We already knew Nintendo’s DS was quite the popular handheld, and while the PSP recently overtook it in Japanese hardware sales, the most recent numbers show that the Big N’s famed DS has actually rocketed above the mighty PlayStation 2 in lifetime sales (in Japan). Notably, the numbers do combine DS and DS Lite units, but there’s no mention of how the systems stack up worldwide. Nevertheless, the feat is a fairly impressive one when you consider how much longer the PS2 has been available compared to the DS, and unless Sony somehow lightens the PS2 load even further and starts bundling them in with cereals, we doubt it will reclaim the top spot anytime soon.

[Via DSFanboy, thanks J]

Ah, eBay. Home to some of the rarest, most incredible devices known (and previously unknown) to man. On the docket today is a stupendously rare, unreleased development controller for use with the SNES CD dev kit. Yep, a unreleased controller for an unreleased system — pretty much a collector’s dream. Unfortunately, the controller alone won’t do you very much good beyond hooking you up with unbelievable bragging rights, but unless you’ve got $2,999.99 (at least) to blow, the above picture is close as you’ll get to this treasure.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

We’ve seen some fairly significant developments on the Wii homebrew front as of late, and it looks like you can now chalk up yet another milestone, as an exploit has reportedly been discovered that lets the console run homebrew without a modchip. To do that, however, you’ll apparently need a copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess (hardly a problem for most) and a willingness to take some risks, as the exploit in question takes the rather unelegant approach of crashing the Wii before letting you run your own code. Details on exactly how to exploit the exploit also seem to be a bit hard to follow at the moment, but you can hit up the link below if you want to get started.

[Via Digg]

The homebrew scene hasn’t gotten a whole lot accomplished with this latest round of home consoles — which isn’t surprising given the difficulty of the task and lack of incentives to succeed. Especially with the PS3 shipping with Linux compatibility, the Wii boasting VLC, and the 360 being such a chore to hack and keep hacked, there’s really not much of a point. The Wii was compromised pretty early on to be able to play burned discs and GameCube homebrew such as Linux, but until now Nintendo has managed to isolate Wii hardware such as the extra horsepower of the console and wireless connectivity from hackers. But the walls are coming down. Some hackers from Germany have just showed off their fully hacked Wii at the 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress. Nothing fancy is running yet, all they’ve achieved so far is a proof of concept that they’ve bypassed the Wii’s protection with some encryption codes they swiped from the Wii’s memory. Apparently a bootable Linux DVD is on the way, and we can’t wait to see what homebrew coders manage to pull off with that Wiimote pointed where it belongs.

[Via WiiNintendo]