Kotaku: Modding

Inside a Chinese Hacking Den

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:30:00 EST

Located in a South China shopping mall, this shop doesn't merely "fix" consoles. It fixes them so they can run pirated games. More »

Super Pixel Bros. is a Playable Super Mario Bros., in Only 64 Pixels

Owen Good — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:00:00 EDT

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This is Super Mario Bros. reduced to a 64-pixel version (sorta). Modder Brad Slattery made this handheld 8 by 8 LED board which displays a playable Super Mario Bros., if you use a lot of imagination, of course. Mario is just a single yellow blip. More »

How to Play Your Xenoblade Import on a North American Wii

Mike Fahey — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:40:00 EDT

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Xenoblade Chronicles is out in English right now, but Nintendo of America doesn't seem keen to let North American's play it, so they can't. Not unless they import a copy from Europe and follow Joystiq's guide for soft modding Nintendo's Wii to play imports. More »

2010's Big Piracy Busts Netted Probation, Fines, Millions in Seized Games

Brian Crecente — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EDT

U.S. video game industry anti-piracy efforts last year led to more than 40 criminal cases and at least two convictions, the Entertainment Software Association reported today. More »

Black Ops Mod Tools Should Arrive in May

Owen Good — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:06:16 EDT

A PC mod toolkit for Call of Duty: Black Ops should release next month, according to this Treyarch developer (and retweeted by community manager Josh Olin.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 disappointed many when it did not release mod tools. Treyarch promised last year that Black Ops would bring them back. More »

What Do You Get When You Cross An Xbox 360 With An Atari 2600?

Mike Fahey — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EDT

Modder supreme Ben Heck marries Microsoft's current-generation console with an Atari 2600 to create the lovable monstrosity known as the Xbox 360 1977 Edition, making us wonder why faux wood paneling ever went out of style. More »

Here's Kinect — Working on a PS3 (And Playing Killzone 3)

Owen Good — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EDT

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This genie of Kinect modification is never going back in the bottle. Now a modder has figured out a way to get the Microsoft device to work with a PlayStation 3. More »

StarCraft Modder's Tense Week Gets A Storybook Conclusion [Corrected]

Owen Good — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EST

A week ago, Ryan Winzen was a college student with another year and half until completing his degree. Today, he's the mod community's Cinderella story, with a foot in the door at one games studio and a pat on the back from another. More »

Kinect Gives Life To This Humanoid Robot

Mike Fahey — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:00:00 EST

Using Microsoft's Kinect to control a modified Roomba is impressive. Using it to get a kit-built humanoid robot to mimic your actions is pretty damn amazing. More »

Chastened Prosecutors Dismiss Xbox 360 Modding Case

Owen Good — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:00:00 EST

A day after a judge chewed them out in open court, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles dropped their case against a man accused of running a modding business that allowed Xbox 360s to run pirated or unauthorized games. More »

Behold The Chipophone, The Amazing Chiptune Organ

Mike Fahey — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:30:00 EDT

When a friend asked Swedish software engineer Linus Åkesson to take an old electric organ off his hands, Linus agreed, as long as he could do anything he wanted to it, and what he did is incredibly impressive. More »

Boombox Modded Into Dreamcast

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:30:00 EDT

Why? Oh why? More »

Street Fighter IV Played With A Guitar Sounds Horrible

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:40:00 EDT

Street Fighter IV? Great game. Guitar? Cool instrument. The sound of SFIV being played with a guitar? More »

Do Not Modify Computers Or Consoles In Canada, Don't!

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:00:00 EDT

Last month, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police searched residence in Roberval, Quebec, which culminated in one arrest of one suspect who advertised selling pirated games through the internet and the seizure of hundreds of counterfeit games. But wait, there's more. More »

Wii Remote Controlled Laser Pew-Pew!

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:30:00 EST

Inventor-by-day, DJ-by-night Henry Strange's latest creation is a laser beam that is controlled by a Nintendo Wii Remote mounted in a white, plastic gun casing. More »

Bad Company 2 Devs Have Nothing But Love For The Modding Community

Mike Fahey — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:30:58 EST

The PC version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 might not support mods, but developer DICE has nothing but love for the modding community. Producer Gordon Van Dyke talked modding and modders in yesterday's Kotaku Talk Radio podcast. More »

To Catch A Modern Warfare 2 Cyber-Thief

Mike Fahey — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:20:00 EST

Modern Warfare 2 is already making an appearance at torrent sites all over the internet, but it could have been worse. Dean Takahashi reports on how IPCybercrime stopped one pirate from making his big score. More »

PC Arkham Asylum Players Play Dress-Up

Mike Fahey — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Console Batman: Arkham Asylum players may have gotten the game first, but they'll never be able to dress Batman up like Captain America. More »

Blizzard: You May Sell Your StarCraft 2 Maps On Battle.net, Eventually

Mike Fahey — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:20:51 EDT

At BlizzCon 2009, Blizzard's executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo revealed plans to allow modders to sell premium StarCraft 2 maps via the Battle.Net service. More »

This DIY Neo Geo Cabinet Is So Small, So Cute, So Amazing

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:00:00 EDT

Modder Pocket Lucho is a mini-arcade cabinet modding genius. For the last five months, he's been fine tuning his small-sized Neo Geo cabinet design. More »

A Crystal Clear Look Inside The DSi

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EDT

The Nintendo DSi comes in several colorful casings. But those don't let you see what's going on inside. You know, the hand held's innards. More »

Atari 2600 Plus SEGA Game Gear

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:00:00 EST

Recent modder trend: Cramming game machines in other game machines. It's shoehorning for shits and giggles. Case in point, this project, an Atari 2600 in a SEGA Game Gear. More »

A Far Cry From Your Standard PS3

Mike Fahey — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:20:00 EDT

The folks over at Bit-tech teamed up with Ubisoft and German uber-modder Oliver “Butterkneter” König to create a special PlayStation 3 to commemorate the release of Far Cry 2. Instead of simply painting the PS3 like any sane person, Butterkneter created a painstakingly detailed base for the console, complete with rocks, plants, an empty magazine, a skull, and a friendly little ant. Then he painted the console, right? No, he removed the case, went to town with a dremel tool, and then painted the case, created the awesome spectacle seen above. More »

Media Molecule Looking For Little Big Planet Level Design Talent

Stuart Houghton — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:30:00 EDT

Reckon you could knock up an awesome level for Little Big Planet? If you are right, you might just end up with a job. More »

Pretend You Have A Mac With The Lan-Li Xbox 360 Chassis

Stuart Houghton — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:20:00 EDT

This wouldn't look out of place as one of Viz Magazine's Top Tips: More »

Xbox Fall Update Leaked, Hacked, Relatively Useless

Mike Fahey — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:20:00 EDT

An early beta version of Microsoft's Fall Xbox Experience dashboard update for the 360 has made its way onto the internet via the usual file sharing sites, and modders and hackers have been working overtime to get the thing up and running on their consoles. xHaVoK87 has been constantly updating readers on his progress in getting the dash functional on his box, and as of his most recent update it looks like he's been successful. Congratulations! You now have a buggy beta version of the Fall dash update, complete with font errors, missing graphics, and none of the actual features that are supposed to be coming to revolutionize the Xbox Live Experience. In essence, your hacked Xbox now looks different. Way to go. Work is currently being done towards an install solution for retail Xbox 360 systems, but you know what? I'll just wait. Hit the jump for a clip of the new dash in action, or hit the link for the full rundown of how they did it. Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard 08 Leaked! [xHaVoK87's Blog - Thanks Madgame] More »

DualShock 3 And Xbox 360 Frankencontrollers

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:00:00 EDT

The Xbox 360 DualShock? The PS3 Xbox 360 Controller? Over at Xbox-Scene Forums, moderator RDC has modded an Xbox 360 controller into a PS3 controller, writing: "The D-pad, Select, PS, Start, Square, Triangle, Circle, Cross, L1/R1 and L3/R3 buttons are all wired up right now and working, as are the LEDs for showing which controller it is." So, yes, this Frankencontroller will work with a PS3. And if that wasn't enough, RDC did the same in reverse by modding a DualShock 3 into an Xbox 360 controller. Take a look after the jump.
More »

Ben Heck's PlayStation 3 Laptop

Mike Fahey — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EDT

My consoles absolutely hate Ben Heck. Every time he releases a new mod, such as this gorgeous PlayStation 3 laptop, similar to his Xbox 360 Elite laptop from awhile back, I tend to spend many hours sitting in my living room, eyes moving curious from consoles to the cabinet where I keep my (barely used) tools. With my degree of electronics knowledge, this is the game console equivalent of having someone quietly staring first at you, and then at a loaded gun in front of them, over and over again. Luckily for them I've yet to work up the nerve, though I do have an extra PSone sitting around gathering dust. I think I just heard it whimper. More »

PlayStation 3 Says "Hello World?"

Mark Wilson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Has the PS3 been hacked to run programs of our choosing? We're not too sure. Dragula96 claims to have run a "hello world" app on his PlayStation 3 and demonstrated it in the above video—needing no hardware modification under the current firmware and working on both 40GB and 60GB units. More »

Modder Banishes PC To Hell

torif — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:00:50 EST

Nothing says serious gamer like a Dell Inspiron M155 with Satan's head glaring back at you! PC Modder Ken Kirby decided his computer needed a facelift, and opted for a more grotesque one in its place. The handiwork is pretty neat, but I don't think I could sleep in a room with that thing staring back at me. *shudders* It even has its own smoke machine. More »

Return of the Dead Beaver Case Mod

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:00:29 EST

Previously we featured the Compubeaver, and it is again in moving pictures. Well, the pictures are moving, but the dead beaver is very still. Dead, too. Compubeaver [Boing Boing] More »

Xbox 360 Elite Turned into Halo 3 Laptop

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:00:03 EST

Modder Ben Heck (aka Bengamin J. Heckendorn) dazzles. He's got the uncanny ability to take things, and turn them into other things. Pretty things, at that! Last spring, he crafted an Xbox 360 into a laptop. Now, he's done the same with an Xbox 360 Elite. Nice trick, but we've seen it before. How about turning an Xbox 360 Elite into something else — like a stack of waffles? More »

Wii Hacked?

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:00:55 EST

We're not so surprised that the Wii has been apparently cracked, but rather, that it's taken so long. Still! The folks over at forum TehSkeen has figured out an exploit to modify a saved game from Twilight Princess, crash the machine and have been able to run a few lines of their own code. It's not even necessary to "mod" the Wii console to run this exploit. Don't freak yet, as it's only possible to run four lines of code so far. From the TehSkeen: More »

Watch 1500 Xbox Hard Drives Fall Down Like Dominoes

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:40:00 EST

Click to view More »

Real Drums Modded for Rock Band

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:00:38 EST

For DIYer "Buzz" Dawson, those Rock Band drum pads couldn't take a rockstar beating. So designed and constructed a new drum set using, well, an honest to goodness Gibraltar drum rack and a steel drum pedal. Plus, he even added an LCD monitor to the rack so the drummer can keep time. There's even a sheet of Lexan polycarbonate to protect the LCD from flying drumsticks. The drums themselves were wired and padded with foam. If that wasn't cool enough, the set will be available for public play at the Orlando Science Museum in Florida from January 18-21. Rock on! More »

Mod Chip Raid Fallout: A Roundup

Maggie Greene — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:30:41 EDT

We already covered the basics of what went down last week when "Operation Tangled Web" took place. GamePolitics has had continuing coverage of some of the little details - like the guy who had a grand total of one mod chip seized from his house. I think most people agree that piracy is generally a bad thing and causes problems for everyone, but shouldn't they be going after heavier hitters (like this guy who was sentenced to 2 years in prison for making a significant chunk of change off of pirated game and DVD sales) instead of guys with ... one mod chip and a soldering iron? Links and some choice quotes after the jump. More »

Optimus Prime Case Mod

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:20:35 EDT

My computer could use a new video card and CPU. Perhaps even a whole new motherboard, seeing as the system I have right now is prone to randomly rebooting in the middle of writing Kotaku stories. Being a man who knows where his priorities lie, I think I am going to transform my PC into a giant robot instead. That's a fully transformable 6'10" tall Optimus Prime case mod you are witnessing there on the left, and it is a thing pf beauty indeed. It's the work of 36-year-old John Mangus, the winner of ExtremeTech's weekly case modding contest. It transforms into a much smaller desktop form and even features a glowing matrix in Prime's chest in case there are any darkest hours needing to be lighted. Mangus is showing off the case at QuakeCon this weekend, so feel free to stop by and tell him Fahey from Kotaku says he's got the touch, and possibly the power as well. Bonus points for serenading him. More »

Nintendo Helping Gov't Piracy Raids

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:00:29 EDT

Don't let the brain games and red overalls foot you. Nintendo is not pussy-footing around when it comes to copyright circumvention. Today, American federal agents carried out 32 search warrants in 16 states for the sale and distribution of mod chips. For example, mod chips can allow users to play counterfeit Wii software. This is the largest government action against video game piracy, and Nintendo has worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security and completely supports its actions. Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director of anti-piracy, says: More »

Massive Mod Chip Raid Sweeps Nation

Brian Crecente — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:20:36 EDT

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from nearly two dozen cities executed 32 federal search warrants in 16 states in the past 24 hours as part of a mammoth crackdown on chip modding. More »

Rumor: Mod Proof Wiis in Japan

Kim Phu — Wed, 30 May 2007 11:40:00 EDT

Looks like after you upset Nintendo Europe with all that mod-chip talk, it went crying to mommy and told on you. Unhappy modders on the forum, Hacken.cc have recently found out that the newer version of the Japanese NTSC/J Wiis have had the three pins removed that enable mod chips to be attached. There has been no news of the US versions having the pins clipped, but of course, it's still so difficult to get a Wii, how would anyone really know for sure. More »