The worldwide video game console market surpassed $10 billion in 2003. Current sales of new consoles is consolidated around 3 major companies and their proprietary platforms: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. In addition, there is an enormous installed "retro gaming" base of Ataria and Sega console enthusiasts. This book, written by a team led by Joe Grand, author of "Hardware Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty", provides hard-core gamers with they keys to the kingdom: specific instructions on how to crack into their console and make it do things it was never designed to do. By definition, video console game players like to have fun. Most of them are addicted to the adrenaline rush associated with "winning", and even more so when the "winning" involves beating the system by discovering the multitude of "cheats" built into most video games. Now, they can have the ultimate adrenaline rush---actually messing around with the soul of the machine and configuring it to behave exactly as the command. This book builds on the motto of "Have Fun While Voiding Your Warranty" and will appeal to the community of hardware geeks who associate unscrewing the back of their video console with para-jumping into the perfect storm. Providing a reliable, field-tested guide to hacking all of the most popular video gaming consoles Written by some of the most knowledgeable and recognizable names in the hardware hacking community Game Console Hacking is the first book on the market to show game enthusiasts (self described hardware geeks) how to disassemble, reconfigure, customize and re-purpose their Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox systems

Complete beginner's guide to all aspects of modifying the classic Nintendo Game Boy. Game Boy Modding teaches you how to purchase, refurbish, mod, and customize Nintendo handheld consoles. The consoles are widely available and the customizations are affordable, requiring only limited tools and know-how. Retro consoles are seeing a resurgence of popularity worldwide, and king among these throwback devices is the Nintendo Game Boy, which sold over 100 million units in its lifetime and introduced gamers to Mario and Pokemon. These consoles emanate pixelated 8-bit retro charm, but lack the modern technological enhancements that we take for granted in 2020. You'll learn basic soldering and hardware modification techniques; how to change speakers, buttons, and screen lenses; how to fix dead speakers and sticky buttons; and how to personalize your Game Boy to your heart's content.

Maybe it was the recent Atari 2600 milestone anniversary that fueled nostalgia for the golden days of computer and console gaming. Every Game Boy must ponder his roots from time to time. But whatever is driving the current retro gaming craze, one thing is certain: classic games are back for a big second act, and they're being played in both old and new ways. Whether you've just been attacked by Space Invaders for the first time or you've been a Pong junkie since puberty, Chris Kohler's Retro Gaming Hacks is the indispensable new guide to playing and hacking classic games. Kohler has complied tons of how-to information on retro gaming that used to take days or weeks of web surfing to track down and sort through, and he presents it in the popular and highly readable Hacks style. Retro Gaming Hacks serves up 85 hard-nosed hacks for reviving the classic games. Want to game on an original system? Kohler shows you how to hack ancient hardware, and includes a primer for home-brewing classic software. Rather adapt today's equipment to run retro games? Kohler provides emulation techniques, complete with instructions for hacking a classic joystick that's compatible with a contemporary computer. This book also teaches readers to revive old machines for the original gaming experience: hook up an Apple II or a Commodore 64, for example, and play it like you played before. A video game journalist and author of Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, Kohler has taught the history of video games at Tufts University. In Retro Gaming Hacks, he locates the convergence of classic games and contemporary software, revealing not only how to retrofit classic games for today's systems, but how to find the golden oldies hidden in contemporary programs as well. Whether you're looking to recreate the magic of a Robotron marathon or simply crave a little handheld Donkey Kong, Retro Gaming Hacks shows you how to set the way-back dial.

A tribute to the ZX Spectrum and the golden age of British gaming from veteran games journalist Dan Whitehead. Witty write-ups on fifty classic games that helped define the ZX Spectrum.

As technology (seemingly) marches ever forward, makers are thirsty to get their hands on the latest gadgets and gear. But you don’t always need “new” to have fun. Whether it’s rosy nostalgia or a healthy respect for what engineers of old (or the late 1900s as the kids say) were able to achieve with limited resources, there’s whole megabytes to love and learn about the technology of yesterday. In this retro-themed issue of Make: we show you how to play your favorite old-school video games by building your own DIY arcade game, from a full-size cabinet to a tiny programmable microcade. Next, 35 years later the Nintendo Game Boy is still going strong! Cat Graffam tells how she and many others fell in love with the Game Boy Camera and developed a playable art gallery to showcase photos from the community, while Nikola Whallon walks through adding the Pro-Sound Mod to your Game Boy to add more professional sound to your chiptune jams. Then, 18-year-old Daniel Bunting talks about his process for cutting custom small-batch records using polycarbonate discs. Brian Johnson reports on the serendipitous discovery of a cache of 1980s era hardware that jump-started a community around the long defunct NABU computer system. And finally, read a love letter to PC sound cards, and how maker Ian Scott has worked to recreate the unique “tracker” sound with a Raspberry Pi Pico. Plus, 45+ projects including: Build or 3D print a camera lucida that lets you draw accurately by tracing real life Install a microcontroller-powered scale on your espresso machine to pull the perfect shot every time Track your furry, four-legged friends using GPS and your own LoRa network Add polyphonic sound to your projects the easy way with WVR, a no-code, Wi-Fi audio board Make a thermal printing photo booth robot out of a vintage TLR camera Columnist Charles Platt pays tribute after the recent passing of seminal author Don Lancaster, who explained the mysteries of logic chips for generations of DIY hobbyists Pro tips for making the most of your laser projects with LightBurn software Build fun, simple stomp rockets using PVC pipe and soda bottles And more!

The Game Boy Advance platform as computational system and cultural artifact, from its 2001 release through hacks, mods, emulations, homebrew afterlives. In 2002, Nintendo of America launched an international marketing campaign for the Game Boy Advance that revolved around the slogan "Who Are You?"--asking potential buyers which Nintendo character, game, or even device they identified with and attempting to sell a new product by exploiting players' nostalgic connections to earlier ones. Today, nearly two decades after its release, and despite the development of newer and more powerful systems, Nintendo's Game Boy Advance lives on, through a community that continues to hack, modify, emulate, make, break, remake, redesign, trade, use, love, and play with the platform. In this book Alex Custodio traces the network of hardware and software afterlives of the Game Boy Advance platform.

Showing how to make the most of the Xbox, this book includes simple modifications that can allow users to network their consoles to play games over the Internet or on a home network. It also includes sections on how to install a modchip and how to make the most of EvolutionX.