Fun & Games

Xbox modification has come a long way in the past couple years. With the introduction of the TSOP mod, potential modders no longer had to shell out money for a modchip; rather just bridge two points on the Xbox motherboard. Now one doesn’t even have to open up his Xbox. Welcome to the world of soft modding. Using code exploits in certain games, a user is able to load a phony gamesave that will boot into a Linux based operating system and allow a user to mod his Xbox… in under ten minutes. Link.

The Atari brand has traded hands in the years since Pong hit the scene, but the new owners are still milking some mileage out of this game and 39 others with Atari Flashback 2. This $30 device offers a fun and affordable glimpse into the gaming’s past — one that, for better and worse, looks nothing like the present. Link. You can also make your own Atari PC DIY style…

Here’s another great app for your pre-2.0 PSP or your newly downgraded PSP. Team Xboxopensource has released the Apple II Portable emulator for PSP. Apple II Portable is a homebrew application which will emulate the Apple II on your PSP. Link.

With all the stuff going around with the PSP 2.0 firmware being cracked and Gizmondo now running unsigned code, it’s easy to forget about the other handheld that’s currently breaking blocks and opening new features to developers of homebrew. The DS. [via – via] Link.

Brian has a nice write up of GameTap, you can of course always roll your own too… “GameTap is Turner Broadcasting’s subscription-based gaming on demand service. The list of games is pretty impressive, but what really jumps out at me is the platforms represented: Dreamcast, Sega Master System, Intellivision, Genesis, Atari 2600, Arcade games, and more. It looks like they’ll have a decent selection of modern games, but retro games currently dominate the list”... Link.

MAKE Flickr photo pool member Jepstone is emulating an Atari floppy drive with a Linux box and a fancy serial cable he made. The two Atari floppy drives are emulated on his Linux system using AtariSIO. Link.