As big of a kick as we get out of mods and hacks that make our favorite games more fun or accessible, we have to admit that we have a special place in our hearts for mods like the ones we're talking about today, mods that stand on the precipice of madness, laugh into the face of the torrential downpour of skepticism and dare man or God to find some purpose for their very existence.
Why would you want to play Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! with the GameCube bongo drums? You wouldn't, that's why. So why even take the time to do it instead of putting your time to more fruitful pursuits? Because it was there, of course. Because it was there.
Though we love video games, we become frightened like cavemen every time they attain non-gaming functionality. (Funny story, we actually went through three PlayStation Ones because we kept smashing them with a ball-peen hammer whenever someone would use them to play a CD. We got past it.) So you can understand why we'd be frightened by this hack that lets you stream stuff from Netflix directly into your 360.
How does it work? That's the whole thing, man! We don't know. But we also don't want to stand in the way of your dalliances with the black arts. So there you go, you've got a link. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go turn around three times and throw salt over our left shoulder.
First and foremost, apologies for the headline. If you can find it in your heart to forgive us, we're sure that the video above will tickle your fancy for gaming peripheral-themed furniture. We're not sure how much we'd pay for a custom-built, gigantic, functioning Nintendo Entertainment System controller (or a boxed copy of Super Mario Bros. 3, for that matter) that doubles for a coffee table with a removable glass overlay, but we could be convinced to skip a few months' rent should this epic furnitroller show up at our local Targét. Our landlord would certainly forgive us when we invite him over for an exhilarating round of comically oversized Bible Adventures.
This video was released a couple of months ago, but if there's one thing we can't pass up it's a great sight gag. You have to respect a guy who would go through all the trouble of merging a Wiimote and a plastic AK-47 just so he could use the butt of the gun to smash the noses of the titular critters in Rayman Raving Rabbids.
What's more, the modder actually goes through the trouble of teaching you how to tie a shemagh to help increase the verisimilitude of your experience. What a value!
We admit that we don't share their same tendencies, but we love how many video game modders seem to come from the George Mallory school of thought. Why do you want to put downloadable content on the Nintendo Entertainment System? Because it is there. RetroZone are the ones to thank for the feat, which involves a specially-made cart featuring the Mac game Glider.
The cart is flashable, so once you finish the levels that ship with the game, new ones can be downloaded from RetroZone's official site. No, it's nothing we'd ever sink our time into. But we're aboslutely thrilled that someone out there is doing it.
"Yes! It's finished!", Gustav cried from within the bowels of his Swedish classroom. Viktor rushed into the room as Gustav's fists still pumped in triumph. "What, what is it my friend?" he asked, quizzically staring at the monstrosity on the desk. "Well, it's a giant NES controller," Gustav said with a snort, as if Viktor had just asked Sweden's chief export, which everyone knew was machinery.
"But why would you make this?" Viktor exclaimed, his patience waning. "Well, it's also a computer!" Gustav replied with vigor. "But it's the size of a small car, how could this be practical? And you spent the Swedish equivalent of $300 US dollars on it, it could barely run Quake II. Besides, Gustav, you already have a computer," Viktor said as he left the room. "Yes, but ... it's ... a controller," Gustav replied to no one but himself as his fists began to tire. But perhaps hoping it would reaffirm the resolve he felt just five minutes prior, the pumping continued.
We don't know why there's been such a fervent quest to dampen the clickety-clack noise of the Rock Band drum kit:, as we've already solved the problem. Here, try our free mod: First, turn the TV up. Second ... there is no second! You're done. And as a side benefit, you're playing louder! Like a real rock star.
But, if neighbors or local noise ordinances make our plan impossible, forum members at the Quarter to Three Forums have been working to curtail the problem. The biggest success so far seems to be these circular mouse pads, trimmed and glued to become efficient, silent conduits of rock. Keith Moon would be ... well, he'd be disgusted. But your wife will be happy.
We love nothing more than walking down the street and pointing at random objects, figuring we are nurturing our inherent telekinetic powers and that one day the neighbor's dog will be lifted three meters into the air. In the interim, we need help practicing our finger-pointing accuracy.
Using the above video as tutorial, you can turn use a Nintendo Wii remote for making a finger-controlled interface à la the film Minority Report (and you thought Tom Cruise was using thetans to control the monitor ...). All you need is an array of infrared LEDs and some reflective tape. Remember, the Wii remote is a bluetooth device so you should be able to apply this method for any computer interface. Now to figure out how to simulate a mouse click ...
From the "too good to be true" department comes the "Vast" advanced memory card, capable of providing PlayStation 2 owners with the same functionality found in modified consoles. This means everything from playing imported titles to other nefarious and totally discouraged deeds.
MaxConsole claims to be in contact with the developer of this new memory card that is being prepared "to be launched within the next two weeks." While we have our doubts, it should be noted that an exploit of this nature has popped up before, known as Independence. That exploit, however, was nixed with the Slim line of PlayStation 2's.
Prove us wrong, Vast ... and would you mind doing it before Arcana Heartis released? Thanks!
An adventurous and skillful modder has managed to turn a Wii remote into an Xbox 360 controller with middleware help from the PS2 control scheme -- it's as if all the console makers are working in harmony for this one hack. Try humming this to the tune of "Dem Bones" (actually, don't, because we're not even going to try to fit the rhyme scheme):
The Xbox 360 is connected to the XFPS PS2 to 360 adapter
... which is connected to a big black box Microcontroller "with custom firmware emulating a PS2 controller"
... which is connected to a Samsung Q1 PC with custom Wii remote firmware
... which is connected via Bluetooth to the Wii remote itself.
Full details of the process can be found here. A video demonstration is embedded after the break that not only shows the control scheme work with Halo 2 but also the thought put into making it a comfortable and viable control scheme (such as anti-acceleration and smoothing algorithms).
Got an old Pokemon Pinball cart laying around? Then you, friend, have a one-way ticket to frugal gaming fun ... with rumble! Xyzzy has just posted a tutorial on Instructables on how to build a rumble pak that fits smoothly into your DS lite GBA slot. Yes, Nintendo released a smaller version of the pak for the Lite, but you'd have to spend money and be like a normal consumer if you did that. With Xyzzy's plans, you can make a mess, destroy a game cart, and probably injure yourself too!
An official ISO loader has been found in the latest Sony PSP firmware updates (both 3.50 and 3.51). The file, np9660.prx, has been presumed to run downloaded PSP games (the encrypted ISO image) off of a memory stick.
The presence of the ISO loader may not be significant on its own, but the speculation is that it may be the first steps for a games-on-demand service where full PSP titles (not just PlayStation One emulations) will be made available for download and play, sans UMD. It's an interesting possibility but at this point just rumors and speculation.
User-created content is so last year. The new craze: videogames that play themselves. Ashish Derhgawen wrote an image recognition program and connected a webcam to his computer. The camera watches the ball by detecting borders on the screen and adjusting the paddle's position to compensate. Not exactly a portent of the impending machine uprising, but the program could easily be modified to detect human-shaped borders and the camera could swing a 2x4 with a nail in the end. Food for thought.
A new column at our sister site Nintendo Wii Fanboy, REVOLUTIONARY, aims to crack open the shell of the Wii world and feast on the delicious geek food inside. This week features a round-up of hacks that let you control your PC with the Wii Remote. And we're not talking about playing Minesweeper and moving files around, you can play just about any game with this lethal combination.
All you need is a compatible Bluetooth adapter, the free GlovePIE program, and some time to tweak and customize settings. REVOLUTIONARY spells the whole process out so even your grandmother could get her Half-Life 2 fix, motion-sensitive style.
The most time-consuming part of any Pokemon game is capturing and strengthening your horde of creatures. To make things worse, some pokemon will only evolve after they've attained a certain level of happiness. An intrepid (lazy, impatient, resourceful, etc.) gamer named Joshua didn't want to wait, so he came up with a plan.
For every 256 steps you take with a pokemon in your party, it gains one happiness point. To reach the maximum level of 250 you would have to take 64,000 steps and waste roughly half your life running in circles. Instead of whittling his afternoons away, Joshua found a few locations in the game with a moving floor that allowed him to take 13 steps every six seconds. That adds up to 7,800 steps in an hour and would allow maximum pokemon happiness in about eight hours. Two wrenches and a good night's sleep later, Joshua was the happy owner of several fully-evolved pokemon.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Hands-on Impressions Unleashed
Come to our E3 afterparty, we've got over 200lbs. of swag to give you (and only you)
Podcast Rodeo is back, and now with thrice the fidelity!
Hands-on with Spore. All of it. With Will Wright feeding us commentary.
Highlights from Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational 2008!
Listen to the Joystiq Podcast (because your ears can't read)
Posts with tag hacks
We admit that we don't share their same tendencies, but we love how many video game modders seem to come from the George Mallory school of thought. Why do you want to put downloadable content on the Nintendo Entertainment System? Because it is there. RetroZone are the ones to thank for the feat, which involves a specially-made cart featuring the Mac game Glider.
From the "too good to be true" department comes the "Vast" advanced memory card, capable of providing PlayStation 2 owners with the same functionality found in modified consoles. This means everything from playing imported titles to other nefarious and totally discouraged deeds.
A new column at our sister site Nintendo Wii Fanboy, REVOLUTIONARY, aims to crack open the shell of the Wii world and feast on the delicious geek food inside. This week features a round-up of hacks that let you control your PC with the Wii Remote. And we're not talking about playing Minesweeper and moving files around, you can play just about any game with this lethal combination.
