Games
These hacks tread the tightrope over genius and madness, taking console modding to the next level.
We’ve all wanted to do it at some point, haven’t we? Come on, tell us you’ve not been tempted to rip that red ringing Xbox 360 open and try to fix it? What about once you’ve done it, are you not left thinking about what else you might be able to do to it?
While just about anybody can slip a new hard drive into a PS4, true hardware mods put time, effort, and knowledge into the process. Ranging from the artistic endeavours to people just trying to find solutions to problems, these mods are well beyond our technical ability and have left us in awe, either down to the insanity that must have led to their creation, or just because they’ve reminded us how clever some people are.
The Wii U Switch
Nintendo’s Switch is barely a month old at this point, and while we’re enjoying it, we find it quite funny that someone decided to turn their Wii U into a Switch. Thanks to a broken Wii U GamePad, user banjokazooie decided to turn that broken shell into a handheld console that you can take anywhere and play any time. This Wii U-cum-Raspberry-Pi-cum-Switch will give playtime of up to three hours – same as the Switch – and shows terrific ingenuity in turning something broken into something very cool.
Portable SNES
As large and bulky as this might seem, if you’re old enough, the idea of taking your SNES games with you and playing them anywhere – like the Switch, now – was amazing. Sure, right now you can play Super Mario World on your Wii U, but if this kind of hardware mod had existed back when it was first out, we’d have never stopped playing it. We like how the controller is in the body, and because the screen is where the cartridges used to go, they’ve been moved to the top of the device.
The Infinite Xbox 360
This is so cool. While the insides are still a functional, standard Xbox 360, the outside has been modded in a way to create an infinite glowing space corridor-type situation. Nirvana once sung “with the lights out, it’s less dangerous” and indeed, with this mod turned off, you can see the smoke and mirrors, but they’re actual physical mirrors, as that’s how this visual illusion is done. Still, who turns a console off, anyway?
The BMO Game Boy
If you’re not familiar with Adventure Time, you may not know that there’s a character called BMO who is, to all intents and purposes, a Game Boy that talks. Michael Dornisch decided that for their anniversary, he’d make his wife a real, working version of BMO, and he did exactly that. While this BMO may not talk, or crack wise, this is still one of the coolest hardware mods we’ve seen, and it must have taken him absolutely ages to do.
Mini 64
Imagine if you never had to stop playing Super Mario 64. Clarkly Smithy took this idea and ran with it, creating an N64 that you could take with you on the go. One of the best things about this mod is that the creator didn’t go the easy route and pop a Raspberry Pi inside the case: this is an actual N64 shrunk down into an almost Game Gear-sized unit, with the N64 carts still required. It’s funny, but you can see the carts are almost as big as the actual mod. Until the Virtual Console hits the Nintendo Switch, it’ll have to make do.
Xbook Duo
Back when the Xbox One was a new console, it didn’t play Xbox 360 games via backwards compatibility. This upset a lot of people, as the 360 was one of the most successful consoles ever, with an incredible back catalogue of games. History has shown us that Microsoft added this functionality later, but we bet Eddie Zarick wishes Microsoft had told him about their plans, because to solve the problem himself, he built a custom made ‘laptop’ that housed both an Xbox One and Xbox 360. The craftsmanship and attention to deal here really make you sad that it’s totally been outdone by a simple firmware update, because he’s been smart, even nailing down a form factor which includes only one power supply to save space. Hindsight is 20/20, we guess.
Dreamcast Portable
Like most people who fell in love with the Sega Dreamcast, we often lament how badly it all panned out, but then, that’s what happens when you release a console suddenly and with no hype. If you do remember the console, though, you might remember the memory card unit that went into the controller, called the VMU. Now, this had a tiny display that actually allowed for some rudimentary fun. Here, Ben Heck (the master of console mods) is making a portable Dreamcast. While it’s not the smallest of portable devices, having Shenmue in our bags on the go is worth that. Amazing.
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