Benjamin Heckendorn

Benjamin J. Heckendorn

Benjamin Heckendorn at Midwest Gaming Classic 2007
Born (1975-10-19) October 19, 1975
Richland Center, Wisconsin
Residence Verona, Wisconsin, U.S.
Website BenHeck.com

Benjamin J. Heckendorn (born October 19, 1975) is an American console modder and Internet celebrity. He is better known as "Ben Heck" on the Internet. Heckendorn is also an independent film maker and star of element14's The Ben Heck Show, a popular online TV program.

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 by Heckendorn.

His creations have been featured in such publications as Wired, Popular Science, and Maxim, and on television shows such as The Screen Savers, Attack of the Show!, and X-Play. His mods are also commonly presented on popular blogs such as Engadget.[3]

History

He had an interest in electronic and video games as a child, as a young man in film-making and in later life whilst working as a graphic artist he made a GeoCities site covering his project to make a portable Atari 2600, this led to an appearance in 2004 on The Screen Savers (following the temporary injury of the normal maker Yoshi) and then to a book deal and requests for custom electronics creations to YouTube videos in 2010.[4]

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 and the Atari 800 laptop.

Xbox 360

Xbox One

Nintendo

Heckendorn has created five (3 NESp's) Nintendo portables:

PC

Sega

SNK

Sony

Heckendorn has made three Sony portables:

Apple

Commodore

Combo systems

Heckendorn has made three combo system to date.

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. In addition, posts are made detailing all the projects he is currently working and the projects he has worked on in the past.

Heckendorn's other podcast is entitled Sonic Boom, and is available on the Warpath.TV digital network. This podcast is no longer in production.

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. All of his films have been released independently.

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

Ben Heck is the main attraction in a weekly online TV program called element14's The Ben Heck Show, hosted on YouTube and the element14 Community. As of April 2015, the show had recorded more than 23 million views worldwide.[9] A typical episode has Ben creating a new product or hacking existing devices, such as an Xbox, for different uses, sometimes based on viewers' suggestions.[10][11][12]

As the host of element14's The Ben Heck Show, Heckendorn has made celebrity appearances as an attendee or judge at numerous industry events and competitions, including Maker Faire Detroit and Engadget Expand.[13][14]

References

  1. http://www.benheckpodcast.com
  2. http://www.sonicboompodcast.com
  3. http://www.engadget.com/tag/BenHeck/
  4. 1 2 Ben Heck interviewed on the TV show Triangulation on the TWiT.tv network
  5. http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/23/how-to-make-a-wii-laptop-part-1/
  6. http://benheck.com/02-07-2011/ben-heck-show-episode-11-sega-cdx
  7. http://benheck.com/classic/PSp/PSp1.htm
  8. http://benheck.com/04-05-2009/commodore-64-original-hardware-laptop
  9. ""The Ben Heck Show" on element14 Marks 10 Million Episode Views With Coin-Operated Tabletop Arcade Build". Premier Farnell. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  10. Alexis Santos (30 July 2013). "Bicycle turn signals get the Ben Heck mod treatment (video)". Engadget. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  11. Nicole Lee (12 March 2013). "Ben Heck combines PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U into one console to rule them all (video)". Engadget. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  12. Dougal Shaw (12 September 2014). "Ben Heck: How I miniaturised the ZX Spectrum". BBC TV. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  13. "Updates in store for Maker Faire Detroit in Dearborn". Dearborn Press & Guide. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  14. Michael Gorman (26 September 2013). "Meet the judges for Expand NY's Insert Coin competition: Ryan Block, Ben Heck, Hilary Mason and Peter Rojas". Engadget. Retrieved 26 April 2015.

External links

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