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Auto Guitar Hero Confirms Humanity's Worthlessness

Hey! You got your Pong in my Breakout! You got your arm rasslin' in my Tetris! I swear, the only way to make boring classic video games playable and entertaining in modern times is to rig them to insane controls or pair them with another classic. Here are two.

Earlier this week I found Pongout — which actually has some replay value as you can't accept losing to such a ridiculous concept. And then TechEBlog discovered "Tresling," (left) a version of Tetris played by slamming an arm-wrestling opponent's arm into a controller. I like the video, complete with "Eye of the Tiger," but that was the theme to Stallone's "Rocky III" not his arm-wrestling vehicle "Over the Top" of 1987.

Here's the combo game I want to see: NCAA Hitman 08. As Agent 47, you begin as a top defensive back prospect in high school. Before the big rivalry game, you garrote the other team's star receiver, steal his uniform, line up at his position and nab 6 interceptions for TDs, winning the Heisman in the process.

Pongout [All Games All Free]
Tresling - Tetris and Arm Wrestling [Hacked Gadgets via TechEBlog]

[Yeeeahhhh. Here's the correct version. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Kotaku Time. Sorry about that. OSG]

Sometimes I pick up my controller, even if I'm not playing any games, and fly it around imagining it's a space fighter. That's about as far as I get with modding these things. But HacknMod has a few fun projects cooler than that, if you don't mind putting your controller, or two, out of service while you get it right. Even if you aren't mechanically inclined, they're cool to look at. The how-tos include:

• Add LEDs to the buttons (but we've already seen that here)
• Rapid-Fire Mod
• Custom Paint Job
• Integrated Messenger Kit (above)
• Tilt Controller

Tilt controller, of course, isn't a pure Wii-style hack, but it is pretty cool (see the movie). Most everyone could get the custom paint job right. Everything else after that requires some serious skill or acceptance of the fact that you will probably ruin one controller before getting it right on another.

5 Ways to Hack your Xbox 360 Controller [Hack N Mod]

PSP Modded With Dual Analog Sticks

Your Xbox 360 Controller Officially Needs To Glow

Oh, it's tacky. But it's tacky in the best way. This Xbox 360 controller mod places LEDs under the buttons, adding a bit of Vegas glamor to your otherwise dank and sweating gaming marathon. It's not a simple mod, but if you have the time, the glue and the xacto knife, the linked tutorial will walk you through every step of LEDifying your controller. It even has instructions on how to hook the giant Xbox button to your rumble motor, creating a rumble lighting effect sure to send you into a blissful epileptic convulsions.

Oh, and because LEDs are uber power efficient, you shouldn't see a noticeable drop in battery life. Hit the jump for a hot night shot.

Wii Now Loading Homebrew From SD Cards (Unofficially)

Team Twiizers, the software enthusiasts behind the Twilight Hack (a Wii exploit stemming from Twilight Princess) have announced that their hardware-modless software can now load homebrew apps from the SD card slot in your Wii. Just imagine a world in which the Nintendo Wii could play your old SNES roms...oh how that would Change Things For The Better.

Twilight Hack [WiiBrew via Maxconsole]

Horrifically Hacked Smash Bros. Brawl Features Freakachudorf

Remember this horribly freakish Pikachu stand up? If not, his digital doppelganger is here to remind you what nightmares are made of. In this spoiler-filled clip of a hacked version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the cast of the Wii fighter has their move sets swapped, resulting in some very odd animations and horrible disfigurements. For those who don't want to spoil themselves on many hidden characters, just re-imagine Brawl as if Chris Cunningham and Richard D. James had provided the game's direction and motion capture.

BrawlCentral's Videos [YouTube - thanks, Hanibal!]

Quake II Ported To Nintendo DS

The original Quake running on a Nintendo DS? About as exciting as Daikatana, now that someone's hacked together a working version of Quake II for the dual screened handheld. id Software's classic first person shooter is now (nearly) a fully functional port, with working sound, graphics and on-screen keyboard support for console fun. No wi-fi support yet, but we expect it within the next 20 minutes or so.

The catch? It doesn't fit on a stock DS memory footprint, requiring a slot-2 flash card with at least 16 MB of RAM. A list of support cards is available at the offical Q2DS site. The hobby project is free to download, but we haven't tried it out yet, so homebrew enthusiast beware.

Quake II DS [Drunken Coders via Waxy]

The French Enslave Robots With Nintendo DS

This is certainly going to come back to haunt us in an apocalyptic way, I'm guessing, as a group of French students have written custom Nintendo DS software to control an extremely stupid robot. The Pekee open source robot platform, which comes with wireless connectivity standard, can be controlled via the touch screen, directional pad or microphone for minutes upon minutes of fun. Early, yes, and doesn't do wheelies or badass spin-outs yet, but imagine the possibilities while watching this clip (via DS Fanboy). Imagine just how slovenly one could be with a DS and open source robot in the house. The future is so bright, I hope the Pekee soon comes standard with shades.

Ever wanted to play the Game & Watch game Octopus on your cell phone? Probably not, but at least one Japanese electronics alchemist has, resulting in this fantastic cellphone mod that not only works as a phone, but as a classic LCD diversion as well. Not only fun and functional, the device folds up nicely and triples as a total pussy magnet. Chicks absolutely dig Game & Watch enthusiasts. Look it up.

Nintendo Game & Watch Modded Into Cellphone (Verdict: WANT) [Gizmodo]

Wii Hack Simulates Microsoft Surface

Microsoft's Surface technology sure is nifty, but it's going to cost a pretty penny. Oh, and it's real world applications are a bit questionable, too. But this Wii-mote hack, done in the Johnny Lee style does its best to recreate the Surface tech, without leaving greasy fingerprints. Maestro, as its creators at Cynergy have named it, requires a Wii remote and a pair of LED gloves—soon to be obsolete when we'll have the diodes embedded in our fingertips in the not too distant future—in order to work. More details are available by pressing play or visiting the YouTube page on the matter.

Cynergy Labs: Project Maestro [YouTube via Gizmodo]

Want To Play Your GBA With A DDR Pad? Of Course You Do

Fulfilling your life long dream of playing Pac-Man on the Game Boy Advance using nothing but your feet is within your grasp. Thanks to the folks at Instructables, who provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to hack together such a contraption, fat kids everywhere will be able to combine their two favorite things: eating (dots) and shedding pounds by frantic shuffling. They call this a "win-win."

How to modify your DDR pad to play with your Gameboy Advance [Instructables via Wonderland]

Here's an idea you still have time to steal. Nick and Will of the Gnatline podcast created their very own lighted Triforce, fashioned from "fairy lights", ran it up to the top of a fifty foot tree and took pics to prove it happened. The results (and making of) are the subject of massive gallery at their site. It's totally the tops.

The Triforce Tree [GnatOnline via MAKE]

Jaded types may have grown weary of feats of emulation by this point, having seen MAME on their cameras, iPhones and dinner table, but seeing the multiple arcade machine emulator on an oscilloscope has to elicit something more than a "meh", right? I mean, it's Star Wars Arcade, people. There's even video of this achievement.

Moose 2000's Photostream [Flickr via Wonderland]

Second Life's Got Some Vulnerabilities

The Commodore 64's fondly remembered SID audio chip seems like a perfect match for a retro rhythm game, doesn't it? It seems that Toni Westbrook thinks so, as he's fashioned the PSX64 controller adapter to work with a Guitar Hero guitar controller—the PlayStation 2 type—and is hard at work on the C64 port of the game. Lo-fi hacking at its best.

Shredz64 [The Shredz64 Project via Waxy.org]