Those of us old enough to remember crap games like E.T. and Sssnake have every right to be thrilled by the relative quality of modern gems like Guitar Hero. We're guessing modder Conner Flynn over at SlipperyBrick feels that way too, melding the old with the new by inserting an Atari 2600 console into the body of a faux-Gibson from Guitar Hero. This meant adding two controllers to the body (an eight-way joystick plus a paddle-style controller for Breakout), wiring up the green button on the neck, and adding a small screen where the strum bar would normally reside. It's a layout that makes this axe best suited for play Jeff Healey-style, and with a pocketful of AA batteries you can game your Angel Eyes out wherever you like. No, it's not the most ergonomic portable 2600 we've ever seen, or most practical, but is certainly is the most badass.

[Via technabob]

Remember that fad where everyone had dining room tables of their favorite Disney character? Or the age in the 70s where tables were shaped like lava lamps? No? At any rate, the modders over at SCAD Inc. have spent all summer crafting a fully-functional Super Nintendo controller-table, which reminds us an awful lot of the fully-functional NES controller-table we saw in May of this year. So, which geek is gonna take on the N64 controller table? Or better yet, the Virtual Boy?

NOR_/D's TouchKit is a modular multitouch development kit that aims to "make multitouch readily available in an open source fashion." If that sounds awfully familiar, you're probably thinking of its sister project Cubit, both of which are hoping to get multitouch into the mainstream as quickly as humanly possible. The kit itself is composed of hardware and software aspects, and of course, source files are provided for poking, prodding and researching. Interested? It'll be $1,580 shipped with a "fully assembled, frameless 70- x 50-centimeter multitouch screen, a calibrated infra-red camera, and the full base software pack."

[Via Gizmag]

There was (and still is) plenty of buzz surrounding StreetskaterFU's recent hack that enabled Blu-ray games to be played back from the PlayStation 3's internal hard drive, and now it seems like details are beginning to seep out. Fellow hacker ATOC has released an admittedly sketchy step-by-step guide for getting a number of backups to boot from the PS3, though it has only been thoroughly tested on Warhawk and Call of Duty 3. Hit up the links below for instructions, but think long and hard before you make any irreversible decisions and come dangerously close to destroying the universe.

[Thanks, Bob]

The Nervous Squirrel's Furby Gurdy (version 2) isn't the first music maker we've seen that's better understood when viewed during an out-of-body experience, but it's certainly one of the strangest. The circuit bent Furby sequencer, which is linked to a Korg SQ-10 in the demonstration vid after the break, combines centuries-old musical methods with some of the strangest characters to ever grace planet Earth. We could talk for hours on end and still not do this thing justice, so just click through and mash play to see what we're referring to. We're warning you, though -- we haven't seen anything this weird since Smash Mouth's lead singer showed up at an Intel press event.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

Oh sure, we've seen a limited number of hacks surface for the hotly selling (but still unsightly) Amazon Kindle, but we've yet to see a hardware mod of this magnitude. We've always heard that desperate times call for desperate measures, and evidently said mantra is very true. After having the display in his Kindle smashed around 8 months ago (thanks, kid sister...), blakebevin set out to perform an unprecedented surgery. With an unwanted Sony Reader LCD in hand and a badly broken Kindle on the operating table, he attempted to give the latter unit new life with a few pixels from a cross-town rival. We'll warn you -- this one's not for the rookies in attendance, and even Mr. Bevin (it is Mr. Bevin, right?) had some "nagging button issues" once the thing was sewn back up. Give the read link a look if you ever find yourself in this admittedly peculiar situation.

Oh sure, you've been able to buy digital camera-equipped binoculars for years now, but finding one that does video (particularly with the camcorder you already own) has been a continual struggle. Thanks to one engineering soul, you can forge ahead with your plans to video all sorts of sights by adding a CCD eyepiece to any 'ole set of binoculars. Once installed, you simply hook up your camcorder (hope it has video in), mash record and get to gazing. Be careful what you look for, though.

We've seen methods for hooking house plants up with their own Twitter account, but there's hardly anything more satisfying that building a robot to read back all those feeds from the thousands of people you're undoubtedly following. Ganzbot is a decidedly low-budget robot that relies on an Arduino Decima to control the head actions and a USB cable to receive up-to-date status information. Have a look at the innards as well as a few words being spoken just after the jump.

[Via MAKE]

What could possibly provide us more joy and mirth than a Segway? How about a Segway-inspired bot that fails spectacularly on a consistent basis? The tech in play here is quite simple, and the fact it can stand as long as it does being that top heavy is actually pretty surprising. The best news? Hit the read link for a guide to making your very own fail bot at home. It's fun for the whole family.

[Via technabob]

This one isn't quite as dodgy as they come, but the very notable limitations really keep this from being the whiz-bang hack that it appears to be on the surface. Hacker StreetskaterFU had no trouble getting confirmation from others that his method of running Blu-ray games from the PlayStation 3's hard drive was indeed legitimate, but it is only confirmed to work with select "older titles" including Warhawk, MotorStorm and Call of Duty 3. To make matters worse, instructions are sketchy at best, but at least there's a video of the process working after the break. Let us know how things go should you give this a whirl.

Had enough Wall-E mods yet? Really, you have? What, you some kind of whiskey-drunk, bunny stuffer? This is Wall-E, the Disney robot sent to save us from ourselves and apparently, beige computers. This latest mod by Frenkie Janse drops a a trio (hey, why not) of DVD drives into Wall-E's trash compacting belly. Add cardboard, aluminum, toy bulldozer parts, and some fancy Dremeling and this is the result. See him in action after the break.

[Via Fusion Mods, thanks John]

Here's a fun, not-completely-original, but still-pretty-neat idea: littleBits. Tiny, pre-assembled circuit boards that create a library of mix-and-match electronic components for building that next amazing wonder widget. Oh, and they're open source. The "blocks" snap together via magnets, and there's an ever-growing selection of modules to choose from. The project is still in its infancy, but we're expecting to see some good work from Joe Hacker Guy on the DIY scene, or anybody else too afraid to pick up a soldering iron, once these arrive at some sort of retail availability. An intro video is after the break.

It's tough for us to go six months without a newfangled approach to hacking the famed USB missile launcher, so it's with great joy that we present to you this particular one. By utilizing a spare Wiimote, a USB-enabled PC, a USB missile launcher, a few strips of duct tape and a minor amount of programming knowledge, you too can craft an auto-aiming launcher which can find, aim at and attack IR targets. Grab the aforementioned items and hit the read link, just take care to not poke your eye out, alright?

[Via HackNMod, thanks Joe]

Seems everyone is coming out with a cheap, do-it-yourself SATA adapter to convert all your extra flash memory cards into a makeshift SSD. This time, we're looking at the ¥10,000 (about $91) PhotoFast CR-9000. The 9.5-mm tall, 2.5-inch, 3Gbps SATA adapter accommodates up to 6x SDHC cards and should fit into most slim laptops. That's enough slots to make a 192GB SSD (using 6x 32GB cards) for a bargain $900 or about $270 for a 48GB SSD based on a quick calculation of SDHC cards found on-line. While performance depends upon the weakest card of the lot, Impress Watch was able to squeeze a respectable 111.4MBps reads and 55.17MBps writes from their RAID 0 setup using class-6 rated, MLC-based, SDHC cards. That's nothing like the performance of the latest MLC-based SSDs but not bad for what you pay. Still, with SSD prices in freefall, these DIY adapters are quickly becoming less and less attractive.

Don't even try to deny it -- you've been holding one mean grudge against that ridiculously accurate DeepNote bot ever since you saw it dominate Guitar Hero in mid-July. Really though, all that pent up aggression is completely unnecessary, and if you've been fruitlessly aiming to concoct one of your own, we've found the perfect place to start. The video posted up after the jump gives a fantastic overview of how the device actually works, and while it's far (very far) from simple, it's nothing the seasoned DIYer couldn't handle on an extended weekend. Give it a look if you're head over heels for PCBs and flashing LEDs (oh, and shameless rock 'n roll).

[Thanks, Jeremy]