Control the NES R.O.B. with your PC

There are alotofmods out there for the NES controller that claim to be practical, but if we admit it they're only just thinly veiled excuses for mature adults to relive their wasted childhood. This latest mod, that makes Nintendo's Robotic Operating Buddy or (R.O.B. for short) controllable via a Linux PC, makes no claim to functionality: basically a guy called Fred managed to get R.O.B. to follow commands sent to it from his Linux box -- kind of the opposite of what R.O.B. is used to doing: interacting with a NES deck. We're not exactly sure how he did it, but we are certain it involved a lot of coding, soldering, and enough coffee to get Fred's doctor to class him as a technical insomniac -- but who needs sleep when you've got a little grey chip-hording robot to order about?

[Via MAKE]