Thursday, 12 July 2012

Play Atari 2600 with NES Controller via Arduino

If you are a vintage video game conoisseur and Arduino enthusiast - here's the project for you. 'danjovic' found himself with a bunch of Atari 2600s but no working joysticks, but he did have something else ... so using an Arduino-compatible board and some simple circuitry, he designed a method to command an Atari 2600 with an original Nintendo Entertainment System controller.

You have to congratulate someone for having such a high level of tenacity to build such an interface. The project could also lend itself to automated Arduino-control of the Atari game - you could program in a set of 'perfect moves' and just sit back. Either way, check out the designs here. When you need to fit an Arduino-compatible board inside a small controller - there's only one solution: the Freetronics LeoStick - one of the smallest Arduino-compatibles on the market with onboard USB, RGB LED and piezo: