Our editors have compiled a list of the “Top 5 Strangest Atari-related Gadgets/Projects” for your enjoyment. If we happened to miss any, please leave us a comment. “Continue reading” for the strange list… (Thanks, Zipped)

5. Pong Clock

The Pong Clock features an autographed serial numbered smoked pmma case, laser engraved logo, a custom designed circuit board (embedded software), and a powersupply with plug converters. In addition to being a clock, you can also switch to game mode and play a game of Pong. It measures 180 x 120 x 30 mm and weighs 500g.

4. Portable Atari Jaguar

Dave — creator of the portable XBox — decided to pay tribute to the Atari Jaguar with this custom creation.

The Jaguar was released in November 1993 for a sale price of $249.99, under a $500 million manufacturing deal with IBM. The system was initially marketed only in the New York City and the San Francisco Bay areas

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3. World’s Largest Atari 2600 Controller

Mary Flanagan created this 9-foot tall Atari 2600 controller to focus “on the exploration of the cultural and sociological effects of technology”.

[giantJoystick] requires players to collaboratively ‘perform’ their movements in order to engage with the game and thus makes them acknowledge not only the notion of shared space but also the necessity for shared strategies and approaches in order to pursue their goal

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2. Atari 800 XE Laptop

This custom Atari 800 XE laptop features a CF card reader, 8-inch TFT display, dual speakers, a full keyboard, joystick ports, and integrated Atari controls.

1. Cricket-Controlled Pac Man

In this game, players “can play Pacman against real crickets,” which replace the standard “ghosts”.

The computer game we used for our experiment is “Pac-Man” (Namco, 1980). Instead of computer code, we want to have animals controlling the ghosts. To enable this, we built a real maze for the animals to walk around in, with its proportions and layout matching the maze of the computer game. The position of the animals in the maze is detected using colour-tracking via a camera, and linked to the ghosts in the game

Honorable Mention – Atari 2600 Portable

Ben Heck shows off his custom-built Atari 2600 portable, which is powered by 6 x AA batteries and measures 7.25″ x 4.5″ x 1.5″.

Honorable Mention – Fossil Atari Game Watches

Fossil wants to refresh your gaming memory with these Atari game watches. A nifty animated screensaver is activated at the push of a button, allowing you to relive the classic Atari days.

Classic Atari games like Asteroids, Breakout and Centipede will animate in the background of the watch face. Pretty cool idea and they look great, but unfortunately the games are not playable

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