If your strumming hand for Guitar Hero is becoming a bit worse for wear, then good news: Ben Heck, modder of all that is next-gen, has come up with a way to make your foot do all the work instead. Introducing Ben Heckendorn's own brand of pedal controllers, a peripheral that lets you strum and whammy with the merest movement of your foot. All the details in the full article.

 

Yes, and how much heck could Ben Heckendorn heck if Ben Heck could heck heck? The Master of Mod has united with eDimensional to offer a new, inspired-by-the-hardcore gamer product. And they won't say a thing about it. Not a darned thing. They'll never tell.

No. They're so mean they want you to guess what the hell - er, heck it is.

The Read link below takes you to the contest website, What the Heck?!, where you will find where to send your guesses to eDimensional, in the hopes of winning a free signed copy of WhateverTheHeckItIs from eDimensional. One guess per person, per day (no spamming, in other words).

So what the heck is it?! (Fine, the silhouette kind of resembles a 360, but it could also be a red herring, a decoy). A laptop? Deceptive controllers? An actual analog stick for a portable?

Navigating the Internet through the Wii's Opera Web browser is not the hardest thing in the world. Still, we have to admit that it is not one of easiest things as well. At one point or another, it becomes rather tedious and bothersome.

And then you find yourself wishing that an actual keyboard could be attached to the console. Well, there's actually a big possibility especially when you believe the tidbit from Game Informer's May 2007 issue.

The information was rather sweet and short. It reads: "Nintendo's development team says that it is considering adding a keyboard peripheral to the system in order to make online surfing easier, but it has not officially announced anything at this time."

Let's just assume for a while that the news is accurate. Now, we ask you, what kind of keyboard would you like to have? As you all know, it could be attached to the console via USB or even wireless Bluetooth. Also, we have to consider what price will Nintendo be attaching to this peripheral.

Is this idea even plausible? Shouldn't we ask Ben Heckendorn first?

 

We've been alerted by QJ reader David, that in an interview over at Portable Video Gamer Ben Heckendorn, portable gaming console modification god, had a few interesting things to say about his projects that has gathered fame, which includes the Xbox 360 laptop, the Wii laptop, and the portable N64, and the Atari Jaguar mod.

What stand out most though are his comments on the PSP and on his take on the notoriety of the term hacker. As for the lack of the extra analogue stick on the PSP, Ben had this to say:

Yes that’s pretty much what I thought about the PSP. Although I was more disgruntled with Nintendo, for not making the Gameboy Advance backlit in 2001 and not adding X and Y buttons until the DS. The DS is pretty nice though, probably one of the best handhelds ever.

As for the bad rep of the hacker term, here's his musings:

I think the bad rap stems from the fact the term "hacker" went from someone who figures out hardware (old school hacking) to someone who goes around destroying websites, creating viruses and stealing your identity. The correct term for those people is "scumbags".

One of the positive results from hacking is coming up with new uses for old hardware and using that to make money. There’s a huge market for doing this sort of thing, and I wish I had more than 2 arms. I can’t even remotely keep up with requests.

Benjamin Heckendorn's book, "Hacking Video Game Consoles: Turn your old video game systems into awesome new portables" is still available on a whole lot of online retail sites. Be sure to at least check it out if you've got a tinkerer in you there somewhere.

For the rest of the interview, feel free to head to Portable Video Gamer via our "read" link below.

If you've been following this closely, you'd already know that Engadget's own Ben Heckendorn, the same man behind the Xbox 360 laptop mod, has produced a stunning flat, white Wii laptop that redefines gaming-on-the-go. After he published the first and second parts of his three-part modding guide, he now put out the third. This time around, he shows off this little case modding monster and how he cuts the Wii casing down to a slimmer size.

He also detailed the measurements and allowances he spared to allow the flip-top screen to use as it's lifted up. Of course, you can't forget all the rewiring needed. So without further ado, we would like to present the "Read" link that you see below, which you may click to find yourself magically transported to his Wii laptop modding world.

Benjamin Heckendorn is popular for bringing into this world the Xbox 360 laptop. He also worked on a Wii version but decided that he could take parts off the Wii machine to do a little redecorating. Well, for the most part. To allow other modders to join the Wii modding bandwagon, he released part one of his modding guide just last week. Today, he reveals part two.

Part two of his how-to Wii laptop project has him making some modifications so he could slap the Wii into a much slimmer case. He took most of the major parts of the board and made some changes to heatsink heights and wirings. Some people have made remarks that this could actually make the Wii run a tad warmer, but Ben thinks he could overcome that with some ideal airflow. So those who admired his Xbox 360 laptop modification is gonna love this version. It's actually as slim as a modern laptop.

Warning! Making any modifications to your Wii box will void the warranty. That said, the techie Wii users out there might want to check his detailed how-to guide.

Click the Read link below to get right into part two of his three-part Wii laptop modding guide.

Presumably, the laptop is what Ben Heckendorn will probably be best known for. The next question is, now how do you make your own, without having to cry over the remains of what was once a Wii? Over at Engadget, Ben shows how he did it, or at least Part 1 of a 3-part special on his Wii Laptop Project.

Like the 360 laptop, Hecking a Wii into the confines of a very small suitcase... or handbag... does involve having to break out the screwdrivers, including a three-prong screwdriver specially made for proprietary Nintendo screws. The same screws that PopSci screwed up to inadvertently brick their Wii (We included his picture of it below to give you an idea of what it is). Being lengthy, detailed, and something your warranty wouldn't like to hear, we leave it to you to peruse further via the Read link.

And yes, that's only Part 1 of a 3-part special.

  

Engadget's Ben Heckendorn has done it again! After the Xbox 360 laptop which he created in September last year, now comes the Wii laptop. Mmm... perfect for that trip to a friend's house, or that really long vacation at your grandma's.

After Nintendo's already-tiny console has been made even smaller, it's impressive to know that it still packs a punch with these specs:

• 16:9 widescreen LCD, 7-inch diagonal
• Stereo sound
• Gamecube controller port
• Built-in short range Sensor Bar
• Ports for using original Sensor Bar and A/V output jacks (for use on external display)
• Built-in power supply and compartment for power cord
• Dimensions: 8.5 x 7.7 x 2-inches

So, now that he's managed to cut two of the next-gen consoles down to size, does this mean that we'll also be seeing a PS3 laptop some time soon to complete the set?

More pics and a video of the Wii Laptop in action, all after the Jump!