The Dalec-79, a working videogame console, was part of my final presentation for Digital Media in 2003. I built three working units with packaging, and packed in a copy of my paper portfolio with each.
The basis of the console was the
Velleman Classic TV Game kit, which comes with a pre-printed PCB and a specially programmed PIC processor, and when assembled can be connected to your TV set to play a simple "Pong" game.
The basic kit has small control buttons attached to the PCB, which are not easy to use, especially for two players, so I set about creating some nicer controllers, ones with that 70's flair that a classic videogame deserves.
The ends of a "rabbit ears" tv antenna made nice control sticks, which were simply glued onto the stalks of metal toggle switches, as they only need to go up and down. The serve/smash button is a tough pushbutton, and a 4-pin mini-DIN plug connects the controller to the main board. The body of the controller is a metal cooking bowl I bought from a discount shop and drilled holes into.
Having built such nice controllers, I couldn't just leave the actual device bare, so I went out and bought a bigger cooking bowl, and set to work...
The toggle switches at the front serve as Power and Reset buttons, with the audio and video connectors at the back. A small DC plug sits at the back of the unit and receives power for the console. The black sockets at the top are the controller ports, and the power LED lights up green when switched on. Using primarily stainless steel parts gives the whole unit a retro style, appropriate to the retro game you can play with it.
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