Our first mod is a relatively recent one. The modder took a nice, fully functioning Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo cartridge, gutted it, and turned it into an admittedly clean and portable NES emulator. Sure, the gutting made most of my 1986 memories fade into a terrifying pit of blackness, but at least this wasn't a golden Legend of Zelda cartridge or anything.

Christ! That's ugly. But pimpin' ain't easy, so we'll give it a break. Unfortunately for me, my psyche receives no such break, and I am reduced to but two hearts, and my Master Sword no longer shoots laser beams.

The greatest platformer ever created by human hands, now a lowly 160GB USB drive. When will the insanity end?

Never, apparently. A mere month before the Super Mario Bros. 3 USB "creation" came to light, someone took a classic Game Boy, removed everything in it that made it a timeless piece of video game lore, and replaced it with a hard drive. Half a heart left, and there's this incessant beeping in my ears. Jack needs food, badly.

When I grip an NES control pad in my hands, its hard edges digging unforgivably into the soft flesh, I go to my happy place. When modder Taylor Merrill does the same, he hears the theme song from Sanford and Son. He also hears friends and relatives because he managed to get a Samsung Eternity phone into the controller that defined a generation of early console gamers. Good for you all. My childhood just ran into a goomba, jumped straight up into the air, and fell off the screen.

A lot, apparently. To actually play games on this SNEGENES P portable, you have to jam actual cartridges into the back of the portable.

It's not an issue for collectors, obviously, but in this day and age of cheap emulators it seems a bit excessive. Let's see a lite version.

Note: The modder recorded the demo video incorrectly. This system doesn't actually play games in reverse. [Ben Heck Forums via Technabob]

Confession: I always thought Mario was pixelated because he was made of Lego bricks himself. [MOCOlympics via Brothers Brick]

There's also an mp3 player, movie player and an FM radio receiver. The video out is also intact, meaning this little guy can be used to play on the big screen.

Games in action below:

To answer your question, yes, this mod is very similar to one we've featured before. This one is cleaner, boasts more features, and plays Game Boy games too, so it gets the nod today. Nice work.

Oh, and the answer to the headline question, by the way, is unicorns. They would exist. [Ben Heck Forums via technabob]

You see, the code in this case is one of the most well-known codes in all of video game history. The Konami Code. Hell, even God knows it.

Again, there's no real security here, but in any event it's miles ahead of what most people use to secure things that are really important to them. [8Bit Fix - Thanks, Gusto]

The strangest thing is that you have to modify your NES to be able to connect it, and the thing has a telephone jack built-in.

The cartridge was created for the 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge, which travelled around 60 college campuses. It contains a minigame version of Super Mario Brothers 3, another of Pin*Bot, and a minigame version of Dr. Mario. In theory, it was destroyed after the event. However, it seems that this one had a hidden 1Up and survived the cartextimation.

Many years passed and, in 2006, it was bought by Rob Walters for $40 in a garage sale, alongside many other NES games that were later valued for a total of $50,000. The 1991 Nintendo Campus Challenge sold the last time for $14,000 in July 2009. [Thanks JJ]

The victim today is Super Mario Bros. 3, arguably the best platformer title in history and possibly one of the best video games ever created by mankind.

As of this writing, there is one less of these fine cartridges left in the world. The one you see here has had its guts ripped asunder, only to be replaced with a 160GB USB hard drive.

Sure, one could put thousands of Super Mario Bros. 3 ROMs inside this thing now that it contains a hard drive, but the essence—and a bit of my childhood—are gone forever. I'll be sleeping with my copy under the pillow tonight. [GeekSugar via CrunchGear]

Baseball Stars! [Twitter via GamOvr Via WTFoodge Via BuzzFeed]

Step-by-step instructions are available over at Instructables, but the end product is a tabletop Nintendo emulator with both USB ports and authentic NES plugs. Plus, since it's PC-based as opposed to NES-based, the whole thing can function as a standard computer as well.

But what would you prefer—a sleekly integrated screen with a tiny emulator PC, or a chunky, nostalgic cabinet like this one? For some reason (probably that I'm old enough to have thrown more than one birthday party in an arcade), I'd take the chunky cabinet. Then I'd kick myself as I remembered that my apartment has no space for the thing. [Instructables via gearfuse]

Also fun is the $2 app's use of the iPhone's accelerometer to pitch-bend sounds, and its ability to let you jam along with a friend—and hear what they're playing on your phone.

As you'll hear in the video below, NESynth has built-in classic sound effects (jump, fire, laser, etc), and an arpeggiator to help build up melodies using the on-screen piano keyboard.

(For the synth geeks out there: sound generation comes from 3 pulse waveforms, a triangle waveform, and white noise.) [NESynth | iTunes Store]

$31 will get you the pretty case with fake buttons, and two compartments: One for your business cards, the other one for the cards you collect. Or, alternatively, one for rolling paper, and the other one for papers with a lot of small funny pictures on them. See, I'm full of good ideas. [Geek Stuff 4 U via Akihabara News]

$25 is the only thing standing between plastic tackiness and Nintendo retro class. [Etsy via Geeky Gadgets]

How, you ask? Consider the shape of the NES controller, and think about which netbook best resembles it—yep, the Sony Vaio P. Crank out one of these covers for that oblong netbook, and all 10 Vaio P owners might be ordering one. Hell, I'd consider buying a Vaio P just to have one of those covers. Actually, not really. That was a lie. Sorry. [Flickr via In Blog We Trust]

Even his famed golden Zelda cartridge is tarnished. The word on the streets is that it's just plastic, but no one will say it to his face—a social courtesy sourced from pity, not fear.

After a brief time on top, the Pimptendo has seen the worst the world has to offer. He's a shabby, forgotten tool of another era. And now he's stooped to selling himself for $50. [ChaseTheChuckWagon via Gearfuse via HawtyMcBloggy via technabob]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Body Modification Ezine member Metal_Games either really loves the NES or really hates himself. Because he went through an hour of barbaric scarification (in which a trained professional sliced away chunks of his skin) to make his leg Konami code compatible. From his account:

The stencil went on, and we were ready to go. Starting with the lines, the pain wasn't half as bad as I'd expected. In fact, it was a breeze for the most part. It took Jeffrey, the artist, about 20 minutes to cut all the lines. A couple of deep breaths, and we went straight on to removing the skin...

I'll just add that removing skin before stopping the bleeding before cleaning the wound before living with the decision for the rest of his life was probably the hard part.

Read his full account of the experience at: {bmezine via GameDaily via GoNintendo]

YouTube user conquerearth hooked up his theremin to a PC, mapping its tone—which, for those of you who haven't been to a science museum in a while, is modulated by your hand's proximity to the device antennae—to a rough approximation of joystick input, which is then translated to the basic left/right/jump/run controls required for Super Mario. It works fairly well judging by the demonstration, and considering theremins were invented nearly a century ago, I'm guessing without gaming in mind. That said, I do think the video could have done with a slightly different score. [Nowhereelse]

I wanted something I could actually play as if I was punching the person I was playing. This led me to modifying my Slam Man Boxing Dummy to add arcade buttons I could punch.

The hack itself is quite simple, but ingenious and definitively effective for both the gameplay and doing some actual exercise (boxing is one of the most taxing sports I've ever practiced). [Instructables via Make]

The Littlest NES's father was indeed the biggest, strongest NES in all the land. So the proclamation, though one of just a small boy, was not to be written off.

"Actually, son," Father confessed, "your mom was a Gameboy. So don't pick any fights or expect to play in the NBA. In fact, why don't you just stay home and play some video games."

"OK..." the Littlest NES replied, sadly. "But let me get this straight...I'm supposed to play with myself? How's that work?"

And with that, another flawless moment of parenting was entered into the pages of history. [Arkov's Flickr via Albotas via Tiny Cartridge via The Daily What]

(Obviously we'd still post about it.)

In a wave of intellectual heat generated by a combination of her brain and our story on this NES mouse, Jeri from fatmanandcircuitgirl.com dual-invented what may be the ultimate pair of geek mice. While the webcam feed does little to capture the beauty of either device, rumor has it that SLR cameras melted under the blinding glow of this double-optical-Holy-Grail.

Now, we'd never take full credit for someone else's genius, but THANK GOD we were here to post that NES concept mouse, thereby causing the mental chain reaction necessary to make the real NES mouse exist today. (Shh, this one from 2007 never happened, people.) It's OK, a hero needs no thanks. [The FatMan and Circuit girl via adafruit]

The Hands Free was a huge controller that was strapped to the user's chest. The D-pad was controlled by the user's tongue, while you could control the A and B buttons by blowing and sucking through the pipe. I'm not quite sure how you could hit both buttons at once, but I'm sure they made it usable.

Back when it was released in 1989 it retailed for $179 straight from Nintendo, but if you want one now you'll have to hit up eBay, where they go for upwards of $600. [Kotaku]

We can only assume that while some poor boy with an unconfirmed fractured tibia had to wait i excrutiating pain for a hospital's only x-ray room to open, Flickr member Reintji had locked the doors from the inside as he tossed forth a pile of vintage gaming equipment to be scanned despite its inherent and shameless lack of medical insurance.

Fast forward a few weeks, and an HMO lacky is approving the expenses of Mr. Play Station the Third. Then just for a moment, the little guy claims a victory over mega corporations...while an even littler guy nurses his still-broken leg. [Flickr via AcidMods via technabob]

The new version is sleeker and way better looking than the original, but the new features turn it into a legitimate new NES replacement for you classic gaming enthusiasts. It should retail for about $60 when it's released this May. [Kotaku]

The guts of the purse are made from one of those system-on-a-chip deals that modders worldwide are so fond of, and the screen is just taken from a portable DVD player. The purse is evidently still capable of holding some ladyitems, but it's clear that it's main function is busting out some old-school NES action. Check out the video below for a little illustration. [Flickr via MAKE]

The 2.8-inch QVGA screen may be quite tiny to read the entirety of Final Fantasy IV on, but they're going to be doing it in the back of a moving car. That helps, right?

SD card, mini USB, NTSC/PAL TV out, FM radio, voice recorder and stereo speakers round out the rest of this fantastic package. If I don't have kids in the next few years I'll just get this for myself at $88 each. [Chinavasion via Oh Gizmo via Uber Gizmo via Retro Thing]

Emulating NES/Famicom, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Super Famicom and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis titles, the GAME-800 is a crudely controlled but effective looking pocket emulator with a 3.5-inch screen and 4GB of expandable storage. It also doubles as an MPEG4 player, eBook reader (with Chinese/English text to speech) and a low fidelity camera.

The GAME-800 is available now for an $80 import. [China Grabber via technabob]

Created just last night, the Zapper bong is designed to be used handle-up, with the barrel in your mouth. This raises things to the next level by creating a truly ridiculous image when you're using it.

I swear, if some company decided to start producing these video game controller pipes, they'd fly off the shelves at college town headshops. It's only a matter of time.

Thanks, Bryan!

Of course, these specimens aren't really fossils. They're concrete mostly, with cool Latin names, made from molds and with a technique that mimics true fossils. Artist Christopher Locke has also created neat little backstories for each fossil, like this one for the once proud and powerful Ambulephebus sonysymphonia (that's Walkman to we laypeople):

Ambulephebus sonysymphonia is first found in the late 1970s, and is often found in close proximity to Asportatio acroamatis, suggesting a possible symbiotic relationship. This species rapidly evolved into many other forms, including a large round version (Ambulephebus discus) and the rare Ambulephebus minidiscus.

It is theorized that the entire genus of Ambulephebus was virtually wiped out by the sudden appearance of Egosiliqua Malusymphonicus near the turn of the century. Some Ambulephebus remain, but not in the numbers once seen.

As you can probably guess, that dastardly Egosiliqua Malusymphonicus, the bane of the Walkman's existence, is better known as the iPod.

Other "modern fossils" include the aforementioned controller, a Game Boy, NES controllers (they died side-by-side, *sigh*), a rotary telephone, and a hard drive. [Christopher Locke via Neatorama]

• Dual sim card
• NES GAMES
• E-book reader
• Dual Screen
• 2.4-inch 16:9 WQVGA LCM, 260k QVGA ; PX: 240*400
• TV receiver
• FM radio
• Bluetooth
• MP3/MP4
• T-Flash Card. 1GB included, 8GB max
• 0.3 Megapixel camera for photos and video (640 x 480 pixel)

Check out the Etsy shop here—they're all around five bucks. [Digitalsoaps - Etsy via BBG]

This jacket, which is the opposite of cool, can be yours for a mere $200. Fittingly, it comes in sizes up to 4XL for the portly gentleman planning to go out on the town and embarrass himself and his family. Hurry, before 1,000 nerds with bad taste beat you to it! [Product Page via Oh Gizmo!]

While some of the photos here clearly show a real device, you can see that modesty has inclined lil' Oppo to only be shown from the rear, save for in chaste rendering form. So hopefully the d-pad and traditional SNES/PlayStation four-button config makes it to the final stages of production. News today is pricing: 1099 yuan, or $160. That only appears to buy you a paltry 4GB, but throwing together a true emulation platform along with some pedestrian MP3 playing capabilities into decent-looking swivel-screen hardware doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. [Zol (translated) via PMP Today]