Filed under: Hacks

To the relief and joy of mothers, wives and girlfriends everywhere, some corporate savior has finally figured out how to coax dirty gamers away from the couch and into the shower. For a mere £1499.99, this waterproof, anti-mist LCD screen will let you get your game on even as you wash away the accumulated filth from your weekend-long game-a-thon. (Added benefit for the puritanically minded: it keeps those idle hands from doing Satan's bidding!) Once you've got a display in the shower, you'll just have to figure out how to wire your console to it and how to waterproof the controller you hope to use while showering.

After the most important seat in the house was conquered, it was only a matter of time before the last significant gaming frontier was conquered. Send us a (clean) photo via the tips form if you've managed to get your game on in the shower and we'll do our best to give you a few minutes of fame.

[Via RedFerret]

Some might say the cord on the Guitar Hero "controller" is more realistic, simulating the cable on an electric guitar. Lucky for us TheDude06 isn't one of them. He's done the due diligence, and posted it all on Make's forums, so we can reap the rewards. His instructions make the project seem pretty doable, if you have a little patience and a soldering iron. He says, "If you dont mind possibly trashing your contoller, there is only minimal electronics knowledge required to do this "mod". i didnt do anything more than run a wire from the guitar switch, to a pad on the controller. The only parts required were a battery holder, and a switch."

Sure it costs a couple rupees, but if you have a tendency to slide on your knees or jump off the couch while rocking your face off playing, you're probably sold on the idea already.

[Via Continuous Play]

If you've managed to get the iPod (Linux) compatible version of Doom running, then here's a little extra treat for you. A forum member of iPodLinux.org has compiled a list of iPod Doom compatible ".WAD" files. These files basically amount to a user-created total conversion that's playable under the iPod Doom engine. The compilation links to files on a GP32x site, so if you happen to own a GP2X you'll also be able to tag along. The ".WAD" files shown include Doom-like versions of Half-Life, Goldeneye and Heretic. If you're hesitant about hacking your iPod just so you can play Doom on the bus, check out this video of the game in action on an iPod nano.

[Via digg]

The Economist is asking readers to nominate the best pranks ever for an upcoming issue. Do any game-related prats deserve a place in the ranks of the best pranks ever? How about the big Zelda III scam of 2005? Or the "Nintendo ON" fanfic that just won't die? Or the cruel brother who smashed his little brother's GameCube?

Xbox 360 owners can now stream DivX (and XviD) movies to the next-gen system using a Media Center. In short, the modification doesn't actually stream DivX, rather it converts the file format to a WMV on the fly.

From the article: "The core process for accomplishing this is taken from a thread found on the XBox forums : Playing DivX movies without having to Re-encode, through media centre. this works fine, but has the disadvantage that you have to manually set up the encoding process on your Media Center and then move over to the XBox 360 to watch it. so all this article really does is provide an MCE interface so you can control everything from your XBox 360 being used as an MCE Extender. i.e. its for lazy people."

Modders, have at it.

[via Game Insider]

Did you have your heart set on a Generation NEX for Xmas only to have it ripped out Mortal Kombat style when you discovered it's garbage? What to do?

Ben Heckendorn, who literally wrote the book on hacking video game consoles (seriously, it's called Hacking Video Game Consoles), has some instructions on his site for turning that old, broken NES into a fully functioning "Super" NES! Steps include:

• Faux Stereo Sound: "Much like the 2 sound pins on the Atari 2600's TIA (Stella) chip, you can isolate the signals to get a separation of the sound channels and a kind of stereo."
  
• Disable your NES's Lockout Chip: "One of the big reasons a NES cartridge doesn't always load is because the lockout chip inside the NES and the one in the cartridge must "talk" to each other before the system is allowed to boot. Corroded (that is, not blown on) cartridge connectors can prohibit this data transmission from taking place. If the screen flashes on boot that's the problem."
  
• Replacing the Zero Insertion Force Cartridge Slot: "But this cartridge slot just didn't cut the mustard after about 2-3 years of play, and for those of use still playing NES after a couple decades that's a big deal. What's really crummy about the thing is the cartridge moves but IT DOESN'T. Thus, it gets all bent and smashed up, therefore not making contact after a while."

He doesn't go in detail on the post (that's what the book's for we presume) but he recommends Nes.Dev, which has a plethora of info on the NES. But if you don't feel like breaking out the soldering iron, you could just wait for the Revolution's download service. Nintendo will be more than happy to provide you with all the old school (first party for now) games you can handle.

Getting into game development as a student, for a class project or private competition, seems an increasingly common hobby. Not only do you get course credit for writing a game, but you have an instant start to your portfolio when applying for game development jobs on graduation. What could be better?

Well, this Stanford student project not only offers a hands-on introduction to 3D graphics via the medium of games, but had some hefty prizes to boot (including a trip to the SIGGRAPH conference, and vouchers for Xbox 360 consoles). Labyrin3D, the "wackiest" entry, is particularly innovative--using the Powerbook's tilt sensor, players have to manipulate a marble around a maze.

While not quite as crazy as some of the "game a week" prototypes we saw last year from a different academic project, it's great to see game development incorporated as class work for more courses--educational and fun.

[via /.]

A PSP-controlled concept car, built from a 94 Honda Civic, was on display at CES. Utilizing built-in WiFi, Sony's handheld can be used to open the doors, turn on the lights, and even drive the car. In other words, it's a disaster waiting to happen. Thankfully, the concept car is not available for purchase; but if it were, Metro Electronics (the modifiers) said the price tag would be in the $250,000 range--keeping it out of the hands of at least a few reckless maniacs.

[Thanks, Jason]

Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) of Microsoft did some digging and determined that our report of Hexic haxxoring was only partially correct. While it's true that the game has been extracted from kiosk disks used for European Xbox 360 kiosks, and while it's true that the game has been modified, and while it's even true that tinkerers have been able to make it appear as if they're winning achievements, the fact of the matter is that none of this has any effect on the Xbox Live leaderboards.

An email from the Xbox Live Arcade team to the good Major stated: "While Hackers can play the game and trigger the achievement awarded animation as if is still there but they don’t actually earn anything since they can’t connect to Xbox Live."

There you have it! Back to collecting black pearls the old fashioned way.

 

Most case mods are giant, fire-breathing speed monsters, built to be impressive, majestic even. Full of equal parts epoxy, plexiglass windows, and blue LEDs, they make LAN party-going geeks drool with jealousy. That's the part where Martin Smith's beautiful Donkey Kong case mod might not fit in.

A 0.5056 scale replica of the original cabinet, complete with fully functioning controls, coin door, and 10" screen, the Lilliputian case mod is perhaps a better fit for a one-of-a-kind emulation station; however, with an Athlon XP-M 2500 and an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 256MB under the hood, it's hardly a slowpoke. Keep your eyes peeled at Quakecon '06.

[Thanks, Bloo]

PSPvault's Liam McNulty put together a handy, but brief guide to the various flavors of the PSP operating system that Sony updates every time hackers exploit one of the system's software flaws in order to run their own custom programs on the device.

As many readers are fond of reminding us, the PSP really shines once it has been extended with various unofficial software applications.

A portion of Liam's guide is shown in the thumbnail above, but click through for the full thing. It's good stuff!

 

As anyone that's played a first person shooter knows, snipers are crap at short to mid range. The fact that developers often remove the regular cross hairs when you're not using the scope severely limits the capability of sniper rifles in close combat situations. You could try to shoot someone from close range with a sniper, but you'll inevitably end up missing and bunny hopping all over the place, making yourself look like a baboon in the process. Enter the solution: draw a crosshair on your monitor.

According to the writer of this "hack", you'll be looking at an improvement "on the scale of 1000%" when using this method in close range situations with the sniper rifle. Our own idea goes one up on this suggestion. As a "hardcore" FPS gamer, you'll no doubt be 100% committed to getting the maximum accuracy from your setup. We suggest burning a crosshair directly into your retina using this U.S. Air Force patented laser.

In all seriousness, don't bother ruining your monitor. Just switch to the pistol!

[Via digg]

The hacking community has been very busy this weekend. Accomplishments include:

1. Successfully ripping Hexic off of a kiosk disc and executing it in a PC browser (it runs very slowly)
2. Successfully modifying Hexic and running it on an Xbox 360 connected to Xbox Live
3. Hacking Hexic to earn several of the achievements without doing any of the work
4. Successfully running simple Flash applications that were never on the Xbox 360 (such as a clock application)
5. Modifying certain aspects of the King Kong kiosk demo to create the simple program pictured here

Speculation:

• Could this third item be behind the reset of the Xbox Live leaderboards? We hear people were earning some sick scores in Hexic before the reset (according to a blog post by Xbox Live's Larry Hyrb, the reset is a technical glitch having nothing to do with security issues.)
• These findings might make it possible to run a flash-based browser, flash-based media players, or even other flash games not available on Xbox Live Arcade
• There are many avenues of research that the hacking community is exploring. Given the history of past efforts by Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft to prevent modification (all to no avail), it seems inevitable that one or more of these seeds of opportunity will yield fruit
• How far away are we from a gamer points reset, given that some gamers have been able to cheat to obtain them?
• Will it become possible to cheat at other games? That's the surest way to sap the enjoyment from any game, as Halo players on Xbox Live who have been the victims of cheaters can attest.

[Update1: linked to statement from Microsoft's Larry Hyrb regarding the leaderboard reset.]

An Xbox 360 hacker's checklist:

• Being able to rip games off of Xbox 360 DVD discs? Check
• Being able to boot the system off of a custom disc? Check
• Being able to run home-grown code on the Xbox 360? Not yet
• Being able to decrypt ripped games so that copies of them can be used? Not yet

If the group of hackers that call themselves "Pi," is to be believed, the second item in the checklist above has been achieved by exploiting unencrypted content contained on disks intended for use on Xbox 360 kiosks in European retail locations. They write, "This leaves hackers with the possibility to hack around with this disc that load from a normal DVDR5 backup! .... YES you can run this! Burn the iso, put it into your xbox and be very amazed...."

Color us unamazed. These fellows have just determined that the kiosk DVD can be modified, copied, and used to boot an Xbox 360. Ho hum. The important step of running unapproved programs is still unfinished. Once the first simple program to display "hello world" has been written, hacking the Xbox 360 is a matter of creating more complex programs such as Internet browsers, media players, software emulators for older consoles, and even copied Xbox 360 retail games, assuming that the protection on those games can be cracked open.

If the crucial third step above is achieved, expect a patch to be swiftly developed by Microsoft and distributed via Xbox Live and via retail game disks in a replay of Sony's own back-and-forth battle with PSP hackers.

[Via Xbox360fanboy.com]

Someone really goofed on this one. Here's how Microsoft is encouraging people with Xbox Live account issues to email domain squatters with their personal account information.

Step 1: Visit http://www.xboxlivediamond.com/

Step 2: Enter a gamertag that's already taken. Joystiq works for this purpose.

Step 3: Notice the error message that says: "We're Sorry!!! That GamerTag has already been registered" Notice the following instructions: "If you believe that someone else has registered with your GamerTag, please send an email to support@xboxdiamond.com."

Step 4: Notice that xboxdiamond.com is registered with domain squatters. Oops! Hope nobody sent their Xbox Live account information (password, credit card information) to that email address! We further hope that whoever's receiving the deluge of emails isn't impersonating Microsoft and soliciting this information from Xbox Live customers.

The domain recently changed hands on eBay. The auction can be found here, including the following text from the seller, which essentially proves that the registration was motivated by squatting:

"This can only mean Microsoft had planned on buying XboxDiamond.com as a domain to use for support. Now that I took it first-- it means Microsoft will pay BIG BUCK$ to get it back! Buy it now-- and then sell it to them! Only reason I am selling is I need to pay off some holiday stuff-- and need to get the money asap! Good Luck this is a once and a lifetime domain!"

Let's hope the new owners are a little more scrupulous than the guy or gal that offloaded the domain on eBay.