Portable NES modded into a cartridge, hearts modded into love

We’ve seen NES mods that incorporate a screen and controls into a cartridge in the past, but this example from Airz in BenHeck’s forums is just so clean and well-polished that we had to give it some love. Inside Airz says it’s just a generic Chinese media player that can play NES, Gameboy, and Gameboy Color ROMs, along with the relevant controller bits, a 2.8-inch LCD, 4GB of storage, and a rechargeable battery. Oh, and if you’re feeling particularly retro, you can hook it up over TV-out and play on the big screen. Not bad — and it’s for sale if you’re as in love as we are. Video after the break.

[Via 8bitfix; thanks, Gusto]

Continue reading Portable NES modded into a cartridge, hearts modded into love

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Portable NES modded into a cartridge, hearts modded into love originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Comptometer does broadcast controls the steampunk way

If you build a specialized type of hardware which, by design, rarely arouses emotions of physical desire in the general populace, you can see how you might have a bit of a challenge promoting your wares. How you get around that tiny issue is by pulling off a stunning steampunk mod while retaining the full functionality of the hardware, as British company Hi Tech have done with their Comptometer. The server controller, customized for use in live video broadcasting and editing, has already won a design award for what we understand to be “general awesomeness” and an unmissable video of its obscure workings lays just past the break.

[Via TechnaBob]

Continue reading Video: Comptometer does broadcast controls the steampunk way

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Video: Comptometer does broadcast controls the steampunk way originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

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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Ben Heck moves PS3 shoulder buttons to the front, spins us right round, baby, right round

Ben Heck moves shoulder buttons to PS3 the front, spins us right round, baby, right round

If you’ve ever wished that those buttons on your videogame controller were over here instead of over there, you know who to call. Master modder Ben Heck’s latest creation isn’t his most amazing, but it fulfills a need for one gamer, that is to “make the shoulder buttons easier to get at.” The result is a somewhat inelegant mod (by Heck’s standards), bringing the L and R buttons to the fore, ditching the “last generation” rumble motors in the process. No loss, right Phil Harrison? Video demonstration after the break.

[Via technabob]

Continue reading Ben Heck moves PS3 shoulder buttons to the front, spins us right round, baby, right round

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Ben Heck moves PS3 shoulder buttons to the front, spins us right round, baby, right round originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: EeePC modded into a WalleeePC


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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Ben Heck realigns Xbox 360 pad for improved awesomeness

If you’ve spent any time on Engadget before, you’ll be aware that we’re big fans of Ben Heck and his tireless modding, tweaking and hacking (or is it Hecking?) of console hardware. The latest feather to his cap comes in the form of a customized Xbox 360 controller, which sees its D-pad and action buttons swapping places in an effort to help a handicapped gamer get his proverbial groove on. The trigger buttons are also flipped, but the pièce de résistance is the inclusion of four extra action buttons along the bottom of the controller that make one-handed gaming totally feasible. Check ’em out after the break.

Continue reading Ben Heck realigns Xbox 360 pad for improved awesomeness

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Ben Heck realigns Xbox 360 pad for improved awesomeness originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man turns luggable 25-year-old cellphone into OLED-packing HTPC

Do you remember the Mobira Talkman? No? That’s okay, you may not have been born yet. In 1984 this was what all the sierra hotel financial traders had glued to their faces — and clutched to their hips, since the thing was as big as a briefcase. 25 years later skilled modder Jani ‘Japala’ Pönkkö came across a free (and fully-functional) example and set upon completing his dream of turning it into an HTPC, which he has called the Dataman. Inside he managed to pack an Intel T5500 Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 32GB SSD, and a wireless network card. The 40-hour mod is laboriously detailed in photos at the read link, while the fruits of all that labor are shown in videos after the break, the first showing the pre-mod phone still working perfectly — but complaining about the lack of network (like the Russian Empire’s rule of Finland, the NMT network is long gone) — and the second showing that green LCD replaced by a rather more colorful OLED one.

[Via The UberReview]

Continue reading Man turns luggable 25-year-old cellphone into OLED-packing HTPC

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Man turns luggable 25-year-old cellphone into OLED-packing HTPC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacCores iTab Mini mod gives us a taste of the future

Given that September 9 is unlikely to finally reveal the fabled Apple tablet, this might be the nearest thing we have to it for a while yet — and it has one other advantage: it’s real. The iTab Mini is a mod project of the “more time and energy than sense” variety (our favorite kind) that melds together a 12.1-inch resistive touchscreen display with the remnants of an old PowerBook and a decidedly modern Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD spec. The outcome is, in a word, stunning. You can find a full run-through of the build at the read link.

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MacCores iTab Mini mod gives us a taste of the future originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steampunk mouse, now with 100 percent more skull

If Lord Byron had been hip to this newfangled computer thing way back in his day, this might just have been the sort of peripheral he’d have been sporting. Made from a real sheep’s skull — and real brass, though that’s somehow less interesting — this mouse has everything a megalomaniacal world conqueror needs to feel at home: fine ornamental detailing, the soothing texture of real bone, and the enticing mental image of crushing skulls every time you click. There’s not much wiggle room here, you’ll either love it or loathe it, but don’t fret about the sheep, it died of natural causes. More pics after the break.

[Via Technabob]

Continue reading Steampunk mouse, now with 100 percent more skull

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Steampunk mouse, now with 100 percent more skull originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arduino binary clock doesn’t care to be useful, just wants to be admired

If there’s one thing we love about DIY projects, it’s the feeling that the outcome is more than the mere sum of its parts. This here binary clock is a prime example, being composed of scrap plastic, some dirt-cheap parts and a homemade Arduino board. And yet, after a few licks of polish and the inevitable LEDs, it looks like a true monument to geekdom, which is only amplified by the fact you can’t even use the thing without being familiar with binary code. But then again, if utility was a standard by which we judged homebrewed projects, we’d have a lot less to talk about.

[Via Make]

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Arduino binary clock doesn’t care to be useful, just wants to be admired originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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