Microsoft’s Zune never matched the iPod’s hold on the culture, yet the Zune HD has just gained a new purpose as a Super Mario 64 machine through a fresh open-source port.
Fans who still wander the dark streets of Tristram and the levels beneath it now have another way to return. DamnationX is a fan project built on top of DevilutionX, the long-running open-source port that already lets people run the original 1996 Diablo on modern computers with higher frame rates, controller support, and other practical fixes. Troygentic has taken that foundation and layered on optional high-definition art, lighting that uses ray tracing, and an online lobby so groups can play together.
Photo credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington
University of Washington engineers have built DirectHop, a one gram robot small enough to sit in a palm that clears a standard stair step while setting its jump height to single centimeter accuracy. The prototype performs multiple hops in sequence and rights itself after most landings, steps toward an autonomous version that could move through varied spaces.
Modders have spent years trimming Nintendo Wii motherboards down to the absolute minimum so they fit inside handheld shells that resemble the original Game Boy. Xenii refined that approach across earlier Xii-Boy versions until the latest Ultra revision arrived as a fully modular kit. Tito from Macho Nacho Productions assembled one, and the result sits at roughly 145 by 86 by 27 millimeters while still containing a genuine Wii board that has undergone the standard OMGWTF trim.
Rivian owners woke up to a free software update that turns every R1 and R2 into a rolling Ghostbusters prop. Collaboration with Sony Pictures delivered the package starting October 9 and keeps it active through November 2. Bill Murray appears as Peter Venkman in a short film directed by Gil Kenan, the filmmaker behind the recent Ghostbusters sequels. In the spot Slimer digs through a suburban fridge while lights flicker, then an Ecto-R1 arrives with sirens and Murray in the jumpsuit. The same vehicle, built by Rivian’s Special Projects team, features white 22-inch aero wheels, a red graphic with the No-Ghost logo, restored vintage emergency lights, a roof rack carrying sirens, spotlights, a radar dish and side tanks, plus a compass design visible from above.