Nintendo doesn't exactly advertise it, but the remotes for the Wii gaming console—including the balance board that comes with Wii Fit—have Bluetooth capabilities. That means you can connect your Wii peripherals to your computer to operate the media centre hooked up to your TV, play emulated games with a Nunchuk, Classic Controller, or even a Balance Board, and pretty much have them do anything you can do with a keyboard. Let's walk through linking up your Wii peripherals and putting them in control of your Mac, PC, or Linux box.

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How-to web site Instructables has a step-by-step guide detailing how to repurpose your classic (but broken) NES as a lunchbox. All you've got to do is gut your Nintendo's innards and add hinges (though a handle would be nice). You'll also need a Sasquatch action figure if the guide is to be believed, but I'm guessing you can get away without it.

Millions of homes have an Xbox 360 sitting in the living room, but if you're only using your 360 to game, you're missing out. With some free tools and a little elbow grease, that compact, networked PC sitting under your television can offer a whole lot of useful media functionality. The fact is, your 360 is capable of so much more than just gaming. Let's take a look at a few ways you can get more from your Xbox 360. (We covered some of this territory in our recent guide to what to do with your new cheap Xbox 360, but there's plenty of extra goodness to be had.

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Few families made it through the 1980s without collecting one or more Nintendo Entertainment Systems, but many of them sit unusable today, no matter how hard you blow into them. Wired's Chris Kohler and his brother Dan show in the above video that given a screwdriver, a 72-pin connector available for a few dollars online, and a wee bit of patience, the garage-bound game system can be revived and made ready for duck hunting, Koopa-stomping, or whatever lies inside the cartridges you haven't sold off.

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Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Do you harbor nostalgia-tinged memories of autoexec.bat files? Does the phrase "Soundblaster-compatible" mean anything to you? Dig out those floppies and try out DOSBox, a free, open-source DOS emulator for all platforms. The app supports at least 3,000 games, and likely many more, as it can recreate most graphics and sound setups, and lets you set your own processor speed to prevent the warp-speed effect games often suffer on modern systems. DOSBox is a free download for Window, Mac, Linux, and other platforms.

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Sure we like our chocolate bunny ears, but around these parts the best easter eggs aren't painted pink and stuffed with jelly beans—they're the undocumented and unexpected fun features hidden deep inside various software apps. While new software Easter eggs don't come around often, there's still a basket full of classics we love. After the jump, get roundup of our favourite software Easter eggs.

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BBC News reports that "casual games" like Bejeweled take less time to learn and play so they're attracting more players who don't want to spend hours building a character or learning the intricate rules of more complex video games. Along similar lines, Lifehacker alum Keith said that one of his big gaming timesavers is to play on "easy" mode, because it lets him enjoy the game without losing too much time he could be more productive. How do you balance gaming and life and work? Do you avoid time sinks like Warcraft entirely, stick to casual games, or play first person shooters on easy? Let us know in the comments.

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Windows only: You've already honed your Rock Band chops, so now it's time to use video game Rock Band's drum set as a real synth set that you can play connected to your PC with freeware application Drum Machine. As you can see from the video, the application works allows all the freestyling you always wished you could do in Rock Band, record your playing, or change the kit's sounds. It required a little effort getting it all set up—Windows automatically recognised and installed the necessary drivers when I plugged it in, but I was missing a DLL file that prevented the app from running off the bat. But I found the DLL here, copied it to my C:\Windows\system directory, and the app ran without a hitch. Drum Machine is freeware, Windows only. It's performance will likely depend on the speed of your computer.

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You may like having Vista's pretty-fying Aero effects enabled while you're working, but many modern games can make you want to devote every last bit of memory and power to their 3-D awesomeness. The How-To Geek shows how to easily disable desktop effects by editing (or creating) a shortcut for the game (or other program):

Simply right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties, and then the Compatibility tab ... Now on the Settings block check the box for "Disable desktop composition" in order to disable Aero the next time you use the shortcut.

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Whether you're using it for video games or as part of a media center powerhouse, all of our Xbox 360s have one thing in common: They're loud. Hardware site ExtremeTech walks through how to replace the stock fan unit (which screams like a 747) with a whisper quiet, $25 alternative. This is one of those warranty-voiders, so you'll have to decide whether or not a little peace and quiet is worth it.