I’ve partnered with THQ to provide a prize in their Darksiders sweepstakes - an Xbox 360 laptop, built by myself and painted by Joe Mad, based off the game.

Concept drawing of the design. But instead of white, imagine art painted all over it…

Not only that, but this will be the best Xbox 360 laptop yet! The design features a dock for a full-size, unaltered Xbox 360 hard drive, so you can share data with your home console. Astounding. Additionally, both memory card slots are accessible, should you need those for some reason. Other features include the usual built-in WiFi and Xbox Live Vision camera. One big change is lack of keyboard - it’s useless 99% of the time anyway and they have those chat pads for the controllers as it is.

Contest ends in October I believe, so by all means head on over to their site, take a look around, and get entered. Thanks to Adam King at THQ for providing myself and the community this opportunity!

Click here to get in on the action:community.darksidersvideogame.com

(This should explain why I cracked open a 60 gig Xbox :)

Well of course I couldn’t resist grabbing one of these, and since I need parts anyway for an upcoming contest, why not?

“60 GIGA PRO-GEAR SPEC” would be a lot catchier.

The big question of course is whether or not this unit has the new 65nm GPU… check out the photos below to see!

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We’re back, though slightly late again.

In this episode we discuss the announcements from E3, surface area of onion rings, Hollywood making too many comic book movies and how Batman will make it worse, roundabouts and why we need more 80’s-style movies.

Enjoy…

Listen to Benheck.com Podcast Episode 47

www.benheckpodcast.com

Just so people realize my site is indeed still live and active, check out this gallery of PM2 stills. You can click on them for full-resolution versions, suitable for framing!

The movie is about 72% filmed at this point and we hope to finish up shooting by the end of August. In other news, there are some cool things going on which of course I’ll talk about on this site once I am able.

Click below to bring up the gallery, and stay tuned!

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Work continues to go well in the production of “Possumus Man 2: Possumus Woman”, my independent film project this summer. According to my estimates we’ve got it about half filmed as of July 12th.

Mike Adsit, playing “Jamie”, gets a spiky log trap ready. Will it be enough to stop a mutated giant possum?

If all goes well we should have everything “in the can” by the end of August, and hopefully can have a trailer done around that time as well. Stay tuned for details!

My mod pick this week is a multi-platform portable built by John Grayson, aka “Bacteria”.

The deal with this portable is that the controls, screen and battery are “general purpose” and work with any system. Then, to play a specific system, you plug a “module” onto the back, such as a Nintendo 64, or PlayStation.

There’s a good demonstration of this in his video, you can see that and the rest of the project using the link below. Good work John!

Link to Bacteria’s Website

Sorry we’re late - much of my free time these days has been spent on Possumus Man 2!

This game would PRINT MONEY

In this episode we discuss other “music hero” games Activision could try making, both some ridiculous ones and others that might actually sell. We then move on to the validity of movie critics and if they even matter, which turns into a long discussion about WALL*E. Enjoy…

Listen to Benheck.com Podcast Episode 46

www.benheckpodcast.com

“Get Smart” is basically “The Office” with machine guns. If this sounds good to you, go see it. I wasn’t expecting much but was pleasantly surprised.

In other news the costume for Possumus Man 2: Possumus Woman (working title) is almost done and will be at least 3 times better than the original costume + working jaw. Stay tuned….

I thought about doing one of these years ago, right after my first Atari 2600 portable actually, but after taking a look at the motherboard (which is a lot more complex than the Atari 2600’s) I got cold feet.

My feet are much warmer now and thus here is an Atari 7800 portable I’ve done by request. For some reason I am just not that intimidated by “complex looking” electronics anymore, I don’t know why! The 7800 motherboard is a bit larger than the 2600, thus the unit is larger, but I slapped on a bigger 7″ widescreen to make up for it. (Kind of like the iPhone ads that allegedly use giant hands) Quick specs:

• Rechargeable batteries built-in
• Combination driving / paddle controller
• Weighs less than a gallon of milk
• A/V output jack, like all my old portables used to have
• Black paint

For the making-of story and more pics than I usually post, click below. There’s also a video where I describe the functions. Now that this is done I can allot more of my time to “Possumus Man 2: Possumus Woman!” (Working title)

Unfortunately the flashback scene in Possumus Man 2 now takes place in the 60’s, rendering my bumper sticker props useless.

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Long ago, before I was an internet celebrity, my hobby was independent filmmaking, with some modding on the side. Then of course the modding hobby took over my life and became my job, while other hobbies faded away… As of 2008 it’s been 6 years since we’ve done a movie - which might not sound like a lot but in the old days the biggest gap between our indy productions was maybe 11 months.

This snake slithered onto our filming location so I put it in the movie. Hopefully it’s not SAG because I didn’t pay it…

Not content with this state of affairs I set out to make a movie this summer, dammit. On a couple occasions we’ve almost made a sequel to our “amazing” 1995 effort Possumus Man and I decided this time we’d actually do it. Also it’s somewhat easy to film, compared to say Port Washington, as it takes place mostly in the woods. We’re shooting in hi-def using the Panasonic P2 camera - no more manual tape capture!

Mike Adsit and Jason Jones standing by a campsite where a horrific battle is about to ensue. Mike co-stars in this movie, while Jones thus far is mostly cameraman. Hi-def requires more emphasis on good focus, and he’s doing a bang-up job.

We started filming this last weekend and expect to continue about every other weekend this summer. Locations are mostly south central Wisconsin, though we may also do some shots up north around the Rice Lake / Birchwood area.

For up-to-date info, or to just check out another Benheck blog, visit The Official Possumus Man 2 blog.