Video Game System hacks..

[RetroRick21]

Who here enjoys making things do stuff they're not supposed to?
I'm really into emulation and hacking.

Namely with my Dreamcast and PSP, i'm able to run various programs and hacked games.

I'm curious to see if there are others on here that enjoy messing around with electronic junk.

[tp6626]

If you wanna make something cool, get an old NES and build a media centre PC into it.

You can pick up Mini-ITX Motherboards with integrated Intel Atom Processors for less than $80, and they have pretty good graphics chipsets too. All you then need is a PSU, DVD-R drive, 2.5" or 1.8" HDD (or an SSD) and a couple of Gb memory, and you're away.

Whole lot can be built for less than $250 I'd estimate if you shop around.

Then stick a stripped down OS on it, hack some snes or PS2 controllers to work via USB, add add emulators, media players & internet, huge LCD TV, and then amaze your friends.

I did this last year for twice the price with a VIA epia board, but now the Intel Atom is out, this is half the price, and almost twice the power! Bargain!!!

[RetroRick21]

Dude look at my myspace! lol

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Man you could have totally helped me when I was looking for mini ITX boards, those Atom Boards are damn sexy for their price, and those Intel chipset video cards are indeed very nice!

[tp6626]

Cool, some pics would be nice.

The hard part is tinkering about to get all the switches, case LED's and DVD drive installed in the NES in an elegant manner. It's too easy to bugger up and get a tacky finish.

Your software sounds interesting, what did you do it on?

I just stuck with a standard XP Lite and got a keyboard with touchpad, so its effectively just a PC, rather than an emulation jukebox.

I'm considering making one with a snazzy natural wooden case, a little like the Mac Mini, but slightly smaller and using the Atom mobo (there's a dual core one out soon that will be sweet - N370 I think).

My idea is flame (or birdseye) maple seamless sides, in a translucent coloured stain (a bit like an expensive guitar finish). Top an bottom would be peened aluminium, and I'm toying with the idea of putting a capacitative 'touch' control switch on it so that just touching the top aluminium piece acts as the power button.

I'd need to get it extremely well designed to start with though, and possibly get some precision laser cutting done somewhere (luckily I'm a design engineer so have some contacts).

Thats one of my projects at the min anyway. It will be sweet when (if) its done, but I'm struggling to find the time of late.

[RetroRick21]

I'm using GameEx, it's an emulator front end with lots of extra nice features and can handle play back of many video types, so it works as a HTPC front end as well. I'm running it all on Windows XP Pro. I've not even gotten all the parts necessary, but when I do i'll def post up some pictures on here. I dunno if it's common amongst INTJs, but i'll generally start up a project, and then jump to another one mid-project because it's more fascinating. I've seen some of those natural wood cases on other forums, they look freakin' awesome!

[tp6626]

Really? Where have you seen these other wooden cases? I haven't seen anything like it, just wanted something like a mac mini, but in natural wood and alu, and wanted to make one myself, so set about it.

I know what you mean about it taking ages though. All the parts right now are set up in the cardboard box they came in, with Media Centre PC written on the front in marker pen, and holes cut for the drives and temporary switches.

Its a bit naff looking, but will do until the proper case is done, whenever that may be.

I had Ubuntu 8.04 on it for a bit, but now have an XP Lite version on it.

[RetroRick21]

ugh lol i've been racking my brain trying to remember where I saw this done, it was a small mini-itx cube, and the guy had rounded the edges of it. But his problem was he miscalculated his dimensions, and made the box like 1/4 to small, he gave up the project and built another case. It's not too common, but they are really nice. Yeah I've used Ubuntu, it wasn't as seamless as I'd wanted it to be.

[tp6626]

Mandriva 2009 Gnome is nice, better than Ubuntu 8.04 in my view.

[Synapse]

I know I interrupted your forum conversation, but I like hacking PSPs and stuff. As long as it's software, I'll try to mod it; I'm not so good with hardware.

Yay for M33 versions of PSP firmware! Those work better than the official firmware anyways, considering you can tinker with them to your heart's content. I also like modding games, like the Civ games and others. I'm not so good with graphics, but I can manage with game data. ;)

[Anumidium]

I patched my PS2's firmware to load games off an 80 gig hard drive I put in it. I think its DVD laser is dying, so hopefully that will extend its life (by not using it unless necessary). It also has a media player program on it, but it's too slow to play anything of quality. :( If I ever get a PS3 tinkering with it will be one of the first things I do, though I think I'll wait until the tinkering doesn't require a modchip. I'm cheap.

[AnotherNormal]

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Wondered if there might be a dual core atom at some point, drool.

Hold off buying a netbook ;D

[WaeV]

Halo Modding since 2004. Haven't done much impressive stuff though. I got a pelican into bloodgulch back when it was somewhat difficult.

[Synapse]

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Wondered if there might be a dual core atom at some point, drool.

Hold off buying a netbook ;D

There most likely will be. This is considering that Intel loves doubling (and making quad processors) that they will probably do this for the Atom as well. One can only hope. :)

[LostOverThere]

With your Nintendo Wii, using the Twilight Hack (Google it) you can install the Homebrew Channel which is a front end for searching and installing applications and games for your Wii. In addition to that, there's a whole heap of ROMs and Emulators you can install on it as well as some ridiculous programmes to turn your Wii into a web server. Crazy stuff, huh?