You don’t have to be a smoker who grew up gobbling white dots and ghosts to appreciate these retro gaming themed Zippo lighters. You could also be a pyromaniac who really enjoyed Dig Dug as a kid, or someone who can never get enough Galaxian who also happens to prepare a lot of birthday cakes. The Zippos are available in four different versions including Pac-Man, Xevious and the aforementioned Dig Dug and Galaxian, and can be pre-ordered from NCSX for a mere $108.90.
Good news for sedentary sports fans with frustrated aspirations of grandeur. Thanks to the wonders of technology (and UK-based firm Real Time Race) they should now be able to take part in some of the worlds biggest sporting spectacles. Well, kind of.
The basic concept is designed to allow gamers to take a virtual place in real environments and events – all with naught but an internet and web browser enabled device.
Real Time Race says the technology could be applied to “skiing, mountain biking, equine eventing and water sports etc,” but that sounds a bit pants, and fortunately they’ve been focusing on motor racing so far.
Prior to a big race, the track environment will be captured by a Google Streetcar-alike vehicle, which along with 360 degree cameras sports a gizmo on the back which fires lasers all over the place to work out how far away everything is. The data is then processed and makes its way to a browser where it should play something like a conventional video game map.
The (real) cars participating in the race will also be captured, as well as fitted with navigation systems which transmit their position on the track, allowing couch-bound speed freaks to test themselves against the best in the world.
The technology still appears to be in the proof of concept rather than “actually fun” stage, and the car handling and physics are woeful, but it does seem rather promising all the same.
If you can stand the massive and utterly gratuitous use of exclamation marks and apostrophes, you can read more and download a demo here.
Borderlands sets you down on the desolate planet of Pandora. Here is a world that few people would ever want to set foot on, save for the prospect of treasure. It has been rumored that a vault lie hidden somewhere in the vast wasteland which contains riches beyond measure. Treasure hunters, mercenaries and even large corporations want to get their hands on whatever is contained within.
The world of Pandora seems like a barren wasteland, yet the art styling makes the landscape seem rich and exciting. The prominent black lines and shading remind me very much of a comic book, while at the same time it feels like something entirely different. The overall landscape doesn’t change much from zone to zone, but each has its own characteristics that makes it seem unique.
Well it’s officially official. The whole Wii accessories fiasco can now be upgraded to an epidemic with the release of the special edition of Baby and Me which comes with an actual doll. With the Wiimote strapped to the little plastic bundle of joy gamers will be able to interact with the baby’s on-screen counterpart in a variety of different ways including:
Your baby reacts by giggling, gurgling or crying through the Wii remote
Ten Baby Mode games including feed baby & send baby to sleep
Eight Play Mode games including rattle, catch, clap & balloons
Balance Board support: rock baby to sleep, burp baby, teach baby to walk
Customise baby with new clothes, accessories and playrooms
And if you can’t find the special edition, since they’ll no doubt be flying off the shelves, the standard version of the game includes a holster so you can strap a Wiimote to an existing doll of your choice.
These days it seems like everything has a digital camera in it. Okay, maybe not everything, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone that doesn’t own at least one device that functions as a camera. Of course if you aren’t using a dedicated camera, the lack of an optical zoom can limit your shots. Then again, that’s what crazy accessories are for.
Nyko has announced that they will soon be offering cases for your DSi which will let you attach an 8x zoom lens. I suppose if you carry your DSi everywhere, and enjoy taking a lot of pictures, this might be worth looking into. Sure, you’ll look like a dork, but at least your snapshots will look a little better. Not to mention the $25 price tag certainly can’t be argued with.
So it turns out that ’speculation’ about a newer, larger screened DSi was bang on, as Nintendo officially announced a new version of their dual-screened console this morning. The DSi LL will be available in Japan on November 21st for about $220, and will later be renamed the DSi XL for the Europe market when it’s available there in Q1 of 2010. As for availability in North America? Currently unknown.
The biggest improvement on the LL/XL is the 4.2 inch screens, a full inch larger than the ones the DSi sports. It’s also claimed to have about 1 to 3 hours more battery life than the DSi depending on screen brightness, but since the new model is considerably larger and about 50% heavier than the DSi, there’s plenty of space for a larger battery. And in addition to the standard DS stylus, the DSi LL/XL also appears to come with a larger “touch pen” that’s 4cm longer and considerably more ergonomic than the built-in one.
Hot on the heels of this new Guitar Hero video game I’ve been hearing about comes this Electronic Rock Guitar shirt from ThinkGeek. Using a special magnetic pick and your fingers, you can actually strum and play the guitar printed on the shirt, almost like the real thing. An included miniature amp clips to your belt and plays back samples of all the major chords recorded from an actual electric guitar, and yes, the volume dial absolutely goes to 11. And with a price tag of just $29.99, you’ve probably just finished half of your Christmas shopping. You’re welcome.
Officially licensed by Sega, the GenMobile is essentially the same idea as the Nomad from years gone by, except smaller thanks to a few generations of technological miniaturization. It natively plays both Genesis and Japanese Mega-Drive carts thanks to a slot in the back, but it also comes with 20 titles built-in including Sonic Spinball, Kid Chameleon, Golden Axe and Ecco Jr. if your collection has already been given away. It’s got a 2.5-inch TFT screen for playing on the go, but an AV out connection as well for connecting it to a TV. And best of all, it’s just $54.99 from Stone Age Gamer, available sometime near the end of the month.
The addition of a touch screen has made the Nintendo DS a very popular console for the homebrew and ‘hacking’ community, and the creators of the DS brut have made things even easier for would be tinkerers with their DS Bluetooth Adapter. The Slot-1 compatible cart allows the DS to communicate with other devices like GPS receivers, expanding its capabilities, and its hardware schematics and software library is all open source if you’d like to build your own. (I’m pretty sure pre-assembled units are not actually available for sale.)
Almost two years in the making, we’re happy to finally release our DS Bluetooth adapter. The tiny Slot-1 cartridge allows you to hook up the Nintendo DS wirelessly with other devices such as GPS-receivers, robots and so forth. Today we’re making all materials of the project openly available, including the schematics and a GPL-licensed software library for the Nintendo DS, because we believe in open hardware design and want to encourage collaboration in the hardware hacking community.
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