When you’re a geek, you tend to be creative about the things you do. You like to pay homage to the nostalgic geekdom of your youth when you can. Take this awesome NES controller hack. Sure, we’ve all seen someone put a flash drive into a game controller, but this guy takes it to a whole new level. After all, what’s more nostalgic than the Konami Code?
Unlike ordinary flash drives, when you plug this one in, it won’t actually show up on your computer. That’s because the flash drive won’t actually get power until you enter the correct sequence of buttons on the controller. If you don’t know what that sequence is, then don’t even bother watching the video above. This hack is definitely one of the harder ones out there, but totally worth it.
You can brag about your karaoke skills all you want, but if you want to prove you’ve got the chops when it comes to singing along with a bouncing ball you’ll need to take this karaoke machine for a spin. You see the microphone detects the pitch of each note you sing and compares it against how it’s supposed to sound, and the closer you are, the higher your score will be.
The Scoring Karaoke Game comes with 100 songs from the likes of Elvis, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra, but new songs can be downloaded and transferred to the base unit either via USB or its SD card slot. And while that base unit gets tethered to your TV with an included AV cable, the microphone is wireless, freeing you up to dance around and look as terrible as you sound. $199.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.
I don’t know about you, but anytime I’ve played foosball I’m surprised the plastic balls don’t shatter given how much force they bang around the table with. So using gumballs instead just doesn’t seem like a fantastic idea. But that’s exactly what this Gumball Foosball table does, with a dispenser at each end that come filled with about 1,700 gumballs which are released one at a time and used as the game ball. Obviously the only way to claim your treat is to score on your opponent, or you can just keep one end of the table propped up with a phonebook for when you don’t feel like playing. Get it from Hammacher Schlemmer for a whopping $1,500.
Yep, another one to add to the ridiculous Wii accessories list. This time it’s a 1:1 scale Heckler & Kock MP5 that Pocket-lint spotted at a trade show in Hong Kong. The controller was made by a Chinese company, and instead of having to find a place to stick your Wiimote and Nunchuck, the machine gun contains all of that functionality, as well as MotionPlus and a rechargeable battery, built-in. There’s no word on pricing or availability just yet, but the version pictured above with the orange tip was supposedly created for the US market so it wouldn’t look real or anything.
Very few words can make me shudder as much as the term ‘upscaling’ but that’s exactly what the LKV8000 Converter from Lenkeng promises to do for your PSP. Not only does it convert the PSP’s component video and L/R audio out to HDMI, which admittedly is convenient, but it also upscales its 480P signal to 720P using “Motion Compensated 3D Wavelet Video Coding Technology” which supposedly results in jitterless video without trailing. There’s no pricing info at this time, but since Lenkeng doesn’t sell directly to end-users you won’t be able to buy one anyways until someone decides to distribute it.
Sharp has just launched their EL-T100W calculator which they refer to as the ‘Brain Trainer’ since it includes “fun” drills and quizzes that are designed to measure your brain age just like the games available for the Nintendo DS do. As a calculator the EL-T100W is pretty basic though, with a simple 10-digit LCD display and a basic numeric keypad, but that’s probably why it has a price tag of just over $21. And while it’s not specified in the press release, I have to wonder if the calculator can be used to cheat on those brain measuring math quizzes…
I’ve still got a collection of my favorite NES games sitting in my closet, just begging to be used creatively. My old NES died long ago and I have emulators to satisfy my classic gaming habits, so I don’t really have a need for them. I’ve wanted to find something really cool to do with some of them, and I think I’ve found a project that will make use of at least one.
A crafty modder named airz managed to cram a working NES (emulator, not the real deal of course) and a 2.8-inch LCD inside a single cartridge. Now he can play just about any classic NES game by just grabbing his old Mario Bros./Duck Hunt game. It can do a few other things like play MP3s and whatnot, thanks to the PMP he used for the emulator. I’ve seen other similar mods, Such as the one by ‘darkeru‘ (this mod was inspired by his work) but this one is the best I’ve seen thus far.
The Wii has always secretly been a game console that likes for you to get off your lazy ass and exercise. Sure, you can get away with just sitting on your couch wagging the Wiimote, but it takes away half the fun. Well now there’s a new accessory that aims to keep you sitting down and exercising at the same time. Yes, I’m talking about a bike.
The Cyberbike is a full-size stationary bike for your Wii. It comes bundled with some cheesy game that lets you save the world by mopping up pollution with your bike. Apparently it works with Mario Kart Wii though, so that would make it a little more interesting. Though I doubt the pedals come into play much in that game. Look for this to be out in Europe starting January of next year. No word on pricing or a US launch.
What started out as a boring Power Wheels 2001 G3740 Street Scene Silverado has ended up as an awesome miniature version of the Warthog from the Halo games, complete with a chain winch on the front and of course the triple-barreled machine gun mounted on the back. Surprisingly though it wasn’t created by Master Chief for his little Spartans, but by a modder known as flux83 who posted a ‘making of’ to the Modified Power Wheels forum.
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