mod
Latest
Teenage Engineering's 'rumble' module puts haptic bass in the OP-Z
When I reviewed the OP-Z from Teenage Engineering, I was most curious about the expansion port. The diminutive portable synth and sequencer already packed a lot of musical power into a small box. The fact it could be further expanded was exciting. Today we're seeing one such example, with the announcement of the "rumble" module. As the name suggests, the rumble module ($89) adds haptic feedback to the OP-Z, courtesy of a collaboration with Lofelt (of Basslet fame). At its most basic, rumble endows the OP-Z ($599) with a silent, vibrating metronome. Slot the module in, and you can feel the tempo, rather than hear it with the typical (and annoying) shrill "beep."
The PIS2 is a portable PS2 years in the making
The PlayStation 2 has been in the grave for over a decade, but that hasn't kept gamers from tinkering with Sony's iconic console. Reddit user darkwingmod has been working on and off for several years to perfect his vision of a portable PS2, the PIS2. The build features genuine PS2 hardware augmented with a Raspberry Pi 2, which loads game files over an ethernet-connected SMB server; no emulation is involved. Darkwingmod says that the games run close to full speed and FMVs play smoothly.
'StarCraft' gets the cartoon makeover nobody asked for
When you think of kid-friendly video games, StarCraft might not top the list. But that could change. A new version, StarCraft: Cartooned, reimagines every unit, structure, map, menu and mission with art by CarBot Animations. The usually dark game is swapping its Warhammer-like visual style for a complete makeover with cute cartoon graphics.
The UK's high-energy lasers could zap drones and missiles out of the sky
The UK wants to take down enemy drones and missiles with high-energy light beams. The Ministry of Defense (MOD) announced that it's developing laser and radio frequency weapons. Referred to collectively as Direct Energy Weapons (DEW), they're powered by electricity, operate without ammunition and are fueled by a vehicle's engine or a generator.
Android is (unofficially) coming to the Nintendo Switch
Ever since the Nintendo Switch launched, there's been a lingering question: can it run Android? It's a reasonably powerful ARM-based tablet, after all. Two years later, the answer is finally "yes..." sort of. Developers Billy Laws and Max Keller have managed to get an early version of Android Q running on the Switch. Bluetooth, WiFi and even the Joy-Cons are working -- theoretically, this could be one of the better Android gaming devices available.
Fan-made 'Half-Life' remake 'Black Mesa' is nearly complete
Want to feel old? The original Half-Life has turned 20. Valve released its definitive shooter on November 19th, 1998, both stretching the possibilities of the genre (both in technology and storytelling) and laying the groundwork for the company's gaming empire. But it's not Valve celebrating the momentous occasion -- instead, it's up to the fans. Crowbar Collective has released a trailer for the final portion of its Black Mesa remake, introducing its take on the strange Xen dimension that ends the first Half-Life game.
Switch NES emulator already hacked to run unofficial games
Nintendo Switch Online has barely been live a day and hackers have already had their way with it. According to a modder who goes by the name KapuccinoHeck, it's pretty easy to load your own ROMs onto a hacked Switch and play them directly through the NES emulator, which comes as part of the $20-a-year service.
'Minecraft' mod fosters a collaborative effort against climate change
A Minecraft modder has added some fresh gameplay issues for players to deal with in the form of climate change. Nick Porillo's GlobalWarming mod alters the atmosphere based on certain actions like smelting ores. Temperatures will rise as carbon emissions increase, leading to violent storms, forest fires and a drop in snowfall levels as climate change takes hold.
Fan-made 'System Shock' mod awakens a new terror
Once unleashed, the power of fandom is a force that can't be stopped. Just ask Joey Lansing, the creator of a mod for 1994 action-adventure System Shock. He spent four months whipping up an entire single-player campaign that creeps into the same hellish recesses as the original game.
Microsoft shuts down a 'Halo Online' fan mod
Microsoft takes copyright violations as seriously as Nintendo does, it'd seem. The Xbox-maker has requested that a fan-made version of Halo Online stop production. Microsoft canned the Russia-only, free-to-play Halo Online back in 2016. From the sounds of it, things like textures and asset packs from the game made their way to the internet, where the "ElDewrito" team found and used them in their fan-made resurrection of the game.
Nintendo’s mini SNES quickly cracked to run more games
It appears that Nintendo really doesn't mind modders cracking open its little retro consoles and using them for more than they were originally intended. Back when the NES Classic Edition was released, it took Russian tinkerer "Cluster" just a few months to figure out how to side-load additional games onto the system. Nintendo doesn't seem to have made the process any more difficult on the new mini SNES, as little more than a week after its release, Cluster has updated his hakchi2 tool to support side-loading extra games onto the latest pint-sized console.
Nintendo issues takedowns for ‘Super Mario 64 Online' mod videos
Last week, modders released a tool that enabled folks to play the classic game Super Mario 64 online in massive multiplayer batches with up to 23 of their friends. To be clear, this was just a plugin that allowed folks who were already playing emulated ROMs of the game on a computer to roam together. Nevertheless, Nintendo caught wind and, predictably, served enough copyright takedown notices to pull the videos promoting the tool -- and the main modder Kaze Emanuar's Patreon account -- offline.
'Half-Life 2' mod puts the sequel inside of the original
The chances of us getting Half-Life 3 or, hell, even Half-Life 2: Episode 3 seem about as likely as the Detroit Lions winning the Super Bowl at this point. To help take some of that sting off, a group of enterprising fans crafted Half-Life 2: Classic, a mod that essentially runs the game in its prequel's "Goldsrc" engine. It serves as "a way to see what Half-Life 2 could have looked like in the limits of Goldsrc, if Valve never developed the Source engine," the listing page says.
Will we be able to control the killer robots of tomorrow?
From ship-hunting Tomahawk missiles and sub-spying drone ships to semi-autonomous UAV swarms and situationally-aware reconnaissance robots, the Pentagon has long sought to protect its human forces with the use of robotic weapons. But as these systems gain ever-greater degrees of intelligence and independence, their increasing autonomy has some critics worried that humans are ceding too much power to devices whose decision-making processes we don't fully understand (and which we may not be entirely able to control).
GTA modding tool quietly reappears after legal threats
The popular Grand Theft Auto V modding tool OpenIV now looks to be back in action, just weeks after its creators found themselves in a whole heap of legal trouble. Last month GTA publisher Take Two Interactive sent the creators of the modding software a cease and desist letter, claiming that the tool allowed users to bypass the game's security features and violated the publisher's rights. Unsurprisingly, this forced OpenIV to remove the mod's download link from its site on June 14th, resulting in a huge community backlash. Now, that link is back up and fans can once again download the modding tool directly from OpenIV's website.
Reddit is stripping away some of its personality
Reddit's default design is a throwback to simpler times on the internet. However, moderators on the site's numerous subreddits put a bunch of work into making sure their communities stand out from each other by employing CSS (cascading style sheets) to change everything from banner images, fonts, icons and other aspects of the user interface. Reddit's CEO Steve Huffman said that's going to change, as the massive discussion board is undergoing an overhaul.
Fans resurrect 'Tomb Raider' in your web browser
If you need a reminder of how far video games have come since the mid-90s, look no further than OpenTomb. Over the past four years, a handful of devoted developers have been rebuilding the original five Tomb Raider games from scratch, and the City of Vilcabamba level is available in your browser right now (heads up, game audio auto-plays from that link).
Moto Z Mod puts a walkie-talkie on your phone
Motorola has been encouraging enterprising hardware hackers to create Mods at contests around the globe for the Moto Z smartphone, though so far results have been somewhat limited. The latest Mod to make its way to an Indiegogo project is the Linc radio -- a nifty little walkie-talkie Mod that the creators say will let you stay in touch at a range of up to six miles without cell service.
Nintendo hid a secret message in the Famicom Mini
The NES Classic and its Japanese counterpart are already incredibly cool -- but you know what makes an awesome toy even better? A secret message. Apparently, developers that worked on the Famicom Mini emulator left a short, hidden message in the code: "Please," it says, "don't break everything!"
Nintendo mini NES modders figure out how to add new games
There was no doubt Nintendo's miniature NES Classic Edition was going to be a hit, especially around the holiday season. The affordable retro console hit all the right nostalgic notes, but there's a consensus Nintendo missed a trick by omitting any way to add new games to the system beyond the 30 preinstalled titles. Also, it shouldn't be that hard -- the mini NES is just an emulator in a pretty package, after all. Well, leave it up to the internet to do what Nintendo wouldn't. The modding community has successfully cooked up ways to load additional games onto the system, and all you need is a PC and a micro-USB cable.
