|
One
of the hottest
new handheld videogame units is in such demand that the manufacturer is
having a hard time pumping out enough of them. No, it's not Nintendo's
Gameboy Advance. This summer's ultra cool videogaming-on-the-go gadget
is the VCSp, a handheld version of the classic Atari 2600 game console
(affectionately known as the "VCS" for "Video Computer System").
Yes,
we're talking
about the same Atari -- the one you played 20 years ago when it was the
only name in videogames. Who else offered Space Invaders,
Adventure, Missile Command,
Asteroids, Pitfall!
and even Pac-Man back then?
The VCSp
isn't the
product of some big videogame company that licensed the Atari name, but
rather the lovingly handcrafted work of Benjamin Heckendorn, a
25-year-old graphic artist in Richland Center, Wisconsin. Heckendorn
built his first portable Atari over a year ago as a hobby project.
Since then, word of his ingenuity has traveled throughout the
burgeoning Atari 2600 nostalgia community on the Internet.
Heckendorn
takes a
vintage Atari 2600, chops it up, rewires the circuits and stuffs it all
into a casing he designed that's slightly bigger than a Gameboy
Advance. The VCSp's LCD color screen is cannibalized from a handheld TV
unit. The result is a retro design that evokes an era in videogaming
history that never happened: This is what Atari would have sold had
such a device been feasible back then. The VCSp plays all the old Atari
2600 game cartridges and features not only a Gameboy-style control pad,
but a knob to play games that require a paddle controller such as Breakout.
Of
course, nostalgia
from a parallel universe comes with a hefty price. A Gameboy Advance
can be had for $100 or less, while the VCSp will set you back nearly
three times as much. Sure, you could almost buy a PlayStation 2 for the
same price, but not even those can play old Atari games. What's more,
Heckendorn will knock off $40 if you trade in a working Atari 2600
console.
Is it
worth your
while? Heckendorn thinks the ladies will like it plenty: "Atari is what
women want, as far as games go. Women love that stuff -- especially
Frogger, for some reason. It appeals to them much more than [the games
that come] out now."
There's
some "bird in the handheld" joke here, but we can't think of the
punchline.
--
Howard Wen
|
