ULTIMAte hack: Nexus 7 hooks up with external USB storage, floppy drive for retro-gaming

Posted by max at July 21st, 2012

There’s only so much kit you can cram into a sub-$200 tablet without pushing past the price ceiling. And for Google’s Jelly Bean-blessed Nexus 7, corners were definitely cut, leaving users without a handy microSD slot for expansion and rear-facing camera. But where there’s a will, there’s the XDA and its community of developers to remedy the situation. As you can glimpse from the photo above, an enterprising forum member by the handle of c0m47053 devised an interesting workaround for the slate’s lack of expandable storage and then some. Using the StickMount app available on the Play store, which allows users to mount/dismount mass storage devices, he was able to connect the ASUS-made tab to a USB hub and hook it up to a keyboard, mouse and, most amusingly of all, a floppy drive — to play Ultima on DOSbox, of course. It goes without saying that a feat of this kind requires root access, but thankfully that’s what Mountain View made the Nexuses for.

Filed under: Peripherals, Tablet PCs, Software