The Best Game-Console Mods

Hackers have radically transformed the latest videogame consoles
By Andrew E. Rosenblum Posted 05.19.2008 at 1:38 pm 9 Comments
The Mod in All Its Glory: Photo by Ben Heckendorn
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Ben Heckendorn’s game-console creations, from a portable Atari 2600 to a pocket-sized Nintendo 64, are famous in the modder world. But he may have topped himself with his Xbox 360 Elite laptop.

To shoehorn a full 360 into the 2.25-by-16-by-12-inch case and keep it playable, Heckendorn had to install fans and speakers and redo the internal layout of the machine several times. He then rewired the console to output the video to the 17-inch LCD display, on which he mounted an Xbox Live Vision camera for online multiplayer games.

For the exterior, he coated the aluminum case with plastic engraving material, allowing him to paint hexagonal designs in gold on the marbled green surface. Always eager for a new challenge, and already having built a Wii laptop, Heckendorn has moved on to creating a portable version of the PlayStation 3. For details on all his game-console mods, head to benheck.com.

Turn the page for step-by-step instructions. And for more far-out mods, launch the gallery here.

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9 Comments

Comments

Nathanrfink
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 05/19/08 at 2:11 pm

wow that makes me so jealous. I want one.

1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful
Kiel
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 05/19/08 at 7:29 pm

How many rings of death has it had so far? Haha, Microsoft sucks!

1 out of 6 people found this comment helpful
PS3 rules
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 05/20/08 at 10:17 am

sounds like a xbox slim to me.
microsoft can can get out of
the console war now. this just
proves how lame microsoft are.

1 out of 4 people found this comment helpful
PS3 rules
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 05/20/08 at 10:17 am

sounds like a xbox slim to me.
microsoft can can get out of
the console war now. this just
proves how lame microsoft are.

1 out of 4 people found this comment helpful
redwarrior
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 05/20/08 at 10:04 pm

x-box wouldnt have gone anywere without halo its true.

out of curousity how does he play on it? is a controler plugged in or does he use the keyboard?

0 out of 1 people found this comment helpful
redwarrior
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 05/20/08 at 10:04 pm

x-box wouldnt have gone anywere without halo its true.

out of curousity how does he play on it? is a controler plugged in or does he use the keyboard?

0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful
peoplayer

from Cuernavaca, Morelos

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 05/23/08 at 8:56 pm

...you might want to know that Ben Heckendorn has made a laptop out of a PS3 as well. Does that mean that Sony are lame as well, then? Leaves only WII left in the competition. Wait. Heckendorn's made a laptop out of that one too.... darn.

1 out of 1 people found this comment helpful
timaniac
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 06/04/08 at 10:19 pm

Yours post just goes proves how much illiterate you is

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JWILLIAMS
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 06/17/08 at 7:05 pm

redwarrior is right. Without Halo the xbox would not be worth its weight in dog crap.
I have something close to that. I used a 12 volt deep cycle car battery and a 400 watt DC to AC inverter to power a playstation and a small linux computer inside of an old suitcase with wheels. works great! i love it!
J

0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful

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