Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

How often have you been sitting at a bus stop or stuck in line at the DMV wishing you could play some Pac-Man? Sure, if you’ve got an iPhone you could just use that to play. However, if you’re not too bad with a soldering iron, then you could just make your own handheld Atari console.

Someone has done exactly that, and provided some good documentation on how to create one yourself. You’ll need a Namco TV Games controller, along with a 2.5-inch screen and a few other parts. Being handy with a soldering iron probably wouldn’t hurt either. It looks like a fun project, and with a bit of work, you could probably come up with a nicer looking case.

[ BenHeck ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m not so sure that the detachable micro steering wheel on this USB M.A.D. Gamepad will give you the most realistic driving experience, but if you’re looking to kill some time on a long flight where personal space is at a premium, it’s at least better than relying on a 4-way directional pad. Of course if it gets in the way when it comes to playing other games the micro wheel can be easily removed which leaves you with a pretty standard looking gamepad with 8 buttons (including the shoulders) an 8-way directional controller and a lengthy 6 foot USB cable. It only comes with Windows-friendly drivers and for some reason they require a whopping 50MB of free space on your drive, but you can order one from Dream Cheeky for an undisclosed price.

[ USB Mini Controller ]

By Andrew Liszewski

What a difference a year can make. Last week I wrote about Tiger’s Electronic Baseball which was one of the company’s first handheld LCD games. It featured simple graphics, basic controls and lame sound effects, and like any kid, I eventually got bored of the game. So when the time came to find a replacement, Electronic Hang-On seemed to offer so much more. The game is dated 1988 on the back, and it’s interesting to see how Tiger advanced the ‘platform’ in just a year’s time. The obvious improvement is the use of a licensed and already popular video game property. While Baseball was rather generic, Hang-On was a well-known SEGA title, and Tiger realized that players already familiar with the console version of the game would no doubt embrace a portable version as well. Clearly, the strategy worked on me.

The Tiger handheld games themselves also saw some much needed improvement. The lame two button controls of Baseball were replaced with a 4-way directional pad on one side (admittedly ‘down’ doesn’t actually do anything) and a set of accelerate and brake buttons on the other. While Hang-On’s gameplay featured the popular and somewhat overused ‘dodge the oncoming traffic’ approach, thanks to twisty roads and a turbo mode it could be quite challenging, and helped to pass many hours in the back of our minivan. I’d have to say the game’s sound effects saw the most improvement, and come pretty close to recreating the actual whine you’d get from a racing bike tearing down the highway. Even playing it now I’m somewhat impressed by how it sounds.

Unfortunately even with these improvements and a few other clever gimmicks the company created for later titles, the Tiger handhelds didn’t stand a chance against Nintendo’s Game Boy which was released in North America in August of 1989. And even though I was quick to embrace the Game Boy when it was released, I still had a soft spot for Hang-On and Baseball which is probably why they’re still in my collection so many years later.

[ Wikipedia - Tiger Electronics ]

By Luke Anderson

If you’ve been wanting a PS3, but have been waiting around to see if they would up the hard drive just a bit more, you’re in luck. Sony has just announced that they will be releasing a 160GB model this November. This is double the storage space of the previous model, but the bigger hard drive comes as a price.

Yes, they have increased the cost of the new version to $500, but that’s not what I’m talking about. In order to cut costs, they have left out features such as the built-in card reader and backwards compatibility. Backwards compatibility has been a major issue with PS3 fans, and it seems that Sony is killing it off for good.

What you will get in the box is a DualShock 3 controller, and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and a voucher to download Pain from the PlayStation Store. Honestly, if you’re concerned about hard drive space and backwards compatibility, just find yourself an older model and upgrade the hard drive yourself.

VIA [ Crave ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While Nintendo’s Game & Watch devices can probably be credited with jumpstarting the handheld electronic gaming market (or at least giving it a much needed boost) the company was no where near as prolific at releasing different segmented LCD display games as Tiger Electronics was. A few weeks ago I managed to dig up the first Tiger Electronics game I owned, which was a simple and generic version of baseball. No MLB tie-ins, so sports celebrity endorsements, just plain old baseball. The game’s sat untouched in a drawer for almost the past 20 years (it’s dated 1987 on the back) but I wasn’t surprised to see the rough condition it was in since I can remember throwing it in my school bag as a kid and taking it everywhere. However, I was surprised to find that the game still worked when I popped in a set of AA’s.

By today’s standards Electronic Baseball is downright crude, with cheesy beeps and blips used for sound effects, and uninspired baseball diamond graphics in the background. Besides the smaller buttons used for power, sound and difficulty settings, the game only has two simple controller buttons which are used for swinging and advancing your runners on base. And even though the graphics surrounding the display clearly show fielders wearing jellyfish and boxing gloves instead of traditional baseball gloves, your team never actually takes to the field. In fact the game is more like a home-run derby in that you really just need to swing on every pitch and hope for the best. Since this was one of Tiger’s first handheld games (at least in this form factor) it’s not surprising how simple the gameplay really was, but as a kid I still played with it for hours on end. Fortunately over the years the Tiger Electronics handheld games did get a bit more advanced…

[ Wikipedia - Tiger Electronics ]

By Andrew Liszewski

According to gaming site Maxconsole, the next Tony Hawk game for the Nintendo DS could incorporate a motion and tilt sensing control scheme.

A new game has appeared at the Australia Ratings Classificatiosn board (OFLC) and it’s called “Tony Hawk’s Motion’ which carries a G rating. Activision has previously said that this game will launch a with a new technology that has not been seen on the DS yet. So we’re speculating that such a technology could be a motion/titlt sensor…

Now I’m not entirely sure how big the motion & tilt sensing hardware is, but I assume it will be incorporated into a peripheral that needs to be inserted in the Nintendo DS’s GBA slot, rather than in the DS game cartridge itself. The rumor also leads to speculation about whether or not the game will be seeing a release for the motion & tilt sensing iPhone too, since I’m sure most of us have had our fill of Super Monkey Ball.

[ Maxconsole - New Tony Hawk game for DS to include motion/tilt sensor? ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The Super Nintendo entered my life on a Christmas morning many, many years ago, and besides the Game Boy, it was the first real gaming console I owned. And while the SNES came with the most excellent Super Mario World, I wanted another game to play during the Christmas holidays, and that turned out to be Pilotwings. Even as a kid I was quite an aviation enthusiast, and even though Pilotwings leaned more towards being an arcade title than an actual flight simulator, it was still quite challenging and entertaining. The game relied heavily on the Super Nintendo’s ‘Mode 7′ graphics capabilities, and while the ground looked pretty fake up-close, while in the air the pseudo-3D effect was quite convincing.

The game allowed you to fly various ‘aircraft’ including a light plane, hang glider and a helicopter (in a bonus mission) and even included a few skydiving missions where it was often more fun to not pull the parachute cord. But for my money the rocket belt levels were easily the best. The controls allowed for left and right yaw rotation while your character would lean forward and back to control his speed. All of the game’s levels required you to fly (or fall) through a series of floating rings and then land on or hit a target for the best score. While landing on a moving target was definitely the most difficult task, the rocket belt levels also provided an overhead view which occasionally made things a bit easier. (Not always though.) The game was eventually followed by Pilotwings 64 on the N64, but to be honest the new version never really had the same appeal to me as the SNES one did. However, I’m hopeful that Nintendo will eventually revive the franchise for the Wii.

[ Wikipedia - Pilotwings ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ll be honest, Jenga is usually the last game to get pulled out of the closet when the evening calls for board games instead of the electronic variety. It has its merits and all, but I find it too reliant on luck and of course a perfectly level and sturdy table. But in recent years Jenga has been branching out with ‘themed’ versions of the game (taking a hint from the 8,000+ versions of Monopoly on the market) and I think this Donkey Kong version might be enough for me to give it another chance.

The classic tower building game features 54 black hardwood blocks decked out with the iconic Donkey Kong girders. Build your Donkey Kong-themed Jenga tower the traditional way or climb the girders with your Mario mover and save Pauline from Donkey Kong in a new and even more challenging way to play. Custom Mario, Donkey Kong and Pauline playing pieces and a Donkey Kong themed spinner are included for alternate game play.

You can get it from Amazon.com for $24.95, but I’m pretty sure you won’t have too hard a time finding it at your local toy store if you don’t want to pay for shipping.

[ USAopoly Donkey Kong Jenga ] VIA [ NeoGAF ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re dissatisfied with the stock set of drum sticks that come with Rock Band (where’s the flash?) these illuminated sticks from The Ant Commandos should enhance your pretend rock-star status. (Even if you are just the drummer.) The sticks light up in ‘flame red’ or ‘electric blue’ colors when struck on any surface, and are made of a transparent but durable acrylic material. The sticks also have a larger diameter than the included wooden Rock Band sticks, but I think that’s less of a feature and more of a by-product of them having to accommodate a AAA battery. However, the silicon coated tips are a nice addition and will definitely help reduce the amount of noise while you wail away on your fake drum set.

The Flame Red and Electric Blue Illuminated Drum Sticks are available in separate sets from The Ant Commandos for $19.99.

[ Illuminated Drumsticks ] VIA [ GoNintendo ]