It doesn’t take long for an avid--or just wickedly clever--gamer to be chafed by the limitations of videogame software or hardware. If you want to go far beyond the obvious--whether you want to modify your console controller to work on other consoles, create your own text adventure, or modify your Game Boy--there’s an awful lot of fun you can have for cheap or free, using the creative exploits of the gaming gurus. Gaming Hacks is the indispensable guide to cool things gamers can do to create, modify, and hack videogame hardware and software.

Everything from social exploits and tips to be used in MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) to soldering-iron heavy hardware hacks is covered in this extreme-cool hack guide written by gamers for gamers. Gaming Hacks offers a stunning variety of hacks, exploits, and other creative acts on both modern and archaic console hardware and today’s PC hardware--one hundred detailed, ingenious hacks are included.

Gaming Hacks also includes detailed software-based looks at MMO (massively multiplayer) titles, FPS (first-person shooter) games, machinima (real-time movies created using game engines), emulation, save-game hacking, and many other miscellaneous subgenres and topics.

Gaming Hacks shows hardcore gamers how to configure the best FPS peripherals, hack the Nuon DVD Player/Gaming System, modify their Game Boy, watch movies and listen to music and their Sega Dreamcast, and much, much more.

Gaming Hacks shows you how to do things you didn’t know could be done. If you want more than your average gamer--you want to explore and experiment, unearth shortcuts, make your games do what you want them to do Gaming Hacks will show you how. You don’t need to be gaming guru to pick up Gaming Hacks; you’ll be one when you put it down.

Wonderful launch point for more exploration

This book covers a lot of ground -- check out the table of contents and you’ll see something for every flavor of computer or video game, from the Atari VCS to PC-based first-person-shooters and massively multiplayer online role-playing games, to handhelds like Palm and Pocket PC devices, to all of the major console machines you attach to your television.

Like any computer book, this is full of ephemeral information that may not age well. In a few years, many of the links given here will cease to exist, and much of the hardware referenced could be difficult to find. Some of the tools which seem cool today will be commonplace, having been built into new revisions of hardware. The author does a good job of anticipating where this might happen, and sticks to generalities while providing specific examples wherever possible. As I write this review, the book has been in print for almost a year, and in my opinion, it remains fresh, relevant, and worthy of purchase.

Some of the activity described in this book is in the grey area between legal and illegal activity, and Carless takes care to warn the reader when he/she might be stepping on dangerous ground. Such caveats make this book even more interesting to this reviewer and probably others as well.

If you’ve ever done any of these things, enjoyed it, and wanted to do more, then this book is for you!
- played a Japanese game on a USA or UK territory console;
- played a "hacked" ROM of an old game in emulation;
- wanted to get more out of old games which are boring now;
- wondered about nonstandard import adapters and accessories;
- wanted to interface your console with your PC

In other words, if you’re creative enough to want to think outside the narrow box that some manufacturers have put us in, and want more, you want this book, even if you’ve already done a lot of this stuff on your own. The weblinks alone will provide hours of entertainment, but the book draws everything together into a coherent whole. Cheers to Carless for writing this and to O’Reilly for having the courage to publish this in the age of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act!

Good book if you enjoy games--old or new

This book was a lot of fun to read and provides a lot of great tips for not only getting the most out of your current gaming system, but also for enjoying those games you played 20 years ago. The book starts out with an introduction to emulation and MAME, which allows you to play old console games (like the Atari 2600) or arcade games on a PC. The author even provides directions to illustrate how you can take an old Atari 2600 paddle controller and hook it into your PC (with a soddering iron and a little work). Any gamer who ever played on the Atari would love something like this.

In my favorite chapter, the author shows how to maximize portable devices for gaming fun. In one hack, the author shows how to play games on your iPod. In another hack, the author shows how to produce color pictures from the Game Boy’s black and white camera attachment. There are even instructions for turning your PocketPC or PalmPilot into a Game Boy or even a Commordore 64.

The author has a section dedicated to creating the best game machine, where he discusses video cards, mice, and other peripherals. In other sections, the author discusses how to modify your gaming console, including Xbox mods, tunneling (e.g. making games play online that weren’t designed to be played online), and other game hacks. Finally, the author rounds out the discussion by demonstrating how to create and add a vehicle to Unreal Tournament 2004. While it does require a bit of time and some work, I was surprised at how relatively easy the whole process was.

This is a great book to read if you enjoy gaming-regardless of whether they’re games from 20 years ago or brand new. This book will help you to get the most out of your gaming experience and have a lot of fun doing it.

100 Clever Game Console Hacks for Gamers

If you want to go far beyond the obvious, whether you want to modify your console controller to work on other consoles, create your own text adventure, or modify your Game Boy, there is an awful lot of fun you can have for cheap or free, using the creative exploits of the gaming gurus. Gaming Hacks is the indispensable guide to cool things gamers can do to create, modify, and hack videogame hardware and software.

Everything from social exploits and tips to be used in MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) to soldering-iron heavy hardware hacks is covered in this extreme-cool hack guide written by gamers for gamers. Gaming Hacks offers a stunning variety of hacks, exploits, and other creative acts on both modern and archaic console hardware and today’s PC hardware. One hundred detailed, ingenious hacks are included.

Gaming Hacks also includes detailed software-based looks at MMO (massively multiplayer) titles, FPS (first-person shooter) games, machinima (real-time movies created using game engines), emulation, save-game hacking, and many other miscellaneous subgenres and topics.

Gaming Hacks shows hardcore gamers how to configure the best FPS peripherals, hack the Nuon DVD Player/Gaming System, modify their Game Boy, watch movies and listen to music and their Sega Dreamcast, and much, much more.

Gaming Hacks shows you how to do things you didn’t know could be done. If you want more than your average gamer, if you want to explore and experiment, unearth shortcuts, or make your games do what you want them to do Gaming Hacks will show you how. You don’t need to be gaming guru to pick up Gaming Hacks, but you will be one when you put it down.

Covers a lot of ground...

If you’re a gamer who is always looking for new information to improve your gaming experience, check out Gaming Hacks by Simon Carless (O’Reilly).

Chapter list: Playing Classic Games; Playing Portably; Playing Well With Others; Playing With Hardware; Playing with Console and Arcade Hardware; Playing Around the Game Engine; Playing Your Own Games; Playing Everything Else; Index

Like all Hacks titles, there are 100 hints, tips, and hacks that cover the spectrum of gaming, from hardware to software, from consoles to online gaming. If you’re old like me, you might enjoy Play Commodore 64 Games Without the C-64 (#2) and Play Atari ROMs Without the Atari (#3). Those will take you back to your early days of computing. If you’re into first player shooting games, Tweak Your Tactics for FPS Glory (#94) will help boost your scoring. Carless will even help you play Japanese video games without knowing the language in #97 - Play Japanese Games Without Speaking Japanese. He shows you some basic hiragana and katakana that you’ll encounter frequently in those games, and that might allow you to bridge the language gap.

The only trouble I see with the book is that it’s covering such a wide area of subject matter. Unless you’re a full-time gamer, you’ll probably find a number of areas in this book that don’t pertain to your interests. In some ways, that’s OK for a Hacks title, as not everything is meant to apply to every single reader. But this particular title seems to be a bit more scattered than usual. The material is good, to be sure, but each reader may have a different opinion of the book based on what their gaming interests are.

Covers every conceivable computer game type

This book covers everything. You can go old school and get information on Mame games and building your own arcade machine. It covers portable with information on PDA games, hacking your Gameboy, and installing a PS2 in your car. It talks about the online world with combat strategies, how to game the systems to make money, and how to find and avoid cheaters. It’s got great advice on how to build high end gaming PCs. Consoles are covered as well. He talks about overclocking them and chipping them to play import games. And that’s just a sample.

Were this any other type of book I would say that the coverage is unfocused because it’s too broad. But it’s a Hacks book and these are intended for people with a clue to give them material on a wider range of topics. It starts you off and expects that you will run with it. For example, you get a lot of information about how to create a home arcade machine with Mame, but you won’t get the detailed construction plans.

The text is well written, though he does tend to use the gamer lingo, so you may need a translator if you aren’t up to the minute. Certainly the best book I have seen for people who want to push their gaming experience beyond what you can get out of the box from Electronics Boutique.