Benjamin Heckendorn
Benjamin J. Heckendorn (born on October 19, 1975) is a console modder and Internet Celebrity. He is better known as "Ben Heck" on the Internet. Heckendorn is also an independent film maker.
He has two podcasts, one which he runs with the help of a friend, Jason Jones,[1] and the other on Warpath TV with George Force, Mike Zucker, and Anthony Carboni.[2]
Most of Heckendorn's mods are done by taking apart old video game consoles such as the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System. He then reconfigures internal printed circuit board (PCB) into a smaller form factor. The newly configured circuit board is enclosed within a custom case (done by a CNC machine) and any peripherals are assembled.
His creations have been featured in such publications as Wired, Popular Science, and Maxim, and on television shows such as TechTV, The Screen Savers, Attack of the Show! and X-Play. His mods are also commonly presented on high popularity blogs such as Engadget.[3]
Systems
Atari
Heckendorn has created a line of portable Atari systems, almost always using some form of Atari 2600 board cut up into a smaller PCB. The only exception is the Atari Jaguar "64-Bit" Portable he made. (and the Atari 800 laptops)
- Original VCSp: Ben's first portable project.
- Revisions 1-7: After "it all" was started these units came next.
- VCSp Special Edition: An all-oak VCSp.
- Vagabond 2003: A special unit made to be small.
- Vagabond 2000: A special unit made even smaller.
- Atari Jaguar "64-Bit" Portable: Ben's newest Atari portable. The Jaguar is also the newest Atari video game system he made into a portable.
- Atari 800 Laptops: He has turned two Atari 800 computers into laptops.
Microsoft
- An Xbox 360 was modded so it has a similar form factor of a portable laptop computer. Ben had been very used to modest popularity on the internet until the Xbox 360 laptop was revealed, skyrocketing his publicity for an extended period of time. The Xbox 360 laptop caused such a massive flood of traffic to his website that for a time caused it to crash until he acquired unlimited bandwidth from his provider.
- A one-handed Xbox 360 controller was built for a serviceman injured in Iraq. The Y, B, X, A, and trigger buttons are on the underside of the controller. The right bumper was moved vertically, opposite to the left bumper. The right analog stick was also moved to the underside, reversed wired, and elongated, so that when the right analog stick is tilted on the leg it works the way it supposed to. The left analog stick and left bumper were not moved.
- He has also made a second revision Xbox 360 laptop, which looks similar to the original Xbox (or the Xbox 360 Elite).
- He made an Xbox 360 controller out of a Standard Xbox Controller. He called it the: Xbox 360 “Duke” Controller. The black and white buttons were wired to be the left and right bumpers. He also added a guide button and sync button. The batteries go where the memory card slots were on the top of the controller.
- He has made another one-handed Access Controller with modular ministicks and buttons. Originally designed for PC, PS2 and PS3, it will now work with Xbox 360 through an adaptor. The modular aspect allows the user to freely switch the location of the sticks, digipad and buttons.
Nintendo
Heckendorn has created five (3 NESp's) Nintendo portables:
- NESp: A portable version of the NES, it uses a "NES-on-a-chip" and is quite small.
- SNESp: Built in 2001, it is the portable version of the SNES.
- N64p: Portable Nintendo 64
- Several portable NES projects using the NES-on-a-chip hardware, the most notable being the NES micro, made to parody the unnecessarily small Game Boy Micro and the nPod, a project that Ben had plans to make in large numbers and sell.
- Wii Laptop: Ben is done with the Wii Laptop. A making-of is posted on Engadget.[4] A video is posted here.
PlayStation 3
- A "laptop" version of the PS3 based on the Slim version.
PC
- The MGDp: a fully functional PC built into an antique MGD beer case(18 pack).
Sega
- Heckendorn has made a Sega Genesis portable called the Sega Exodus. It started life as a Radica Genesis collection DTV unit. However, its on-board composite video output and low power requirements made it the perfect candidate for a handheld. When a cartridge slot was added, it gained the ability to play most Sega Genesis games (however it is incompatible with Sonic & Knuckles, the Sega 32X, and other Genesis add-ons, a limitation caused by the re-designed hardware in the Radica DTV).
- On episode 11 of The Ben Heck Show, Ben built a portable Sega CDX.[5]
SNK
- The SNK Neo Geo MVS Portable was built around an MV-1C motherboard from 1999. For a screen, it uses the Sony PSone screen wired for RGB Video. The board was set up with an updated BIOS and a pair of wires to get stereo sound. Everything is mounted in a CNC cut case made of acrylic plastic.
- The SNK Neo-Geo Arcade cabinet..
- The Neo Geo MVS console: Uses standard Neo Geo controllers to play all your favorite MVS games on your TV.
Sony
Heckendorn has made three Sony portables:
Apple
- Apple IIgs Laptop: It is a laptop made from an original Apple IIgs motherboard, with added RAM and a CompactFlash interface.
Commodore
- A Commodore 64 (C model for its smaller motherboard) modded into a portable laptop computer with an SD drive taking the place of the disk drive (not to be confused with the SX-64). Ben Heck's portable C-64 being much cooler (and more useful to commodore fans). See [7]
Combo systems
Heckendorn has made two combo system to date.
- Atari 2600 / PS2 Combo Unit: It was a PlayStation 2 and an Atari 2600 all together in an Atari 2600 case. The system was not a portable unlike most of his game system mods. The case had to be modified and the cartridge slot was redone to allow more space in side the case. The Atari's controller ports were moved to the back of the unit. The PS2 controller and memory card ports were also on the back of the unit. The switches on the console were modified to perform various tasks that had to do with both systems in the unit.
- NEStari: His first portable combo system. The system was an NES and an Atari 2600 combo. Ben used both a NES-on-a-chip and an Atari 2600-on-a-chip hardware instead of whole systems (due to size it had to be made to be a portable). The Atari 2600-on-a-chip came from an Atari Flashback 2 system. The NES and the Atari 2600 use the same buttons except for the A button which is not used by the Atari 2600 hardware. A video of the NEStari in action is available for download here.
Hacking video game consoles
In February 2005, Heckendorn released his book Hacking Video Game Consoles, published by Wiley Publishing Inc. and printed under their ExtremeTech line. It contains step by step instructions for creating two Atari 2600 portables, two NES portables, two SNES portables, and two PlayStation portables, each in hand-built and CNC-cut designs.
Podcast website
On December 13, 2006, Heckendorn started benheckpodcast.com, a website for storing all of his podcasts, and all he is going to make.
Heckendorn's other podcast is called Sonic Boom, and is available at warpath.tv.
Movies
Heckendorn is also an amateur film maker. He has completed 6 Films since 1995, including his comedic love story, Port Washington, released in 2006. His most recent movie, released on October 31, 2008 was entitled Possumus Woman, and is the sequel to his 1995 film, Possumus Man.
Films |
Year |
Film |
1995 |
Possumus Man |
1996 |
Adventure! |
1999 |
The Adventurous |
2000 |
The Lizard of Death |
2006 |
Port Washington |
2008 |
Possumus Woman |
The Ben Heck Show
As of recently, Ben Heck has gained an online TV show. Episodes of this show occur bi-weekly available at Revision3, the host, and sponsored by Element 14.
References
- ^ http://www.benheckpodcast.com
- ^ http://www.sonicboompodcast.com
- ^ http://www.engadget.com/tag/BenHeck/
- ^ http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/23/how-to-make-a-wii-laptop-part-1/
- ^ http://benheck.com/02-07-2011/ben-heck-show-episode-11-sega-cdx
- ^ http://benheck.com/classic/PSp/PSp1.htm
- ^ http://benheck.com/04-05-2009/commodore-64-original-hardware-laptop
External links
Persondata |
Name |
Heckendorn, Benjamin |
Alternative names |
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Short description |
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Date of birth |
October 19, 1975 |
Place of birth |
Richland Center, Wisconsin |
Date of death |
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Place of death |
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