Joystiq reader Zach has just spent countless hours, amounts of sweat, and possibly even ounces of blood by mashing up a Nintendo Entertainment System with a portable DVD player. The end result is a pretty swanky DVD player that even has a controller hooked up to it via USB to serve as the remote. It also plays nice with his PlayStation Portable, making this a completely bizarro world where Sony and Nintendo work things out and just get along.

Check out his Flickr album of the whole project here, and then swing by and check out the video of the whole thing if you're so inclined. It's an impressive amount of work and looks pretty darn cool. He even has the original Nintendo bag as a little carrying case for it! In fact, if these were for sale, we'd buy a couple of 'em. This may have just inspired us to dig the old NES out of the garage and give it a whirl. One day the sweet day will come when someone mods a PS3 into one of these things

An old skeleton from the PSP closet has come back to haunt Sony as their 2.81 lockdown has come to an end thanks to the ongoing efforts of the PSP homebrew community. Famed PSP hacker Fanjita has taught an old crack a new trick as the Grand Theft Auto saved game exploit has once again brought Sony's PSP security measures to its knees, enabling any and all firmware versions to run homebrew applications.

That's odd. We thought they squashed that bug a long time ago. According to Fanjita, Sony didn't quite bring their A-game when it came to stopping their unruly fan base.

It's not all sunshine and unicorns for those itching to tear apart the coding that holds their PSP together. The brave will need an original copy of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (later copies were updated to prevent this trick from resurfacing) and nerves of steel. An "easy mode" downgrader isn't available yet, but the wait should give you enough time to scrounge up a stack of PS One games to stick in there.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]

Dallas' NBC 5 News has the story of a Fort Worth mother who bought a "refurbished" PlayStation Portable MemoryStick from Gamestop only to find it filled with pornographic videos and photos. Sandra Hemm bought the stick as a birthday present for her son, whom she described as "pretty devastated" over the discovery. Frankly when we were his age we would have just been thrilled at our luck.

A Gamestop spokesman said the company was investigating the incident and that standard procedure is for used cards to be wiped clean before being sold. As a precaution, local reporter Scott Friedman recommends parents try out used MemorySticks for themselves before handing them over to the kids. Or, you know, you could just shell out the extra $5 for a new stick and not worry about it.

Modder Psyberjock has added a swanky hack to his PlayStation Portable that replaces the silver ring around the UMD tray with a circle of led lights; however, it's not for the faint of heart. If he gets enough requests, he'll post a how-to, but right now he says, "Considering the difficulty level of this mod, if you can't figure it out yourself, you'll probably just break your PSP or UMD tray."

We hope he shares the love, because that's a groovy looking mod.

If you're a PSP owner looking for a deeper roleplaying experience than the Untold Legends series provides, you might want to check out what GameSpot has to say about Atari's Dungeons & Dragons Tactics. While not quite Neverwinter Nights, D&D Tactics includes character customization similar to its PC-based big brother. Race, class, alignment, skill points, and even body style and portrait selections are all here, in addition to 40 quests that each require you to assemble a small party beforehand. The dungeon crawling takes place in a generic Dungeons & Dragons world (similar to the Xbox's D&D Heroes), although it would be nice if Atari had leveraged the unique appeal of one of the franchise's many realms. D&D Tactics ships in February and is being developed by Kuju Entertainment (Battalion Wars, Crash Twinsanity).

See also: Metareview - The Lord of the Rings Tactics

Well, technically it's the second hottest game video, because the top spot is still occupied by the New Wii Promo trailer from yesterday, with a gargantuan 58,059 views. So we move on to the second spot which only has a paltry 7,824 views. Although it does show some pretty awesome Neo-Geo emulation happening with wifi on some tricked out PlayStation Portables. Sit patiently through the first half of the video which is extremely blurry shots of the two handhelds booting up into emulation mode (someone tell this guy where the macro focus button is). Once you make it through that, you'll be rewarded with some two-player Metal Slug action, happening through the PSP's wifi connection, and has all the graphics and sound effects you've come to love.

Nice job! Now make it work on the Nintendo DS. The Game Boy Advance had a version, but no two player mode. Although by the time this emulated version might work on the DS, the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Live Arcade versions may already be out. But still, we want some wireless two player Metal Slug hotness while we're on the go on both our PSP and our DS. Come on, we're not too demanding, are we?

Variety reports that Sony's profits are down a whopping 94% due to their enormous battery recall, and a drain from their video game unit. it's no secret that Sony has been spending a lot of money on the PlayStation 3 while they ramp up for their launch next month, but it's impressive to see what those numbers are in black and white.

Sales were slow for both the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 2 this year, and "As a result, vidgame revenue was down 21% at $1.4 billion. Operating income swung from a $70 million profit to a $369 million loss." That's a pretty sizable chunk of change.

While the PS3 research and development costs aren't unexpected, when you combine the enormous outlay with the battery recall Sony has had to deal with, there is a much higher expectation for the PS3 to pull in some mighty big bucks and soon.

Serves 'em right for messing with Lik-sang. Boo-yah!

A small Canadian university by the name of Lakehead has angered some of its conservative alumni with a clever recruitment campaign that makes fun of POTUS #43 and offers students the chance to win one of four PSP handhelds or a Smart Car lease.

Lakehead knows who they're after: liberal, environmentally-conscious Canadian youth with who tend to root for the underdog in a contest and who should have spent less time playing games and more time studying.

Now if Sony or Nintendo could come up with a viable e-learning application, schools might offer all incoming freesh a gaming handheld in the way that some universities now offer iPods and laptops.

[Thanks, Mike.]

[Update 1: Dubya's #43, not #42, as originally stated. Oops.]

Following yesterday's doom and gloom from their Games division, Sony Senior VP Takao Yuhara had more bad news for investors today: the PlayStation maker expects significant losses for Q3. As manufacturing costs for the "too cheap" PS3 continue to put Sony in a financial hole, the electronics leader is becoming even more reliant on consumers' willingness to plunk down $600 for the next gen console. In order to recoup losses within an estimated five year period, the cell processor must also be successfully incorporated into other consumer devices.

Yuhara commented, "We might see valuation losses of a size that we cannot laugh away in the quarter." Think this is stopping "Crazy Ken" Kutaragi from laughing?

GameTrailers has a new preview vid for Gun Showdown, the PSP extension of last year's multi-platform romp through the Wild West. Short-lived as the original adventure was, developer Neversoft was praised for the game's compelling narrative and addictive gunplay. Showdown retains the familiar free-roaming style, but UK-based Rebellion has added new story missions, quickplay modes, and a variety of wireless multiplayer content (including Texas hold 'em) to GUN's portable cousin. Get back in the saddle at the end of Q3.

See also: Metareview - GUN (Xbox)

I'm not exactly what you'd call football's number one fan (that's soccer to Americans), but a lot of my friends are close. That's why I'm slightly depressed to bring you news of a World Cup themed feature for the PSP that I know a lot of my footie-loving friends would love to get their hands on. The aptly named (at least for this post) P-TV, the portable TV service for PSPs, is offering all 64 World Cup matches for viewing on the PSP for around a dollar per game. A visit to the "jardin" during a match will no longer be a problem: if you live in Japan. Yep, the deal's exclusive to the land of the steel phallus.

In all seriousness, Sony could sell a bucketload of PSPs in the UK if they combined a "don't miss a single shot" marketing line with this promotion. There's no problem with access either: a lot of pubs now serve up wifi with their pints. Unfortunately, unless Sony ends up bringing this deal out of Japan, then footie fans will have to resort to that other boring, but tried-and-tested method for minimizing water breaks: not drinking so much damned beer!

According to an E3 video preview hosted by Steve Truitt and Diane Mizota of PlayStation Underground, a Lumines sequel is in development and will likely be (officially) revealed at E3. About one minute into the video, Truitt confirms, "The PSP system is revolutionizing portable gaming with titles like ... Lumines 2." There you have it, folks.

Don't believe us? Just read the fine print in the document Truitt's holding (pictured).

[Thanks Justin; via Modojo]

This summer's Miami Vice flick will have at least one licensed game to its credit, and it doesn't look like it will challenge Liberty City Stories as the preeminent beat 'em up-shooter on the PSP. In VU's Miami Vice, you can play as Sonny Crockett (Colin f***ing Farrell) or Rico Tubbs (Jamie "Ray" Foxx), but with the co-op mode, you and a buddy can partner up to take down the Colombian drug lords infesting the streets of Dade county. There's no mention if the film's cast will partake in the game's voice acting, but if Gong Li's Isabella character is waiting back on Sonny's boat, I'd like to test that mature rating.

Given the poor reception of the 2004 console and PC flop, this updated version is likely to sell about as many copies as a UMD of the film on which it's based. Anyone up for a Nash Bridges game?