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Burger King Game Boy toy turned into real retro handheld
At the turn of the Millennium, Burger King handed out adorable tiny Game Boy Colors with fake Pokémon cartridges. Sixteen years later and a modder, armed with a Raspberry Pi Zero, has turned one of the dummy units into a working console. Paired with a two-inch display from Adafruit and Retropie's software emulator, the title will play Game Boy Color and Advance titles with its now working buttons. Although, of course, since there's only A&B, you might struggle with titles that need the shoulder bumpers too. It's not the first time that we've seen Raspberry Pi's tiny board being used in this way, with a full-size Game Boy being turned into an emulator earlier this year. Given how many broken handhelds are available on eBay, we imagine everyone's going to devote a weekend to building their own.
'Grand Theft Auto' in VR might be too real
Virtual reality is getting closer to being an intricate part of gaming. Now we just need to wait for the titles. Modder Joseph Delgado decided that instead of being patient he would add VR support to Grand Theft Auto V. Using the Razer Hydra he was able to add gesture controls the the game and result is that he felt guilty taking out the digital citizens of Los Santos.
You can build a life size BB-8 out of a beachball
It took just days after BB-8 was shown to the world for someone to build their own, with the first one coming 48 hours after Star Wars Celebration. We've seen 'em come in all shapes and sizes, from a customized Sphero (before the company made its own) through to thousand-dollar versions. Now, 17-year-old Angelo Casimiro thinks that he's found a way to craft a version for just $120, if you have the patience. Thankfully, almost all of the parts required are available from your local hardware store, including an Arduino Uno, some wheels and, best of all, a 20-inch beachball.
Developers can now sell in-game items through Steam
The folks at Valve have introduced a new Steam feature called "Item Store" which, as its name implies, makes it easier for game developers to manage and sell microtransactions. Facepunch Studios has already jumped on board, creating a marketplace for its DayZ-inspired survival title Rust. It sits inside the Steam client and any items you buy are added to your inventory automatically. So what's the point? Well, this feature means indie developers no longer have to build in-game stores from scratch. They can also be used to manage user-made items -- as Eurogamer reports, developers can integrate their stores with Steam Workshops and set their own item prices. Steam handles the checkout process and promises to split the payments between Workshop authors "as appropriate." What's not clear, however, is whether the developer takes a cut on community-made items. Earlier this year Valve faced enormous backlash when it tried to introduce paid Skyrim mods -- hopefully it's learned from that mistake and really thought this initiative through.
More ingenious hacks for problems you didn't know you had
It's the Fourth of July and while that light show in the sky honors US independence, why not shine a little light on our DIY perseverance? To help celebrate this holiday, we've put together a collection of (even more) ingenious hacks that incorporate party essentials: lights, nighttime, fireworks, music, drinks and a bit of wild imagination. Want to watch the celebrations on TV like it's still the '80s? Will pumping up the volume help you fight fires? And just how do you innovate something as simple as sliced bread? DIY fanatics and gadget hacker extraordinaires have already done the legwork. All you need to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the (slide)show. [Image: Styropyro / YouTube]
Engadget giveaway: win a Raspberry Pi 2 and DIY kit courtesy of Element14!
Where to begin? Would you like to make your own PiRate radio station or Pi Microwave? Does a techno upgrade to your Fisher Price Chatter Telephone sound like fun? You can do all this and more with a credit-card-sized Raspberry Pi 2 Model B at the heart of your project. Element14 has been supporting the professional and hobbyist electronics community for years by hosting online groups and supplying some of the requisite gear. It's shipped a few million of the Raspberry Pi since its 2012 release and to celebrate the second iteration, the company gave us a hefty starter kit -- Ben Heck can't have all the fun. This time around, the Pi is six times faster, has double the memory capacity and if you've already been hacking away with an earlier version, don't fret, its backwards compatible, too. There's a host of partner products from sensors to NFC to WiFi modules available from Element14 and this week's giveaway includes 15 of those alongside the new Raspberry Pi 2 Model B for one lucky Engadget reader. You know the drill, just head down to the Rafflecopter widget for up to three chances at winning. Winner: congratulations to Scot S. of Fuquay Varina, NC.
Modders turn piano into Doom controller (video)
It's been almost too long since we've seen something (in)appropriated to satisfy a twisted modder's Doom craving, and this time, it's not the hardware running Id Software's classic game that's ill-fitted, but the controller. If the timeline on David Hayward's Vine account is accurate, a crew of what appear to be professional tinkerers has turned one old piano into an awkward keyboard in little more than 24 hours. Details on how this was achieved are limited, but it seems to involve some basic PC interfacing and a "load of wiring." Head past the break to catch the noisy mod in action, and if you'd like to a see a few more clips of the "Doom Piano" in development, hit up Hayward's Vine profile. Now, which one's the BFG chord?
This Arduino hackaphone was never going to be pretty, but it does the job
Okay, we'll admit that it looks a bit like a baby monitor. But in contrast to those over-engineered pieces of parenting paraphernalia, this DIY cellphone can actually make calls and send texts over GPRS. More importantly, Hackaday claims it was put together by a lone hacker ("Victorzie") from an assortment of off-the-shelf and modded parts, including a TFT touchscreen, lithium ion battery, charging circuit, GPRS module and shield. These components were hooked up to an Arduino Uno microcontroller running a barebones UI and then jammed into a 3D printed case, which makes the device look far more pocketable than some previous hackaphone efforts. The end result inspires big respect for the creator, but also, more grudgingly, for the pro engineers at places like Nokia, who can pull all this stuff together and even get it FCC-approved for just a few dollars.
Visualized: a tour of Ben Heck's lab (video)
We've been following Ben Heck since the days of the Atari 800 laptop, so we jumped at the chance to take a look at the modder extraordinaire's shop in Madison, WI. As expected, the place is jam-packed with industrial tools, 3D printers and half-finished pinball machines. Check out where the magic happens below -- and as a bonus, Heck takes us on a tour of his work-in-progress Ghost Squad pinball machine.
Serious Sam 3 now in Steam Workshop, mods incoming
Serious Sam 3 recently received Steam Workshop support, Croteam and Devolver Digital announced. The update gave players the ability to use community-made weapons, character skins, maps and gameplay mods, and the option to subscribe to modders that use the Serious Editor.The update initially provided users with over 60 mods to play with, some of which can be seen in the gallery below. %Gallery-169987%
Modbook Pro to launch with SSD storage, up for pre-order October 3rd
It wasn't all that long ago that Modbook Inc's CEO, Andreas Haas, made the mac-in-tablet Modbook Pro official, now we're learning that the super-slate will launch with high performance SSD storage. So, as you wield your MacBook Pro come tablet, you'll be free from spinning disks. Great, but what impact will this have on capacity? Well, according to the firm, storage will start at 64GB as standard, with upgrades possible all the way up to a, not-unreasonable, 480GB. Pre-orders go live on October 3rd, along with the all important reveal on price. Regardless of cost, if that void between the iPad and full-fat Windows 8 slates had been irking you, here's your answer.
Modder builds $150 open-source thermal imaging camera to help insulate his house (video)
Modder Andy Rawson thinks he's found the secret to turning smartphones into super-cheap thermal imaging hardware. Inspired by his quest to find leaks in his old home and the high cost of professional gear, he set about building his own. A 64-zone temperature sensor connects to his iPhone via the dock, overlaying the data onto his camera display. He's planning to open-source the $150 hardware, and an Android variant of the hardware is currently in the works -- although details for both are currently thin on the ground, you can see his announcement video after the break.
Digispark, Arduino's unofficial kid brother, takes Kickstarter by storm (video)
Hobbyist Erik Kettenburg was concerned that the size and cost of Arduino stifled his ability to craft, so he set about developing Digispark. It's an Arduino-compatible board, the size of a quarter, that offers a few pins at around a third of the cost of an Uno -- so you don't have to worry about taking projects apart when you're done. Designed to be fully compatible with the Italian standard, it's packing six I/O pins, 8k memory and a full USB connection amongst other things. The aim is to retail the gear for $12 a piece, and has been so popular that it's made nearly $100,000 in Kickstarter pledges, smashing its original goal of $5,000. We've got video for you below, and you can still throw some cash Mr. Kettenburg's way if you fancy getting your hands on one quickly.
Moving trash can catches your waste, annoys Larry Bird (video)
Just when you thought developments in trash can technology hadn't moved too far since the trusted b-ball backboard accessory, a Japanese genius comes along to raise the bar. Modder FRP has created the Smart Trashbox, a moving can which uses a Kinect to track airborne garbage and make sure you'll never miss another three. Impressively, it appears he designed and built every piece of the puzzle himself, from the motorized wheel base right down to the PCB. We dread to think how much coding this took, given that the Kinect monitors the entire room, calculates trash trajectory and sends the can interception orders. Apparently the accuracy stats don't demand MVP awards just yet, but check out the highlight reel (and more details of the project) after the break.
CyanogenMod's Steve Kondik and crew talk Android hacking in Google I/O video
If you've ever slapped a CyanogenMod ROM on your Android phone instead of waiting months or longer for an official update, you may have wondered who was behind it and how they did it. Well, CM founder Steve Kondik spilled the beans to developers at Google's I/O conference, and the first half of that presentation is now up on YouTube. It not only provides the modders' MO, but also reveals a few things about the green robot itself. The second half of the presentation will be coming soon as well, but this one is must-watch territory for tinkerers -- go past the break to check it out.
Ben Heck makes Super Glove mod for Kinect, takes strain out of gestures (video)
Sick of trying to control your 360 using Kinect, semaphore and advanced flailing? Modgod Ben Heck, deciding he wanted to be more Minority Report and less lunatic, has been working on Power Glove 2.0 to improve the console's navigation experience. The prototype glove is tricked out with Arduino, an accelerometer, a gyroscope and some fingertip buttons. With the addition of IR and a little coding magic, the 360's interface can be controlled via subtle gestures, with increased functionality / style points also apparent. Check out the latest episode of The Ben Heck Show after the break for a detailed walkthrough of the project and a demo of the glove in action.
Adafruit modder builds Captain Jack's Vortex Manipulator / Leela's wrist-lo-jacko-mator for real
This impressive wrist / forearm cuff is the brainchild of Adafruit forum member and modder Stephanie, who has built a sensor platform into the fashion accessory. The device can monitor the exposure value, track your movements over GPS, measure your galvanic skin response, tell you the temperature, humidity and even doubles as a watch and flash-light. It was built around Sparkfun's Pro Micro development board and a boatload of sensors purchased from Adafruit. We might just build one ourselves with a radiation detector, so that we can live out our Pip-Boy fantasies down at the mall. %Gallery-156412%
Star Wars Arcade gets fan-made mini-me, weeps tears of joy (video)
Arcade fan (and genius) Le Chuck got up one morning and thought "Why not build a perfect replica of Atari's Star Wars Arcade, at 1:6 scale?" The result is this amazing 12-inch cabinet with a fully working Atari-yoke, handmade from aluminum and a pair of potentiometers. Tucked inside the box is a modded Caanoo running MAME4all, which has been tweaked to boot straight into the game when activated. The whole project took him over 80 hours to put together, but we think it was time very well spent. If you want to see the thing in action (and sing along to the 8-bit version of the theme) then head on past the break.
AzTtec PC case mod takes the Thermaltake Level 10 GT back in time
The Thermaltake Level 10 GT PC case is quite a sight on its own, but it's also proven to be popular among case modders, who have taken things to some considerable extremes in the past year. One of the most impressive to date is this so-called AzTtec mod by bit-tech.net member dmcgrath, who's ditched the usual LEDs and gaming inspirations in favor of something that makes even steampunk look thoroughly modem by comparison. To do that, he carved the enclosure you see above by hand out of a material called Balsa Foam, and then proceeded to painstakingly paint it and adorn it foliage and other tiny details. Hit the source link below to examine it up close.[Thanks, Antony]
Human Birdwings project takes flight (update: hoax)
Just now catching up with the Human Birdwings project? Nice timing. The human flight machine -- built by Jarnos Smeets to rely on a Wiimote and Wildfire S, among other niceties -- has just enjoyed its first moments of liftoff. In essence, the wings were strapped onto a willing Earthling, and as he began to flap his arms... well, it's a sight you need to see to fully appreciate. We'll confess that the "flight" didn't last long, but Jarno himself told us that it was but a first "test run." Promising? Oh, yes. Head on past the break for the vid.Update: The project here has been underway since at least August of last year, but we've requested raw footage of the test flight here to further justify concerns. We'll report back shortly!Update: Shocker, it's fake. And that's that.
