Free customised games machines for rich people, hacked-up old games machines for technical folk and colourful stitching from the knitting needles of online crafters. That’s all in a month’s work for the Nintendo community.



1) DS for dignitaries
If anyone can afford a custom-built special edition DS, politicians can. After all, taxpayers unwittingly take care of their household bills, taxi fares for shopping trips, disposal of unwanted bodies and so on. But no – even their Nintendo action comes compliments of the house. These DSes were presented to G8 bigwigs to keep them entertained on their freebie private jet journeys back home. Hurrah!

2) NES in a cart
The cartridge that plays itself? Not quite – but it’s a very nice mod. Inside the gutted cart lies an LCD screen and the guts of one of those dodgy 99-in-1 NES clones, making this a cool and practical way to play vintage games on the go.

3) Wall decals
Decorate your gaming den with these brilliant vinyl decals. They look great but you’re going to need at least a couple of empty walls to display them, otherwise they’ll be obscured by beds, tables or whatever. Very cool if you’ve got the space.

4) Pouch of cool
People who know how to make functional rectangular cases of softness often stretch their creative wings with a display of knitting/stitching prowess. And when you can get hold of a head-turning bespoke design such as this, there’s really no need for commercial nylon and plastic efforts, is there? Brilliant! Check out artist Kelly Farrell’s Etsy shop, where you can buy them in assorted colours for $20 a pop (although she might be currently sold out).

5) Cross-stitch badges
Badges don’t have to be made of metal or plastic. This environmentally friendly option is made from handicraft-tastic cross-stitch and is perfect for holding together the fraying elbows of a geography teacher’s favourite blazer. Available in several designs.

6) Nunchuk 3D MIDI madness
We’ve seen plenty of hacks using the Wii remote’s bluetooth capabilities to hook up with a PC, but this is the first that uses the Nunchuk alone. It’s controlling PC 3D modeling package 3D Studio Max, and it’s connected via a MIDI interface – the standard for digital musical instruments.

7) All-in-one mega handheld
Why take nine modded handheld game systems on holiday when you could just take one? This beast currently plays N64 games but by swapping out modules on the back, its creator plans to have it support every console from Jaguar to Genesis to PlayStation and beyond – even the GBA. Although given the relative sizes of a real GBA and this thing, we’re not sure why he’d want to bother doing that.

8) Solved his maze
N64 gamers will remember Superman 64 as one of the most spectacularly bad games ever made. But how many ever saw the ending? We certainly didn’t – solving Lex’s maze proved a little too tough in all that fog. Anyway, somebody has finally completed the damned thing and posted the ending on YouTube. Frankly, we’re glad we didn’t bother, but it’s worth a look for fans of the truly awful.

9) Electroplankton at the movies 
Somebody has used Electroplankton to create part of the soundtrack for a bizarre German short film called Red Hair. It’s the pretentiously arty tale of a drunken man who falls asleep in a subway and dreams of ladies. We think we heard the familiar chimes of Hanenbow and the drone of a Lumiloop or two in there somewhere, but we may be mistaken. See (and hear) for yourself…

10) Bleeurg-er
Perfect for the foodie gamer with a sense of humour, although we’re not sure who’d actually have the courage to eat one of these if we served it up for dinner. Made from mushrooms (appropriately), mozzarella and tomato, the veggie burger patties probably taste lovely. That green bun, though...