Gaming

Ben Heck’s apprentices are showing their true colors again, with modder SifuF churning out a real winner over the holidays. The Nintendo Sixtyfree Lite-R just might be the most elegant portable N64 that we’ve seen to date, with a clean, low-key design, beautifully integrated buttons and a cartridge slot that’s about as non-cumbersome as possible. Of note, there are no internal batteries to speak of, thus it’s forced to rely on an InfoLithium (or any 7.2v supply) clipped on the rear. Tap the read link for a pictorial look at the build and final product.

[Thanks, Adam]

NVIDIA has yet to step in and confirm this publicly, but a purported leaked memo from the outfit has been posted over at VR-Zone. What’s it say, you ask? Only that the company “strongly recommends that customers transition to the latest revision of the NB8E-SET GPUs as soon as possible.” Said revision taps a new Hitachi underfill packaging material that “improves product quality and enhances operating life by improved thermal cycling reliability.” If you’ll recall, certain PC vendors such as Dell issued their own firmware updates to combat the weak packaging set in the chip maker’s faulty GPUs earlier this year, but it appears that NVIDIA’s solution is to just let bygones be bygones and get on with the new and improved.

[Via Electronista]

We’ve seen some pretty low tricks when it comes to giving what appears to be a gaming console to a junior, but we’re pleading — nay, insisting — that you don’t ever buy in on either of these in an attempt to pull the wool over a kiddo’s eyes. Straight from a shady warehouse in China comes Rodisson Technologies’ totally ridiculous Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 clones, both of which can only play 8-bit titles. The worst part, however, isn’t the complete lack of effort in knocking these systems off with any level of pride; rather, it’s the 10,000 item minimum order quantity. Thanks, but no thanks.

[Via technabob]

Read - RDC Xbox 360
Read - RDC PlayStation 3

Starting early next year, Nintendo will be joining the ranks of its fellow console makers in offering a video distribution service through the Wii. According to Nikkei business daily, The House of Mario will team up with Dentsu, Inc. to offer cartoons and other programs created specifically for the service, and since they’re using the phrase “new revenue stream,” we doubt it’s gonna be offered gratis. Videophiles shouldn’t expect much magic, either, given the console’s 512MB memory limit and 480p max resolution. The service will launch first in Japan and head overseas later. Hey Nintendo, if you really want to emulate your competition, how about an online social network that doesn’t require long strings of integers?

It seems that our man Benjamin Heckendorn has elevated the laptop Xbox mod into something of an art form. Remember the boxy white model that looked like a way outclassed Toshiba Portege (ca. 1995)? Or how about the sci-fi stylings of the Xbox 360 Elite laptop? If you’re looking for something a little more rugged, the newest addition to the menagerie sees the console mounted in a Pelican case. The rest is the usual Ben Heck artistry: 17-inch widescreen LCD, speakers, top loading DVD-ROM, removable hard drive, USB and ethernet ports — all set in brushed aluminum. And the best part? This isn’t a consignment job, so if you’re going to be working on an Alaskan pipeline or find yourself shipping out with the military, you might want to consider making an offer. Video after the break.

[Thanks, Stagueve]

According to some not-quite-official but probably-relatively-accurate numbers from VG Chartz, Nintendo moved 1.7 million Wii units last week. That’s a staggering number in its own right, and compared to the now-cheaper Xbox 360 (535,806) and the “hey guys, I’m still here, and I play Blu-ray discs” PlayStation 3 (239,576) it’s a pretty commanding lead for Nintendo. The fact that most people in most areas can finally track down a Wii at a retail store for a non-inflated price probably isn’t hurting things — not to mention that really cool bowling game they’ve heard so much about. We’re curious what console you might’ve picked up for a friend, loved one, family member, or that good looking person in the mirror this holiday season, so hit up the poll below. Then, after you’ve taken a particularly long sip of egg nog, hit up the video after the break and weep for humanity.

Read - 1.7 million Wii units sold
Read - Wii resales no longer fetching above retail price
Read - 50 kids happy to get a Wii for Christmas

When the gang at iSuppli first tore open a PlayStation 3 back in November 2006, they pegged the cost to build the $500 model was $805 in materials. Now they’re back and looking inside the $400 version, which they estimate is $448.73 in parts — still a loss leader for the company, but only by about one Ulysses S. Grant this time. The number of components has also dropped from 4,048 to just 2,820, and both the Cell processor and NVIDIA GPU have slimmed down from 90nm to 65nm. They suspect Sony might be able to lower costs and turn a profit sometime in 2009, but while you may be rooting for this generation’s underdog, don’t get your hopes up for a price drop any time soon.

Nintendo’s Wii has been maiming careless gamers since the day it was launched, but an inexplicable uptick in Britain has professionals scratching their heads. According to Dr. Dev Mukerjee of Broomfield Hospital: “There has been a 100 percent increase in patients complaining of Wii-itis.” Turns out, Wii-itis is their word for playing so much Wii that you injure yourself. Astonishingly, up to ten people per week are being “hospitalized with injuries caused by playing Nintendo Wii games,” which has forced medical personnel to “issue warnings of the dangers associated with the video game system.” Some of the most common injuries are Wii-knee (seriously) and tendon stretching / tearing, both of which could likely be avoided if gamers would bother to stretch before breaking a sweat. Sheesh — what do folks even learn in Physical Education these days?

We always loved us that Voodoo-designed HP Blackbird 002, but it was certainly a behemoth. Now it looks like the duo are going for a more realistic size — and hopefully pricepoint — with the all-new HP Firebird PC 803 that just fell in our lap, a gaming tower which flips the disc drive and most other components on their sides to save on space. The resulting kit seems to have more in common with gaming consoles than desktop PCs in terms of design, with very little configurability or expansion available, but the leaked specs are still quite palatable to the modern PC gamer:

• NVIDIA nForce 760i SLI chipset
• Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz processor
• 4GB of RAM
• Dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards
• Two 320GB SATA drives
• Blu-ray
• 5-in-1 card reader
• 6 USB, 1 FireWire, 2 eSATA, 1 S/PDIF and 1 DVI dual-link
• Bluetooth
• 802.11n WiFi

To save on space (and heat), the Firebird actually uses an external power supply, but we suppose the included wireless keyboard and mouse should help to make up for that clutter. As you’ve probably gleaned from the specs, those small form factor 9800S cards aren’t going to be putting away the frame rates quite like the cutting edge cards from NVIDIA and AMD, and the seeming lack of expandability makes the (theoretical) up-front cost savings seem a bit less exciting, but for a certain type of gamer the Firebird could be a welcome respite from monstrous, unrealistic and just-as-quickly-outmoded performance towers.

P.S.: Rahul’s dubious rant about the boutique gaming industry — which Voodoo still serves — makes a lot more sense in this light. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Gallery: HP Firebird 803 tower with VoodooDNA leaked!

Not merely content with the noise-reducing XB01 Xbox 360 chassis, Swedish modder Janne Ström decided to throw in a pair of heavy-duty Noctua NH-U9DO coolers (usually intended for AMD Dual Opteron server processors) to see if he could even further eradicate the console’s aural annoyances — and indeed, it sounds (or rather, doesn’t) like it worked. For those not following the scene, the XB01 is a voluminous case made by Lian-Li you can put your Xbox 360’s guts into for a decidedly less noisy experience, so think of this as a mod-within-a-mod. It won’t make disc drive any quieter, but with the New Xbox Experience’s disc installation option, that noise can be avoided. The extra fans also doesn’t make the case any easier on the eyes, of course, but anyone interested in the XB01 probably isn’t putting style points high on their list of priorities. Go ahead and listen, very closely, to the results in the video after the break.