This character is a Level 99 with max HP and MP, and it has 9999999 Experience and 9999999 G, making it way more impressive than Koichi Sugiyama's Level 97 DQIX character and he composes the Dragon Quest music and has being playing the actual title for who knows how long.

If the game is this easy to cheat, then maybe it's best that it doesn't have actual online play, no?

『ドラゴンクエスト９』 早くもチート（データ改造）の被害に遭う [オレ的ゲーム情報]

Hackaday reader Matthias rigged up this solution, which makes the cart show up on a PC as an external drive with the ROM file inside. From there, it's playable on one's choice of emulator.

Admittedly, the number of cases in which one has a working cart but no working console, and a working emulator but no working ROM, are probably quite low. But I remember Dad asking me what was the point - when free WiFi is so plentiful - of jailbreaking my iPhone and rigging it to serve as a dialup modem for my laptop. "Self esteem," I said.

In other words, whatever this thing does for you isn't important; the thing you made it do, however, is. Good work, Matthias.

USB Reader for SNES Game Carts [hackaday]

Rob Morris' Wii hack for his guitar gets quite a bit of play in Marros' Boston band Vivian Darkbloom, the Globe reports. Morris uses a remote, with the help of a laptop, to alter the pitch of his sound and add echo by tilting the guitar around.

Here's how he did it:

1. Attach the remote to the guitar Duct tape works. Velcro is a little fancier. Morris says the important thing is to make sure it doesn't fall off in the middle of a performance.

2. Make the Wiimote and computer talk Morris runs "Bluetooth Setup Assistant" on his Mac to synch up the Wiimote to the computer.

3. Get the right software Morris uses the Max/MSP multimedia suite to translate the controller's motions into any guitar effect he wants. Besides pitch and echo, he likes the "granular synthesis" effect, which can create blips and beeps that sound like old video games.

4. Convert to audio Plug the guitar and laptop into a PreSonus Firebox, which converts the computer signals into audio signals and spits them out through a guitar cable.

5. Turn it up Plug the guitar cable from the Firebox into your amplifier, and you're ready to rock.

His guitar's got game

In what we're guessing is an attempt to glom on to the success of Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable series, CyberConnect and (we're presuming) publisher Namco Bandai will move the series from the PlayStation 2 to the still-popular handheld.

Characters from the original .hack series and .hack//G.U. will return in .hack//LINK, which is still without a firm date.

While the .hack series has made a point of simulating a multiplayer experience offline, we wouldn't be surprised if Namco Bandai looks to the Monster Hunter formula for inspiration on how the new episode will play.

Famitsu 20090116 [Wii @ Everyday]

This latest Ben Heck hack features a 17-inch LCD monitor, built in speakers, a nifty power cable compartment, top-loading DVD drive, removable hard drive and Ethernet and USB ports.

Heck says he built this beautiful bit of gaming because he's had a lot of requests from servicemen and women. The gaming football is also not taken, so it sounds like Heck is willing to part with it for a price. In fact it sounds like he's looking for someone (cough)Pelican(cough) who might be interested in mass producing these bad boys.

Now for how he did it.

Pelican Case Xbox 360 [Ben Heck, thanks Steve]

The guys over at Hardcode TV hacked a remote control truck to work with first a Wii remote, then a Nunchuk, then a Balance Board and finally the touch screen of an iPhone.

All of the controllers seemed to work relatively well, though my favorite was the Wii Remote, which was set up to control the truck the same way you control the virtual vehicles in Excite Truck.

Wii Balance Board Hack [Balance Board Blog]

On October 17th, 2008, I proposed to my (now) Fiance. Originally I wanted to retun to the site of our first date, Mount Baker, near Bellingham Washington. Sadly, there was no discrete way to get her out there. So I turned to the next best thing, digitally recreating the mountain!

But why stop there? I figured I'd try and recreate many of our other favorite memories — stargazing, dancing, even her favorite song lyrics (from the Princess Bride). I'm a college student who is studying Computer Science, and I wanted to do something unique that used my talents, so I did some research on Rom hacking, as she was playing through Chrono Trigger....

When her name appeared on screen (blurred in this video), she glanced over to me (on one knee, with the ring out), wondering, "How did they get my name in this game?" When she saw the ring, she reread the proposal, nodded yes, and said, "You are such a huge nerd! I love this!"

I spent a long time debating whether or not this proposal was awesome or incredibly stupid. Her friends, and my friends helped talk me into it, and it was a huge success!

Congrats! Word of advice: Leave the software Chrono consummation hacks out of your wedding night.

I proposed by hacking Chrono Trigger [YouTube via Reddit via CrunchGear via Make via Gadgets Boing Boing]

Wii Systemmenu hacks [DCEmu]

UPDATE - Crediar dropped us a line this morning to let us know the tool's gone live. Happy hunting.

Celebrating the release of a big video game is starting to become a regular theme over there. If you recall, some pranksters dressed up John Harvard's statue to look like Master Chief when Halo 3 was released. The rather fuzzy pictures show a Mario hat, the Smash Bros. box, a Poke ball, a Smash ball, a banana peel. Not shown were some other power-ups hanging from the ceiling.

Ah MIT.

The process is far from simple as once you modify a save game it requires it be to signed with 3 keys. Here's some info from Bushing.

"Once the Wii decrypts the save game, it checks its signature. Every Wii has its own private key which is used to sign save games, and when you save a game, the Wii actually saves three bits of data:

* The encrypted save game
* The signature for the save game (using your console's private key)
* A copy of your console's public key, signed by Nintendo."

Of course, the end user wouldn't have to go through this process unless they were wanting to inject their own code into the save game, but that shouldn't be necessary...

Skyluss, a member of pro-gaming Team vBi, reported over the weekend that his Xbox Live account has been hacked... again. Apparently the hacker was a little envious of the Recon Armor Bungie had bestowed upon Skyluss and decided to take it for a spin him or herself.

The Halo 3 gamer writes in the vBi forums that he thinks this latest hack wasn't a product of social hacking (i.e. sweet-talking a password out of a stupid customer support person) but a genuine security flaw in Microsoft's Live service.

Skyluss says he's changed the passwords on his account three times in the past month so he's sure it's not an issue of someone having his password. Whether it is a security flaw in the system or an issue with customer support the bottom line is that there is a problem, one that I hope Microsoft is on top of.

I emailed XBL Director Larry Hryb to see if Skyluss high-profile account problems are being investigated, as the gamer was told after receiving a whole lot of run around and not a lot of answers. Hyrb told me that their security team has indeed launched an investigation and that he has been in touch with the gamer personally.

My Gift, My Curse [Team VBI, thanks Christopher]

The architect writes:

This table is excellent when I throw large parties. There's always someone who doesn't feel comfortable around large groups of people, and so sits at the table playing video games. But because I serve food and drink on the table, and there's always someone sitting down across the table, this person is forced into social situations which are lubricated slightly by the involvement of video games.

For anyone looking to recreate this arcade ready contraption, the BJURSTA table from IKEA will do the trick. Additional specs and photos are at the Flickr account linked below.

IKEA MAME Dinner Table [Flickr via Boing Boing]

Ed at Instructables was nice enough to tip us off to one of the site's latest hardware customizations, an LED filled Guitar Hero controller that adds some visual flair to stock rockin' out. The step-by-step instructions unfortunately gloss over a very important step—making your own translucent custom fret buttons—but an emoticon is offered in apology. That missing step is also promised at a later date. Who's going to make with the long exposure photography of a "Through The Fire And The Flames" attempt?

Guitar Hero LED Mod [Instructables]

Multiple edits were made to revise Manhunt 2 for its M-rated version. Hackers apparently have altered one of those edits to produce an illegally modified version of the game that can only be played on an unauthorized, modified PlayStation Portable handheld system...Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick said, "I stand behind the game and the ESRB ratings process. It is unfortunately the case that no one in the entertainment software industry is immune from hacking...We would also like to emphasize that Manhunt 2 is intended for an audience aged 17 and above.

BREAKING: Rockstar Confirms Manhunt 2 PSP Hack [gamepolitics]

In the great tradition of decades of "hacks" (us, non-collegiate types call them pranks), the folks at MIT snuck into Harvard Yard on the day of the Halo 3 launch and dressed book-donor John Harvard up as the Master Chief, complete with a fancy Spartan Helmet and Battle rifle. What amazes me is how they manages to make the additions look like they were made of the same material as the statue.

Halo 3 John Harvard [Thanks Jeremy and everyone else who sent in tips]

The only catch is that the mod only works with 3rd or 4th gen iPods. But that's all right. It was all downhill after generation three when build materials became cheaper, and buttons transformed into a "click wheel."

NES Controller iPod Remote [via playgadgets]

The PSP has an active homebrew community, and hackers are hoping to create the same for the PS3. So far, PS3 firmware 1.10 and 1.11 have been cracked, making it possible to boot illegal game copies. However, hackers haven't figured out how to get the booted games to run so they can be played. What's Sony doing to stop this? Spokesman Dave Karraker says:

Unfortunately, hackers will try to exploit any hardware system software. The best we can do as a company is to make our security that much stronger and aggressively pursue legal action against anyone caught trying to use an exploit in an illegal manner... Naturally, any use of an exploit on the system software does void the warranty on the PS3 system... Which could be a costly mistake to see if you can run an old SEGA CD game on it.

Making Threats [Eurogamer]

Dan Dormer and the guys over at 1Up figured out how you too can create your own custom matches in Halo 3 and get access to things like the pistol, the overhauled energy sword and vampirism.

Before we get into their how to, I'll warn you, it's going to make the sleep-inducing matchmaking and multiple loading screens of regular Halo 3 beta feel like, well a normal first-person shooter that doesn't inspire you to bring a good book with you to read between matches.

First, get six to eight other players in a game with you in the pre-matchmaking phase.

After you've assembled this group, have a separate player matchmaking by themselves send the party leader an invite.

The party leader needs to bring the party to the new game, but one person will get kicked.

The person who was booted will now send invites to those who weren't booted — it is possible you'll have to repeat these first couple of steps because you need two people in the custom game lobby.

Now you should have a party of two and a party of six in two separate lobbies — the party of six invites the party of two into their game.

Someone in the party of two should lag out into a custom game that actually works.

If you don't have the patience or the time to go through all of this, hit up 1Up for some of the neat things they discovered buried in those matches. Brian Crecente