'Neon Advance' reminds us that some gadgets really can live forever

You can learn a lot from a zombie Nintendo console if you pay close enough attention.

The "Neon Advance," sort of a reanimated corpse of an old handheld gaming system, made the rounds on video game blogs like Kotaku and Nintendo Life earlier this week. Most of the coverage has centered on how cool the device looks (and reader, it does), but look a bit closer and you'll see the device stands for something. It shows us how one era of consumer tech could be remixed or enhanced by people — an era that's arguably coming to a close as corporations lock down their products through hostile product design and online software updates. Read more...