Oct 26

Quickdev16 SNES developers cart: now you too can make games no one will ever play

Posted in: developer, diy, gaming, hack, homebrew, mod, nintendo, Today's Chili
If homebrew SNES development was an obscure affair in the days that the platform reigned supreme, undertaking such a project almost two decades later can be nothing left than a labor of true geek love. But if you’ve always dreamed of writing the next great first-person shooter for a retired game platform you’re in luck: the Quickdev 16 is a cartridge that includes everything necessary for bringing your creations to the Super Nintendo, including the Atmel AVR ATmega644 with boot loader, USB connection for placing your code on the cart, 16 megabits of SRAM, and an RS232 converter for a debugging terminal. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux systems as long as you know your way around a command line (and if you’ve read this far, you just might). Available now for $120 including shipping.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

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Quickdev16 SNES developers cart: now you too can make games no one will ever play originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 20

Homemade GPS puzzle box puts a modern spin on treasure hunts

Posted in: arduino, diy, gps, hack, hacking, homebrew, mod, modding, security, Today's Chili

We’ll readily admit that most Arduino mods tend to be exercises in creativity (and eccentricity) with little real world utility, which is why this one piqued our interest. A wedding present conceived of and built by Mikal Hart, the box you see above is set to only open in one particular geographic location, and the puzzle of it is to find out where that might be. You’re allowed 50 attempts at opening the box by hitting the button next to the LCD screen, which in turn gives you a distance from, but not direction to, your destination. What tickles us about this idea, aside from its ingenuity, is the potential to use it without the helpful hints in securing your own valuables. Check out the read link for a full shopping list of ingredients and the amusing reaction to the quirky gift.

[Via Slippery Brick]

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Homemade GPS puzzle box puts a modern spin on treasure hunts originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 19

SNES / Sega Genesis USB cartridge adapter now available for pre-order

Posted in: diy, hack, homebrew, nintendo, Retro, rom, Today's Chili

Looks like our old friend, Matthias — the developer of the USB SNES cart reader — is back on the scene, and this time he’s going commercial. His newest project, Snega2USB, adds Sega Genesis, read and write for battery-backed SNES games, open source firmware, and up to four gamepads to the homebrew fave of classic gaming fanatics world o’er. This is a work-in-progress, but all the pieces are in place to have all orders met on the December, 2009 street date. Pre-orders will be taken until October 31 for $90 in the United States or €75 in Europe. Video after the break.

[Via Gadgetoid]

Continue reading SNES / Sega Genesis USB cartridge adapter now available for pre-order

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SNES / Sega Genesis USB cartridge adapter now available for pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 14

Dell Mini 9 modded into an internet tablet

Posted in: diy, hack, hacking, homebrew, laptop, mod, modding, netbook, slate, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili, touchscreen

MyDellMini forum member Rob928, take a bow. This honorable gentleman has only gone and transformed an aging 9-inch netbook into a new-fashioned internet tablet. it might still be a chubby little thing, but there’s no denying the usefulness of using the entire screen to navigate instead of the usually cramped netbook touchpad. With a 16GB SSD upgrade alongside the venerable Atom N270 and 1GB of RAM, this device will even boot faster into Windows than your run-of-the-mill netbook. The read link will reveal all, including more shots of the hardware laid bare.

[Via SlashGear]

Gallery: Dell Mini 9 modded into an internet tablet

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Dell Mini 9 modded into an internet tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 04

Video: PSP Go hacked, says ‘hello world!’

Posted in: hack, homebrew, mod, psp, Today's Chili
As you’d expect, as soon as the PSP Go hit the shelves the homebrew community came out in force, looking to see which of its fave hacks and exploits might have made the trip from the original PSP to its UMD-less brethren. And here we are, with two videos posted by YouTube member Freeplay offering us tantalizing proof that indeed, at least one has. Of course, the whole thing is pretty rudimentary, the result of exploiting a known bug in an existing PSP game (which this particular hacker is remaining tight-lipped about rather than see Sony patch the thing). Karl B., who helped us to this one, provides a caveat: “It’s user-mode only, meaning no flash modification, no piracy, no advanced custom themes, no plug-ins — none of that.” All the same, it does our inner geek a sliver of hope, doesn’t it? Videos after the break.

[Via PSP Updates, Exophase]

Continue reading Video: PSP Go hacked, says ‘hello world!’

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Video: PSP Go hacked, says ‘hello world!’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 23

R2D2 turned into retro gaming shrine, includes head-mounted projector

Posted in: console, diy, hack, hacking, Hacks, homebrew, mod, modding, mods, projector, Star Wars, Today's Chili

We don’t know exactly how to say this without overloading your nerd subsystem, but this R2D2 unit packs eight consoles, an integrated sound system and a projector for throwing your Jet Grind Radio sessions onto a wall. The only extras you’ll need are the masses of controllers you see above and the steady constitution to not erupt into geek euphoria. Popular Science reader Brian De Vitis is the man you have to thank for this splicing of console goodness, and he’s been kind enough to also provide a picture of the R2’s mobo-laden innards. It awaits just past the break.

[Via Hack N Mod]

Continue reading R2D2 turned into retro gaming shrine, includes head-mounted projector

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R2D2 turned into retro gaming shrine, includes head-mounted projector originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 11

Video: EeePC modded into a WalleeePC

Posted in: ASUS, hack, hacking, homebrew, mod, modding, netbook, Today's Chili, touchscreen, video


We know how it is — you were an early adopter of the netbook craze sweeping every nation from Austria to Australia, but now that 11-inches is looking like the new de facto standard, your old 7-incher just isn’t cutting the mustard anymore. So what do you do? You mod that sucker into a kitchen cabinet door, of course. You’ll need a 7-inch USB touchscreen to layer atop an EeePC 701, along with a few other bits and bobs, but the most important thing to remember is a spectacularly loony soundtrack. Or so the video after the break seems to instruct us.

[Via JKK Mobile]

Continue reading Video: EeePC modded into a WalleeePC

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Video: EeePC modded into a WalleeePC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 10

Third-party Google Voice client hits the webOS App Catalog

Posted in: homebrew, palm, palm pre, PalmPre, pre, Today's Chili, webos

It looks like it isn’t just bluster from Palm when it comes to thinking differently about its app approval policy. Besides taking a pretty healthy stance on applications that deviate from its current standards, today 10 new titles have shown up for download… a Google Voice app being one of them. gDial Pro, a piece of software which started its life as a homebrew application, is now an official part of the beta store. The program lets you access Google Voice’s full feature set (including a dialer), and no one seems very bothered by it. Here’s hoping Palm keeps up the flow of new software to the Catalog (they’re eating for two now) and they keep a healthy distance from rejection letters.

[Via PreThinking]

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Third-party Google Voice client hits the webOS App Catalog originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 10

Palm responds to NaNplayer rejection: “We are happy for it to continue life as homebrew” until APIs are complete

Posted in: homebrew, palm, Today's Chili

Well, how about that — Palm Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach has taken the time to respond to earlier reports of NaNplayer’s rejection from the App Catalog, and he’s surprisingly cool about it. As we’d heard, the underlying issue is that NaNplayer uses private APIs that will change in a future version of webOS, so Palm doesn’t want apps built on them. That’s understandable, but here’s where Palm’s doing it right: Chuq says that Palm is happy for NaNplayer “to continue life as a homebrew application until we get to the point where we can release public, supportable APIs for the functionality that it requires.” That’s the sort of hacker-friendly compromise we can get behind — anyone in Cupertino taking notes?

[Thanks, Joe]

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Palm responds to NaNplayer rejection: “We are happy for it to continue life as homebrew” until APIs are complete originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 20

HP Mini 1000 hacked into touchscreen tablet

Posted in: hack, homebrew, HP, mod, netbook, tablet, Today's Chili, touchscreen, UMPC

As all you compulsive modders and gadget freaks know, there aren’t too many devices that a well-applied touchscreen kit won’t make even better. And while there’s nothing really earth shattering about a homebrew HP Mini 1000 tablet, we don’t see too many of them. As with many a similar hack, things are pretty straightforward: remove the keyboard, cram in some components (actually, the term this guy uses is “squeeze”) and then fit the shell back together. Oh yeah, he’ll need to cut a hole in the shell for the touchscreen itself, as soon as he gets the actual touchscreen in the mail. Did we mention that he’ll be laser cutting the window for the display, the webcam, and the speakers at his school? Regardless, he gets into all that (and more) at the myHPmini forums — be sure to hit the read link for some of that action. Who knows, maybe you’ll even be inspired to embark on a similar project yourself. But first, check the video after the break.

[Via SlashGear]

Continue reading HP Mini 1000 hacked into touchscreen tablet

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HP Mini 1000 hacked into touchscreen tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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