Modder extraordinaire Ben Heckendorn could easily be resting on his laurels by now but, thankfully for us, he continues to churn out console mods and accessories like nobody's business, and his latest creation easily meets the high standard he's set for himself. Designed for the Games for Health conference, this one continues his line of one-handed controllers, with the pedals in this case replacing the strum and whammy bar from a standard Guitar Hero controller, letting you use a single hand for the chords. As you can see, everything is also obviously done with Ben Heck's usual fit and finish, and even a bit of clever salvaging, with an Atari Jaguar controller cable used with one of the pedals -- Ben just hopes that "doesn't jinx anything."

After teasing us for a couple of months, modder extraordinaire (and Engadget contributor) Ben Heckendorn has finally taken the wraps off his mystery commercial product, now revealed to be a gaming headset. Dubbed the Audio FX Pro 5+1, the USB (non-wireless) headset opts for an old school look but packs its share of newfangled features, including internal motors for some force feedback action, along with some virtual 5.1 surround sound. As a bonus, Ben Heck's also responsible for the product's packaging, which includes some copy you're not likely to find anywhere else ("hear the cries of dying noobs with perfect digital clarity"), not to mention some faithfully reproduced bullet holes that Ben himself created in a fit of rage inspiration. As promised, the headset also comes in at under $100 ($80, specifically), and is available for pre-order from eDimensional now, although there's no word yet on when it'll ship.

[Via Joystiq]

It looks like those not able to get their own one-of-a-kind Ben Heck creation could soon be able to get their hands on the next best thing, as Ben (whose work on Engadget can be found here) has now lent some of his considerable talents to the forthcoming Gameport handheld, which promises to let you get your old school emulation fix with no questions asked. While the Gameport isn't entirely Ben's doing, he did design the casing for the device, not to mention pick the name for it. The non-Ben Heck aspects of the device seem to be decent enough as well, with it boasting a 480 x 234 LCD display (the exact size isn't clear), an SD slot to handle all storage needs, and even a port to connect two systems together for multiplayer games. According to Ben, only Atari 2600 and Colecovision games are supported for the time being, although emulation of other systems will apparently be possible through software upgrades (it'll also function as a basic PMP). Unfortunately, it's still in prototype form, so it looks like we'll have to wait a while to get an idea of pricing or availability.

[Via Ben Heck]