All the other kids found out and would just invite themselves over before school to play it or to watch it be played. I am sure his parents just loved that. But we were all so taken with it. My father got our family a Sears Tele-games (Atari 2600) for Christmas when they came out. My favorite game was Adventure. But later I did get a Starpath SuperCharger. If you are not familiar with this third party add on peripheral, it increased the RAM of the 2600. The games for it came on cassette tape. You would load the games via a cassette tape recorder. The games were almost arcade quality in comparison. They did not have the flash or fickler associated with other games. Atari missed the boat by not buying up that company and developing on it. There were only 10 games released on it but there are boot leg home grown games out their.

Ben, keep up the great work. I bought and read your books over 10 years ago and was just amazed at what you could do. I recently rediscovered you on YouTube and have been catching up on all your projects. Thanks for all you do.

hannacek writes:

Retro Gaming is better than modern gaming, because Retro Gaming gives you thousands of classic games that have stood the test of time. You can play the best of the best on systems like the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and ColecoVision, all for less than the price of an Xbox One with a few games. This is because with modern games you have to pay up to $60 or more for a new game, and pay for online services like Xbox live and DLC. And after that the game might not be any good. With retro games, you can skip past the junk and go right to the good stuff. With decades of hindsight, you can know what the junk is like like ET and the 2600 version of Pac-Man, and go right to the good stuff like Yar's Revenge, Ms. Pac-Man, Missile Command, Pit Fall, Atlantis, and so many other classics, for only a few dollars each. With modern consoles, you spend a lot more money for a lot less games, and you are not guaranteed to get only the good stuff, like you are with classic games. Will people be playing Call of Duty, Minecraft, or World of Warcraft in 20 or 30 years? Who knows? But we do know people are playing Pac-Man, Q-bert, Tapper, and Donkey Kong all these decades later, because the are timeless classics.

cihapet writes:

Retro games remind me of my childhood. Most of us LOVE to remember our childhood, or at least the 'simpler times' it was... (remember The Wonder Years?)Too many games these days are just too FAST paced... What's wrong with Frogger? Dig Dug? Donkey Kong? What is not to love about those?We used to have an Atari 2600. Would be awesome to have one again!

dj1981 writes:

retro games are great there are next to none as far asread disk errors and you can start the games faster.

frankplants writes:

I like both retro and modern gaming, but I prefer retro games over modern ones. Since I am 13 now, I did not grow up in the retro gaming era but I think older games are cool!The main reason I prefer older games over modern ones is because I am really into programming and it is a lot easier to see how game code and logic works in a retro game, modern games are a lot more complicated and harder to break down. The other reason I prefer older games is appreciation from what older game developers went through... Now with more user friendly software it is easier to code games and computers/gaming devices have a lot more features, memory, and processing power to work with. With older games developers had to work around hardware and software complications.

satchelfrost writes:

It's funny you should post this topic because I often get a lot of crap from my friends for liking retro games. My main reasoning for liking retro games is because they require more "conditioning skills". Games like Tetris and Super Mario Bros. required hours of your perseverance and sanity. Modern games are great, but I prefer only certain one's like Guitar Hero and Super Mario for Wii. The older games (with the exception of the first Legend of Zelda; a great game) required you to beat the whole thing in one go. Nowadays you just need to make it to a check point to save your progress, but with retro games if you failed at a level you had more to lose because you had to start all the way from the beginning. I like the frustration (if that makes sense) and addiction factor of trying to gain those type of gaming skills. Plus it's fun to show off your skills and destroy other people at those games.

chuck.jenkins@gmail.com writes:

That really takes back when I was very very young, Pong wow very old school, I have watched your videos and really enjoy, I am dissabled, so I have bben woking with raspberry 2,3 and zero. I am building all the materials needed to build the Raspberry Pi Bitscope, just need to have Shapeways to 3d build the case from your design and also the bitscope too. I really enjoy, I went to Devry and I was swamped , so I went to a community college and money dried out, so never finished electronics school, but learned enough to work a Gov. Contract jobs. I like that portable Atari, but I like your Z80 portable computer better, It is really nice.I am learning alot, but still having to learn more. Have a nice day !!, I'll keep watching your new adventures !!

osimon writes:

I love retro gaming because it was creative. I have always been amazed at how much was achieved when there was almost nothing given. Nowadays if you want to make a game you have many engines to chose from that do all the hard work for you. Back in the day, people had literally nothing and had to interface with the hardware directly to get a good result. This inspired me to get into programming because it showed that it wasn't just clockwork it was an artistic process. I helped me realize that I didn't need anything fancy to get into programming, I could do what ever I wanted, I just needed to understand what I was using and figure out clever exploits to get more that what was currently available. I was never born in the era of "retro" gaming, but it is a massive interest to me because it represents an idea that you don't always need newer and better things to experience something greater than what you have, you just need creativity and innovation to push the current device beyond it's limits.

aoidan writes:

I love retro gaming so much beacuse i grew up in that time and i appreichate that they has to achieve a lot to make the games compelling with so little memory.

x89300 writes:

Hello,now i use Dendi console for games. I'm very happy with new Atari 2600 console. But only with catridges.

lola_lola writes:

I will be happy to win this cuz since i played this one (Megason) i never played computer games again! (and that's sad!)

writes:

This is pretty awesome. I remember getting my Atari for Christmas in 1980. It was awesome playing Missile Command. Man, I miss that game! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. The games back then really opened my eyes, and I guess that's why I will always like the old-school games to today's games.

lillehei writes:

We still have my husband's original wood grain Atari 2600 and almost all the games that came with it. It is quite a hassle to set it up and play with our kids so a portable version would be amazing! The nostalgia and good memories we have playing our old Atari is so worth it. Our teenagers laugh at the games for how simple they are but it is a good lesson for teaching the history of video games.

aaronseeling writes:

Retro-style games have a peculiar element to them. There are times where you have to be aware of programming and game design to a certain extent to play effectively. A good example of this is Donkey Kong, considering that the world record for it required playing to the point where the game was no longer mathematically possible. For those mega pc game nerds theres Stonekeep, an amazing first person puzzle and dungeon game. It contained special bugs you wouldn't find in new games that made it more enjoyable. Improperly progressing through the game would crash it, certain monsters couldn't go through doorways so you could throw rocks at them until they died. It's a portal back to a day where you had to really use your imagination to get into it, and you needed to use a pad and paper to remember things, all of these seemingly simple gaming mistakes or design laziness makes it all the better! You'd sometimes even get two games in one when it took someone with an IT degree just to get the dang thing installed and playable.When you immerse yourself into a modern video game, everything seems to be cookie-cutter designed for you. They don't encourage the mind to wander and think like they used to. Sure, you get games that have a codex where you can learn things about planets or monsters but there's no benefit to reading all of it so most people skip reading it entirely.It's the fact that you simply plug and play to enjoy a retro game that makes it great! ...Or plug and troubleshoot

pd605 writes:

Very nice build! Remember getting an Atari for Christmas, we played it for hours until our mother chased us outside into the snow. We had friends who had the other arcade systems, but they lacked the number and variety of type of games that Atari had.

mtylerryan writes:

I'm unsure how I'll make this stand out, but I'll give it a shot.I 'effin' LOVE video games. My "job" involves games, my hobbies involve games. If games could be a person, it would probably be me.

I have recently purchased an SNES, a top loading NES, an N64 to repace my first one (The ex ended up with my old one and ALLLL of my beautiful games :C </3), and a Gamecube to replace the one I... uh.. Lost? I guess.. Maybe I gave that away, who knows!!But, I think the most imporant reason that I need this? (Not want, I NEED) I got a copy of Donkey Kong for Atari 2600 and I CANNOT find an Atari 2600 at our local pawn shops :C THEY'RE JUST TOO RARE FOR MY STUPID TOWN!!!

So, please help me play my old school game?

Love,M Tyler Ryan

Small Sh@tty Youtuber

schiecky writes:

Retro games are so much better then the new games, sure the graphics are "so realistic" but nothing beats the classic gameplay of Mario or wondering how the duck hunt gun worked when you were a kid. Playing on the original SNES and Gameboy color was my favorite thing to do, not sure if Pokemon yellow is considered a retro game or not. Games like Pacman, space invaders and centipede were amazing to me back then. Playing games like that on the go as a college student would be so much fun !

tychotromp writes:

I love retro gaming because there is logic involved, on new games you just shoot around and try to kill people. Used to play on the ps2 whit my friends. nou you don't interact whit them because it is all online. I am currently building a gameboy whit a rpi and retropie. It is not finished yet and I am going on holiday soon, a hand held would be awesome in the car. Also my dad talks a lot about the Atari 2600 he used to have when he was a kid. It would be awesome if we could relive his childhood together. Sorry for my bad English by the way, I am 16 years old and I come from the Nederlands.

yts12 writes:

I love old school retro games because when i was 3 i owned an atari 2600 and a commodore 64 which is very rare it was really good

neoh69 writes:

I like retro games, it reminds me days of after school arcade games, the first game "space invaders" I love playing it in emulator.This master piece that Ben does portable, I would like to play with.good luck every one and thumbs up Ben.

colbydavidson writes:

While modern games and consoles have become higher powered, graphically awesome masterpieces of digital interactivity, my heart will always lie with retro gaming. When I walk into an arcade and here those first few notes of the Pac-Man jingle play, it’s as though I’ve traveled back 10 years to when a child who bore my name and face had no cares in the world but to save the princess from another castle. Even today, in the modern gaming scene, titles like Minecraft, the best-selling PC game of all time, and UnderTale, voted best video game ever made, are specifically designed to limit graphical and audible definition in order to convey a sense of retro-gaming. What makes retro gaming so incredible, then? In my opinion, it all comes down to imagination.While I wouldn’t call myself a “genwunner”, I certainly identify with the majority who think that the older Pokémon games were the best, and to me, it’s all because of the limitations of the hardware. I know, I know, that sounds crazy, but here me out. Nowadays, the 3DS can generate insane graphics and audio to make the battles in-game approximate what they look like in the anime. However, as a kid playing Pokémon Crystal on your Gameboy Color, you get the pleasure of imagining what it must look like for your Quilava, that you raised since the beginning of the game, taking down Misty’s Starmie just by powering through it. In your mind’s eye, you can imagine how crazy all the different attacks look, how your Pikachu could possibly have evaded that Rock Smash, your player standing on top of Lapras’ back while you try and catch that shiny Gyarados. And it doesn’t stop at Pokémon; the epic swordfights and dungeon crawls of Zelda, the high-paced robobattles of Sonic the Hedgehog, soaring through the clouds of Super Mario World, the list just goes on and on. While modern games may be able to paint wonderful pictures of what these may have been like, no Xbox One or PS4K will ever have the GPU and APU of the mind of a 90s child, and that’s why I think that retro gaming will always be better than modern gaming.Thank you,C.H. Davis

warz54 writes:

i grew up in the 80s and the atari 2600 was my first gaming console then a coleco vision and onto the amazing commodore 64 with tape drive and floppythere is nothing like retro gaming and nothing will ever come close to it even the indie 8 and 16 bit rip off games they just seem to try too hard when back in the day it was elegance and tons of skill to get a game made.

hank_the_electric_explorer writes:

Back when there were PlayStation 2's and 1's were the good old days. I used to play our PlayStation 2 all the time with my brothers. My older brother had call of duty. It was just called call of duty back then. The graphics were great. I would even say it is better then most Xbox One video games. They got it brand new in 2001. And just last October, it had its last turn on ,and the light turned off. We've moved on and now we play Halo. I prefer Modern games because they have better graphics and more of a free feeling when I play. Back then you could only do so much. But now you can do a lot more.

unordung writes:

For me, retro gaming brings back fond memories of my childhood (I owned and played a Atari and a Commodore 64 up until the mid - late 90's). Whilst all my friends had Nintendos and Playstation I was still typing my programs and games on the C64 and blasting out pitfall and river raid on the Atari. The above two platforms are what developed my love of electronics and guided me to study Electronic and communications engineering. Whilst I never landed a job designing video game consoles as was my childhood dream It's never too late to be re-inspired. Ben Heck is my inspiration to chase that dream. That said Retro games have something that modern games don't. Retro games were designed to be mentally stimulating today's games are merely distractions to pass the time. The games of my childhood were the right mixture of challenge combined with wonder and sheer determination to pass a difficult boss or level. I don't get the same satisfaction from today's games.

fewl1971 writes:

Out off all the builds that i have watched you build guys build and fun things you have done on your show, This is the one i love the best, i was even working on an atari 2600 myself doing a A/V Composite mod on it it had a bad rf module in it. The 2600 was my first gaming console not the last but i still fill it was the best. just simple and fun to play.. from there i just basically stuck with nintendo as i was growing up. never really got into the first person shooters or things like that. but still enjoy a good pacman run, or pole position. i'm old school i guess.. Keep up the great work you guys and gal are doing. can't wait for the next smaller version to come out and see what you do with it.. i have to say by watching you, i have gotten better with soldering. i'm not great at it but at least now i'm not afraid to try and do it. Thanks for all you do. have a great day...

rileydog writes:

i just love retro gaming.I have played atri nes tg16(wich is a consle that failed)snes.I remeber when i picked up a snes contrioler it felt good.Then i played atri.Then i played nes.I have nes to coming in soon.then i played the turbo grafx 16.All the consels i have played have been in my family from the atri to snes they all are in the family.I remebered when i tryed to hook up the nes for the first time and the tg16 they did not work.So we put them back up for a year until1 day i went back over and tryed again and it workes since theni just loved retro consels.My homepage of youtube chanel has an nes controiler.i have an nes contoiler shitr that sats back in the day.My atri colection is growing at the same pace as mynes colection slow.Unles i see good deals or rare items i do not get it.My snes coliction is not growing at all.The tg16 colection has not changed since when it came out.It is hard to find tg16 stuff so if it breaks i fix it my selff.Like when the contrioler stoped working in the middle of bonks adventure i fixed it.So At the end of it Ben Heck i am trying to sayi love retro gaming.

soes@dodo.com.au writes:

retro games are way more fun, we love to play retro games at our house, we love the so much we play them all of the time on a cocktail table arcade the I build from scratch my 8 year old son and I play centerpeed and time pilot.Ben has been the inspiration behind a lot of projects around our house, Ben inspired me to make our cocktail table arcade, also many other projects including the inspiration to start our light box business

thanks ben

keep up the good work

codeyvh writes:

Retro gaming was by far the best gaming. Not only were the levels and games easy to pick up, but if you lost your final life it was truly game over and you had to start again. Not only were the games hugely entertaining, but the threat of losing was even more detrimental than games now a days where you just pick up from a previous quick save. Some games were inherently difficult, but not so much so that you just gave up and never came back. Games these days just don't have single player replayability, or even single player at all, where as the older games had tons of replayability. All the games back in the early 90's didn't seem like copies of the next game that came out and developers strived to create something new and cutting edge with every game developed. It seems to me like gaming has plateaueded over the past 10 years and we're just getting the same games with slightly better graphics and less single player modes that offer great story lines. I myself have created a couple retro gaming machines with the Raspberry Pi dev board and have put more use into those than my modern day console/desktop. Whoever winds up winning this will be insanely lucky.

menelkir writes:

I know there's good games nowadays (I even play modern games), but most modern games miss the basics (gameplay, story) to improve graphics. I think this generation doesn't care about how a game can be awesome without having high-end graphics.

acyone writes:

I am a 17 year old teenager, so that leads to me not having played with any really "retro" video game consoles when I was young. Actually, the first console I played with was a Nintendo DS lite, not really that retro… And I certainly enjoy "modern" games. But the interest for old games came later: I now own a NES, PS1, GameCube, Gameboy…

I find all these consoles awesome, for different reasons:

Retro games allow time travel

Playing a game that thousands of people enjoyed when I wasn't even born is inspiring: it's a bit like time travel. This sensation of course does not only apply to games, old cameras, retro computers, household machines (like foot-operated sewing machines !) all revive this disappeared world of old technology… I really like spending time in my grandparent's attic (pro tip : that's where all the good stuff is !) , finding mechanical alarm clocks, or matches that still can be lit up on a piece of sandpaper !

And then talking with adults about it is awesome: I was once trying to figure out Quake II, when my uncle came in and was amazed: he wanted to play his favorite game so bad! And decades later, he beat the game a second time. Priceless.

Retro games are simple yet hard

The rules of the old games are simple: take Tennis, released with the NES in 1985 : just go up, down, left, right, shoot high or low. Yet I struggle to even win a match, and it is so rewarding when I finally beat the bot (which, by the way, isn't all that clever)

Modern games have complex mechanics, rules, score tables, and can be very entertaining, but when you beat the game, well, meh. That's it, let's find another game.

All-time classic !

Retro games have simple circuits

The circuit systems of retro electronic appliances are simple, made sure to be torn apart (that one's for you, Ben!) and relatively easy to understand, even with a limited amount of knowledge. Oh, the cartridge connector doesn't work all that well anymore? No problem, bend it back in place! The controller rubber is weak? Just repair it! Total cost: NADA! (A google research for a tutorial, at best.) Just try doing that with a PS4 controller, and d'ont come back crying if you warranty was voided! That is why I enjoy opening up my consoles, looking in their guts and just understanding way they work.

That way, it is interesting to see that you can actually make retro games using modern technology: Isn't there an Atari 2600 game maker?

So in the end, I cannot actually say I do prefer retro games, because they thrill the player, while having all the qualities cited above, but will continue to play modern games, because "you can't have enough of these sick graphics, man!"

Mixing old with new : 3D printed cartridge holders !

lhartmann writes:

As I grew up I was always one gen behind: Had an Atari while NES ruled, had a Master System while SNES ruled, had a SNES while PS1 ruled, had a PS1 while PS2 ruled. I decided not to catch up.Also, Atari and Master System controllers were fragile and hard to find. Fortunately their PCBs were extremely simple to understand, even for 10 year old me. I realized I could hack cheap lcd tetris console into controllers. I was so happy with that. :-) Later I found out the NES and SNES controllers were shift-registers, and coded a C program to read them through the parallel port. PS1 was SPI too, but had a little bit of protocol to get going.

oo0speed0oo writes:

Sometimes I don't care about story line and just want a challenge. And when you play older games, you turn it on and get right in to the action.

terry51d writes:

Let's face it people without Retro Gaming your Modern Gaming would not exist. It's almost like asking which came first the chicken or the egg! Even though I do not have the Atari 2600 I do have the Atari 7800 and games for both systems.

johneee95 writes:

I love retro gaming, as even though I am still fairly young, I grew up playing video games like Frogger, Pac-Man and Galaga at home as we had some arcade video game cabinets. I also remember playing with my dad's Sega Master System II, with the game included in ROM, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, probably being my favourite game on the Master System next to Out Run.

morganta writes:

I have always loved retro gaming since that's what Ive started with.Though sadly I missed the Atari age and i was a bit too young for the NES, but I got to enjoy the SNES and SEGA Genesis growing up.These days I enjoy collecting the different consoles and games. I like to get the new stuff when I can, but I mostly tend to lean more towards the retro stuff whenever possible. I even have a job repairing game consoles, a lot of the time its the newer consoles coming in more then the retro.And thanks to the old days of Ben creating portable game systems I have always wanted to make a portable game system myself, and soon I will finally complete my first portable mod! (after many failed tries)

ki4jil writes:

This brings back a lot of memories for me. My brother ended up with all the 2600 games and consoles. He has since sold them and now I am without. I would love to show my kids the great games I used to have at there age.

davidthewalker writes:

I never played many older games growing up, but it is tons of fun to go back now and play them within the context of today's games. Some of my favorite games are now older ones, even though I played them for the first time on emulators and thrice-repaired arcade machines. You can see how the creators managed to create incredibly fun games inside the restraints of the technology of the day, which just acts as a testament to their amazing creativity and ingenuity.

seuration writes:

I love "retro" gaming. Mostly because I grew up with it. My first console was an Atari 2600, which is why this build is so nostalgic for me. The reason I love it so much is because back then, everything was new and exciting. Even the E.T. game that people pan and call horrible in current times, I owned it. I loved it. I would love a chance to play it again. These days, gaming has lost all the restrictions it had back in the day. And with games becoming so large, and graphically intensive, I feel game play and skill have suffered. A lot of people think "Oh, just one control stick, just one button" and think it was so simple. No. Games back then were HARD, RELENTLESS, and completely UNFORGIVING of the slightest mistakes. I would love a chance to show my son what a real game is.

kmikemoo writes:

I love it! My Dad was a Heathkit kind of guy so he bought us Pong. Then came the Atari 2600. We begged for months before he gave in. It was like stepping into the future (at the time). We played that system until we could see straight. It's the only video system I've seen my Dad play on. Good memories!

caiahhaiac writes:

I am pretty new to retro-gaming, but apparently I've been retro gaming my whole life.Born in 1989, my earliest memory of a video game console was I believe this very system. I used to sneak into my parent's room and play with this "thing" that i wasn't sure what it was, but I knew it had to be a "toy" because it had buttons and that joystick....eventually my dad plugged it in for me and my suspicions were correct.Being an only child, my parents were very involved in my "entertainment". If they didn't think it was fun for them too, they didn't even consider buying it for me. So when they finally bought a Sega Genesis, my only games were, "Arcade Classics" and "Columns" and Ms. Pac-Man... growing up in the 90's while all my friends were into "Mario"....I was busy trying to defeat "Sini Star" (a scary game for a 6 year old!)When I was maybe just starting middle school, my parents bought for me a Game Boy Color I remember crying tears of joy over when I saw that NEON GREEN beauty.... I was so excited because I really wanted to play the Pokemon games for the system....of course my first game my parent bought for me was "Galaga" (my mom's favorite game).So I went from Sega Genesis, (skipped everything after) and went to PS2. For my parent's 30th anniversary, I bought arcade style controllers for both my parents (my dad has a hard time with any games playing without a proper joystick) plus every "Classic Game" collection out there for the PS2. It was the cutest watching them argue over who had the highest score. (Just like when they were dating)....I'd love to add this to my collection. Video games have always been part of my life, but there were def some systems I missed, so as I'm now getting serious about game collecting, I'm playing a lot of contemporary classics (like Mario) for the first time, just because I grew up on games decades ahead of me. I started watching videos because I'm super into electronics right now and keep saying I'm going to build my own arcade machine...ect....but for now. Baby steps! Thanks!

jtheleetlemaan writes:

I think that old, retro games have a lot more variety behind them. Unlike what you see these days which is mostly just first person shooters that are all the same with like 2 or 3 twists, these games are usually completely different in one way or another. The only exception that comes to mind these days for me are mostly indie games, and those often try as hard as they can to look more like retro games with artificial 8 or 16 bit graphics. I also notice that adventure was more emphasized in these old games, as it was kind of a fresh idea that was like an infinite frontier that has kind of been worn out by now, but back in those days, you would see stuff that wasn't afraid to bound out into the creative horizons. Take adventure for the Atari. This game, simplistic it may be (only 4KB!) has plenty of things to explore. Sure there may only be one map, but that map is actually pretty big. You could even go as far as to say it was the first open world game. The game even featured a new game mechanic we know today as Easter eggs. If you found a hidden key within the first level, you could enter one of the walls to find the game developer's name! (not much for an Easter egg, but then again you don't have much to work with with the Atari 2600) Also, there was plenty of companies back then that did things that they could never be in a position to do now. Like Rare, who made the amazing DK country games as well as Banjo Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day, only to be bought by Microsoft, never to see the light of day. We also saw Sega make all of their amazing consoles, including the Dreamcast, which some consider the most revolutionary console ever. This is unlike anything you'd see these days, and just the coolest thing ever. I have all of the American Nintendo home consoles before the Wii U (which I have been meaning to get soon) and a commodore 128. I would love to expand it with an Atari.

bedji writes:

bonjour j'aime les jeux retro parce que j'ai grandi avec et puis je les aime pour leur simplicité et la créativité que je trouver dedans même si le designe et le graphisme n'était pas développer .moi même développeur amateur je trouve une fascination pour ses jeux avec leur défauts qui nous disent long sur leur conception d'ailleurs je garde toujours ma ancienne console dans ma maison car mon père voulais la vendre et personne ne voulait l'acheter

phreak61 writes:

I wouldn't say I prefer it to modern gaming... But I did grow up on it. My first gaming console was a pong console that I can't seem to find anywhere! If my memory is correct it was a pyramid shape that had soft keys on it to "change the sport". all it did was change the speed or the size of the paddle line. I love to go back here and there to put gaming into prospective. I am always amazed how far it has come in just my lifetime! I can't wait to see what the future brings, but I will never forget the time spent on the old consoles!

mightysubzero writes:

Wow.. Love it... When I was a teen. I loved playing my Atari 2600 .. Was pretty good a pole position And got pretty good at it... I had a Atari 2600 and a SNES system with Tons of games for each... Was sad though most of the time when I was growing up.. It would be either my SNES being pawned or my Atari.. And sometimes both at the same time... So when I would get the back from Pawn I would play my heart out.. Cause I knew one day they would be back in the pawn shop and I would have nothing to play again... Pacman Pole position I loved it.. Sadly though my dad pawned them both one time and I never got them back.. For years I kept the Atari games but had no system to play them on.. I'm not really sure what happen to my Atari Games But I do somehow still have all my SNES games from back then... It truly sucked when I lost that system I would play it more then my SNES back then.... I have never got me another system.. But I would love to be able to play pole position and pacman again.. That would be sweet on the OG hardware.. What better way to play OG hardware and pole position but on a Handheld .... Love the build It was nice work.... If you read this thanks for taking the time to read.... Thanks.

ittam2003 writes:

Hi, I am 12 years old andI LOVE YOUR PROJECTS! I wish i could have all of your builds at home. I prefer most the retro gaming stuff. thats because all the modern gaming stuff is laggy and boring. the retro gaming stuff is fun and NO LAGG! I have a nintendo gameboy classic home and it`s super fun. I have watched almost all your videos, and after i had watched them i go straight out to the garage and start working, but not the all projects goes verry well:).

here I have a picture of my first project.

it is a USB-battery charger.

futile writes:

The first home console I had was the 2600, it was the start of a long term relationship with gaming. The older games will always have a lot of meaning for me. As a kid my imagination made those graphics so much better than today's high end games. If I had this amazing portable Atari I would be able to play many of my old cartridges that I still have,

theconanrider writes:

Retro games I feel put a lot more effort into getting the most out of the hardware and into there game play. The only example I can find of this being done in modern gaming is GTA V on the previous generation of consoles, rockstar squeezed every little bit of performance for that game and focused on the minor details that made the game great.

sjm4306 writes:

I prefer retro games because they remind me of my childhood and how much more simpler and magical everything was. My parents were strict and never allowed me to own any consoles but I would spend hours over my friends houses playing n64 and nes games. Eventually I had saved up my money and finally convinced my parents so the first console I purchased was a frontlit gba sp and the first game was iridion 3d. It admittedly wasn't the greatest game and I was never able to beat the final level. Since then I've gone on to collect practically every console known to man and a sizeable game collection of my favorites. I even buy broken consoles and post repair and teardown videos on youtube to help others in my free time. Video games either retro or modern are a considerable part of who I am and go hand in hand with my love for technology and electrical engineering. That's all I need to say!

acemaker025 writes:

Personally I prefer some retro games, like Pac-Man, Super Mario, Sonic, etc, and a little bit less of the modern games, however if I had to pick more of a specific gaming console I'll have say the Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1 and also the PlayStation 2, because that's what I really grew up with, and all the memories that where collected with those gaming consoles. I've been watching the Ben's hack show on YouTube for sometime now, and all the awesome videos that are posted are really fascinating to watch how he takes some really retro stuff like the Atari and turn into a portable gaming system, and also really like the Xbox One Tablet video, it was really cool looking as well. Now, I never even seen a Atari 2600 in person, but I would like to and be able to grow the inner child of me by playing with such a historic retro gaming system...

tucker0203 writes:

I like to bring back memories of the Atari age. I love retro gaming too. I use to play a lot of adventure on the Atari, while trying to find the hidden room.

werebox3333 writes:

I love retro gaming more than modern for two reasons: simplicity and complexity, if you will.Today, all games are fancy looking with great sounds and no cords. But, with retro games the graphics will simple and easy to understand. They had to make sure that the game was fun because players with most of those games truly could not make their own way. And when they tried to make them fun, they were usually fun. I remember the first retro game I ever played was Castlevania on my old NES. I loved the game because it was actually kinda scary at the time, and original! Plus, it was very hard and that made it fun to play. I don't think I actually ever did play that game. And that is where complexity comes in. For how simple the games were, they were also very complex and hard. I remember when I first played Earthbound, there had been no game like that one before! You could do what you wanted, go where you wanted, and choose what YOU want to do. I loved that game, I still play it a lot! Also, we lose connection with others when we play online games today. We used to all sit in the living room together as a family and enjoy some Mario or Castlevania or Dig Dug or, well, all the older retro games you could imagine. We've lost that connection with one another. So, this is why I really love retro games. I am also, alike another person in this section and probably many more, building my own retro gaming devices. In fact, I sell them so people can enjoy the flavour of retro games today even though it is really hard to!

npete writes:

Are you kidding me? Ever since I cobbled a working Atari 2600 together from two non-working consoles I picked up on ebay, I understood why I do not enjoy most popular modern games. When I played Combat with a much younger friend of mine on that Frankensteined Atari console years ago, I discovered that both of us were having an equally good time even though my friend was too young to have had an Atari as a kid. It's because everything that makes modern games great, the lack of those modern trappings made these old games challenging and fun. It's like going camping or hiking in the mountains but instead of leaving behind modern conveniences, you're leaving behind modern tech. Think of us retrogamers as the outdoorsmen of gaming. My old Frankensteined machine has since died but my wife would really appreciate it if I would use (or lose) my collection of 30+ Atari 2600 cartridges I have shelved, collecting dust, in our small Manhattan apartment. :/ My favorites of which are the aforementioned Combat, along with Warlords, Yar's Revenge and Breakout. I also have a non-dirt-caked, but dust-covered, ET cartridge. >_<

joncx writes:

Because simpler is better!

dvogel writes:

I really love retro computers. I grew up with it them and still today I prefer the large pixels and chip tune music over the HD and mp3 sounds. Never had a atari in the past. Today I collect retro computers, mainly commodore's, atari and Spectrum but also have other brands like Laser, Colecovision, Sega, ect... Years ago when you were selling your Commodore portable I bid $ 5,000 for it. Too bad (for me) someone had a higher bid. Hopefully he got a nice house. This atari portable to really nice, just love it.

stewbacca writes:

My nostalgia sense just tingles all the time. I build my own emulator based computer/cabinets but never have done a portable version. I love Ben's work!

zulworks writes:

This reminds me of my gameboy pocket. What I really enjoyed about this is that it brings back memories of being able to play games while in the backseat of a car.

ghero921 writes:

I love playing retro games! I own almost every retro console and have even taken it upon myself to build an arcade cabinet!

izzc writes:

I like retro gaming because I think there was more creative freedom with big titles. Now we have indie games, but back then there was little distinction. A game was a game. The game's creators didn't have to worry about bleeding-edge graphics, true-to-life physics engines, or being heavily restricted by what content should or shouldn't be in the game because they didn't want to alienate or offend certain people groups. Good developers made games not to fight the system's limitations, but to embrace it, leading to fun game design inspired by a unique way of thinking.Today, what once were titans in the game industry are now shells of their former companies. So much of it feels the same in recent years, mediocre games thriving off of brand or concept recognition. This is seemingly the opposite of what made their games great in the past.

djdamian writes:

i my self have always love the retro gaming the 8-16 bit sound and colors its great no matter it it was the atari comador 64/128 they are all just great you cant beat them in my opinion

the_sawce writes:

I am a fan of video games modern and retro alike. That being said few modern games don't come close to matching the intricate puzzles and game mechanics found in older games. The feeling of accomplishment that was gained by finally beating that final level, is one that is not felt often with the games of today. Today you can simply purchase additional content for games, with the older consoles you had to complete in game challenges and find hidden easter eggs, all which required skill, and were no small task. If you had trouble there was no youtube or online guides to fall back on. I find that when I replay the video games of my childhood each holds a distinct memory of the time that surrounded that game, and that is something that just cannot be matched by the current generation of games and consoles.

tsiatricsymetric writes:

Retro gaming might not be something I grew up with, as the system that had just come out at the time I was born was the Gamecube. However, my dad was a true kid of the 80's, an arcade junkie if there ever was one. Me, him, and my brother would always look for new games we could play together all throughout my childhood, making some of my fondest memories. It was his love for the older games that we weren't around to experience in their heyday that inspired me to start collecting. I have a growing collection of retro video games and computers now, and I'm still enchanted by them. The simplistic charm, ingenuity, and pick-up-and-play nature of retro games is something I think isn't as present in gaming today, and its why I will preserve and play these old games as long as I can.

shromer writes:

Hi ben my name is ivan shrom and i am 12 years old and i would love to win you Atari 2600 portable it would be so cool to have one.My grandparents have a Atari 2600 but its not portable. I love old video games from the graphics to the sounds. You and element 14 have helped me to build and understand electronics better. I hope you consider me out of every one who will want to win your awsome Atari 2600 portabale. Thank you for all the help, Ivan shrom.

kaviargyar writes:

My very first computer was a C64.So i like the retro gaming.Modern games are very fancy, butretro is more fun and challenge.

alderjohn writes:

For me, retro gaming relied solely on mechanics and game feel. Hardware limitations also limited the visual and audio so designers had to get creative to achieve something good. As a result, some games required the player to use their imagination, and that's where most of the wonder and whimsy lies. Today, AAA games focus on whats marketable or popular instead what's fun to play and nice to control. These are just some of the reasons I'll always be a retro gamer at heart.

imbatman08 writes:

i like retro games because they started every thing if your playing games right now you have 1 thing to thank atari. If you play call of duty or the legend of zelda then you need to thank atari. They made the bread and butter of video games they made the life and soul. retro games don't feel to hard or to easy there fun . If you like pacman, space invaders,or the ET gmes you have to thank atari and i don't care if i win or not im just leting you know.

jmturner521 writes:

I love retro gaming much more than modern gaming for many reasons. Today's games are a huge time investment that I don't have time for in my busy schedule. However, I can pull out my old Atari or SNES and play a game or two for an hour or so, then just put it away when I'm done. I grew up with a Coleco Gemini (Atari 2600 clone), an Intellivision 2, and a NES and SNES. I missed them so much in college, that I scoured Craigslist and EBay and bought them all again, 4 Atari/Atari clones, 2 Intellivisions, and I still had my old SNES. That's the other great part about retro gaming, I bought all those consoles and about 100 games between them for less than an XBox One or PS4!

ensellitis writes:

I prefer the simplicity of retro gaming. My medications make modern games ghost, but retro games are just simple pixels. And I find the stories in retro games get me more invested (most of the time).But most of all... Nostalgia. Takes me back when I was a little kid, running into Kay-Be toys, smashing my face against the glass, and convincing mom to buy me a cool looking NES game. Playing an old game takes me back to when life was fun, easy, and I wasn't so beat down by everything.

screennametaken writes:

My gaming preference is... anything.From a designer's point of view, retro gaming helps see and practice what is good and what works in games.Use it as a design practice or play it with a critical eye to see what can be done with as little as possible, be able to distill the gameplay to its most basic form and have fun.

ericwilborn writes:

The Atari 2600 was my first gaming system. It's all I had to play until 1995, when I got a Super Nintendo. I'd still go back to the Atari... we had 70 or more games and there was always something different to play. I loved that system... and then it, all of the games (there were duplicates of some of those 70...), and about 10 controllers was sold by my mom at a garage sale... for $20. I'd still be playing it if I had it...

ishmel2000 writes:

I love classic videogames because are very adictive and replayable. The modern games are usually unfinished when you buy it and only two or three of modern videogames are very good. I like to do something like you do with consoles but i can't because i don't have money

danimola0 writes:

classic videogames are awesome and i want to give like a present this protable atari to my father because it was his first console

serafogoga writes:

when i was a child i played with that console in the house of one of my friends every evening, i don't like the modern videogames, because are very bored and the people only think in graphics

ludepaga writes:

i love this console because i played with my husband when we were couple. the modern videogames are to play online no to play with friends in the same room with one console

bandittheelf writes:

I haven't been watching The Ben Heck Show long, only a few months, but what i have seen is amazing! Ben is a really inspirational person and the Ben Heck Show is part of my daily routine now. This build is one of my favorites so far. The idea of creating a portable Atari is genius. I really enjoy watching your videos and I love to wait and see what the next build is. Another of my favorite videos was the Giant Gameboy. I prefer retro games over modern because you don't have that sense of true gameplay. Games now aren't the same. I have played very few modern games that I thought were better than the older ones or versions. For example, the older Dragon Quest games or the older Mario games had the sense of accomplishment that the newer ones didn't. I bought a PS3 and one of the first things i did was buy all the games that i had on the PS1 to play. Of course it would have been easier to buy a PS1, but i do enjoy some ps3 games such as the Batman: Arkham games. I even went as far as buying a few gameboy's just to experience the same feelings, the same love of games i had originally. People are always trying to buy the next gen, but i'm always trying to buy old school. It could take years to find, but I always try to find them. An Atari Portable could bring more nostalgic memories back. The true gaming experience.

ziggurat writes:

I prefer retro games, but not for the reasons you may think. Every year lots of great games are released, and this has been true since around the time I was born. Also even more crappy games are released every year. This makes it so that you have to try a sift through the crappy games to get to the good games. Most of the old crappy games are shelved and need never see the day of light again (looking at you Silver Surfer for the NES), for old games the sifting has already been done. I also enjoy new games, but the old games are always there to comfort me after I bought a crappy game and started crying.

wiiwiiboing writes:

My Brother & I had PONG on Christmas Day. Later we had the 2600 on Christmas Day. I love retro gaming because the emphasis was always on Game Play!!! With cruddy graphics, game play has priority one.So Today, I Collect, I Emulate, and I always have a good time playing video games!!!

retroguy112233 writes:

I think retro gaming is the best. I hear so many people complain that the graphics are horrible my response is always that the graphics do not make the game, the actual gameplay does. Granted that the Atari was more of a way to pass the time and a high score type system, but without it, we probably wouldn't have all the other systems we have today. I've loved the Atari platform every since I was a kid (35 now). I still remember playing Astrosmash as a kid and have had a soft spot for it every since. I've tried to collect all the different versions of the Atari and this would be a nice and fun addition to my collection. I think I'm up to 18 different versions of the Atari 2600 now, heavy sixer, light sixer, vader, intellivision addon, Colecovision addon, Sears Telegames versions, 7800. I've even modded the Flashback 2 to accept a 2600 cart. My game collection is coming along nicely too, I think I'm up to a few hundred different Atari 2600 games. I'm not bragging, simply showing my love for the Atari. Please consider me for this awesome variation of the Atari 2600 that I don't have. Thank you!

jacobz3000 writes:

I love retro gaming because it was simpler

alchemistplayz writes:

retro gaming is alot harder and more simple and its more fun because of that

damonofoa writes:

I love retro gaming because back then we got full games which were more labors of love rather than chopped up corporate grab bags like today.

random-maximus writes:

I enjoyed the fact that you could play your favorites at the arcade or bar as well as at home.

biaslerbakk writes:

I like retro games better. It just is much better in my opinion, and im 15.

canas writes:

My first memories were with Atari consoles (I was born i 1989), when I was 4 I would always play games such as Montezuma, Caverns of Khafka, Goonies, Conan, International Karate, etc. Often in my later years I would remove the dust from that Atari to remember those days until it eventually stopped working. I would be awesome to remember those times once again after all these years. If I had to choose a side, right now I would stay with modern games, but retro games still evoke nostalgia for simpler times .

brizian writes:

Retro games & Modern Games for 1 simple reason. No DLC.

znotzen writes:

I've always liked retro games more than modern ones just because I think they are more fun. I like them to the ppint that I am trying to collect all of the retro systems and games. It wou fun and useful to have a portable retro syste, I would love i!!

youngscavenger writes:

Retro games. They're just classics of gaming. That is all i have to say.PS. I'm repairing an old arcade machine.

pinkymcjingles writes:

It seems that modern gaming is just geared toward a demographic of people who just want shooting and action. Retro gaming gave us that and so much more. Way back when, they didn't need to wow us with stunning graphics and new advanced hardware that communicated with your TV. Then, it was all about the software. The console simply played the software. There was more of a focus on the software which is why there is such a vast library or titles for every retro console. I go to retro gaming store today and I'm still amazed. The history behind it and getting to see what formed gaming to what it's become. Gaming isn't what it used to be. It's fun, but it's just not the same. There's a certain charm to retro gaming that will probably never replicated. Just rereleased.

roboboom writes:

Retro games are more enjoyable than modern games because retro games are more focused, with not much distraction. Retro games are small file sizes, so it can't have all that extra fluff, and because of that, the logic puzzles the game developers produce are the main attraction, and those puzzles are FUN. If a game developer had a great idea for a retro game, he or she didn't need a huge team to make the game like modern games, where the developer's vision is watered down with bloated projects. Retro games reward the creative people more than the modern games. So I enjoy playing retro games because I love playing those logic puzzles with not much fluff, and I grew up playing those games. Great device y'all created, I would love to play it!

palinor writes:

My biggest reason for enjoying retro gaming is that the visual presentation has always been great. I've always wished there were more modern games that made use of SNES levels of graphics and audio while simply using the expanded memory available to create more open worlds, giving a grand realm to explore while not trying to overly complicate the graphics with effects and filters. With me being color-blind it's made it harder and harder to enjoy games as they take far too much effort and 'care' into making the visuals 'pop' for a regular sighted individual. For me, however, it only breaks my immersion more than anything else. Older games don't give me such a problem because there's less focus on levels of shading, just some simple representations that give me everything required to have that communication of action, then free access to play and have fun.That's what pulls me back to retro gaming, an ability to get lost in the visuals that is becoming lost on me for modern gaming.

budderlovr writes:

The reason why I prefer retro gaming is because it's alot cheaper than buying new systems and games. I have a VERY small budget so I have to get retro games and consoles as cheaply as possible.

kingscottl writes:

Atari 2600 was my first gaming system. Controlling pixels on a TV screen was magic to me as a little boy. I remember playing Asteroids, Popeye, Defender, Atlantis, and Q-bert on a black an white television with the sound off for hours supposed to be asleep. I remembering playing both ET and Indiana Jones and thinking that I was doing something wrong, but no, they truly disappointed. Artwork on most boxes were cool, and the games were basic. I feel that retro games required more imagination than the likes of current gaming. The nostalgia is real.

brificus writes:

Two reasons. 1. Game design. 2. Nostalgia. Starting with the first one, I find that a lot of newer games, are less like "games" than they are interactive movies. Now, I'm not really against this completely, as I enjoy both types, but it's clear to see that back in the day, there was a lot more emphasis on puzzles, level design, and game play. This is why I like to play retro games. However, if PS1 constitutes as retro gaming, I feel like the era of PS1 was such that there were so many well crafted and deep games. I must admit that my favorite games are almost all jRPGs on the PS1. Xenogears being at the top of the list. Which may seem odd, and against my point as it's very wordy. But PS1 era games still forced you to use your imagination at the same time. Along the lines of reading a book vs. watching a movie. There was little to no voice acting in these games, and the graphics were unique in that they weren't so polished, and you still had to use your imagination. Sometimes not really knowing if it was a giant cheese grater or something else that you were walking across in FF7. And then, as you worked toward progressing, you were rewarded with a CGI cut scene. A moment where you were absolutely blown away by the graphics, and you didn't have to use your imagination. You got a glimpse into what the artist was really intending to show you. A very interesting time for video games in my opinion. Moving on to my second reason: Nostalgia. I remember when I was very young, maybe 6 or 7, my friend was boasting that his friend had every single Atari game there ever was. When he told me there were "probably like a thousand" I was blown away. I never got to see the collection, but I still got to play some Atari games when I was a kid. I remember being amazed that there was this crazy thing that came out before the Nintendo! I thought Nintendo was all there was! I grew up a cool time when I still had the Atari to look at and think it was old and cool and mysterious, and right when NES was the staple, and then shortly after that the SNES came out. Because I basically grew up as video games evolved, I think that nostalgia is so easily a source of great joy for me when playing retro games.

kman5353 writes:

Grew up with a Nintendo 64 and played a lot of super nintendo at my cousins house. i have never really played atari but from the few experiences ive had with it it was very fun. i have started collecting retro games since even though put dated are extremely fun

kingofkongs writes:

I absolutely love all of your portable builds Ben, i prefer retro games to newer ones because that's how my family bonded. I was the youngest in my family so while everyone got the newest console i got the hand me downs so, i always had the retro consoles. I have always loved them and treasured them as keepsakes, i would love to add this to my collection, as well as having it as a memory of all the precious times that where spent with my family on this amazing console.

ghyde199608 writes:

I think retro gaming compared to modern day gaming is a much more enjoyable experience. Sure with newer gaming everyone is very interested in the new graphics or the online community that the game has. But to me nothing beats having you and your friends all huddled around a tv in one room playing one game all together. To me that's what retro gaming was all about, not caring about if the game looked the best or if a new update made the game better. You had to use your imagination with the graphics to see what the developers were out to make, like the graphics on the Atari 2600. Everything was much more simple with retro gaming, not having to worry about downloading updates in order to play or not having internet connection at your house. In my opinion no new gaming experience can compare to the experience of retro gaming that brought me and all my friends together back in the day.

demetror writes:

i love old games ; it always reminds me the time when i was playing text rpg with my father on the minitels we had home

and after this i discovered dwarf fortress , it's an amazing game (if graphics doesnt drive your judgement) ; the character creation ; the backstories ; all are generated randomly (or customized) even the world is random and i still play this game to this day , because i still have things to do in it , even after 14 years playing it

slain_pixxels writes:

I like both retro and modern gaming. I like retro because is is cool and fun to play old games that paved the way for what we have now and there are some fun experiences that you can't get with modern games. The reason I also like modern games is that now a days there is so much to do and explore in them and you can really immerse yourself in them.

godofmelons writes:

being born in the late 90s didnt give me very much experience with retro gaming, my first real gaming system being a Nintendo64 with mario kart only. despite this, in my eyes the retro gaming ideals are still held high above todays games. these days you can buy a steam game, play it for 5 hours, and be done with it forever, but back when you had to to go to the store and buy your game (with some hopefully kickass box art as well) the hype and excitement ment that that game lasted you months before you needed something new, and when you did the whole cycle started over again. ive never played, or even seen in person, an Atari 2600 but id like to own a piece of gaming history, even if it is this heavily modified beauty of a console.

rossanx writes:

I used to relax playing retro games. Modern games makes me anxious. I had a really good time playing Atari River Raid !!! Good times !!!

meestahbinks writes:

Even though both modern and retro games are fun, retro games still hold a special place in our hearts that modern games simply cant replace. The simplistic nature of retro games make them never ending and fun forever. I prefer retro games.

fdeschape@comcast.net writes:

My best videogame memory is actually my oldest memory. I remember back in 1986 when the NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM first came out. My Dad and Mom bought it for my brother and I as a christmas . At the time we only had the atari 2600 (which i still have the same exact one at home) and enjoyed playing breakout with my mom. My brother and i were jumping for joy all happy because we were going to be able to play mario bros and duck hunt. The only stipulation was that how my brother was older and more responsible that the NES would have to be in his room. The atari 2600 was going to be placed in my room so i can use that. That is where my troubles began. My brother would not allow me to use the NES because he was using it ALL THE TIME! Then i could not use the atari because my mother was ALWAYS PLAYING BREAKOUT! That memory is what started my love for gaming because when i had the chance to play, I PLAYED IT A LOT! Hence why to this day i still own the same atari 2600 and the same NES that i had when i was a kid giving me the last laugh on my brother.That is my fondest memory of retro gaming

red9419 writes:

Although i absolutely love modern gaming, i can't resist retro gaming! I love the simplicity of games and the level of dificulty they bring. I would perfer a good retro game over a sub par modern game anyday.

dmonti222 writes:

video games should have one objective only, high scores!!!!

dj_120 writes:

I think there better because there on cartridges and not on DVD/blue ray faster load times than now with 7/8th gen

guerillagrue writes:

I love gaming no matter the generation. Retro, modern, and anywhere in the middle, there are gems hidden throughout gaming's history and future, and almost any title you come across has something to offer. A lot of old-school games require more pattern memorization and control mastery to really excel at, while many modern games focus more on the physicality of playing -- the movement and flow, understanding level layouts, etc. -- which provides both approaches with unique elements to the way the feel to play and study.As for retro gaming stories, one of my happiest gaming memories is the day I finally acquired a Colecovision. It was around 2003. My parents had purchased me a huge box of "Atari games" at a yard sale... a box that happened to be 3/4 Colecovision titles, and me with no way to play them. The games looked like so much fun though, everything from Mr. Do! to Boulder Dash and Donkey Kong, all of them begging me to get my grubby hands on a system to play them!And so the hunt was on. We searched high and low, yard sale and flea market, until finally, almost a year later, we struck paydirt: the owner of Game Exchange in Conway had an extra he was willing to part with. We arranged a date to go pick it up, and I was absolutely ecstatic. I was grinning like a fool when we arrived at the store, and there it was: not regular inventory, but part of a personal collection that was being sold only to ME.Of course, when I got home I found out one controller was completely dead and the other only about 3/4 worked, but hey, it was a Colecovision! And what I could get to work with the semi-busted controller was FUN!Still one of my most memorable retro memories. Between that and acquiring an Atari 7800, 2004 was an amazing year for me.

sambowoolf writes:

I have never owned an Atari I have played many retro games and I like the games for retro consoles but I also like how small and compact new consoles get which is why I think this build is so cool because you can play retro games on a small console.

thecablesarecut writes:

Retro gives us that classic feeling Also you do not need to pay 7.99 play your games every month. No WIFI needed,easy to program,good games with no bull

walcoms7 writes:

Not only is retro gaming more focused on gameplay, but sprites typically look better than most 3D modeling. You look at games from the late nineties and many of them look like garbage, and yet many SNES games from 1993 still look incredible today. Games like Little Samson look and play amazingly, even today; and that cartridge is old enough to be divorced.

ewzzy writes:

The first time I played 2600 games was on the Activision Anthology for PS2. I loved playing them with my mom and learning about gaming when she was a kid. Playing Freeway and Barnstorming while listening to Take On Me gave me a sense of nostalgia for a time before I was born.

doomguy500 writes:

I like retro gaming bether than modern gaming better because of loading time and not so terribly complex controllers. I love how this build came out, good job!

gamerman55214 writes:

I love retro games more than games now adays because you can play them for days on end compared to games of today where the story ends and you have nothing to play after. games like asteroids and pong made videogames. my name is Justin McCorkle im 18 from Michigan

miticeo writes:

This was my first console! Awesome build btw.

garrettbtimb writes:

When my mom was a kid her family was pore but her brother (my uncle) saved up the money to buy a nes and she used it to bond with her brother and step dad. Then a couple of years ago my sisters and i were at my grandparents house and my older sister found the nes with the two controles, the light gun, and a copy of super Mario bros and duck hunt in a plastic bag. It was love at first sight. We took it home and played mario for hours and I was surprised that a simple 8 bit game could be so fun. I relised that the graphics didn'thave to be the best and you didn't have to have a powerful concle to have a great time playing games. That news was also the first mod I did by ddisconnecting the lock out chip and fixing the fixing the 72 pin conetor. My mom and I bond over playing a couple rounds of Mario just like she did with her brother and step dad. I love your show Ben and I've learned a lot from you and thats why I like old video games better then new ones.

gamerpro987 writes:

I like retro gaming a lot because it reminds me of my child hood from when i used to play on my atari system a lot when i was young. And i enjoyed playing with my brothers and sister and my dad. That is my i perfer retro over modern gaming.

thebearded_mike writes:

I've always loved retro gaming. Growing up in the 90's I got to take witness to the gaming technology that was made back then, which fueled my love for creating/modding. when I play my Gameboy I feel like I'm a kid again, picking my first Pokemon to start my journey, or going through castles to find my princess.

galileopumpkins writes:

Well geeze how do i start? Although I'm only 14 years old, I was raised around retro videogames growing up and still play them today. The reason I prefer retro gaming is not only because I grew up with it but because they were actually a challenge. I find with modern games completing the game is not nearly as rewarding as completing a retro game, for it was much for difficult. With old video games, there was more of a community. You would discuss with your friends at lunch about games because nobody knew how to complete them on there own. There is just something magical about that- about connecting with the community more.

punruh091 writes:

i prefer retro gaming over modern gaming because retro is so much more simple than modern and it is not as gory. and it is so much more simple Ex:

so for obvious reasons i prefer retro gaming

tangonoveber writes:

Awesome build as always, Ben. I love and enjoy retro gaming mainly due to the simplicity and demand for creativity with a lot of limits. The way I found my Atari 2600 is also a memory I enjoy. I was at my local flea market and it happened to be the day where multiple(!) sellers had Atari 2600s for sale. As I walked around asking each seller how much they wanted, I kept getting a sick feeling in my stomach because the prices they were saying we're truly ludacris. Saddened, I kept walking. Once I reached the end of the tables filled with miscellaneous treasure and trash, I spotted a Sears gaming system storage bin with a tinted plastic lid and a console hidden underneath it. As I lifted the lid, low and behold, an original Atari 2600 heavy-sixer appeared sitting there in all of its glory. Below the beloved console sat 25 games that ranged from E.T. to California Games. I had to have it. I asked the seller how much he wanted and the low price of $20 rolled out of his mouth. I stuffed the money in his hands and walked away with an original Atari 2600 with 25 outstanding games. All the console was missing was a signal converter that plugged in the coax jack on the back of a TV. Luckily, I had a friend who was also and Atari fan that gave me a converter and let me enjoy my console to it's fullest extent. That is why I love retro gaming and will continue to do so in the future.

odkin writes:

Would love to win the 2600 portable!

malky1550 writes:

I would love this. When I was a child everyone had nes and master system. But I had Atari 2600 and an amstrad cpc464 plus I love the simplicity of older games the fact that imagination is needed to fully get these games makes them far more desirable to me. The fact that Ben can make something so small and extremely useable is amazing to a tech head like myself. Amazing

trgm1214@gmail.com writes:

My favorite part about retro gaming is the ability to set up a console grab a controller put a game in and start having fun.

barny15 writes:

poelander writes:

I like retro gaming more than modern because I love the feeling of the controls and sometimes how basic they are. My favorite retro system is the Nes because the controller is one of my favorites and the design is so cool.

mouthymerc writes:

I would choose retro gaming over modern gaming not just for nostalgic purposes but sometimes as a kid you never got to play certain games, whether it was the fact that your parents would not let you get the game or ,whether you couldn't afford it.Another reason why i prefer retro gaming is because of the difficulty and how much more fun the games were back then since games now focus on the same genre such as FPS and you really don't need to think or have strategy, of course you still have your arcade styled game now a days but they are way more rare to come by and don't have the same feel as an older console. Because back then the controllers were way simpler, the graphics didn't matter, and that amazing wood grain.Also I enjoy that blocky 4-bit graphics that didn't have that much detail and you had to use your imagination to find out what that blocky mess was. My last point is that it was fun and it seems now a days its a competition of who can get the most realistic war game out there, but forget the number one point of a video game, and that point is to have fun.

lprimary writes:

I love retro games because of the creativity and ingenuity the creators had when making them even with the obstacles of graphics,colors,memory space and not being able to code in software. Looking back these games are truly art in the way they where able to portray what they wanted to with so little resources.

themaroonwalrus writes:

I love retro games because I got to enjoy them after everyone else did in their prime. They are simple, artistic and beautiful all in their own way. When I was a kid my brother gave me his PS1 and I played it every single day loving it. So I decided to go back even further to buy an NES/Genesis 3rd party device. And oh my God the level design in Super Mario Bros was amazing and has all the satisfaction as all the other games. It was truly revolutionary with how it conserved space and worked around the console limitations. Recently I picked up Atari 2600 games for very cheap but when I looked on ebay the atari 2600 cost too much. Also I would like to thank you for giving away this in the first place, it is truly gracious. I am also adventuring in hardware and hope to make my own portable handheld, but I haven't even started my first project yet.Thanks,Walrus

dpoproductions writes:

I really couldn't pick between retro games or modern games, I truly love them both, but I guess I would be more on the modern side because games have become so big now. Of course there is a lot of crap coming out today, but when I load up an unreal engine test level or house tour design I am just blown away with the realism. Graphics aside, gameplay is also improved in a lot of games. A couple weeks ago I completed the game Dying Light on PC and man it was amazing, it looked great, had great combat and movement and you really felt in control in a massive open world running on rooftops and knocking zombies heads off. So in the I will always love retro games and older games and continue to keep collecting them, but I am also always excited to see what new things people are coming up with and the technology that is advancing in the industry.

bhaskarsuper9000 writes:

Even before the days of NES, there was a handheld unit which had around 20 games which I would play all day. I also had a very small handheld console(looked like a butterfly), it had just one game. When the console broke , I tried undoing it only to know that I had no idea how it worked. Guess I was in second grade back then. I am sure if we had the Ben Heck Show back then, I would be able to repair it !! Eventutally, I started with an 8 bit NES console when I was a kid. Everyday after school, I would finish my homework just to get a chance to play it. Most of the times, I played Super Contra and Mario. Of course the other ones, Road Fighter, Mortal Kombat 3, The Olympic series, Street Fighter, Excite Bike, Duck hunt, Adventure island, Tanks, etc were equally fun. Can still remember the time when a friend and I finished Super Contra in 2 player mode for the first time. It was unbelievable. Ever since, I have enjoyed playing many games mostly on emulators, SNES, Gameboy, PSX, PS2, Nintendo DS and more.Modern day PC gaming has become more immersive, story and goal driven. Never games tend to need even more horsepower and its difficult to keep up... Back in the olden days, it was just sheer fun. You could just dive into the action from the start, like in the video that you just uploaded. Also the pixel art and subtle 8 bit music is why I like retro games the most!! Such creative variations with limited resources is what I think makes these games so cool ! Besides, handheld stuff makes it even more accessible and entertaining because you can take it wherever you want. I am a binge watcher of your show and I like hacking whenever I can. Although a student of Computer Science, I have great interest in Robotics and DIY. Your show is a treasure to me. I am sure I can make some cool things for a hobby when I start working. For now, I really wish I can get my hands on this Atari 2600 ! Good Luck everyone. Happy Hacking!!

mightywiz writes:

man what can't you say about the 70's, 80's, & 90's early gaming!

jwestiee writes:

Ok, let me start off with something about myself. I am 18 years old, doing an IT course at college, and love most things electronic, been playing older consoles because of the family and I thank them for that. My preference to gaming is old school, simply for the reason is its simple towards todays standards. Games nowadays are generic over the top styled games such as Call of Duty. Games back in the day were simple because of the constraints on technology, but even with that they made the most with what they had, (Zelda, Pac-Mam, etc.) given the exeption of some bad ones. (cough cough ET on the atari) Even with all that the games were iconic and enjoyable, and still are to this day, hey you cant go wrong with playing some Pac-Man or Space Invaders when you have the time. Overall some new games are good, but you cant beat the classics. So when it comes to old school consoles I love your videos which you sometimes make them portable or make a random customization like the auto-loading NES. Keep making awesome videos, from a nerdy fan.

krzyhu12369 writes:

I think that old games are better than modern games, because in new games graphics are more important than gameplay. Good old game always will be good.

natarajst3@gmail.com writes:

I love the fact that technology back then was not just copying someone else's code and being lazy with concepts and idea. That almost every well made game was because of ingenuity and the fact that everything was done to be the best in order to gain even the slightest advantage in the gaming industry. The biggest reason I love retro games is because I can love modern games as well because of them.

thelion writes:

I love retro gameing because it is much simpler than "new fangled" computer games! The sound and music that the little chips produce is much more cosy and heart warming than real music. Also, the games are much simpler and require few instructions to work out how to play, and if the console goes wrong you can easily repairit with basic skills. If I won Ben Heck's Atari 2600 Portable I would annoy my friends and family on long road trips by playing H.E.R.O, which has really repetitive music!

lucasrumney94 writes:

I really enjoy watching all of the videos about taking retro gaming hardware and updating it to modern times by making it portable or combining technologies. I love the atari 2600, 5200, and MANY more other retro consoles. I usually emulate atari games, but playing on real hardware is so much more rewarding. The same thing goes for arcade games. I grew up with the sega genesis (3), and played a ton of older game consoles because of my interest in the Genesis. I would love to win this because I've been watching your show for a really long time and as a student in hardware engineering, you are the kind of person that I want to be when I get settled and have a good amount of equipment. Thank you for the consistent entertainment and knowledge over the years.

mikeboas writes:

Retro gaming is my preference for nostalgic reasons of course! I still remember the first time I played Adventure and managed to pilot my dot self through the catacombs.

countryboysteam writes:

I love your portable atari i had tought of making one my self but i dont have the tools to do so. I love retro game i never played then i grew up with ps2 and ps3 but I bought a few atari and play then. I did turn one into a arcade set up when i was 15 now im about to turn 17 but the monitor when out and have not played it since. It was fun making it. Id love to own the portable to take with me to always be able to play a good old game. i love watching ur show i love to make some of the things u do but i cant its still great to watch nevertheless.

supertruck329385 writes:

I really like retro gaming. Not like a replacement for new and modern games, but more like an alternative game form. What i do is play Atari 2600, NES, PS1 and N64 on the go on my smartphone via ROM's. The reason is the lack of quality on the android marked. The games there are simply too *** compare to the retro games. Off cause the graphics aren't as good as the android games, but everything else is just so much better. Game play, controls, sometimes story and best of all. NO MICRO TRANSACTIONS. The way i play the games is simple. I have a PS1 remake Bluetooth controller for the PS1 games. NES wired controller for NES games, and a N64 controller for N64 games. All have a phone holder for my 6" slap of a powerhouse. It would be really cool if i also could play Atari 2600 on the go as real as original 2600.

newjersey2788 writes:

i have been collecting games since I was a child and now I have my own four year old who is learning from me how truly awesome gaming is. I am very much into the immersive games of today although, there is something different and amazing about retro games from the past. im a collector. Not just of games but most anything that makes me happy. Movies ,toys etc. to me it never made sense why no one wants vhs anymore. I have a nice allbeit small vhs collection and even movies on laser disc 8mm and umd. I hold alot of value in physical media in all of its forms. To me revisiting an old game is akin to re watching An old movie. In fact I get more "nostalgic feelings" from interacting with a game from my past than a movie from my past with comparable time passed since experiencing them. I can't understand why people get rid of their "old" games. I fear that physical media is going to be completely gone in my lifetime. If I were given the opportunity to own this one of a kind hand held system I would treat it with respect as with everything else in my collection. If not than I'm happy for the person who was lucky enough to own it. Keep making great content guys!!!

mzzashley writes:

For the nostalgia. They remind me of simpler times when I was a kid. Waking up early to beat my sister to the console, or beating her butt in games! ?

aerial writes:

I enjoy both modern and retro games, they both have their differences. This makes gameplay unique and less demanding to run and still have fun.This would be a treat to have and I would love to play the vast titles that it has to offer.

yecul writes:

Retro gaming is awesome because of the nostalgia factor. It's great to relive memories. There are some phenomenal games that have been made throughout the years and being old doesn't mean they're not still fun. Also, there are some gaming styles and art/graphic styles that are better experienced on the original hardware as opposed to modernized versions.Thanks for running the contest. Great to have a chance to win this great device!

egames writes:

Growing up with modern consoles all my life I can without a doubt say that retro games are better. modern games (mainly nintendo) cater for everyone which is good for people who have never played a video game in their life but that means that the gamers (the people who buy the games) will have less fun with the game when they have to complete 30 minutes worth of tutorials. again it's good for young people but how can you get good at a game when you can skip the level after dying a few times. Now don't get me wrong retro consoles have more "bad" games but their is a difference between bad and boring. you can get hours of entertainment messing around with bad game while boring games are just boring. I do like modern games but I like retro just a bit more. Keep up the great work Ben and just as a suggestion you should make a portable nintendo 64.

smooth-e writes:

I think that older games are better because we can pick and choose from the best and take low cost risks with a game we've never played. Now-a-days the market is flooded with new games and it makes it very hard to filter the crap. I remember seeing your video on why you didn't like Fallout 4 perhaps as much as 3 and had to strongly agree. It didn't have the cooky and crazy fun that the older ones did (not trying to kiss ass, I really did think about this before thinking that you were the one that made a video on it). I feel that newer games try to appeal to to many people and it ends up having nothing stand out as a feature. This makes modern games, for me, very boring to play.

epicshadow writes:

I kinda prefer modern games since that's pretty much what I grew up with. I like modern games more because of all the things they can add, I'm not really talking about more recent games as of 2016, but a lot of games before then. I like the wide variety of games available for multiple systems, and all the different genres to choose from. I still like retro games, I've got a Nintendo Entertainment System, a Super Nintendo, a GameBoy, a sega genesis, and gameboy color, I have a little variety of retro consoles as well, but I mainly more modern games.

jazzfalco writes:

I love this project! The best part about it is well its portable lol anyway i prefer retro gaming to new because it had alot more heart and challenge.

miserieschild writes:

Retro gaming brings back memories!! The main reasons why I prefer retro gaming to modern gaming is it was just more fun. These days all the video game companies seem to focus on how good a game looks, (cut scenes and in game play) and little or no story line is there. Thus you are left with a shell of a game that beautiful on the outside and hollow and empty on the inside. Older retro games did their best when it came to graphics but backed it up by some kinda story line or fun goal that kept you coming back for more. You could sit down and play a game, beat it or attempt to beat your high score and it was still fun... something that has been lost for many years. It seems to be coming back around with certain titles but I still like to sit down on my NES, SNES or Sega Genesis and just have a blast!!

hawx2020 writes:

I love retro gaming because it is easy to just insert a cartridge and start playing in no time. With modern gaming you have to set out time to play games since you have to wait for loading and cutscenes. With retro gaming I can sit down for 10 minutes, have a good time and then just shut it off. Another great thing about retro gaming consoles is that they can be easily modded and can be given features that people back then never thought possible. Some consoles even have blast processing which is way cool!

spyczech writes:

I like em because they give you a good challenge almost always. nowadays you have to be the difficulty on hard usually to get that.

kimont writes:

I prefer retro gaming so I can enjoy classics like pacman

microclaflin writes:

Actually, I much prefer my Xbox One to Retro gaming. However, since my video gaming experience started with DeathRace 2000 in a bar in Minnesota in the '70's and my first "console" was a Atari 2600 and my favorite game from that console was Adventure and because I really enjoy your show. I thought I'd throw in my two bits just for fun although I am sure that somebody much more worthy will be the winner. Anyway, keep up the good work! Steve

geeklabsca writes:

Prefer the old school video games. While the newer graphics are better, it was just simpler and funner back then. Could just be me. I long for my atari or classic NES games.

dboss257 writes:

Retro gaming is fun for me because I get to relive my past with games I know and go back in time to see the games that I missed as a child. I am currently building a tabletop arcade with a CRT computer monitor and instead of emulating, I am using the motherboard from a Pac-Man plug and play system. It creates a perfect arcade experience with my hand-soldered microswitch buttons and joystick. Atari is fun for me because the games are simplistic. They are not like games these days that are all about graphics and textures, they were about simple 2-D fun. It would be great to experience a system that I personally was too young for.

bginatrunk writes:

While I do love modern gaming, retro games remind of a much simpler time in my life. A time where my biggest worry was how much trouble I was going to get into when I get caught trying to hide the VCR or the Walkman that I broke tearing them apart. Just had to know how everything worked and the nights at the emergency room after getting electrocuted because I forgot to unplug whatever I was ruining weren't go to slow me down.Those memories with my grandfather teaching me how to responsibly handle electricity are some of my most valuable. If it wasn't for those lessons I'd have never owned any retro gear because everything I owned back then was something broken that I earned by repairing myself. Now I'm the person responsible for fixing everything that breaks for several families. If only I could find the direction to make that into turn that into a career... thats the worry I often wish to escape from...

buntzen writes:

For me its because modern games are too easy and dont treat you like they used to. Constant saves and easy levels including orange highlighting, minimaps and the likes are examples of this. Old games treated you like you were a man looking for a challenge.

chingylee writes:

I love how retro games take you back to a time in your life where things were different, we used to play the original donkey kong on hand held systems. It was a glory time where you have limited lives, sometimes only 1 and there was challenge involved to beat you friends and take turns.

bobthemagicmoose writes:

Modern gaming is generally all about content. I cannot tell the difference between a game today and a game from five years ago as far as presentation goes! I love retro games for how the technical piece of the game was such an important wow factor! I still remember seeing dk on the snes and being amazed by the beautiful sprites! That is what brought people to E3, and that is why E3 was so lackluster this year. Besides VR (which already feels like it's getting stale) there's nothing really to see anymore.

jamey.baker1975@gmail.com writes:

Awesome project! I enjoy retrogaming. My first console was the atari vcs. The older games bring back fond childhood memories. It is also cool to check out games that I really wanted as a child but never could get.

dvv28 writes:

Way cool build! I don't know why they didn't make one before. Love Atari 2600 games. Retro are the best. modern games suck. thanks for great build Ben.

rrocha2016 writes:

Watch BEN episodes is a very cool, nostalgic and nice way to remember my life episodes when we dispended a lot of time trying to sintonize our television before to start a "Atari Enduro game" match between me and my collegues in my house.That´s why I watch all episodes of BEN HECK SHOW, waiting for a new 80´s videogame modifications and discovering many kind of hacks to revive and remember my memories.Thank you BEN!!

darktetsuya writes:

what I think I like best, is where you have a game and you can just pop it in and play! nowadays it's all day one patches, dlc, preorder bonuses, and playing onine with strangers that swear at you with every slur in the book.but to me nothing compares to the retro arcade/console experience, being there with your friends having a good time, the competition whether it be for score or vs. your opponent in a fight to the death in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. (I mean there may still be cursing but at least it's somewhat less offensive)

co1burn writes:

I will be honest, I do love my retro games even though I prefer to call them classics. I do how ever still love my modern games, to say I prefer classic or retro games over them would be a lie, to me there both great each in there own way. Now for why I do love playing classic games and take pride in what few classic systems and games I have managed to collect, and I am always looking to grow my collection. There is nothing like pulling out a cartage, putting it into the system hitting that power button watching the pixels light up the screen. Its the connection to my child hood, playing Combat on the Atari, Mario on the NES and so many more. Zelda, Donkey Kong, Sonic, Toxic Crusaders, and many other games made up my child hood. They remind me of sitting in my grandmothers house and the excitement I got each time I made it to the next level in the game, leaving the console on all night so I didn't have to start over. That's just a little but of why I love them.

dunndj13 writes:

This build actually got me hooked to your channel and I have now watched almost all your videos. Retro video games are so much better because like many people have said, they remind me of my childhood. They take me back to a time that was easier and better, even though back then I thought it was miserable. I am a soldier in the army and sometimes my job gets stressful and retro video games really let me relax. Thanks for the great videos, keep up the great work.

kurtschlack19@gmail.com writes:

What I love about retro gaming is that it brings back my youth. Also mist if the games today are more up to date on what is going on today. I prefer plug in and go. I also love your show. Me and my oldest son watch you every week. Well hope you get more subscribers, cause you are really informative and also really knowledgeable on every show. So thank you for the opportunity to win.

sherekhan9 writes:

I have a passion for retro games, even though i was not alive for the Atari 2600 days but i still feel nostalgia towards the time when you could just put in the game and press the on button. I wish those would come back and you making items like this it can make that wish come true

robertgoogle writes:

I'm playing original and NES since the day I got it when I was six years old I still play their original Mario Brothers and duck Hunt I'm friends with an retro game seller I'm turning them into small retro gaming machines to emulate the old games on. The running a Lenox operating system on the Beagle bone black on some of my newer models I make original game purchase will also work for the consul I made it out of.

jared.salisbury writes:

First of all I grew up playing on a SNES. I loved playing games from that time period and when I learned that there were other systems from that time I spent a lot of time researching and playing them. I just love retro gaming. I mean yeah, I like modern games but for me, all of the memories were made on that 16 bit screen and I'm never letting them go.

8ballmaniax writes:

I love retro gaming because the games now a days or in 2016 that is just lack logic. I also love retro gaming because if my NES or my Atari 2600 breaks or if i drop it i can actually fix the console without having to know SMD soldering. So retro gaming in general is better than most games now a days. I do admit though that there are times where i just want to sit down and play Gta V or Call Of Duty but then there are times that i want to play Super Mario 64.

heaume writes:

I like the retro games because they are simpler and i find them more enjoyable then the full and complex games that are made today. Its possible it could be that I grew up with the retro games as well but either way I still find retro gaming a lot more fun. I would have a blast with the portable atari if I was the lucky winner.

cf-105 writes:

I love retro games more than modern games because they forced you to use your imagination for starters especially with the Atari 2600.Gameplay was challenging,fun and rewarding.Game didn't hold your hand like they do now.You didn't need realistic stories and photo realistic characters to care about the games. I can still pop in Mega Man 3 and still want to beat Dr.Wily because I cared about saving the world from his reign. I can pop in Ninja Gaiden for the NES and still care about Ryu finding out what happened to his father and getting revenge for his father.I can pop in Blaster Master and care about driving around in SOPHIA and blasting enemiesI can pop in Pitfall 2 and care about rescuing his niece and mountain lion along with collecting gold.Games back in the day had better music than what we have today because they were simple catchy tunes. Now we have full scale orchestras and I can't even think of a game that has a amazing soundtrack that I care about in modern games, but play Wily's Fortress in Mega Man 2 and I am humming along.Games today just don't have the same soul as games just because they don't have the limitations that they had back then. Programmers had to work with such limited space and those limitations are made them get creative with their games.

metroid writes:

I've always loved retro gaming. My first gaming experience was Burger Time on an NES followed shortly by Super Mario Bros. I've always played retro games, I got a SNES long after the N64 was released, and an n64 after the Gamecube was released. Always being behind the times meant that many of the games I enjoyed the most weren't games that my friends played growing up, so I tend to get along with gamers about 10 years older than I am. Some of my more recent gaming has been on the Atari 2600 as I had a friend who wanted to pick one up. I modded it using the composite mod from your book and an LED just to make it a bit more user friendly. Playing Yars Revenge on that thing was a blast.

david.hold@gmail.com writes:

i prefer retro - ever since doom came out i get motion sickness on all the games from 90's forward

littlefreak3000 writes:

One of my favorite things about retro gaming is the innovation involved in the older consoles (and cartridge). The fact that the console was little more than a basic cpu and a basic gpu. All the magic that went into make such a simple system do such amazing things. The systems actually evolved with time. The NES added new chips into cartridges to allow them to do more advance things (difference between SMB 1 and SMB 3 is a great example of this). Also how Sega expanded games and the system by attaching multiple units together to achieve new ways to make games. The best part is people are still discovering new ways to expand on all this and learning new things about these old systems.

mattw64 writes:

Retro Gaming is cooler than Modern gaming because the internal components were more complicated and there are many old parts like resistors that you don't see nearly as much in modern day gaming systems. Old bulky parts were used for all of it!

asimo5001 writes:

My retro game experience:. I'll preface by saying I'm not necessarily looking for bonus points based off sadness, but I was born in the 80's and my dad died when I was 6. I don't have many memories of him, but one of the only memories I have was of him coming home with a brand new NES. I vividly remember sitting in my living room while we opened the box. Mario and duck hunt included of course, but Zelda and Link's Adventure had stuck in my memory. Zelda was a constant in my life even now as an adult. My wife and I named our baby girl after the princess. Because I was raised in the Nintendo and Sega era, Atari wasnt on my roster, but I have memories of going to secure hand stores with my mom and seeing atari Games for sale (that was for bonus points ) .

gaudymarrko writes:

So I was only born in 92. Which makes me far too young to have ever owned an atari console, and I'm sure whatever games i'm thinking of when the term "retro gaming" comes up are vastly different than what gen-X-ers typically reminisce about. And seeing as the first console I ever owned was the n64 which had fully 3d graphics I'd be kidding myself if I claimed to love retro gaming. However, I am a computer science student and I've programmed games that were more of less clones of popular atari classics like frogger and pong. I'm curious about all the videogame development I missed out on.

genelane writes:

I have the fondest memories of our 2600. My family was in Germany (father was in the air force) in the 80's and I remember calling my father who was on a temporary duty assignment out of the country and bragging to him that I had flipped the score on missile command. The system was just so different for me than anything I had ever seen.

Anonymous-446196 writes:

yo ben, my story starts later than most, what with me being a freshly graduated high school student. My humble upbringings begin a mile away form the freeway, just close enough to hear it all night. and close enough to the airport for landing altitude jets to roar above. In this situation enter first the S U P E R J O Y I I I an n64 looking nes clone. it later broke really fast. Off from stage left came my uncle with the S E G A G E N E S I S and the A T A R I 2 6 0 0, I then down this for the next couple years while the xbox-360 finally came around. then from stage right comes my older cousins come with the D R E A M C A S T , X B O X, and the P L A Y S T A T I O N I I. I then eat these up and later get a job or the 360.I prefer older games because they they come compleate and ready to play. the addition of updates and DLC means that that they can sell you a broke game on Christmas and it'll be ready on newyears but you still don't get the pre-order bonus

gundam_4life writes:

I can't say I'm a huge enthusiast of retro gaming - not unless we're talking about the N64 era. I honestly prefer modern gaming.That said, I want to know more about it and experience the games from that time because retro gaming is the foundation of what I'm passionate about: video games. Getting into the video game industry and becoming a developer is a dream of mine. For me, retro gaming is a way to understand the gaming industry and the developers that made it what it is today. Also, I want to play simple games. There are times, like right now, where I don't want all the visual-flare or complexities of modern gaming. I just want to sit down and jump right into a game. Whenever I think about it, I feel retro gaming is the best when it comes to that: getting you in the game as fast as possible.In the end, retro gaming is important to me because it can help me understand the industry I'm aiming to be a part of. And personally, it's great when I want a simple, yet solid, gaming experience.

zkimberlin writes:

Retro Games are the absolute best! I'm currently building a retro arcade with my 9 year old son and can't wait to actually play the games with him on it! We're also looking to start collecting old consoles that I played as a kid. Growing up, We had somewhere in the family an Odyssey 2, Atari 5200, 2600 and 7800, Nintendo and Super Nintendo, Genesis, 32x, Sega CD, Saturn and Dreamcast. Gaming was always a part of my life and love that I get to share this great era in gaming with my kids now!

pichild writes:

I am 11 years old now And I love to see and play atari games.

connorvelez@hotmail.com writes:

Hey I'm Connor from the good old state of PA. And these are some reasons why I love retro gaming like the Atari 2600. It's because with the old Atari graphics you have to use your imagination, if you want those graphics on the screen to look like the ones on your Xbox or ps4. But seriously your using your imagination. It's healthy to use your imagination, it's good for your brain. And making our brain better is always something that has advantages. And another reason why I like retro gaming is because you get a certain great feeling when you playing those games with your parents who grew up with them, and it gives you a great chance to bond with them. Me and my dad always play Pac man together on the Atari. Well that's all my reason. And who ever if it's me, you, or anyone good luck , I hope this will be fun for all of us .

tangiblegolem60 writes:

Myself I would say somewhere in the middle of retro and modern I'm one that likes the n64 and Dreamcast era but I loved the games from then super Mario 64 legend of Zelda majoras mask sonic adventure 1 and 2 ahh good times

aliasi09000 writes:

Modern games by a country mile. Those of us who played consoles since the 2600, and pc games since then, know how much better games are today. Seriously, who'd choose Pole Position over Forza 6 / Horizon 2? While there are some poor trends in today's gaming markets, in general the games are VASTLY superior to the games of old.Also Let's put it this way. I grew up playing RPGs and imagining the ability to see them in 3D and completely open. I wanted a western open world adventure. I don't play through Red Dead Redemption and think, I wish this was in 2D.That isn't to say I don't go back and replay the classics. I play them a lot. A good game is a good game and many of them are far more suited to gaming on the go than modern handheld efforts but on the upper level, I have no time for pretending nostalgia is really better quality, it is what it is. Modern games are held to a higher standard and when they achieve it, they are better.Civilization 1 vs V. No contest. We've moved onwards in technology for a reason and games have far more capabilities now and people tend to forget some of the shite they had to wade through during 8 bit/16 bit before they got to their classics. People in years to come will ignore the Devil's Thirds of this generation and concentrate on the Witcher 3s just like now they are ignoring Sonic Spinball and Alf on Master System.That isn't to say things are perfect now, we have had things introduced like pay to win games, endless DLC instead of secrets and unlockables and *** like that which make you wish for simpler times.

propheteka writes:

Simply put: Nostalgia. My first systems were Ataris. Although I don't have a 2600 anymore, I do have two 7800's (one of which I still have hooked to my TV).Games like Enduro and Pole Position helped spark my love of racing games. Ms. Pac-Man, Defender and Joust let me play the arcade games I couldn't 'cause my local spots didn't have them or someone figured out a 5 year old is Really easily distracted when gaming at a roller rink. Midnight Magic was the game that rarely ever left my system and ET was my very first taste of gaming disappointment.I grew up with these titles. They instilled in me a life-long love of games that I'm happily introducing to newer generations now. It's neat to see folks (re)discover things that you don't see much anymore in modern games. Want an easier or tougher game? Flip the game selects or hope they had space for an on-screen menu. Local 2P gaming? Got ya' covered! Want to do something really twitchy and weird like catching bombs in water buckets or jumping around in a car to solve crimes? We got that, too.I love the Modern works of today but my block old gaming heart belongs to the carts of my childhood. = )

bobbyblouin writes:

tuxfre writes:

On a personal note, I love the 2600 in particular as it was my first console, and it was in my room for decades (yeah, really, even in the PlayStation epoch), the TV was upgraded from B&W to color, but the console stays. I still have fond memories of this console that now sits in my basement, waiting for me to take some courage and find a way to get it to 21st century (HDMI! baby). Winning the portable would mean my cartridges would stop gathering dust and get a second youth!But retro gaming in general is the reminiscence of a time where games where simpler, more focused to immediate fun, not challenges to gain XP that you could then trade for something else, no "free-to-play" that ends up costing an arm and a leg and no discussion about how many polygones the engine can handle, just good fun with friends. Also, from a technical standpoint, the guys behind these games had to be extremely clever to go around the limitations of the platform, that's what engineering is about, get the best of what you have in the most elegant way.

tommy21 writes:

I prefer old games couse they are the best time machine for me.

christhesheriff writes:

I am going to be completely honest. I'm not too old. I hold no nostalgic feelings for the 64/32 bit era backwards. I grew up during the start of Microsoft's gaming empire known as Xbox. My first console was the Nintendo Gamecube. So thus, take this post as you may, but again I don't have a deep rooted nostalgic connection to many of my favorite things today.With directX, openGL, and many other powerful tools for developers to create graphically stunning games came the era of Modern Gaming. This is where I grew up in. Playing stuff like Star Wars Battlefront, KOTOR, Halo, Gran Turismo, etc. My first introduction to retro gaming, I remember very fondly, was playing either Mappy for the Famicom. All else I remember is spending so much time playing. Trying, trying and trying again. As a kid, with modern games, if I got stuck, I would give up and go watch TV. I got bored easily sometimes by some of the overwhelming games the times had given me. With so much to do, customize, figure out. Then you had to do some long boring tutorial that was useless because I was able to figure out everything before the concepts were even introduced to me.But with Mappy you were up and dropped straight into the game. You were a police officer and you had to get the stolen items, that's as far as I understood without looking more up years later on some wiki. Even if I didn't know some epic story, I was still compelled to play nonetheless.Ever since then I've noticed that trend about most of my favorite retro titles. Little/No story still damn compelling.Since you decided to say "bonus for having it be about atari" I guess I'll use Pitfall as an example of thisPitfall is one of my favorite games of all time. It's even more simple than Mappy. You're a dude, jumping over various pits in the jungle. But I can remember one of my longest gaming sessions ever being Pitfall on an atari flashback, I stayed up all night playing that game over and over trying to beat it. I never stopped. It was an odd phenomenon I had only experienced with Pokemon and Mass Effect 2 beforehand.There's also Tetris, my favorite game of all time (I'm talking the one for the NES, and no I've never played the pirate "Tengen" version). The game that never ends, but never stops compelling me. This game is a generally good example of retro gaming being so fantastic. No story, no tutorial, no bullcrap, you stack blocks. Period. But also, when compared to its modern counterparts, such as the mobile version where EA actually has continues for sale as microtransactions, and you could "save" pieces for later one at a time. This game does not have those things. instead, if you have some bad luck and draw a tetrimo that can't fit anywhere you have to fix it, that alone ramps up the difficulty so much and it makes you want to be better and better at it.While being more difficult and simpler, Retro gaming is also more relaxing than modern gaming. (for the most part, there is no damn way you're beating Journey or Flower in being relaxing) unless I am playing FF6 I can't see myself getting stressed while playing retro games. I'll sometimes play, Sonic 2, Ecco The Dolphin or Golden Axe to relax after a long day of work. Playing something story intensive like Skyrim just well seems like more stress that I am trying to get rid of...Also, you can't beat the music for me. Chiptune is my favorite genre. The bleeps and bloops of these console's soundchips sends something through me that never fails to put a smile on my face, and it can't be nostalgia, as I stated before. I dunno, it's simplicity in sound, but an ability to be so complex is fascinating to me but it also always makes me feel incredibly happy 100% of the time I am listening to it.The simpler graphics is also a plus because due to less graphic quality and less "realism" designers had to be creative and had to make a compelling game without relying on visuals most of the time like developers do nowadays. Along with that though came more colorful "pretty" games like Yoshi's Island, Super Mario World, the Classic Sonic games, any Kirby title from the era. Which relies on stylization and color as opposed to looking "real"Also, the box art was better (except for US Megaman 1) I'm pretty sure that's self-explanatory. I've been meaning to get more into Atari collecting, I just haven't had an actual console to do so, maybe now I can. I have a copy of "Phoenix" sitting on my shelf that I found waiting to meet up with the pin connectors of a 2600

patmlem@yahoo.com writes:

When I was a kid the video game crash had happened games were so cheap and abundant, I remember having grocery bags of atari games and trading bags of games with neighborhood kids. As an adult I have collected over 20 consoles and stand stand up arcades. I try to get my kids to appreciate classic gaming to better enjoy modern gaming. The handheld atari is cool because its what the new young gamers can relate too because most of their experiences are with smartphones and tablets.

railsrust writes:

I'm relatively new to retro-gaming as a whole, but I'm really getting into it. I want to get some retro game consoles, but right now I just don't have the income for such things. I love all sorts of older technology. I collect antique engines from before the 1960's; as early as 1915! Recently, older computing has become an interest of mine, and I've always been a gamer at heart; things just clicked. I'm hoping to build my own portable game machine with a raspberry pi and a couple of of modern-made NES and SNES cartridge slots. I hope to win the port-a-tari.

antinull writes:

Classic games are great for many reasons, The first is there is no need for an internet connection, microtransactions or DLC. When you buy a game that's it, you own the game. Second is the massive library of games that is already out there, Plenty of great time wasters that were well thought out and play great without needing crazy graphics.Finally It's what I grew up with, I always seemed to have a friends old game system to play on rather than the newest best thing, and that was okay because games are fun regardless of age.I would love to have a ben heck portable 2600, I have been following his builds since the first 2600 portable he posted about online.

fluffybutts2 writes:

I love the crap out of retro because it's so simplistic compared to today's standards with online interaction, heavy story elements, and the amount of buttons on the contoller. Another reason is modern gaming being so expensive expecially compared to retro gaming. Retro consoles are really reliable too. retro consoles in general hold up today and will still work just fine, they're very reliable, howevery even with the xbox 360 there's the notorious red ring which will kill ur console. The tvs u play the retro consoles with also cost literally 3 dollars at goodwill, while with new consoles u need HD tvs and multiple monitors and the highest end equipment that is so pricey.

techfanpodcast writes:

cheesystick writes:

I enjoy retro games more than modern games because classic gaming takes me back to a simpler time when I could be swept away in a tidal wave of child-like excitement for video gaming. Now that most of us are older, we face the harsh realities of life and all the difficulties of a grownup world. Even if I were to win the lottery today, it would be hard for me to get completely carried away with excitement, foaming at the mouth with anticipation and fervor. However, when I was younger and considerably more innocent, the sheer notion of a new game being developed or a trip to Blockbuster to see all the tasty new games I could try seemed like something from out of this world. I was able to become so overwhelmed by it all, (willingly), and I would routinely get enveloped in child-like excitement, almost as if I was getting swept away by a large ocean.I like modern games too, but I just can never quite capture that feeling that I once had with the newer stuff. Perhaps I'm too old to feel that way now, and maybe I have lost that kind of child-like fever that leaves kids bouncing off the walls with excitement, but when I look at all my old Nintendo, Sega, and Atari games, I am transported back to that time if only for a moment. I get to re-live it all once more. I get to feel truly excited again, and I also have fulfilled my childhood dream of owning hundreds upon hundreds of games of my own - a true childhood wish come true. This is why I love retro gaming.

andrewhannay writes:

Ben Hecks Projects have inspired me so much to get on and build something.

Look at some of my attempts:

The Game & Watch and Pong Watch I coded myself as well as building them.

The Hackvision Gameboy was based on the Arduino Hackvision schematic.

C64 portable based on the C64 TV joystick game

Here is a link to the Game and Watch in action:

-https://youtu.be/20aNaTlKoMA

Here is a link to the Pong Watch in Action:

-https://youtu.be/E3OZoS39Rkk

Finally here is a link to my instructables page with step by step(ish) photos of how I built some of these:

- Instructables Member: Andrew Hannay

Cheers,

Andrew

childofwinter writes:

One of my earliest memories is when I was three my uncle brought his NES over and let me play Super Mario Bros. A few years ago he found his NES and an Atari 2600 that had been stored in his barn for about fifteen years and gave them to me. The Atari didn't work at first because it had sat in water for a while and was rusty, but after I cleaned it and replaced the TIA socket it worked perfectly. Now I wouldn't trade it for anything, I love playing Warlords and Solaris and all the other classic games on it. Recently I bought a Sears Super Pong IV that needs some work, but it will be fun to play the catch variant with my friends, I think working on the consoles is almost as enjoyable as playing them, and it's definitely rewarding to have something that you fixed, modded, or built from scratch.

tmumandthepips writes:

I love the setup and frankly the theater that goes with retro gaming. It is just as much fun to me to go through the process of cleaning and setting up my old systems as it is actually playing games on them. Now don't get me wrong, there are amazing games that are fun to play, but it's also so much more than that!

alexthelion335 writes:

With retro gaming the games aren't as complex, so I love it because that means I can win the game (sometimes not)!

gentlemanwolf writes:

This build is very well done, and honestly I never thought it possible that someone could make the Atari 2600 so portable and small. I love the retro games because they were so colorful and fun, compared to today's dark, blood coated games. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of games now a days that are fun filled and thrilling to play, and I love playing games of any type, ranging from RPG's, to retro style games like cave story, up to some of the HD triple A titles today. It's just sometimes its nice to go back and play some of the games that started this whole thing. currently I have a PS Vita and I'm working out how to hack it to run a bunch of emulators, I want to finish off by saying that the build is awesome and keep going Ben. The show is awesome and I'm learning more every time.

spacegerbilrobotics writes:

I'm a little bit of both. I like retro gaming because there are no complicated controls or blood and gore everywhere, it's simple. I like modern gaming because of better graphics and more realistic games. I don't really like the blood, gore, and language filled games today but I like both retro and modern. Either way, I always have fun.

the_furox writes:

I love retro gaming. I've got a handful of systems but my Atari was one of the first. I got my Atari 2600 about 5 years ago and I absolutely love it. I am a big fan of the 2600 games by imagic and activision. My top 5 Atari games are probably Cosmic ark, Basketball, Enduro, Yars' revenge and Demon Attack. My uncle had an Atari 2600 (when he was a much younger man) and he often tells me of days he'd spend playing space invaders and berserk until his hand started hurting and he'd have to give up for the day. While I don't usually spend quite that many hours playing Atari in a single I am reminded of when I was recovering from shoulder surgery and got a little obsessed about increasing my high-score in Enduro (although I had to plug in a genesis controller to avoid arm movement). I love all your builds but I am especially amazed at the handheld ones. I've never been a fan of emulators on phones and such and the thought of being able to pack up a few Atari games and take them on longs trips sounds like a dream come true.

dsmoove1736 writes:

First I'd just like to say I've really enjoyed all of your console conversions to portable versions of themselves. I'm a tab bit envious of your skill and wish I could do half of what you do. Retro gaming. I'm 50 years old and have enjoyed gaming since my father bought a "Pong" clone when I was young. Ever since I became an adult I would but different systems starting with the original NES to N64 to every game boy released in the states. I loved the simple button configure. As games got more sophisticated I started to lose interest. I can't keep up with the changing times. Too many buttons to keep track of. I live for the simpler times. i would love that Atari 2600 portable. I would just buy up every cartridge I could find online. Except that ET garbage they found in that land fill. Lol keep up the great work. What wouldn't give for an X-box portable but then again what would I actually play on it?

thedalek4330 writes:

I love retro a lot but i kind of have to go with modern cause vr and it would make me sooooooo happy to win this!!!!!!!

winterz2k3 writes:

I love retro gaming as there is truly something unique about it, it really made you think. It people were putting their wildest dreams on the screen, Currently gaming as devolved into the same games over and over again.

squidysquid1 writes:

I love retro gaming because it takes me back and it is in a simpler form and you don't have to worry about all the stress in mmo's and such.

nrjize writes:

When I was a kid my dad built me and my sister a 1980's IBM computer and loaded a bunch of games on it. The idea was if we wanted to access those games we'd have to learn DOS which we did and it was pretty fun because we'd discover a new game every so often hidden within the file system. This was my introduction into computers, and one of my favorite games was one called Castle Adventure which was a dungeon crawler displayed entirely in "text mode". I have fond memories of playing this and many other retro games due to the fact that they were actually really good despite the low quality graphics, just needed a little imagination. Retro gaming means a lot of things to me, it reminds me of the good old days of being a kid and discovering all this stuff for the first time, learning how to use computers, bonding with my dad and sister. It was maybe a couple years later that our dad passed away, but because of these experiences I am able to look back with fond memories.

capt1701 writes:

I love retro gaming because of the nostalgia. I grew up playing the Atari, NES, and SUPER NES. Playing those games now brings back the memories from yester-year when life was simpler...and so were the games! I love watching your videos; I love to make props, replicas and cool things, so watching your videos gives me inspiration to tackle projects that I wouldn't otherwise. My current project is a handheld Retro Pi arcade device made from a hacked USB Super Nintendo style controller, an HDMI screen and an acrylic case. Once it is complete I will post some pictures! Thank you for what you do and I look forward to watching whatever you come up with next!

electricguy2442 writes:

residentevilgamer@comcast.net writes:

Im going to keep my comment short and sweet because that happens to be a big part of my answer retro games are from a simpler time when games werent super complex they were just plain fun at their very core . And they were actually challenging nothing was just handed to you . I still have my old stuff including my snes zombies ate my neighbors with my origonal kay bee toys recipt from 1995 for 9.99 and still to this day 21 years later i have yet to beat the game despite countless attemps thats why i miss retro games (but at the same time i dont miss them too much cause i constantly go back to try agin only to be defeated )

rockandrolla writes:

I like retro gaming, because it takes me back to when I was a kid. I has an NES and remember playing games like Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Monsters In My Pocket and many others. It just takes me back to a great time.

alexswanson2 writes:

I like retro games for 3 reasons. One, the don't have a lot of buttons so they are easy to learn to play, two, their music is really cool because, and three, the graphics makes the game seem more innocent because it doesn't look like you are actually killing anything.

xenomatica writes:

I always had an affinity towards retro games than more modern games. Retro to my extent is anything before the release of the original DOOM. The reason I enjoy retro games so much is that they were always new and original, very rarely copying another. Also, there is a certain feeling you get when playing them. Its the fact that the developers packed so much fun into so much limited memory space that really clicks with me. That may even be the reason I'm attempting to win this. Its not like this comes from some fat cat who pumps these things out with no issues, Ben made this by hand with his own experience. and I really respect that.

entermatestar writes:

I may not have grown up in the era of retro games but that's certainly what i grew up playing, my family owned a pawn shop and you wouldn't believe how much stuff moms and dads would bring in and sell cheap for a quick buck, depending on what it was all i had to do was ask and my dad would just let me and my brother have it, i remember some guy bringing in a gameboy micro with a few licensed games like those nickelodeon crossover games and sold it to our shop for only 30 bucks, and another person, a mom this time, selling her sons sega genesis because he never used it, it came with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Alex Kidd, she asked for 10 and we got it. To this day both of these consoles are packed away somewhere in my closet, ill still dig the genesis out from time to time but there really isn't much of a reason to do so for the micro. Me and my brother used to sit in the room in the back of the store and drink those ice cream soda shakers they used to have and play spyro and crash bash until our family would close shop and take us home for the night, a lot of fond memories were made in that place My mom still has her Atari 2600 laying under our last CRT in her room, she plays pacman and space invaders on it constantly lol she won't even try playing our modern consoles, "If it's not a joystick i'm not touching it." she always says lol. I still have the first two games i ever got on my shelf too, those being Pokemon Blue Version and Donkey Kong Country, both for the Gameboy. I honestly didn't think i would be able to write this much but thinking back reminded me of a lot of fun times. Retro gaming rocks.

chandler672 writes:

This build was a lot of fun to watch, I was extremely happy when you first flipped that switch and it worked. I love retro games, and they will always have a place in my library of games. Emulation just doesn't do it for me, I have to have everything in hard copy!

carl052293 writes:

I love retro gaming because it's easy to bring friends together for a night of gaming. Everyone has hardware that can handle the games and nostalgia adds to the overall fun.Retro is also hip and cool nowadays. It's cool to say that I have a raspberry pi as an emulation console or a dreamcast.

darkwolfy writes:

Uhh I'm new so I don't know how this work I just love old gaming and modern tech×_÷

roadhogg317@aol.com writes:

Retro games are fun, but I prefer the new mainly cause of the power and graphics it takes to make them.

back3rman writes:

Retro gaming reminds me of a time when gameplay was more important than eye candy.

oreo0424 writes:

Would prefer this retro gaming console because I love old video games and old video game consoles

gcaracde writes:

I absolutely love retro gaming. I was 8yrs old when Space Invaders came out and played all these awesome games while growing up. I have most of them at home now and play them regularly. Way more than my pinball machines. Reminds me of my childhood but the games still hold themselves for me even though they are basic compared to modern games. Simple is sometimes better and in this case it is for me. Well done to Ben and crew for making some great stuff.

shadowtek writes:

Warning Long read....

It’s Christmas morning 1998, I’m about two years removed from my Mighty Morphin Power Rangers pj’s and I’m deciding if it’s still cool for a 12 year old to wear them, even though they are too small and tight because honestly I’d still wear those today if I could. I was expecting the typical gifts, candy, clothes, underwear, socks. If I was lucky maybe some toys, Pokemon cards, Fireball Yo-yo, etc. hoping for a remote control car or a go-kart. Heck, I’d even take the pink Barbie Jeep my next door neighbor had. Nope, none of those came true. I got something I didn’t quite expect because it had been disallowed in our household up until then. Something much better that would dominate my life for the next two years. It was a brand new Nintendo GameBoy Color. The original purple release unit. Several of my friends had Nintendo or Sega products, my cousin had an NES I always played when I could. He even let me borrow it when he got a SNES. Another friend had a Sega Game Gear, still another an Original Fat Nintendo Gameboy with Kirby(which is my first gaming experience at all I believe). Portables were my first entry into gaming with the big name hitters. Two friends had an SNES and N64 and I had been begging for a N64 for a couple years already. However, this was better in my mind, this was a portable NES essentially shrunk down! Two AA batteries was all it needed (and later a magnifier and light). I took that thing everywhere, trips, vacation, school, etc. I had before this time gotten Tiger Electronic handhelds and a 999 in 1 games from Aunt's and Grandmothers who knew I was "into video games." However, no consoles graced our house and no big name companies until this GBC. At the time I only knew of the Game Gear, Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket and Gameboy Color's existence. Later on I discovered the Sega Nomad, Turbo Express, Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx and such were a thing.

Retro gaming and systems get my vote, and specifically portables which were so unique and rare back in the day. LCD screens, colored screens that were that tiny were a hard to find item. I remember pocket TV's and how big a deal it was if they were in color and could almost fit in your pocket haha. Today we all walk around with this technology in our pocket ready at our fingertips maybe even on our wrists too, *** Tracy style. I seriously think the portable gaming market was a huge shove in the direction of portable entertainment media that brought us to where we are today. The complexity of code and programming techniques used in regards to retro systems would eclipse most programmers today. There are lots of fancied up versions of assembly out there now, but it's so interesting to me that it's mostly traced back to the roots in basic assembly. I have a friend and in his programming class they actually forced them to program for the GameBoy to learn how to code well, work in a limited environment and learn basic assembly. I think that's brilliant and the fact that modern education is teaching old techniques from what's considered a bygone era is a true testament to it's amazing capabilities and long reaching effects. I've recently been collecting Atari for just this reason, they were handed a concept and told, "build this, oh and here is 4Kb of RAM, have at it." The level of ingenuity, originality, creativity, etc. still astounds me. So even games that were "horrible" I find them unique and fantastic when I hold the cart in my hand. I think this was created by one or two guys over a few weeks maybe a few months and they had to do some insane programming gymnastics to get this out in almost every case. The same is true of nearly every retro system until cd games took a stronger hold. Very Limited space, limited work RAM, yet unlimited potential in the mind of a programmer. The games didn't hold your hand, they expected a level of understanding yet were accessible to all age ranges. Modern gaming has lost some of that and in the world of essentially unlimited space, unlimited downloads, and unlimited access, we have lost something of what it means to cherish what we have and we incorrectly assumed in the gaming world that unlimited everything meant unlimited enjoyment. In reality the limitations with an unlimited mind are what can make a good game a great one. So maybe video games don't have to "rot your brain" after all.

Below is my original GameBoy Color that started it all.

stemteach writes:

I like retro games because it takes me back to when I was a kid and had to "budget time" to play my Atari (we were given an hour of TV/Atari time per day). My students loved playing the retro games on my Atari 2600 for Retro game night at our school. Each year for my birthday, I head to Ground Kontrol (a retro game arcade) to play Centipede, Frogger and Donkey Kong.

gregory.g.nagy writes:

Retro games were simple to learn, simple to play, but the good ones could still challenge you for hours upon hours. As an amateur programmer, it was also impressive to see what could be done with such limited resources. It was almost always the work of one person.Pitfall, for example, was a coding work of art. Gameplay was simple, but could still eat up a whole night. ($@!#&! Crocodiles!)

chris735 writes:

What people call Retro Gaming is what I grew up playing. My first "system" was Pong,..... that's the only game it had on it and I played it on a black & white TV that couldn't have been over 10". I then went on to Atari, NES and so on. To me games back then where much more difficult than they are today. It took thought and skill, not just button mashing, to play them. The games had more story and you had to use more of your imagination to fill in the parts the system wasn't able to. The games today may have better graphics and sound but they will never be classics.

jokelescomedian writes:

I prefer Retro Gaming because it took more sill than chance. If you messed up on a level, you usually had to start over. There was no running back and getting something you missed. Nowadays you have save points, re-spawns, and are spoon fed objectives. They basically tell you exactly what to do and when, and highlight the objectives and the route to take. Retro games were not copy paste because there was nothing to copy from. Even terrible games like ET gives you an example of a game that, if you were interested to learn how, you could make better. In the days of retro, game developers had to make do with what they had to make a game interactive and challenging with limitations of the computer. Now, you have White Ops 47 coming to the PlayBox 5 with no original content just a stronger computer.

rthankia writes:

I like older games because there more better and classic. Like they say old is gold

x22falcon writes:

I like retro gaming more because I enjoy seeing the evolution of technology. When you play something old and maybe not even something well known you can really see the flaws and or the good things about the game. Having to overcome some bad controls once in awhile is interesting as well. I also like seeing the change in the hardware over the many years. However most of all playing some Snes brings me back to my childhood. It really is all about the nostalgia trip.

davey422 writes:

I realy like to win it because i like gaming a lot but portable consoles are too expencive or there arent any fun games for it anymore

kokotas67 writes:

exceptional build. i had a 2600 when i was young, and it is still with me. it would be fun to play my games on the portable version!

hartkorcraft writes:

I love retro games for all the reasons which others has mentioned like:-Amazing gameplay-Playing with friends on the couch-Reliving the pastBut I love retro games for one more reason. They let you discover games when hardware limitations were so big that developers were forced to use inventive ideas to bypass those limitations especially in stone age when atari 2600 was the king. Great example is space invaders where enemies are slow at the beginning of the game and get faster the further you get. This mechanic called today 'increasing level of difficulty' wasn't at the beginning designer idea, but it was caused by hardware limitations. Old gaming consoles couldn't handle many enemies and fast gameplay at the same time so developers decided to slow enemies down to not cause the game to lag and make them faster when there're only few of them. Another great example is doom. Doom is called first 3d game but in fact it isn't. Doom is in fact 2d game but developers used cool trick which makes 2d pictures look like 3d to bypass hardware limitations.Once the games were more revolutionar because of limitation that every creator could only hide using interesting ideas.Now AAA games developers don't have limits that they can reach that easy so often quality of the game depends on which studio have more money not which have more creativity or more clever ideas. Now studios that uses innovative ideas are indie studios which have money limits.You can see now how playing retro games can teach you about gaming industry. How has it changed into today's form.I love old games for many reasons but they can show us how their history is important for us......gamers.

me-tan writes:

Fantastic build!For me, more modern games have mostly focussed on flashy graphics and trying to do too much, when sometimes, when you've been using your brain all day, you just want to chill out and play something arcadey.

ahmedalhloul97 writes:

I like retro games because it take me back in my childhood memories and it was the base of the great modern games we have now .

infinitebuzz writes:

I had a 2600 when it was the latest/greatest! Now I program little games for fun. Great project Ben, keep up the great work!

celticht32 writes:

Well one of the main reasons I prefer retro-games is because I grew up during the time these games were new..These games to me are a marvel due to the limitations of the platform (memory and so forth). If you take this into account it is amazing what was accomplished.The other reason is they are just plain fun... =)I really enjoy watching the show... thanks!

girltummy writes:

It's something special about retro gaming. It's less bullshit and more game.And. It's something special about inserting that cartridge. You know you own a game when you are holding it.

t3c4x3r0 writes:

I remember I got a used Atari 2600 with a stack of games when I was about five. I had the chicken pox and my parents purchased it at a yard sale. I don't remember the itching but I remember playing a lot of Yar's Revenge And combat.

maxfojtik writes:

I prefer retro gaming to modern gaming because you can just pick it up and play, instead of a huge learning curve.

djstank writes:

I prefer retro gaming, like the Atari 2600 and the older Nintendo systems. Your show has helped me become more knowledgeable about the systems, themselves. My favorite besides the Atari portable, was the three game console. Anyway, watching the tbhs has is a hobby my son and I enjoy! Thanks for the opportunity to own a Ben Heck creation!!!

thethirdstrike writes:

shadygrove424 writes:

Most recently I've jumped into retro computing. Saving a Commodore 64 from the dump was really satisfying and I'm waiting for some spare time to install the SD2IEC drive replacement.

Although I do have a few modern consoles, I still prefer retro gaming. The Wii U is mostly used for Mario Maker and my PS3 is essentially a Netflix box right now.

Kindly enjoy these few pictures:

Tear down of my Atari 2600 in preparation for S-Video mod (and a closeup of my favorite tool holder.)

IT LIVES! Fixed a botched reset button mod and it booted right up, after some good cleaning that is.

Lastly, one of my favorite pictures from my childhood:(I like to tease my wife that I've been playing sonic before she was born! I'm six years older)

Love the show, love the site;

Cheers!

earthshine writes:

I love retro gaming because even in this age of advanced mobile/console/PC games, the greatest retro games are still the best "casual games," even decades later. The game designers, especially on platforms like the Atari 2600, had incredible limitations, and as in any creative endeavor, limitations force you to be...more creative! To this day, the top games from the Golden Age of Gaming have some of the best "feel" and gameplay experience.This portable Atari 2600 build is one-of-a-kind unique and amazing...I love the fact that it uses the guts of a real 2600 along with actual game cartridges. It would be great way to expose my kids to the classics!

theringer1976 writes:

I like all games. We wouldn't have the modern games without the games of yore, so I want to win yore device.

sayitaintjonas writes:

I prefer retro gaming because it doesn't require the amount of involvement that newer games do. Sitting down to Elite Dangerous isn't really practical unless I have a couple hours to kill, but I can fire up Raiden and have a great time for 20 minutes. Oh yeah, give me that Atari!

compterboy12 writes:

I would LOVE This Atari 2600 Retro Gaming Is My Fav It would Be Great If I Would Win Thanks

volomachina writes:

I actually prefer classic gaming over 3D. The games are more difficult and are easy to pickup and set down. My all time favorite games are Berzerk and Yars Revenge! I played those games for countless hours as a kid trying to get to the next level and highest score. Newer games don't have that same appeal to me.I actually was able to meet Nolan Bushnell last month and he signed my Atari 2600! Surprising enough with all the games and tech on the market I still relax at home with my classic atari and commodore 64

derek52 writes:

I like retro gaming primarily due to cost and ease of access. I mean I have a laptop, cell phone, and psp set up to play games from tons of systems and can fit the latter two devices in my pocket. My psp plays psp, psx, gba, gbc, gb, nes, snes, and mame games. And thats awesome. Also the quality of some of these retro games are insane. Like I really believed Final fantasy VII to be the best game ever. Until I played IV and VI. This portable atari is cool as can be. But win or lose, I'm just gonna go play final fantasy VI. and so should everyone else.

surfrock66 writes:

A device like this bridges the gap to get my kid interested in retro gaming. A portable like this makes him think he's on the tablet, but he's playing my old atari games...he will learn that it's not all touchscreens and stuff, then it leads to the exploration of all the other actual consoles I have kept up.

jpask writes:

I have been collecting since I was around 10. I remember when I first got a hold of my older brothers Sega Megadrive when I was 4. I was amazed by it. And if course I claimed it for my own as soon as he got bored of it. I rember taking it apart and being shocked by how simple everything looked inside of it. And since that day I have collected and modified consoles. Everything I get I take apart and look at and study. I just love to see how things work and even better is when I buy something that doesn't work and fix it. That feeling you get when you crack open a gamegear to change its capacitors and think about the day it was sealed up and who sealed it and where they are now. It even made me chose my job ! I'm training to become an electrician and it all started with videogames . I have every console from the nes to the Xbox 360 all set up on my tv so at a whim I can slot or put a game on and play it. I love games and this would be a beautiful way to obtain my first 2600 and finally get to see why atari were the big players back in the day and see why the older is always the better. I would love to show you my set up but I can't attach a photo for some reason.

alexcdaniels writes:

Retro games mmmmmmm, cant beat that simple sound and graphics that makes you imagination kick in overdrive as you try to make out the small pixelated sprites on the screen the memory's of childhood , i have never owned an Atari 2600 but with all the buzz about them recently i want one so BAD so i can feel part of this Atari nostalgia.

spoitras writes:

I love retro gaming because it not only reminds me of countless hours of fun playing games with my brother as a child, but I find the games generally lend themselves more to casual gaming and social occasions. Retro games don't rely on flashy graphics, good games are well designed and are rewarding to beat.

teknifix writes:

This looks like a great build. I'm into retro games because they're what I grew up with. I started with a Vic20, but had a 2600jr, Sega Master System, NES, etc (but never at the same time. I wish I had them back)..Nowadays I've found a lot of deals at game stores and goodwills. I have 5-6 Genesis (1 model 1, the rest model 2), Dreamcast, Gamecube, SNES, N64, Original Playstation, PS2, and more. I love collecting systems and games. I just can't find an Atari for a price I can afford. I live in Canada and they seem to be fewer here.Steve

buzzbo writes:

I probably love retro games mostly because it reminds me of the good times I had by myself and with friends playing games. We had to get together either at someone's house or in an arcade and play and cheer. Today's MMO games are certainly great at bringing people together virtually but they don't seem the same. Another reason I think they are amazing is the appreciation of the coding involved which had to be very tight, and creative to achieve some simple results. There are only so many colors to work with or pixels, so developers and engineers had to be clever to design games within these restrictive criteria.

rutang writes:

redyrok writes:

The memories of sitting in my room on a summer evening with a cool breeze blowing through the window while playing Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Mario World 1 & 2, Zelda and Starfox on my SNES can't be beat by any new game. It always brings me back.

evilash writes:

Retro gaming will always have a place in my heart as it reminds me of my childhood. One of the main reasons I still love to play the classics is that you don't need to put aside large amounts of time to play them. It's easier to get your quick gaming fix with the classics.

grr5000 writes:

This really takes me back. My first system that I got to play games on was my dads old Atari and it was the early 90s! My parents didn't have much at that point so was stuck playing that when everyone was playing nintendo, but through that I had some amazing gaming experiences as a kid that I think kids now days don't get. When games were just games to play and not completely immersive. I was a boss at asteroids. From there when I was a little older I earned my first nintendo and that changed so much for me but I will never forget the atari. It was a great game system for just good old fashion fun gameplay.

bjrocket131 writes:

I love this build!! I would love to have this because first of I am fascinated by older style games! My parents tell me all about the nes, Atari 2600, and ask of their other video game consoles. I have so many Atari 2600 games and have no console to play them on. So I think this gadget will be a fun alternative to the actual console! I would also want this console because no matter how much I play, I always want to play them more! It's just amazing at what content older games can give you over the modern day games and consoles. Thanks for this awesome build!!

wilbertron2703 writes:

Tech nower days is really good but I would love to see what the game consoles and games where like back then and would just love to play it all day. in my free time since I like making things as well. I have a whole collection of Atari games on my my shelf just waiting to be played but I have no console to play it on and there too expensive since there like antique consoles now. I just wish I had one I make all things like radios speakers a portable raspberry Pi laptop and many more. If I am picked to have this portable game console I will swear on my life that I will not sell this to any one in the world.

markgmn writes:

I love retro gaming for two reasons:Like many here, the games are from my childhood. Not much more to say that hasn't been said on that.My son is into drawing. He also loves our Wii almost like a pet. That love brought him to Mario, which lead him to the classic games, which got him creating art in the style of the characters he loves. He is getting into game programming and he is living in an 8 bit world now. He recreated a playable level of Donkey Kong using Scratch. He has asked for an Atari 2600 now for both Christmas and his Birthday. Last week he asked for to get a job so he could earn the money to buy one. It has become his super focus I love my son, and so I love retro gaming.

jones.charlie333 writes:

Nostalgia. I hate to be cliché but they don't make them like they used to. There was more of a focus on the plot and gameplay instead of the graphics.

ldiazpaez writes:

Ben and Team,

Luis Diaz-Paez

Miami, FL

galaga_will writes:

I am 15 and i love retro games far more then the new games. I love them because of how simple but complex they are and how the are just a ton of fun. My favorite video game of all time is galaga. I have played it so much and on my long car trip tomorrow i am going to play it for about 10 hours. Next summer i am going to save up for a galaga arcade cabinet. I have been watching your videos for 2-4 years and love them so much. I have learned a lot from them and wish i could do every project my self. I actually was thinking about building a portable Atari but my lack of talent stopped me but hopefully in a few years i can. If i got this i would play it all the time. I would stop playing my wii u and play this instead. it would make my month wait no my year, no my decade if i got this. Also you should sign the unit. thanks for just looking at my comment. - will

predrag.predrag writes:

Hi to all. At start I have to state that I have enjoyed watching Ben's show for a long time. I found him very competent but very down to earth kind of person, the one I would like to have in my circle of friends. Concerning the question, first of all, I call it Classic gaming, because those are the everlasting titles that have shaped game industry. Second, I think that they offer better amount of challenge and feeling of accomplishment. They all felt different. Today almost every other game looks like a reskin of another. Mario, Mega Man, Duck Tales, Castlevania, Sonic all felt different while playing. Also, the pursuit and insistence on realism purged magic and imagination from gaming. Gaming, for me, should offer new experience... what kind of escapism will I find going into the world that tries so hard to be real?Finally, speaking about imagination. I think that simpler graphics and shorter narratives allow you to imagine the character and the world as you see it. Not everything has to be presented to you. Just like reading a book, you project part of your soul when you play something that is not completely fleshed out. Thanks for reading and game on.

kamiokande writes:

Basically, what I preferred to retro gaming versus modern games is that older games tend to be more diverse in their ideas of storylines, length of gameplay, and replayability. Most modern games nowadays you can play for a single playthrough and not be bothered to play it again. But in the case of older games you can mostly play it again and again.Also, older games give off this charm of wonder of fantasy, like in older titles like Star Ocean, Final Fantasy, Radiata Stories, Castlevania SotN, and Rogue Galaxy ( well mostly PS2 games but can be considered retro by today's standards )I miss my days where I play Contra on my FamiCom with my family LOL. Nowadays people don't even go to each other's houses to game

jayscoottey writes:

I am 16 and am currently getting into collecting retro gaming, starting off with my game boys, Atari 2600, NES, and Macintosh plus. I think it's really cool to see how far technology has came since then and it's cool to imagine that these games were the latest and greatest then.

ryanhoetger writes:

I prefer retro games to new games because of the thrill of finding them, and the childhood memories they bring. My dad had an Atari 2600 that he passed on to use when I was a kid, and I absolutely loved Pitfall. I recently found a 2600 at an estate sale with about 30 games and picking that up was so exciting. Now I go to thrift stores and flea markets looking for more games and get that same feeling when I find one I don't have. On top of that you'd be hard pressed to find a good PS4 game for under $5.

dirtyelf writes:

Hi Ben. I enjoy retro games because I can get much closer to actually creating one myself and as you so often do make modifications to improve upon the games. Sometimes that is to make it more challenging, sometimes that is to make it much easier, but it is always fun. Modern games have their place but they are so complex it is hard to imagine ways to make modifications beyond just aesthetics. If I were to win the Atari 2600 portable I would donate it to someone less fortunate than myself. Personally I would get more satisfaction out of that experience. I'd do my best to film it or take pictures for the show! Keep up the good work, I really enjoy the show.

docawol writes:

I do love retro and modern gaming. I like retro gaming for the design and programming paragons in the field. I'm fascinated by games that break the mold of the time and do something technically impressive. Voice synthesis on NES, 3D First-Person perspective on Gameboy, and the Super-FX chip on the SNES. All of these and other oddities are why I play retro, though I am a bit young to have seen them first-hand. I do love modern gaming for the advent of immersive and artistic game making. Modern games succeed more in pulling me in to another world. Most notably would be my first game- Halo: Combat Evolved. Playing that, I felt truly thrust into a strange alien world. I experienced fear, wonder, and even a bond with in-game characters. As I am now, retro games fail to give me a sense of atmosphere (most of the time.) and modern games fail to technically impress me (most of the time.)That's why I love both modern and retro gaming.

wtullos writes:

I love retro gaming because the old games made you think and required lots of skill. Though im still an avid gamer on modern consoles and PC, I have far more of a challenge playing classic games, and with less story driven events and maps, I really have to dig down and find my way to the next item. In games now, there are all kinds of gimmicks to push you to the next event trigger, and I miss the challenge of classic games where you just had to figure it out.

runpie1 writes:

Games, especially the 1970s-1980s area, was an era of gaming I've never been able to experience. I've always been into modding, and making up hacks such as handhelds, and I've done a few things (such as modded a new lcd onto the sega nomad), but the atari 2600 is something I can't seem to get my hands on. I love the the opportunity to try this out; I know you wouldn't regret whoever you decide to give the handheld away to. (BTW I'm 17 years old and was never able to experience that retro-nostalgic feeling everyone always talks about).(I got the nomad at a yard sale for 10 bucks a couple years ago! Such a good deal!) SUCH A NICE SCREEN

Thank you so much for considering me, and have a wonderful day!

cgmarinos writes:

I love how Ben put the effort in to hand solder an Atari unit. I like how older games were more simpler, so that there was more to debate about while playing the game. "The tan blob shooting lasers at me? Oh yeah, that's a robot.""NO, it's an android""Next-gen" games are really cool too, but the violence gets boring. It'd be cool to have a retro console to use as a fall-back.

baracuss writes:

I prefer retro gaming being brutally honest nostalgia plays a big part, but also a sense of achievement from games with often rage inducing difficulty levels and no save states to save you.A big part of that especially with cassette based 80s computers is all the time it takes to load a game makes you really want to beat the game instead of playing for 5 minutes, getting bored and moving to the next game like modern games and attitudes has lead to.

enderboss writes:

I prefer retro games to modern games because of many different reasons. First, it's because they can give you a nostalgia of being younger and playing games, even in younger generations who could have possibly run into older games and loved them. Second, with new games, there are so many requirements and things to o, and the objective may be confusing to people, no matter how old. Although with retro games, it only takes moments for you to learn the objective or goal of the game, getting rid of any confusion. And third, this is a more personal reason. I prefer retro games because they have Always sparked interest and feelings that very few modern games can provide. I could go on with a few more reasons, although to keep it simple, I'll leave it here. I hope this comment wasn't as confusing as modern games and was simple like retro games as I described! P.s. I LOVE the raspberry pi

nmeibaum writes:

I suppose I ought to preface my retro gaming experience with my age. I'm 24 years old, born and raised in the New Orleans area.My first introduction to videogames was the Super Nintendo (version 2). It was a Christmas gift for me and my sister, and we played Donkey Kong Country, Top Gear, and Aladdin almost every day for years. We still pull it out every once in a while to play.In high school, I discovered Atari via emulation and was (and still am) fascinated by the games. They require a bit of imagination, but I think that adds to the fun. My favorites are Adventure, Gravitar, and Haunted House.In college, I was introduced to the Raspberry Pi by your first portable Pi build, and decided to build a portable system myself to play SNES and Atari games on. The end result was a 3"x6"x8" monstrosity dubbed the Mini Monolith. This project opened up the world of retro gaming to me, especially the Atari homebrew scene which is still very active and producing carts.However, you and I both know that nothing beats playing on actual hardware. I'd love to play Adventure (and some homebrew Adventure variations) on the real thing!P.S. In case you are wondering: The Mini Monolith uses a SNES controller which is recessed into the face of the unit. The controller is held in place by Velcro, so that the user can set the console on a table and play comfortably with just the controller in their hands. Removing the controller also gives access to a USB port for game loading or a second player. It has a 4.3" screen and a 10,000mAh battery for an extremely long battery life. Without your videos, I would have never even attempted this build. Thank you to the whole team for putting on such an inspiring show!Nicholas

fatpenguin writes:

Retro games bring back the feeling of "the good ol' days" that were stress free (at least for me). I love that even with the lack luster graphics the game play was enough to keep me engrossed for hours on end.

heehaw writes:

The main appeal of retro games has to be the amazing detail in the small amount of space developers end up with. in restrictions there's freedom. I can do without the modern 30gb game thank you.... followed by a 12gb patch...

jking1971 writes:

retrogames left it to the imaginage to fill in you could be anything and where fun games now in day are about killing and the such

jbyrns writes:

The Atari builds are my favorite! The 2600 was my first video game system! I spent countless hours playing these games as a child.

istvan.kuti writes:

Hi Guys!I would like to win this retro gaming portable device for my little daughter, Zorka, whom I would like to raise to experience the same flavours of gaming as we did back in our time when we were kids.

Of course I would play with it for some times, but the main thing would be giving this device to her as a present.

I started the whole Raspberry thing because of her, when she was 1.5 years old (about 1.5 years ago) because I want her to be able to write codes and make funny things at her own satisfaction, I would like to make her a Maker. It goes well by the way.Let me post a video about her running my very first Python program on my RPi3:

We are Hungarians, what she says at the end is: "It (the LED) is illuminating!"

Cheers,

István

mikethelabguy writes:

I love retro gaming, and one of my big ambitions has always been to write a game for the 2600. I was able to do that recently, and you can download the game from atari age at this address if you want to see it: My first 2600 game: JumpBall - 2600 Programming For Newbies - AtariAge Forums?. It was great fun to write it, and I think its good for at least a few minutes of fun. Keep being awesome Ben!

nushiva writes:

For me it's both retro and modern games. Modern games have new ideas that have neve been used befor. They also have better graphic (usually) and have an active community. But on the other hand retro games have overcome technological limitations at the time. Like Doom's "fake" 3D or Super Mario brothers only having 3 colours per sprite to save data so that duck hunt could also fit on the cartridge. I would love to have an amazingly built atari portable to let me dive head first into that era in gaming history.

bigbadhodad writes:

I love the fact that the people making the games had so little to work with, they had to use their imagination ingenuity and skill to do things with almost nothing, the tools they had were simple and limited but they made magic with them, the 2600 brought the arcade to our living rooms and as primitive as they appear beside an Xbox or ps4 they still endure and will draw a set of hands to play because they were fun even if we couldn't figure out what to do (I'm looking at you Pitfall!). Retro games are a great way to bond with my son too, he is autistic and we can play these games and he doesn't get overwhelmed they flow in an orderly manner and sort of calm him when the modern games just overload his mind, a little retro game to him is a great alternative to drugs which I hate.Simple and timeless doesn't need more than 16 bits or even 8.

phanathor writes:

I love modern gaming but also retro gaming in some ways. I absolutely love the new reboots of old games like the Rare Replay and the Super Mario Maker that imitates old games.

shadowblaze80 writes:

I enjoy the older more simplistic feel of older games, nothing too fancy or too simple to not be fun.

neilmh writes:

I just turned 40 years old this year so grew up in the 80's, which was arguably the decade when home gaming all started. My first experience was aged 4 when my older brother got - funnily enough - an Atari 2600. It was pretty amazing at the time to be able to play Space Invaders at home, something we really take for granted these days! I have never stopped playing video games since then and have had dozens of gaming systems over the years, and it always good to play some of the classics now and again. Modern games are quite different and in some ways it's refreshing to play something from early years when the developers were still learning and coming up with the ideas that are still being used in modern games.

cangre writes:

I prefer retro gaming to modern gaming because they're the games I grew up with. I have so many memories of playing the Atari 2600 with my siblings. Also, it was a different experience too, because it had black and white as well as color, because not everybody had a color TV. It was a different world in the gaming industry back then because you could go to a friend's house and have a totally different experience than what you might have at home, whether it was trying to beat their high score or telling them a secret to get to the next level, because there was no internet where all the answers are available. I'd like to win the portable to share some of those experiences with my family now that I've grown up.

joeycagle writes:

I like a little of both modern and retro gaming, but it tends to be either retro games or retro-style games that I play more. But I do have the new RX 480 graphics card for more modern titles.

krassi writes:

I love retro gaming, because brings me back to my childhood!

athornton writes:

I'm a big fan of the craft that has to develop in highly resource-constrained systems. Let's take the Atari 2600 as an example.

kenosando writes:

I grew up in the 8- and 16-bit era of NES, Genesis, GameBoy, and arcade machines, so those were my first love of video games, and although I play a lot of modern games now, I still treasure the video games that the current generation has little to no knowledge or appreciation for.

mcherry writes:

All of my favorite games are Retro with my preference being the old platform style games. For the Atari that would include games along the lines of Pitfall. Yar's Revenge, Circus Atari, Joust, and Warlords were also favorites of mine. Newer games tend to be more involved, and when my OCD kicks in and I feel the need to complete everything in the game I have a tendency to get discouraged since I don't typically have a lot of gaming time anymore.

josphed writes:

I prefer modern gaming because it includes the latest technologies gaming , like the high resolution graphics , the surrounding sound system , and those stuff , this makes you feel like you are not just playing but doing the real thing like if you are in a war or sort . In fact , the retro games are still cool because they have memories in us , you would remember when you were a little kid like the Mario game or crash , but it kinda sounds boring when you play it a lot because you won't expect any updates at any time so what you have is what you have so if you mastered the game , then that's it , however in modern games you can play forever , new goals and achievements come out everytime and you can play online with friends . So I am going for modern gaming .

mditto writes:

Back in 1985 I bought an old broken coin-op cocktail table Pong machine (a clone, not even a genuine Atari) and fixed it up and used it as my living room coffee table. Years later the monitor failed so I replaced it with the guts of a modern color TV. Of course when displaying the black and white video the color CRT has red, green, blue phosphor dots that reveal the inauthenticity. That's an example of how modern emulators, etc. don't equal the genuine original experiences some of us remember from the old days.

iamhere03 writes:

I love retro gaming over modern because its simple east and not very rage abl...any way I would love this because it is so great for traveling it is so convinte and it will look so cool on my shelf I'm a complete geek but I will be so happy if I win this I'm probably not I hope i do I love the vids keep up the good work you are so smart and intelligent and you make everything easier other then the building part that's pretty hard to be honest but once it's done it makes life just a tat bit easier and convenient any way Im gonna warp this up o don't want to be those peopl who spend 2 hours typing to have a better chance to win love the vids keep up the great work

didifart writes:

I prefer retrogames. They are easier, and I have more fun playing them.I've build an arcade box and play with friend are more enjoyable than actual HD games

chaosschef writes:

Retro gaming was when games were games they had rhythm they had pattern they challenged your speed and agility and your imagination. Great show guys

ryan120504@gmail.com writes:

To me retro gaming is revolutionary. If there wasn't retro gaming we wouldn't be where we are now. We wouldn't have Xboxes, play stations and others. Retro gaming changed the world as much as computers.

cnorrick writes:

This project combines so many great things from my universe into one package! I have fond memories of Laser Blast for the 2600. I don't know many people who played it but I recall having the pattern down so well I played it with my eyes closed! My brother still has our machine hooked up in his collection. We are teaching his 5 year old the fine aspects of retro games.

zander1354 writes:

I love Atari I prefer retro consoles AND games because the games nowadays don't have purpose (kind of). although the classic consoles were very thick I prefer them over the modern consoles. my experience with retro gaming includes the first made Nintendo ds (older than the lite). I love star fox for Nintendo consoles.it also includes a Nintendo 64 and the sega genesis. ps: I love your portable consoles that you make, you should see my post on a build idea.

torture writes:

I'm 44 years old and absolutely LOVE retro gaming! Why you ask, when there is a multitude of extremely advanced consoles available in this day and age? Maybe it's because I grew up with Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, Sega, and many more of the classic gaming companies when they were in their infancy. Nostalgia you could say. Maybe it's because back in the day you could carry on a fun conversation in school about the best way to get past that tricky level even if the person you were speaking to was a jock and you were the brain in class. Camaraderie. But, at the end of the day, personally I'd say it's about simple FUN. Easy to get into, more complex to master, but always enjoyable and stress relieving. These days, I still own newer consoles, but always love firing up my Atari 2600 and collection of 300 games to introduce the kids in my family to retro gaming. They still seem to get it, even though the XBox One is sitting there, sure to be included in a similar conversation that they will take part in when they grow up.

p25 writes:

I'll try to get straight to the monkey.I am 31 years old. My early childhood gaming experience was first DOS PC games, although most of them were "educational." All my friends had NES and eventually SNES. I didn't have an actual video game console until I got a car, a job, and discovered garage sales. Some of the first things I bought at garage sales were the Atari 2600 and NES. Back then (2001-2005ish) these systems went for dirt cheap. People would sell a tub for 10 bucks that had NES, Atari, and 50 cartridges, or an NES here or there for 3 bucks. I just kept buying them. People gave me their old Commodore VIC-20 and C64C.

Since then, the only video game consoles I've bought were the PS2 (which I only bought to play guitar hero... it's collecting dust), and Nintendo Wii, which I only bought to watch Netflix...which is still all it does.

I used to also play some PC games but never was a super hardcore PC gamer, and enjoy old arcade machines like Galaga, Road Blaster, etc.

I believe that I prefer retro games to modern games for 4 reasons:

1) Simplicity of input. For the NES/Atari, controlling a game was mostly 4 possible directions and one or 2 action buttons. Modern consoles have multiple directional controls, 6 + action buttons, and some with variable pressure sensors. While nifty, it's just too much to keep track of for me. Maybe I have a neurological disorder.

2) Game topic and design simplicity. Simplicity was probably often in part due to restrictions on system capabilities, but to me that is a plus. It also is interesting to me to see the topics of games back then compared to modern games.

3) My appreciation for hardware engineering. The retro games were piloting a new age of entertainment. Never before was there a small machine you could plug into a TV and interactively control what happened. Just a couple of decades before, a computer wouldn't fit in a room. Games were (probably?) written in machine language or maybe assembly at the time rather than a compiled language. While even modern game development probably has to battle the storage space, graphic detail to meet frame rates, run on the amount of memory in the system, and so forth, the "tricks" that engineers came up with to get the number of colors on the screen needed, to make sounds happen, to make graphics move acceptably on the nearly primitive hardware is astounding to me.

4) It was the first gaming I was exposed to since it wasn't retro back then. Since it's the first, it has the longest lasting impression on my memory, and since they weren't bad memories (other than the fact that as a child I had to go to someone else's house to play the games), I think they're the best.

So much for getting straight to the monkey.

Anyway, I've been watching TBHS for a couple of years now and really enjoy it. I would be glad to own such a unique project and promise not to sell it unless my life or the life of a loved one depended on me selling it.

Thanks,

Nic

mydroid76 writes:

I love retro games, and a hand built one especially by Ben Heck would be an incredible thing to call my own. I can't wait until I get the time and resources to do more with projects like these!

luketindale writes:

Retro gaming is great because the games and consoles are cheap, the consoles are easy to emulate, it has a good retro feel, and the games are fun

swheeler writes:

Retro gaming takes me back to my childhood. My first gaming experiences were on ZX81's, Dragon 32's, Atari 2600's and my beloved speccy 48k. Now I've got more responsibilities to juggle, smaller, focused games make waaaaay more sense. The build looks awesome!

stewjw writes:

There's been a bit of revival in pixelated games recently particularly with Steam supporting Indie games. Steam has a number of pixel drawing tools as well such as Aseprite, and Marmoset Hexels 2 which is particularly good for isometric drawings. As well as game engines such as GameMaker studio, Click team Fusion and of course Unity to name a few. I believe the very hard, retro PC game Hotline Miami was made using Gamemaker studio.The digital music is good in that game as well which adds a lot to the game. Pixelated art is a skill and I've recently been following Marco Vale's " Pixel Art for Video games" series on Udemy. It always amazed me how people managed to make apparent detailed objects or characters and animate them using only a few pixels.My first PC/games console was an Atari 400 with the horrible membrane keyboard. I lusted for an Atari 800. From someone living in a dull housing estate it did bring a bit of Californian sun into my life. I learnt 6502 machine code using one of its cartridges. I'd usually end up rewriting everything since it was a pain to save it to tape which wasn't always reliable. My first purchased game was Space Raiders.The Atari 2600 portable would bring back some happy memories.

anrange writes:

I love retro gaming because it reminds me of when I was a kid, it just brings beautiful memories back.

tanj666 writes:

barnbrnr writes:

So... with all the high-end, 3D, multiplayer, realistic games out there... nothing beats the feeling and memories of playing retro Atari (and NES) games. I'd love to play on that hand-held!!!

Former Member over 8 years ago

olives want one....
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