What happens if you're a gamer and you're struck with a medical condition which could take away that very activity you so dearly love? We know, it's a tough thought to think of it ever happening to you. But it has happened to someone -- it's happened to PSN and PS Forums user KitsuneNoYume. What's a gamer to do when he can barely move an inch, let alone walk over to the couch and fire up the latest title?
Not deterred by his ailment, the intelligent young lad found a way to overcome his situation. He modified his controller and assigned multiple switches to his fingers, his toes and even his tongue. "Each and every jack has a predetermined function and whichever one I plug into is what's [sic] the switch becomes," said KNY (his real name is not given). "So depending on the game I generally use the left analog joystick directions and the right analog joystick using my tongue."
"The main reason I put this on the PlayStation website was to show people that even the most limited person can still enjoy console gaming just as much [as] anyone else. The controller was pretty easy to make, except for converting the analog signals into digital signals for when I use the various switches. This took about two months to build and get working effectively." KNY wants to know if there are any others out there like him, so he could give them back the ability to game, too. We wish him the best and hope he's enjoying his games. See more pics of KNY's design here.
Tired of those slow installs the PS3 is so famous (or infamous) for? The guys over at ExtremeTech came up with a solution that will partially solve that problem, albeit at a heavy price. They replaced their 60GB PS3's hard drive with one of Intel's 80GB X25-M solid-state drives. The retail price for one of those babies is $598 ... about the same price as a launch PS3, and 50% more than the current 80GB SKU.
Unfortunately, the results were a bit of a letdown. Installs off a Blu-ray disc were as slow as ever, due to the the limitations of Blu-ray drive speed. Downloadable titles and demos, however, were a different story. Installation speeds of that variety received a significant speed boost, about 40% faster. Startup and load times for games became 25-40% faster.
So is it worth it? Probably not at 600 clams. Swapping out the PS3's hard drive is relatively easy though, so it might be something cool to do if you've got the cash to burn.
We see you. We see you salivating all over your keyboard. If you are a serious Gran Turismo fan, this is the stuff dreams are made of. The winner of the Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Middle East Challenge Ahmad El Azmi received a free trip to Japan to drive a Nissan GT-R and he took home the above GT Racing Pod. Valued at $15,000, the Racing Pod is equipped with a 40" Sony Bravia TV, a PS3 and a Logitech Driving Force GT Racing Wheel.
However, El Azmi wasn't satisfied with the setup, and decided to disassemble and reassembled the entire Pod. He added a shifter mounter, inverted stand for the pedals, a surround sound system and replaced the DFGT with a Logitech G25 Racing Wheel. Kudos to you, sir, you have successfully made the world jealous. He was even kind enough to share with us -- check out the rest of the pictures after the jump.
Considering the size of this behemoth, weighing in at 15 pounds, we wouldn't really call it a laptop. Nevertheless, inspired by Ben Heck's PS3 laptop, another successful attempt at fitting the insides of a PS3 into a portable enclosure has surfaced. Specs are as follows:
80GB SKU with 320GB HDD
17" 720p HDTV LCD Monitor
Keyboard
Built-in speakers with headphone jack
Custom cooling (SilenX fans)
Size: 16" x 10.5" x 4" (when closed)
Weight: 15 pounds
With the success of this 3-month project, the modder known as Pirate plans to create a slimmer version in the future. Check it out in action after the jump.
Emulating operating systems is never really a good idea. Yet, mopx0 has decided to give it a try with Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista. To say it runs slow would be an understatement, as booting the resource-heavy OS takes 25 minutes on the system. To run Notepad emulated on the PS3 via Linux takes a whopping 12 minutes. It's not really practical, but shows the incredible dedication the hacking community has when tackling the strangest of projects.
If for some crazy reason you want to give it a try, read here.
If you have Google Desktop, you may want to download the Google Media Server application. With it, you'll have an easy way of sending YouTube videos to your PS3. Once a computer on the same network as your PS3 is configured with Google Media Server, you'll be able to easily access the most viewed, top rated, and other featured YouTube videos instantly from the XMB. In fact, you'll not only see thumbnails, but you'll also be able to copy the videos directly to your PS3 hard drive, for easy replayability.
As incredibly bizarre as this is, we couldn't resist posting it. Kotaku reader Jonathan sent in a picture of himself to the site; apparently, he soldered the controller pieces into his flesh had a little fun playing PlayStation cyborg. Don't we all do this when we come home after a long day? Oh, you don't? Oh... whoops, said too much.
Anyway, it's good to know that a functioning DualShock controller was not harmed in the making of his photo; good thing it was already broken before being disassembled. Now what we want to know is: are there any more PlayStation cyborgs out there? Well, if so, you should unite and conquer the world ... as suggested in this song (contains some explicit lyrics).
The raw power of the PlayStation 3 fitting inside a laptop enclosure? We thought it couldn't be done; alas, Ben Heck has made it reality. That beautiful laptop you see above is his crowning work after having done the Xbox 360 and Wii laptops. Of course, he saved the best for last.
Now it's nice to look at, but what about owning it? Yes that's right, owning it. Engadget is auctioning away this beautiful rare device for charity real soon. Want to know more, then hit up Engadget for the whole story.
Were you ever annoyed by the tilt activation controls for the guitar overdrive in Rock Band? One gamer apparently did, and actually decided to do something about it, too. He basically took the thing apart and re-wired his mighty axe to read the overdrive activation through an effects pedal.
Ultimately, this mod gives more control to a player as it won't accidentally trigger off the overdrive. This is especially interesting for those restless rockers out there that really want to move and grove while playing. Think you're good enough to give this a try? Read up on the instructions here.
It looks like the PS3 has just gotten its own Hello World greeting courtesy of Dragula96, a well-known PSP hacker. According to Dragula96, he recently discovered an exploit in the official 2.20 firmware and was able to put up his own Hello World proof of concept. Currently, he's not sharing how he did it; he's still doing some tests and working on running a simple game like Pong.
The hacker noted that the systems he used for his experiment had no hardware modifications. The exploit was up and running on both 40 and 60 gig retail models -- not test PS3s.
In light of this, we know that anti-hacking/piracy has been a Sony strong suit when it comes to the PS3. We wonder if we'll be seeing more hacks to come, or will the big S put a stop to things and quickly retaliate with a new firmware update.
We've probably talked about it before, but some people have found ways to use the PS3's Sixaxis controller on the PC. However, we've only been told things or seen images serving as proof. Now we have a fantastic tutorial video to show you how you can do it right now, at home. If the video wasn't edited at all, you could have a functioning Sixaxis on your computer in about three and a half minutes. Good luck!
[Update: This will only work on test PS3 systems. This will NOT work on retail systems. Sorry for the confusion.]
Yup, you heard it right: hackers have discovered a way to run retail PS3 games off the PS3's internal HDD and off external USB HDDs. While this is quite a neat trick, it might not be all that useful considering how much data is stored on a single layered Blu-ray disc -- about 25 gigabytes. That precious HDD space will probably end up being devoured in no time.
More tech-savvy gamers out there who want to know more about this development can go check out the tech mumbo-jumbo here. We're pretty sure this high-level jargon will scare away most. What countermeasures can Sony take to ensure this doesn't become an even larger problem? Rampant piracy has always cast its dark shadow over the PSP ... will the PS3 be next? Let's hope not.
SCEA has declared that they will "actively pursue" legal action against hackers that attempt to crack the PS3 anti-piracy software. This announcement arrives just after recent news that hackers were close to completely cracking the PS3 anti-piracy software found in firmware versions 1.10 and 1.11. Their progress on the crack would allow pirated PS3 games to boot, but they still were not playable. The homebrew community is also still waiting in the wings, as even this latest attempt still prevents any type of homebrew gaming on the PS3 console.
Obviously, SCEA hopes to stalwart further progress and deter hackers from completely subverting the anti-piracy measures completely, because saying "please" just doesn't carry the same weight as legal action. Dave Karraker, SCEA spokesperson says, "the best we can do as a company, is to make our security that much stronger and aggressively pursue legal action against anyone caught trying to use an exploit in an illegal manner."
The pirates who want to burn and run copied PS3 disks? Yeah, they're bad. Bad, bad. Spankings all around kind of bad. And if you're thinking of doing it, you shouldn't. Go find someone to deliver a spanking for even thinking such thoughts. On the homebrew front, we're kind of indifferent. Now, we're stepping out on a very thin limb here, but maybe, just maybe if Sony was a little bit more organized in lining up a steady stream of content for thirsting PS3 owners, we wouldn't have hackers so interested in cracking the PS3 for homebrew. What do you think?
For those gaming on popular computer monitors with non-HDCP DVI inputs, a gadget has been released that allows a workaround of HDCP protocols, allowing Blu-ray movies to play at full resolution on these displays. If you're a bit confused about the protocols of HDCP and how it all works, you are not alone. High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) allows content providers to prevent the full resolution of products (Blu-ray or HD-DVD) by crippling the resolution on displays where the HDCP handshake fails. Technically, all parts of the chain need to be HDCP-compliant in order for the full resolution to process. For an HDMI connection, HDCP would spring to life when an HDMI-DVI adaptor is introduced to a non-HDCP compliant DVI port, forcing the resolution to 540p at best.
The introduction of such a gadget is a welcome addition, allowing users to view the content they paid for, even though the mere fact consumers have to revert to such methods is downright infuriating. Thankfully, with ICT not being an issue until 2010, PS3 owners can enjoy Blu-ray content via HDMI, analog (component) and now, all forms of DVI. Lets hope the ICT mess gets figured out sooner rather than later, so we can get back to awaiting the latest Blu-ray releases without the fear of having high-def viewing pulled out from under us.
[Update: Edited post to point out this gadget is most useful for non-HDCP compliant DVI inputs. HDCP DVI inputs will not limit the resolution to 540p as suggested. Thanks!]
It's only a matter of time before the PS3 pulls a Skynet on us. With millions of PS3 networked together, we're only months away from Folding@Home becoming self-aware, bringing an end to civilization as we know it. That's when SIXAXIS robots will walk the earth, destroying everything in their path. Want proof? Watch the video above! Very cool ... well except for that whole end of the human race part.
