Check out the video. I love the way this thing moves and lights up. This is a hack that any Invaders nerd will want to do, but only a few of us will ever answer the call. Grant Gibson, we salute you.

[via Make:]

On the latest episode of The Ben Heck Show, the famous modder made a spring-loaded container for Hot Pockets that mounts onto the Charge-and-Play port of an Xbox 360 controller. You could do what he did in the beginning and just duct tape your food on your controller, but this ridiculous invention has one practical feature – its base can be raised so that you can still reach the food easily even as it decreases in height without taking your hands off of the controller.

Initially, Ben tried to make the base electrically-powered by using parts from a Charge-and-Play adapter. But the adapter didn’t provide enough power to do the job, so he settled with the spring-loaded mechanism instead. You can skip to about 13:00 in the video to see the final product:

Combine this with a beer hat and you’re good to go. Go be a personification of the perils of convenience.

[Ben Heck Show via Kotaku]

The controls had to be tweaked a bit and a custom Doom menu was created to make it different from the plain DOS version of the game. This is one small step for games, one giant leap for calculators.

This port is packaged with the Ndless program, allowing you to unlock your hardware and perform your own hacks as well, but you won’t have time since you will be busy playing Doom. In color! On a calculator!

[via Hack a Day via Slashgear]

Zdz… made the mod for the PC version of the game and all the scary dragons have now been replaced with a cute, yellow My Little Pony that flies around burning stuff. The mod is called the “Pony Dragon Mod” and can be downloaded right now.

My Little Pony aficionados will recognize the pony here as Fluttershy.

[via Eurogamer]

Having a pool table attached to your car is awesome enough, but he didn’t stop there. There is a refrigerator and a television set in the cab. So it is basically pool in back and mini living room up front

[via Jalopnik via Neatorama]

I’m anxious to see what else people can do with the PS Vita when it is available in all regions.

[via Tiny Cartridge via Kotaku]

What’s really cool about the Envision is how truly portable it is. Unlike most Gamecube “handheld” mods, this one skips the bulky optical drive, and requires that games be copied off to an SD card, but that’s what really helps it slim down. It’s capable of running every Gamecube game out there, except for Luigi’s Mansion, which apparently still needs some hacking to make that happen. It can also play all SNES and NES titles, as well as some N64 titles, so it’s a real dream system for Nintendo fans.

The Envision was created by Jonathan Shine (aka “Tchay777″,) and is compact enough to carry around without any problem. Dimensions are just 6.5″(w) x 4.1255″ (h) x 1.375″ (d), and it weights about a pound. It’s so impressive that it actually looks like something Nintendo themselves would have released.

It runs completely on battery power, running for about 2 hours on a full charge. It lives in a custom molded case, and has built-in controllers and speakers too. Check it out in action in the video clip below:

It took about 7 months from start to finish for Tchay to complete this excellent build, and you can check out more details and pics over on the ModRetro Forums.

[via Awesome Robo]

Nintendo needs to take heed of this awesome mod. If they released something like this themselves they could have mega-sales – especially if they updated it with modern hardware. I know I would buy one.

[Bacteria Forums via Ubergizmo]

If I can make a request, now I want to see you DIY-ers make a Millenium Falcon mailbox, and a Death Star mailbox. Then I would like you to sell them to me cheap. We need geekier mailboxes, people. Get on it.

[via TDW Geeks via Geekologie]

Made by Slipstream, the mod is 5.75″ wide, 7.75″ long and 1.75″ thick. In funny units, it’s as wide as two Game Boys side-by-side, as long as the original Nintendo 64 console and as thick as something that’s 1.75″ thick. Sorry. The 4.3″ screen has both 16:9 and 4:3 modes, but it also has video and audio out ports if you want to play on a bigger screen. The battery is only good for up to 3 hours of gaming, but it comes with adapters so you can plug the Electus 64 into car chargers and standard outlets.

As you’ll see in the gallery below, the mod also has built-in controller ports. There are heatsinks and a fan inside to keep things cool. You can check out the MbB forums for work-in-progress pics of Electus 64.

Slipstream slipped into his entrepeneur alter ego zeusnpanda and put the Electus 64 up for bid on eBay. It’ll be there for a couple more days and is currently at $749 (USD) as of this writing, with a Buy-It-Now price of $995. I still like a shape and size of a couple of the older mods we’ve featured more than the Electus 64, but its case is really beautiful. It’s probably the second thing that people will notice after they get over its size.

[via Slash Gear]

Instructables contributor lvl_joe made this fire-breathing pony out of a FurReal Friends Butterscotch Pony as an entry in their Hack It! Challenge. He combined the robotic pony with a flame thrower, some Arduino boards and other items – resulting in this fiery pony from hell.

If you want to try your hand at this, the full instructions are available on Instructables.

I love the way the neck moves realistically. It looks like an awesome pony of fiery vengeance come down from the heavens to kick ass and burn things to a cinder. Let’s all band together and make an army of these things.

He wired up an Arduino board, connected some motors to drive the dials and attached a controller. You can watch modder alpinedelta32 use it in the video. I know, I know, you’ve seen people draw with an Etch-A-Sketch before, but when is the last time you’ve them use one with an NES controller?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

What would have been really cool is if he had modded the screen of the Etch-A-Sketch to mimic and draw a game while it is being played. Yeah, hit me up when you accomplish that one. So there.

[via NowhereElse (FR) via Engadget]

It took her over a month to complete this one and the finished product looks good enough to market, even if the color makes me think of a First Aid kit. Under the hood is a full NES (version 2) console and a 3.5″ LCD screen, powered by rechargeable li-ion batteries, as well as a built-in D-Pad and buttons.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It is pretty cute, but ever since seeing the pic, I just want that gun to be modded along with this portable. It bugs me. I just want it to be smaller and more James Bond-like – something that a woman could use with her feminine NES portable and then conceal in her purse.

[via ModdedByBacteria Forums]

YouTuber Pyloneer made the filter based on a related tweak for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. The screenshot above shows Diablo III (or at least its beta) with the filter turned on, while the screenshot below shows the game with the filter turned off.

Watch Pyloneer’s demo video to get a better look at the effect. Pyloneer constantly toggles the filter which is kind of annoying; then again that’s the whole point of the video. I suggest you watch it in full screen at 1080p if you can.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As you may have noticed, not only is the game darker with the filter turned on, the graphics are significantly sharper too. Pyloneer was considerate enough to make three variants for the filter – one that darkens and sharpens, one that only darkens and one that only sharpens the graphics. You can find the instructions and links to the files in the video’s description on YouTube. There are also caveats in there so make sure you read and understand Pyloneer’s warnings. Sadly I know of no mod that can transform the Diablo III beta into the retail version of the game.

[via Ubergizmo]

In case you’re not familiar with the game, Skylanders is a hack-and-slash game with a Pókemon twist – to play the game, you need at least one figurine. Aside from looking great, a figurine stores the data for its virtual counterpart. Each copy of Skylanders comes with a complementary “portal” accessory that connects to consoles via USB. Place a figurine on the portal to make the character appear in the game. Did I mention there are 32 figurines to collect? I can hear your wallet weeping, Mom and Dad.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Kids can exercise their imagination even further by playing with the figurines themselves. The thing is, the vanilla figurines are statues – highly detailed but static. But by adding parts from other action figures, master toy modder Jin Saotome was able to make three Skylander figures moveable. Their neck, shoulders, waist, elbows, hips, and knees are fully articulated, plus they can be taken out of their base.

Jin already put the modded Chop-Chop figurine up for sale on eBay; Prism Brake and Drobot will probably be there soon as well. As of this writing the highest bid for Chop-Chop is $32.60 (USD); that’s four times the price of the stock figurine, but I think it’s worth it. I’m not sure if Jin will mod more Skylanders figurines, but you can drop him a message for more info or custom orders.

[Jin's Dangerous Toys via Destructoid]

I’m not sure exactly how the switch works, but Light does mention that it’s a modified pull chain switch. Place it in between a book, secure the string and then connect the plug of any electrical device into the switch’s own socket. When you pull the book outward, the string is pulled with it, toggling the switch.

The Secret Passageway Switch was sold at Vespoe for $50 (USD), but unfortunately it’s sold out as of this writing. Hopefully Light will make some more. Although I’m sure the tinkerers among you can cobble your own version without spending a penny.

[B.Light Design via Uncrate]

There’s something about the idea of vintage cameras turned into nightlights that appeals to the kid in me. Anything that keeps those monsters at bay is a good thing, whether they are under the bed or in the closet. But will these scare both vintage and new monsters or just the vintage ones?

To check out more images of his creations check out Jason’s flickr album here.

[via PetaPixel via Wired]

Thanks to a new device called the Wasabi 360 Ultra, you’ll be able to load ISOs of your Xbox 360 or Xbox 1 games directly onto any ESATA hard drive, and boot and run the games as if you had the original DVD in the tray. The Wasabi 360 attaches to your console – connecting between the motherboard and the DVD drive. Installation is solderless, but does require that you crack open your Xbox 360, and make some minor modifications to its metal shielding to allow cables to pass through.

Since the Wasabi 360 uses an ESATA interface instead of USB, it’s smokin’ fast. Games are loaded from inside the Xbox 360 Dashboard GUI, letting you quickly and easily jump between games without getting up from the couch. It even supports multi-disc games.

Here’s a demo of the Wasabi loading up CoD: Black Ops, and then Driver: San Francisco without so much as a disc in sight.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Clearly games load way faster from the Wasabi-enabled hard drive than from DVD, and not having to deal with scratched discs and “dirty disc error” messages ever again has appeal. The Wasabi guys also plan on adding the ability to rip ISOs directly to the hard drive in a future upgrade, but for now you’ll need to burn ISOs using your PC.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that Microsoft will assume that the primary use for the Wasabi will be for game piracy – while I personally think it would be a great add-on for legitimate game owners too. I’m hopeful that Microsoft won’t stand in the way of this nifty console enhancement and potentially ban its users from Xbox Live. Perhaps someday Microsoft themselves will offer the ability for you to load your entire games directly to the hard drive, and just limit piracy by not allowing multiple copies of the same serial number to be installed on multiple consoles instead of forcing you to still insert the DVD every time like they do today.

The Wasabi 360 Ultra sells for $99.95 (USD) and is available for pre-order in both Xbox 360 Slim and Fat versions over at ConsoleSource.

While not as drastic or complex as the Cthulhutastic N-Control Avenger mod, KontrolFreek swears that their clip-on kits do have significant benefits. The one that increases length is called the FPS Freek. I don’t have exact measurements but judging from the pictures I think it almost doubles the length of the thumbsticks. The increased length offers a greater range of motion – and in effect a slight increase in sensitivity. The SpeedFreek, on the other hand ensures that your thumb won’t slip off of the stick, even if you have sweaty thumbs or if you quickly nudge or hold the sticks towards the edges.

KontrolFreek has variations of these two mods, but they all work the same. The notable exception is the SpeedFreak Apex (the black SpeedFreak below) although the normal SpeedFreak shown here in white also comes in black). It’s the combination of both mods, adding both height and horns.

You can order the KontrolFreek clip-on mods from Firebox for £12 (~$19 USD) each or directly from KontrolFreek, where you can browse all of the models. Prices range from $10 to $14 on the official store, but only because they’re on sale as of this writing, so now’s the time to get hats for your thumbsticks if you’re interested.

[via Coolest Gadgets]

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So if your band needs some extra geeky sounds, here’s your new member. The kit improves the outdated Gameboy audio, adding controls for cutoff, resonance, bypass, and envelope follower. It’s hard to describe, so watch that video and turn up the volume for some chiptune fun.

A pledge of $90 will get your a bare-bones kit to do the mod yourself, while $174(USD) will get you a modded Gameboy and 6 volt power supply.

[via TechCrunch]