Sony has dropped the core system price of the PlayStation Portable to $169.99 as of April 3rd. This comes on the heels of retailers demanding a price drop, though it is unsure if the price was planned, or is a result of the power of retailers.

After more rumours (and denials) than you can shake a stick at, Microsoft have officially announced the new Xbox 360 Elite, and somehow managed to leave us with more questions than answers. What we can safely tell you is that it’s got an HDMI port, comes with a 120GB HDD…and it’s black.

There’s no official word on which revision of HDMI was used, so we can’t tell you anything more than ‘it’ll do 1080p.’ Given how chuffed some PlayStation 3 owners are with the HDMI 1.3 port in their consoles, we’d be surprised if Microsoft dropped the ball on this one.

The 120GB hard drive finally gives users the space to store decent amounts of HD video content alongside the gigabytes of game demos and Live Arcade games that once fought for the prior 20GB. A cable will be included to transfer data from an existing 20GB drive to the new 120GB drive.

We’ve heard mixed reports regarding whether the Elite will be a permanent SKU, or a limited-edition run for the upgrade-junkies and collectors before the existing Premium console absorbs the HDMI port and larger HDD.

The Xbox 360 Elite will be released in the US on April 29th and will cost US$479. The 120GB HDD will be available seperately and cost $179.

Why toss out your old video game systems when you can turn them into sweet functional things like these guys have.

NES Guitar

Sega Genesis Guitar

The aptly named NES Paul has a site with more shots from the process of turning his old NES into a musical instrument.

For those of you wondering if these things actually play, here’s a video of the MegaDriver playing his creation.

If your ready to dismantle your old SNES controller, Mark Feldman has created a wonderful video tutorial to turn that gaming artifact into a brand spanking new wireless controller for the Wii. Sure, you could just get an adaptor, but for show-offs, it is wireless all the way, baby!

It’s a shame (or a blessing?) that I don’t have kids, because I’d always be buying then random junk like these huge plush Tetris blocks.

But how do you make complete lines disappear?

Here’s the link to the catalog from which you can order them. I wonder if the long straight ones are always out of stock…

Damn, now I want to play some Tetris. I guess this flash clone will suffice.

I may not have access to a industrial robotic arm, but this amazing Wiimote hack made me go out and get a Bluetooth adapter for my PC so I could start playing around with GlovePIE too.

Here is a video of the WiiBot in action. Is that not the coolest thing? I want two of these things so I can battle with my friends. I wonder if they’d fit in my livingroom.

I am currently immersed in a Firefoxful of Wii hacking tabs and will post again when I get some cool stuff working.

For the gamers out there, Player 1 has set up a list of their favorite gaming gadgets on display at the 2007 CES convention. Here is a great example, the Nyko PS3 Wireless Controller Charger:

For the full list, head on over to gadgetell.com.