Benjamin Heckendorn

Benjamin J. Heckendorn (b. October 19 1975 and raised near Richland Center, Wisconsin, Now lives in Verona, Wisconsin.), also known as "Ben Heck", is the creator of many portable video game mods and is also an independent film maker. He has two podcasts, one which he runs with the help of a friend, Jason Jones (http://www.benheckpodcast.com), and the other on Warpath TV with George Force, Mike Zucker, and Anthony Carboni (http://www.sonicboompodcast.com).

Ben builds his new game systems by taking apart old video game consoles such as the Atari 2600, or the NES and cutting up the internal printed circuit board (PCB) until it can fit in his hand. He then designs a custom case, which is cut on a CNC machine, to enclose the now-handheld device. His creations have been featured in such publications as "Wired", "Popular Science", and "Maxim", and on G4tv shows such as "The Screen Savers", "Attack of the Show",and "X-Play". They are also commonly presented on high popularity Blogs such as engadget.

Atari

Ben 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

*A Microsoft 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. A video of the controller in action is available for download [http://benheck.com/Videos/duke360_controller.mpg here] .
*He has made another one-handed controller with variable ministick- and button-positions which works through little modules where the buttons are in. So you can put the sticks, the digipad and the buttons at any place you want.

Nintendo

Ben 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 N64
*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. A video is posted [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBfgrDr32Xs here] .

PC

*The MGDp: a fully functional PC built into an antique MGD beer case.

ega

*Ben 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).

NK

*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. Read the entire build-up story
*The SNK Neo-Geo Arcade cabinet: The first of Ben's gaming creations that stands a chance against a full body slam.
*The Neo Geo MVS console: Uses standard Neo Geo controllers to play all your favorite MVS games on your TV.

ony

Ben has made three Sony portables:
* PSp: A portable PlayStation. (Note how a lowercase "p" is used; this project predates the PlayStation Portable which is abbreviated "PSP.")
* PS2p: A portable PlayStation 2.
* PS3p: A portable PlayStation 3.
*He recently made a "PS360" controller, which is a PS3 controller built into an Xbox 360 controller's shell.

Apple

*Apple IIgs Laptop: It is a laptop made from a original Apple IIgs motherboard with the RAM expansion.

Combo systems

Ben has made made two combo system to date.
*Atari 2600 / PS2 Combo Unit: It was a PS2 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 isn't used by the Atari 2600 hardware. A video of the NEStari in action is available for download [http://benheck.com/Videos/NEStari_demo.mp4 here] .

Hacking video game consoles

In February 2005, Ben 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 Sony PlayStation portables, each in hand-built and CNC-cut designs.

His podcast website

On December 13, 2006, Ben started benheckpodcast.com, a website for storing all of his podcasts, and all he is going to make.

Ben's other podcast is called Sonic Boom, and is available at warpath.tv.

Movies

When Ben is not busy hacking game systems, he is an amateur film maker. He has completed many films, including his latest, a comedic love story, "Port Washington".

External links

* [http://wiki.benheck.com/index.php/Main_Page BenHeck Wiki]
* [http://www.benheck.com The official site of Benjamin J. Heckendorn]
* [http://www.benheckpodcast.com The official podcast of Benjamin J. Heckendorn]
* [http://benheck.com/category/movies/ The official movies of Benjamin J. Heckendorn]
* [http://benheck.com/category/movies/ The official site of Warpath TV (Ben's other podcast)]