Most video game fans aren’t using their Wii U consoles as much as they did a few years ago — if they ever bought the system at all — but Nintendo’s underwhelming machine still has a few uses, it seems. A modder has managed to turn the system’s GamePad controller into a PC with Windows 10, and he didn’t sacrifice its gaming functionality to do it.
Using the GamePad as a shell, modder Banjo Kazooie added several other parts, including an LCD screen, 4GB of RAM, a 64GB SSD, an Intel m5 processor, and a copy of Windows 10. Upon booting the system up, it runs just like any other Windows 10 PC, with icons and menus available to select with a stylus.
The hilarious kicker, however, is what else he had the Wii U do: Play Wii U games. Through an emulator and a small board containing a copy of Super Mario Bros. U, the game is still fully playable while being run through Windows. It looks just about identical to the version running on a standard Wii U, with very little input lag. Pressing the Wii U’s “home” button brings up the Windows menu, from where the game can quickly be closed.
It’s a bit of a misnomer to say the Wii U was modded for this project — the console itself remained untouched. However, with the price for the GamePad currently at about $200 on Amazon, you probably shouldn’t try this unless you really hate your Wii U.
We’re not sure what would bring someone to turn a Wii U GamePad into a fully functional PC, but chances are pretty good that your Wii U is currently sitting in storage as it collects dust. Perhaps having an extra portable computer wouldn’t be such a bad thing!
Just recently, hackers have managed to get another program, the GameCube and Wii emulator “Dolphin,” running on a Nintendo Switch. The ability to do this was discovered after an exploit was found in the Switch, which couldn’t be fixed with a simple software patch. Though games aren’t running too well on the emulator at the moment, it’s only a matter of time before the kinks are worked out.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.