RICH LEGRAND’S HUMR robot zips around the floor, controlled by a palm-sized computer mounted atop its four-wheeled Lego chassis. The computer started life as a Gameboy Advance, and a robot is probably not the application Nintendo had in mind for its $70 toy.
Yet the games console, which has an advanced 32-bit microprocessor at its heart, is turning out to be one of the cheapest ways of getting hold of a high-powered, lightweight, portable battery-powered computer. LeGrand is one of many enthusiasts who have started hacking into the sophisticated electronics inside cheap games consoles to adapt it to their own…
