Items tagged with modding
We are all doing the best we can to keep our sanity, and maybe even getting to know ourselves a bit better while in isolation. Perhaps you have an undiscovered talent that may have otherwise gone overlooked. Hey, it happens—a clever individual in Serbia found out he could build a nifty RC car that fires Nerf darts using a Raspberry Pi board (one of many neat Raspberry Pi projects to pass the time), despite not being a developer. The details and a few videos were posted to Reddit, with user 'stiw47' explaining this is a work in progress. Down the road, he plans on adding a camera, and "maybe something else." He also intends on swapping out the cardboard pieces with 3D printed parts, which...
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Those who have been waiting for a fresh Half-Life fix can now have it, though only if they own a compatible virtual reality headset. Valve's latest addition to the Half-Life world, Half-Life: Alyx, was designed from the ground-up for VR (and getting rave reviews), so it is not a game fans of the franchise can simply fire up and play on a flat-screen monitor. For now, anyway—it is only a matter of time before modders do their thing, and Valve is aware of this. Game designer Robin Walker, best known for co-developing the Team Fortress mod for Quake before later going on to co-create several Valve games, including Half-Life: Alyx, believes it is only a matter of time before someone mods the...
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Many people who enjoyed gaming during the 2000s have fond memories of the Nintendo GameCube and its best-selling game Super Smash Bros. Melee. The release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch caused several creators to find a way to smash together the Nintendo Switch and GameCube. Creators Mike Choi and Shank both recently released photos and videos of their own GameCube/Nintendo Switch dock and controller Frankensteins. YouTube Shank Mods was the first to release photos and videos of his “GameCube Joycons”. Shank essentially reconfigured a Nintendo Wavebird wireless controller to pair up with a Nintendo Switch. Some of his biggest challenges included figuring out...
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Do you have an old GameCube console sitting around that you're not using anymore? If that is the case, and you also own a Nintendo Switch, you can literally hack (and saw) your old GameCube and give it a second life as a dock for your Switch, complete with working ports. That's exactly what someone did, and it looks awesome. Image Source: Reddit via Littlewolf128 Sure, it's bulky for a dock. But the fact that the front ports work is what ascends this mod from 'neat' to 'wow, that's really cool!' territory. It's also a well-timed modification, with Nintendo having recently launched Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Switch. The alternative is to buy a knockoff GameCube controller adapter and call...
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There's a lot to like about Tesla's Model 3, but as with most things with prepackaged entertainment (or infotainment) systems, even this beautiful electric car leave people yearning for a bit more. In the case of one reddit user, Tesla's infotainment system didn't satiate his/her entertainment hunger, so they decided to do what's perhaps one of the most interesting dual-OS installs ever, installing Ubuntu alongside Tesla's OS in their own car. Explicit details about how this mod was pulled off are not clear, but it's not going to be one for the faint of heart you can be sure. Digging deep into a car's OS means that a breaking something could lead to an essential bricking, although something tells...
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Take-Two clearly doesn't look at the modding scene with the same love as many of its peers. The Grand Theft Auto series has had a rich modding community for years, with its creative fans adding an incredible amount of content to Rockstar's most important series. Sometimes, even new mechanics are added. While most people who pick up the latest GTA don't even have modding on their mind, there are some others who buy the game with only modding in mind. That says a lot not just about modding, but about what a great base for such mods Grand Theft Auto is. And that's despite the fact that the games are in no shape or form designed to support modding....
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Nintendo is not a fan of the modder movement, at least not as it pertains to game consoles. The company has an entire section on its website explaining why it feels using ROMs is illegal and immoral, even if you already own a copy of the game. Nintendo's feelings on the matter aside, modders continue to hack game consoles so they can load up freely available ROMs from the Internet, and this has created a cat-and-mouse game between them and Nintendo. It happened with the Wii U and 3DS, and it will happen again with the Switch. In an effort to make modding more difficult (and its systems more secure), Nintendo launched a bug bounty program with HackerOne, a third-party service that pays out money...
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Well that did not take long. It has been less than two weeks since Nintendo released its hybrid Switch console and already someone has managed to hack the device. That bit is perhaps not too surprising—it was only a matter of time, after all—though the unexpected part is that the inventive hacker used an old WebKit exploit to thwart the Nintendo Switch's intentionally locked browser features. The hacker goes by "qwertyoruiop" on Twitter. If the name looks familiar, it's likely because he is the same one who contributed to the popular PlayStation 4 1.76 jailbreak. He has also post jailbreaks for several versions of iOS, Apple's tighly guarded mobile operating system used on iPhone, iPad, and iPod...
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Last week, Bethesda rolled out the latest patch of many that Fallout 4 has received since its launch last fall, but this one didn't just smooth out lingering bugs. What it did do was completely break the mods that many gamers enjoy, even though the patch included an update to the company's own mod system, Bethesda.net Mods. You can imagine what happened next: absolute chaos! Fortunately, Bethesda clearly recognizes that the last thing that it wants to do is upset its fanbase, and quickly moved to right its wrong. Following the botched update, the company immediately pulled the patch back and let the game ride using its most recent stable version, allowing fans to continue using their existing...
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Not long ago, Amazon showed us how to build an Amazon Echo Smart AI-assisted speaker system with the versatile Raspberry Pi but this beauty of a modding project is a bit of old school goodness that just warms our geek hearts. What do you get when you cross a classic portable gaming system like the original Game Boy with more modern internals from one of the most popular DIY single board computer systems around? Thanks to one rather inventive modder, we now have what is probably the coolest Game Boy on the planet — one that is capable of playing Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES and Sega Genesis titles in full color. The modder, who goes by the name of Wermy, started with a circa 1989...
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You have to hand it to Bethesda, the company isn't letting the success of Fallout 4 get to its head. After winning Game of the Year honors (plus a spattering of other awards) at the DICE Awards show in Las Vegas last week, it would be easy to call it a day and more onto the next project. Instead, Bethesda has some fun updates planned, including one that will bring mod support for Fallout 4.Just before the awards show, the folks at Game Informer had a chance to interview Todd Howard, director and executive producer of Bethesda. According to Howard, you can expect to see mods in a couple of months, at least for PC—mod support is also coming for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but not before it lands...
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Given the incredible modding scene that surrounded Grand Theft Auto IV, it seemed inevitable that GTA V would follow suit. So far, that seems to be the case, although it will probably take some time before some of the best mods will be seen. Nonetheless, with prospects of great mods also comes prospects of other people trying to ruin your day, by giving you something extra with that mod. At GTAForum, user aboutseven notes that their PC was recently infected with malware, and after investigating, found that the source was a popular GTA V mod called Angry Planes. Since the post was made, many others joined in with confirmation, and another mod, called Simple Noclip, was also found to be packing...
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That didn't take long. Last Thursday, Valve rolled out a new feature as part of its Steamworks platform that allowed the sale of mods, and it took no time at all before what seemed like the entire Internet exploded at the seams and started flinging ire towards the company. Valve screwed up, and bad. I hate to jump to conclusions, but I feel as though Valve had to have known there'd be some backlash to this. Let's be real: Valve understands the gamer market well. It's managed to monetize hats! It's also a company that built some successful franchises that had roots in free mods. Well, understanding that there will be manageable backlash is one thing, but what we got was something else - an eruption...
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My, my, my. How fast loyalties can change. We reported yesterday that Valve had just launched the ability for modders to pawn their wares on Steam - starting with Skyrim - and right out-of-the-gate, modders and regular gamers alike took to the Web to express their rage. It's not just one single element that leads many to believe that this is a dangerous move by Valve. At the core, game modding has always been about community, and I personally can't even remember hearing about a paid mod before. Typically, if a modder wants to be paid for their efforts, they'd accept donations. But now, Valve is encouraging modders to consider selling their mods regardless of quality, the amount of effort...
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Valve has this week unveiled a new Steam feature as part of its Steamworks platform that some would consider long overdue: allowing the distribution of mods. It goes without saying that one of the best aspects of PC gaming is modding. Modding could be as simple as replacing the skin of a weapon, or as complex as a total conversion to make the game appear completely different, and even behave completely different. If you've put a few hundred hours into The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. My brother has put over 1,000 hours into Grand Theft Auto IV entirely because of game modding. It's big business, and Valve wants in. At first, this capability struck me...
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Where PC cooling is concerned, you can't get much more standard than copper - it's simply everywhere. Even if you're using an OEM box, chances are it at least has a copper base, and while it might not have many or any fins, your notebook will have a large copper heatpipe. So if copper is that effective, why not create a heatsink with a massive amount of it to keep a PC totally silent, and cool? I've evaluated the possibilities of such a design while daydreaming in the past, but Germany's Silent PC have made it a reality - and I can honestly say, its real-world design looks nothing like what I've ever dreamed up. Behold, the PC with copper mesh hat: I've been unable to find real photos of this...
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A new flavor of Raspberry Pi is going to lead to some interesting mods, or so that's the hope. Raspberry Pi is being shrunk down and baked onto a SODIMM module, which modders and makers will be able to plug into their own home brewed Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). If that's above your skill or interest level, the Raspberry Pi Foundation also has in its recipe book a Compute Module I/O board to help designers get started. The SODIMM contains the guts of a Raspberry Pi -- BCM2835 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB eMMC flash storage (essentially the equivalent of having an SD card in the Pi). All of those parts are integrated into a 67.6mm by 30mm board that fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector....
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Blizzard has released a powerful new suite of tools for Starcraft 2 modders and developers that fundamentally change the nature of what's possible in the popular RTS game. Now, players can use the same architectural and graphics design toolsets that Blizzard has used internally to build new units, tilesets, and models. Furthermore, these tools are now available even with the Starcraft 2: Starter Edition kit. Players can grab them here. Critically, artists will now be able to incorporate images and effects designed in programs like 3ds Max, Photoshop, or other high-end particle systems. “These tools are going to be a big upgrade for people,” Womack said in a video update. “This...
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Google's open source Android operating system has grown up and matured right before our very eyes in the past several years, and the same can be said for Steve Kondik, otherwise known by his online handle Cyanogen, developer of the immensely popular CyanogenMod line of ROMs. He posted his first ROM on the XDA Developers forum back in May 2009. It was for the T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) and it was an instant hit. It didn't take long for CyanogenMod to gain a following among Android users anxious to access new features and rid themselves of carrier bloat. That's become Cyanogen's passion over the last few years, and he's now ready to take the next step by turning his hobby into a real company. CyanogenMod...
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It's every kid's dream to fly, but eventually reality sets in that without wings, taking to the skies is left to the birds. Well, screw that. Laurent Aigon, a 40-year-old from Lacanau, France, gave his children wings in the form of a fully functioning Boeing 737 cockpit he assembled in their bedroom. It sits next to their bunk bed, this enormous and awesome thing that's so authentic, the Institute of Aircraft Maintenance at Bordeaux-Merignac Airport has asked him to give a lecture. Aigon is a waiter at a local restaurant and bar, though his passion has always been avionics. He grew up in Beutre, about 650 feet away from Merignac Airport, and he would daydream of one day being a pilot as he watched...
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So, you went out and purchased yourself an Apple iPhone 5, is that it? Great, so have millions of others. If you want to stand out from the crowd with a truly unique and geeky looking iPhone 5, one way you can do that is by dropping an additional $40 on a translucent iPhone 5 Mod Kit. It might very well be the best (or worst) phone accessory investment you ever make, depending on handy you are with DIY projects. Let's assume you're comfortable tearing apart your iPhone 5 and aren't at all concerned with voiding the warranty. Or maybe you're just fed up with all the scratches your iPhone 5 has accumulated. Either way, iPhone5Mod has begun selling a replacement see-through chassis for $40, and...
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Apple has always gone out of its way to keep users from tinkering with their iOS devices, from using funky screws and lots of adhesive to prevent do-it-yourself (DIY) repair, to locking down iOS so that it's extremely difficult to jailbreak. Speaking towards the latter, hacker i0n1c posted on Twitter that the upcoming iOS 6.1 update will be even tougher for modders to crack, which is especially disappointing when you consider that iOS 6 hasn't even been jailbroken yet. "There must have been some change of guard at Apple. iOS 6.1 adds again tough protections although public JB community hasn't broken iOS 6 yet," i0n1c posted to Twitter. This is par for course when it comes to iOS devices, and...
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