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360 Kempston Atari joystick mod
360 Fanboy reader, gtpunch, sent us a link to a project he's been working on. He has successfully integrated a Kempston interface into an Xbox 360 controller. Essentially, this means that the controller has been modded to accept standard Atari controllers. The mod was created to make retro games such as Paperboy more fun to play (the 360 d-pad isn't exactly the best). What makes this mod particularly interesting is that the joystick port has been attached directly to the controller. The best part is that the whole controller still works (minus the d-pad, of course). We'd share the instructions with you, but they contain a lot of techno-babble about soldering and transmogrifiers and whatnot. Hit the "read" link if you can comprehend such things.See also:Atari joystick mod brings back memories
Five things to do with your Phat
February must be the official month when we compile lists of DS Phat mods, since they're just busting out all over, continually tempting us to break out the sandpaper and the paint. Today's list, courtesy of TechEBlog, details their choices for the top five Phat mods ... but it's mostly the Kotomi show. Though most of these aren't new, the gorgeous Zelda mods always give us pause. Are these the kind of mods you guys prefer, or do you like something with a little more light or personality? Or are you into making your DS more useful instead of more attractive?
AddOn Spotlight: MendWatch
Non-Priests (or Priests that don't heal), you might just want to skip over this one. MendWatch is an AddOn that...well, the author explains it best: MendWatch attempts to track the priest spell Prayer of Mending. A timer bar shows the current target of the Prayer of Mending spell with a countdown of how long the spell will last. When the target gets hit the amount the Prayer of Mending healed for will be shown and the bar will slowly fade away. If the Prayer of Mending jumps to a new target a new timer bar will be shown for the new target.This AddOn fixes my one complaint about Prayer of Mending: it can be a bit hard to track who it's on or whether you even have one out there at all, when the battle starts getting thick. Just like Cloak of Shadows brings a Rogue vs. caster duel from "imba" to "insane," MendWatch brings PoM from "awesome" to "incredible."If you're still reading but not familiar with Prayer of Mending, here's the spell's description:390 mana, instant cast, 40 yard rangePlaces a spell on the target that heals them for 800 the next time they take damage. When the heal occurs, Prayer of Mending jumps to a raid member within 20 yards. Jumps up to 5 times and lasts 30 sec after each jump. This spell can only be placed on one target at a time.
Reader UI of the Week: January 31 to February 6
Once again it's time for the ever-increasingly popular Reader UI of the Week. This week brings us something special, in that these teeny-tiny images link to GIANT MONSTROUS IMAGES. This is the widest screen setting I've seen so far. Be warned, clicking opens massive real-sized images that are about 2 megs each. Character Name: Seperioth (50 druid) (pictured is my 19 rogue twink. Seper) Screensize: 2560x1024 (2 19" lcd's) General Theme: Anything that helps make gameplay easier and information brought forward to where I need it. Addon's Used: Atlas, Atlas Loot, Auctioneer, CT_MailMod, Enchantrix, FlightTime, MobsToLevel, punky_coords, Titan, TitanBG, TitanHonorGrind, Titan Emote and FinalFantasylization (not all the time though) I go searching for addons every week now to try and find answers to problems I might be having or have had in the past. A big one is I tend to miss my buddy's and my health (because its so far to the left :p) so sometimes we wipe because of that. I haven't found an answer to that yet. Other problems in the past have been how many mobs to lvl (i like grinding mobs when i'm a few bars away), what loot a boss drops ( when i was making my twink this came in handy) and flight times (so i can go get a drink or snack real quick). I use all these things alot and dont know how i went through 30 lvls without them :p Ive attached 2 shots. One of my UI the other shows the beautiful screenshots I can take that a single 19" monitor could not take. Alot of people are amazed I play at that resolution. Some of you might not realize I have the LCD frame in the middle of my screen :p So my character, bars etc. are all cut in half :p. But you get used to it after awhile. So there you have it, another amazing Reader UI setup. Discuss in the comments, and remember to submit your UI to "readerui at gmail dot com". Just be sure to type it correctly!
AddOn Spotlight: MazzleUI
This is a big one, and one I've been waiting for for quite some time (about six months, I'd say). I don't usually bother even looking into compilations of mods, since I've found I can always put together a more satisfying solution myself, but MazzleUI may well prove to be the exception. Here's how Mazzlefizz, the author, describes it: MazzleUI is a comprehensive, customized user interface for the World of Warcraft that attempts to be clean, symmetrical, provides lots of information, use minimal space and be highly efficient. Sounds great, right? However, for most of MazzleUI's life, it's been in closed beta. MazzleUI 1.0 was just released today -- I saw the news when I woke up, and haven't done anything but install and play with it since. I'm just taking a break to tell you all about it, and then I'm sure I'll be diving right back in
AddOn Spotlight: RatingBuster
This one is nice and simple. You know those combat ratings that Blizz introduced in 2.0.1? Crit rating, hit rating, etc.? What RatingBuster does is translate those into percentages. This is harder than you may think, because the relationship between rating and percentage varies according to your level as well as the type of rating. RatingBuster does the math for you and makes your tooltips look like what you see in the screenshot. Specifically, it inserts the little percentages in parentheses by the spellcrit and spellhit ratings.
Reader UI of the Week: January 23 - 30
The response to last week's Reader UI column was fantastic, and we're glad you enjoy seeing and learning more about your fellow gamers' UIs and the mods that make them tick! Let's dive on in to this week's UI then! Character's Name: Aburr (Guild: Dragonstar; Server: Whisperwind) Screen Size: 19" Samsung SyncMaster 930B running 1280x1024, 72 Hz General Theme: Information Junkie - I spend all day at work absorbing information, and I can't shake that tendency once I'm logged in. The more information I have access to in a relatively clean, customizable, uncluttered interface, the better. Addons:TitanBar (including DamageMeters, Crit, and Roll) - basic infoMonkeyQuest - gives the ability to monitor all the quests in your log at onceDeadly Boss Mods - raid and battleground timers/warnings CT_mod and CT_raidassist - functionality that is so parsimonious, Blizz should just buy a licenseEquipCompare - compare loot with what is currently equipped; saves time in a roll!OmniCC - big, viewable numeric cooldowns on each button as necessary Atlas and AtlasQuest - adds information and functionality to standard world mapEZDismount - dismounts you upon attempting a spellcast or talking to a flight mastervBagnon - (open in screenshot) consolidates your inventory into one window, on-demand highlighting of various item types, remote viewing of bank inventory TipBuddy - attaches tooltips to your cursor, reformats tooltips with more informationJIM Abacus - evenly distributes mini-map buttons, hides unused buttonsAuctioneer - useful for EnhTooltip, which adds pricing, selling, and disenchanting information to the tooltip ErrorBlock - takes the big red pop-up errors and moves them to your chat windowEnhancedFlightMap - adds flight paths and flight masters to your world mapx-perl - allows for total control of player, party, raid, target, and focus frames Improved Camera - allows your camera to zoom out farther than normalScrolling Combat Text - gives more information and is more customizable than that offered in the standard UIBongos - customizable action bars General Blurb: With the number of addons I have, patch days (particularly to 2.0) can be dreadful. Despite this, I persist using so many addons because each one provides a useful functionality that is not available or underpowered in the standard interface. I feel like this UI is pretty clean for how powerful it is. It also allows me to be flexible; some nights I get too tired to remember my keybindings and I have to rely on button clicking, so having everything available to a mouseclick is convenient. While the standard UI is nice and uncomplicated, having this much functionality at my fingertips has really helped my playing.
AddOn Spotlight: MetaHUD
When I posted my UI the other day, as well as when I posted about ArcHUD, I got a lot of Drathal's HUD (DHUD) fans telling me I should use that instead. I had tried DHUD before, but it never really grabbed me. However, I figured if so many nice WoW Insider readers liked it, perhaps I should give it another shot. MetaHUD seems to be DHUD's successor, so I downloaded that, and have been playing with it for the last day or so.The verdict? I love it! You guys were right; MHUD is really, really nice. I'm not sure I'm going to throw away Arc just yet, but MHUD is making me very happy indeed. I think my favorite part is the casting bar, which I liked so much I put up a shoddy video on YouTube of it (please excuse my YouTube noobiness; it looks better on screen, I swear).
Install an SATA drive in your 360
Xbox modders extraordinaire, Xbox-Scene, have posted a method for installing an SATA hard drive into your 360. Before you run out to buy a 100GB hard drive to slap into your 360, you should know there are a few caveats. First, it must be a Western Digital BEVS brand hard drive. Second, you're still limited to 20GB of space (essentially, the hack copies the ID information from an official hard drive). Also, it's not a one click solution, so you'll need some technological know-how to make this work. In fact, just looking at the instructions makes us nervous. Still, if you've got the L337 5K1LLz and you don't want to waste 100 bucks on an official Microsoft drive, you may want to check it out.It's worth noting that when Microsoft releases a larger hard drive, the hack will be able to utilize the same amount of space. Hit the "read" link for all the details.
AddOn Spotlight: CT_MailMod
This is a venerable piece of code, having been around WoW at least as long as I have. In general, the sprawling CT universe of AddOns has been remarkably persistent in staying around and staying updated. CT_RaidAssist gets all the glory, but other CT mods can be really handy. I find it crucial to keep an alt to mail things off to, and it would be a huge pain without CT_MailMod. It allows me to send off multiple items with one click, as shown in the screenshot: enter the recipient's name, alt-click all the items you want to send, hit "send", and you're done.
AddOn Spotlight: ArcHUD
This is my HUD. There are many like it, but this one is mine. I've gotten a few questions from various people about how to make the rings show up around your character, and this is how I do it. ArcHUD, like other HUD mods, puts meters for your health, your mana/rage/energy, your target's health, and other things right by your character where the action is, so you don't always have to go looking up into the corner of the screen. In the screenshot, for instance, from left to right, the bars are: my mana, my HP, my casting bar, and target's HP. Near the bars, you can see text for various things: the name of the spell I'm casting (lol, Smite), my HP and MP in numerical form, the time left on my cast, and my target's percentage health remaining. Below all that is some extra info on my target, target of target, and target of target's target, along with a nice little 3D model of my target (this helps to quickly see who you're targeting when healing).
360 tilt mod: 360AXIS?
The mod lovers over at Xbox-Scene discovered this tilt sensing mod for the Xbox 360 controller. Created with an accelerometer and some digital-to-analog wizardry, the controller functions in much the same way as the PS3 SIXAXIS controller. The tilt fuctions are mapped to the left analog stick, so tilt input will be limited to movement. Of course, all of this sounds great on paper, but most of us just want to see it in action. Lucky for us all, the mod's creator, Adam Thole, captured a video of the tilt controller in all its glory. Check it out after the break.
Xbox 360 controller gets motion-sensitive
Sure the Xbox 360 has awesome games like Gears of War, but what good is all that bloody carnage when all the other next-gen systems have motion sensors? We were just ready to throw in the towel waiting for that extra level of game play, when modder Adam Thole answered our calls. Investing about two-and-a-half weeks worth of time, he was able to put together a fully-functioning wired 360 controller with a 2-axis accelerometer -- and he makes the hack seem pretty straightforward. There are a lot of details on his site for those looking to emulate this mod, and Adam claims that he may even hack a wireless controller for version two. So keep on clicking for a vid of this hack-tastic mod in action, and then hit the Read link for the full deets...
AddOns for the complete noob
[Note: Hopefully this will be a valuable resource for new players. If you know any, feel free to send them here. If you already know how to use AddOns, there is probably very little in this post that will interest you.]You just got WoW, or maybe you've had it for a while. You heard about these neat things called "AddOns" and you want to try them out. How do you do it?
ModBook Unveiling Gallery: First Looks
OWC this afternoon unveiled its answer to a Macintosh tablet. Going by the moniker of ModBook, the device was specially engineered by OWC and Axitron (a company created just for this purpose). When all is said and done, the ModBook is essentially a MacBook with a Wacom Graphire digitizing tablet built over the screen, a few select shareware titles to better the tablet experience, and for some reason foreign to this blogger, integrated GPS. The ModBook is available in multiple configurations starting at a special Macworld Expo discount of US$2199.Check out the gallery for more pics.
AddOn Spotlight: AutoSelect
I like efficiency. If it lets me skip a click, I say, it's worth a download. And AutoSelect lets you skip many, many clicks. What it does is jump past the "gossip" screen at NPCs that offer one, going straight to the vendor interface/flight path map/whatever it is that NPC is actually for. And if you really feel the need to see Innkeeper Firebrew say "Fill your tankard and pull up a chair" one more time, just hold down control when you right-click the NPC -- that disables AutoSelect.The author has quit developing the mod in dissatisfaction over WoW 2's restrictiveness, but not before updating it to work with 2.0.1. Hopefully someone will take it over when it needs changes; for now, it works perfectly.Download at ui.worldofwar.netPreviously on the SpotlightHave a favorite mod? Drop us a line, or post a comment.
AddOn Spotlight: Demon Trainer (Continued)
Hello, mod fans! Back again with a simple, should-be-in-the-default-UI fix for all you Warlocks in the crowd. This one's been around for quite some time, though it seems to have been continued by a new author for the new patch.Do you have a Warlock? Frustrated with the unnecessarily clunky book-buying interface on the demon trainers? Look no further! Demon Trainer (Continued) converts the demon trainer interface to look just like all the other trainers! What's more, it memorizes which spells your demonic pals already know, so there's no duplicate purchases or hunting through page after page to try and figure out which spells are next. Harnessing the dark energies has never been easy, so why not make this part of your every-even-level ritual a little easier: try Demon Trainer (Continued) today!P.S. Nerf Warlocks. (But not really.)Download at CursePrevious Spotlights
HD-DVD circumvened with 360 drive [update 1]
Update: Our limited knowledge -- we are not haxxors in the least -- has led to a terminological error. AACS has not been "broken," merely "circumvented" by using the decryption keys. Furthermore, decryption keys can be revoked, meaning that the ones currently available could easily be nullified. It's also likely that the DVD software used to find the keys will be patched. Whether or not AACS was technically broken, the upshot is that you can backup HD-DVD's even though you're not supposed to, for the moment anyway. Thanks to Dylan Neild for setting us straight.Utilizing a 360 HD-DVD drive, a hacker known as muslix64 has successfully broken circumvented the AACS HD-DVD copy protection. The software used, called BackupHDDVD, utilizes cryptographic keys that are specific to each individual movie. This means that any would be makers of "backup" copies will first need the proper key. It is currently unknown where muslix64 happened upon his keys. Once decrypted, the film can be copied to a hard drive and played with the appropriate program. TeamXbox points out that Blu-Ray also uses AACS encryption, so it's only a matter of time before Blu-Ray encryption is broken circumvented as well. Muslix64 claims that it took him only 8 days to decrypt his first HD-DVD movie. Makes you wonder how much Hollywood spent developing AACS, doesn't it? The hacker made a short video showing the software facilitated decryption process. Watch it after the break.
AddOn Spotlight: ClearFont
Being a big fan of typography, ClearFont is one of the first addons I reach for on a fresh install of WoW. All it does is replace the in-game fonts with your choice of several beautiful, readable ones. Some people don't have a problem with Blizzard's choice of fonts, or simply don't care about fonts at all, but for those of us who do, ClearFont is a godsend. Thank you, Kirkburn!
Dvorak Keyboard on the MacBook
Flickr user sjwalsh384 has a neat Dvorak keyboard mod for the MacBook. Apparently fond of the alternative and supposedly faster Dvorak keyboard layout, he rearranged the key caps on his MacBook (their square shape makes this relatively easy). He has some photos on flickr documenting the process. Worth a look if you're a Dvorak fan or just want to know what the back of a MacBook key looks like, but you're too chicken (like me) to pry one off.[Via Digg - thanks to those who sent this in]
