Posts Tagged ‘toys and games’
Exclusive Gallery: 1983 Nintendo Family Computer Teardown
Author: Mark Jeffries
Over in Japan, the NES was called the Nintendo Famicom, or Family Computer. Like the SNES, or Super Famicom that followed it, the original Famicom — launched in 1983 — looked a lot different than the one that was sold in the rest of the world.
In this exclusive gallery, shot in exquisite detail by the folks at iFixit, we take a look inside the spiritual home of Mario, part of a series showing off iFixit’s new set of console repair guides.
Originally, the Famicom was white. This aging specimen, picked up by iFixit boss Kyle Wiens, is a rather more dis-colored beige. The hideous burgundy details are pretty close to the original, though.
Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) Teardown [iFixit. Thanks, Kyle!]
Captions by Charlie Sorrel and Kyle Wiens
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Exclusive Gallery: 1983 Nintendo Family Computer Teardown
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Loopy Art-Trike Bends the Mind
Author: Jade Kim
This trike would fit right into a remake of The Shining, only instead of being ridden by the bowl-haired Danny Torrance, it would be piloted by a stretched, nightmarish cross between a creepy child and a psychedelic, broken-backed dachshund. The movie would, of course, be directed by Terry Gilliam.
The tricycle is in fact a sculpture by Dallas, Texas-based artist Sergio Garcia, and would likely be no less useful than a normal bike in that big, car-friendly state. The 50-inch-high piece is titled “Its not always easy to tell whats real and whats fabricated” and could probably be ridden if you sat backwards and didn’t mind people staring, pointing and murmuring “Red rum, red rum” over and over.
I wonder if Garcia would be interested in a commission. I snapped the frame of my bike at last weekend’s Bike Bolo World Championship in Berlin. I imagine fixing it up with a vertical version of Garcia’s looping tube, arranged around me like a big, skinny steel forcefield stopping any other player for getting near the ball.
Trike Sculpture [Sergio Garcia via the Giz]
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Loopy Art-Trike Bends the Mind
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Tags: Air, art, bike-at-last, dallas, LED, looping-tube, Ski, skinny-steel, texas-based, toys and games, trike-sculpture | 
No Comments »Loopy Art-Trike Bends the Mind
Author: Tech Blogger
This trike would fit right into a remake of The Shining, only instead of being ridden by the bowl-haired Danny Torrance, it would be piloted by a stretched, nightmarish cross between a creepy child and a psychedelic, broken-backed dachshund. The movie would, of course, be directed by Terry Gilliam.
The tricycle is in fact a sculpture by Dallas, Texas-based artist Sergio Garcia, and would likely be no less useful than a normal bike in that big, car-friendly state. The 50-inch-high piece is titled “Its not always easy to tell whats real and whats fabricated” and could probably be ridden if you sat backwards and didn’t mind people staring, pointing and murmuring “Red rum, red rum” over and over.
I wonder if Garcia would be interested in a commission. I snapped the frame of my bike at last weekend’s Bike Bolo World Championship in Berlin. I imagine fixing it up with a vertical version of Garcia’s looping tube, arranged around me like a big, skinny steel forcefield stopping any other player for getting near the ball.
Trike Sculpture [Sergio Garcia via the Giz]
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Loopy Art-Trike Bends the Mind
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Tank-Tracked Skateboard is ‘Not Dorky’
Author: Sriram Reddy
From the childhood moment when a cop told us kids to take our skateboards and “play on the grass”, I have wondered just what kind of skateboard could ever actually do that. There have been big-wheeled answers over the years, but none so gloriously ridiculous as Bryson Lovett’s Vertrax Skateboard concept.
At its heart, the Vertrax is a two-wheeled platform on which it looks almost impossible to balance. It’s like trying to stand on on single in-line skate, only with both feet. From there, things go downhill fast (presumably literally). A tank-style track loops around the wheels. This is meant to make traveling over rough terrain a little easier, but would do little more than get jammed with twigs and grass within seconds.
There are other oddities, too: Why put a tiny wheel-on-a-stick between board and track to stop the mechanism from jamming when a big rollerblade-wheel would be better and tougher? Still, we like the product-pitch for this powered skateboard. Lovett bills it as “not awkward or dorky-looking [like a] Segway.” So true.
Vertrax Skateboard [Coroflot via Oh Gizmo!]
See Also:
- Folding Skateboard Concept Looks Ready to Break
- Rocket Board: The Propellor-Powered Skateboard
- Gas-Powered Skates Seized By European Customs
- Double Jeopardy: Home Made Powerskates
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Tank-Tracked Skateboard is ‘Not Dorky’
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Wii Sells 30 Million in U.S., Signals the End of the Geek
Author: Tyler Evans
In a sign that computer geeks no longer rule the Earth, Nintendo’s Wii, the console that it couldn’t even keep in stores for most of its life, has sold 30 million units. Still not impressed? That figure is for the U.S. only. Worldwide sales to the end of March this year were 71 million.
The Wii is 45 months, or almost four years, old, making it the fastest-selling console of all time, and something of a money-spinner for Nintendo.
But why? Why has the Wii sold so much better than the objectively more powerful, “serious” consoles from Sony and Microsoft? Because it appeals to the mainstream market. Us geeks are no longer the target customer of tech companies. Normal, non-nerds are buying more gadgets than we ever can, and it is changing the kind of gadgets that are being made.
The Wii’s appeal is obvious. It has that neat controller than anyone can pick up and use, and it was marketed from the start to parents, kids and people who don’t play videogames. It doesn’t hurt that Nintendo itself has consistently been the best first-party games-designer since Jumpman first kicked Donkey Kong’s ass, avoiding games that appeal only to the teenage boy.
We can see the shift elsewhere. Take Apple, for instance: Despite what whining, protesting nerds might think, Apple doesn’t care about us anymore. If you know what a file-system is, or care what interface your peripherals use to hook up to your machine, the iPad isn’t for you. It’s for people who don’t use or like “computers,” just like the Wii is for people who don’t play “videogames”.
It’s great that nerds like me and (some of) you also love the simplicity and reliability of the iPad, but we don’t matter either. We’re mere tinder to the market: As we show our new toys to our family and friends, we will light the fire of the real tablet market, which will surely grow much bigger than the “real computer” market just as the Wii has continually outsold the “real” consoles.
Expect this trend to continue. Enjoy the last few years of being a geek as our interests become the norm. Look at the bike for an example. Thrill-seeking cyclists used to be club-joining enthusiasts in spandex. Now, the bike is just another way of getting around. Even fixed-gear bikes, once the preserve of racers and bike messengers, have become so commonplace that you can buy them in Wal-Mart.
Read more about the games that made the Wii the fastest-selling console over at our sister blog, Game|Life.
Nintendo Wii Sales Reach 30 Million In U.S. [Information Week]
Photo: Shayne Kaye/Flickr
See Also:
- Wii Are the Champions
- December NPD: The Nintendo That Stole Christmas
- Wii Sells 30M in U.S., Nintendo Reveals Best-Selling Games …
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Wii Sells 30 Million in U.S., Signals the End of the Geek
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Tags: ATT, champions, enjoy-the-last, Money, Nintendo, sister, Sony, stole-christmas, toys and games, Wii |
No Comments »Video: Rolling Robot Ball Controlled by Android Phone
Author: Troy Barnes
This amazing robotic ball is called the Smart Ball. Built into a small plastic sphere, the robot inside is controlled via your Bluetooth cellphone (Android only right now, but any phone could do it) and rolls in the direction you tell it. The control interface is the phone itself: You tilt it and the accelerometers pass on the info to the ball, controlling speed and directions. Imaging playing Super Monkey Ball in real life and you pretty much have it.
The balls are actually prototypes for a real commercial product, and were made by hacker group Gearbox. The Gearbox folks have already opened up the APIs (the parts that let programmers create apps to control the balls) and have been running hack weekends where people can come along and try them out.
Controlling a ball’s roll is pretty cool, but other uses are even cooler. For instance, one commenter suggests having a GPS app control the Smart Ball: input your destination and the ball would roll away, guiding you to your goal like a benign willow-the-wisp.
The Gearbox people are aiming for a price of around $25, and already have games planned or written. Sumo, for instance pits one ball against the other, with two people trying to knock each others’ ball off a table. The phone would keep track of things and offer stats and league tables. Neat.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the Gearbox blog to see when these are available to buy.
Smart Ball [Gearbox via Make]
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Video: Rolling Robot Ball Controlled by Android Phone
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Roboscooper: Like Wall-E Without the Charm
Author: Jon Daniels
Roboscooper: a cute little toy or an exercise in excruciating frustration? You decide. The six-wheeled robot is like a cross between Wall-E and the 1980s “favorite” Big Trak. In fact, the product page even bills it as “WowWee’s answer to Wall-E” (WowWee is the manufacturer). Unlike Wall-E, this ‘bot looks like it would have trouble lifting anything weighing more than an empty potato-chip packet. Which brings us to the frustration.
You can control Roboscooper by remote or leave it in “autonomous” mode, whereupon it will scoop up anything it encounters, dumping it into the tiny flatbed at back. If the Roboscooper actually had a scoop, it would probably manage this ok. But those hands look to be as slippery and grip-free as the claw in an arcade toy-grabbing machine, and as pathetic as my sleep-weakened fingers as I reach from the bed and try to lift the bourbon bottle to my lips for my first “helper” of the day. In short, the Roboscooper looks like it will scoop precisely nothing. Or at least, nothing heavier than one ounce, the weight limit for those little arms.
It does have one feature that Wall-E doesn’t. It can talk, offering such trite and annoying phrases as “Let’s get to work!” and “One step closer to a cleaner world.” Ugh.
So, it might not replace your Roomba, but then it comes at a decidedly un-Roomba price: $70, and ready for pre-order now, should there be a kid in your life that you hate enough to give them this as a gift.
Roboscooper [Robots Rule. Thanks, Robert!]
See Also:
- Bigtrak is Back! 80s Robo-Toy Resurrected
- Urban Roverbot Goes Where the Roomba Can't
- iRobot Roomba Pet Series 562
- Paging Wall-E: Air Force Wants Robo-Cargo to Load Itself
- Hobbyists Rebuild Wall-E, One PVC Pipe at a Time
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
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Roboscooper: Like Wall-E Without the Charm
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Model-Kit Business-Card Transforms into Plane, Car, Boat
Author: Trixi Anderson
If you worked at Tamiya, the Japanese model-kit company, you’d have the chance to hand out the coolest business-card ever made. At first glance the letters on the “card” look like a stencil cut into plastic. Peek a little closer and you see that it is itself a tiny model kit.
Break the letters from their surrounding frame and then snap them together. Depending on which card you have, you’ll end up with a Formula One car, a warship or a fighter-plane. According to the Coloribus advertising archive, the cards proved so popular that they had people “rushing to the shops” to ask for them.
The downside? Once the recipient has ripped your card apart to make a model, he no longer has your contact details. Oops.
Model Kits Shop: Tamiya Business Card [Coloribus via the Giz]
See Also:
- Augmented Reality Business Cards: WoW For Suits?
- Ingenious Cord-Winder Fashioned From Business Card
- Salaryman Watch: NES Controller Business Card Holder
- Lock Pick Business Card
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
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Model-Kit Business-Card Transforms into Plane, Car, Boat
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Video: Getting Up, Down, And Side-to-Side With Microsoft’s Kinect
Author: Buck Howard
We recently got some hands on time playing Microsoft’s new motion based Kinect at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Just as Chris Kohler reported over at Game|Life, the interface definitely gets you off the couch causes some copious perspiration. And, yes it’s much like the Wii; your butt is no longer anchored to the futon and you’re actively engaging with your video games. But the lack of any sort of physical controller is extremely odd. (Your body is scanned and tracked as your avatar mimics the movements you make in meatspace.) The self-conscious weirdness of reaching out into the air and gripping a non-existent steering wheel is something I’m not sure folks who spent the better parts of their childhoods gripping a Nintendo controller will readily take to.
And that’s a serious question that Kinect raises: is this active way of interacting with your video games sustainable? The fact that Wii Fit has sold over 22 million copies might seem to be a resounding “yes” but I’m not sure if it’s something that will translate over to games where you’re racing cars or blowing aliens up. Will you want to come home after working for eight hours, fire up Kinect and traipse around Reach, looking for the Covenant? Or would you rather gun down some Elites from the comfort of your couch? Unless it meant exercising Force powers, I think I’d rather have some sofa time.
After playing Kinect Joy Ride and Kinectimals for the better part of a half hour, I was a tad tired physically, but mentally wiped out. At the end of the day I’m not entirely sure if people will want to shell out $60 for a game that demands so much active participation. I can see Kinect becoming a fun little silo of games you play at parties on multiplayer mode. But for solo campaigns, I seriously doubt gamers will be able to maintain steady interest.
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Video: Getting Up, Down, And Side-to-Side With Microsoft’s Kinect
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Tags: Air, cars-or-blowing, covenant, FESTIVAL, kinect. xbox 360, Microsoft, Nintendo, toys and games, Video |
No Comments »Three-In-One Retro-Console Uses Original Game-Controllers
Author: Anthony Kristo
The RetroN 3 Video Gaming System is a piece of hardware that gets almost everything right. The red (or black, thankfully) box houses chips capable of playing any NES, SNES or Genesis (Megadrive) games you may still have lying around. Simply slot the cart into the correct top-hole and you can play anything from Streets of Rage through Super Mario Anything to, erm, Top Gun: The Second Mission.
Output is via S-video or composite AV, and input is via a pair of wireless game-pads. But here’s the clincher, the feature that makes this probably the greatest retro-gaming rig we’ve seen: You don’t have to use the supplied controllers. The box has six extra sockets so you can hook up two each of your original joypads for all three consoles.
The box is quite reasonably priced, too, considering the amount of kit that you get, at just $70. Sure, it doesn’t have the old-school, chunky plastic good-looks of the originals, but so what? It’s retro-gaming heaven.
RetroN 3 Video Gaming System [Hyperkin via Oh Gizmo!]
See Also:
- Video: SNES for iPad, Controlled by iPhone
- Wiimote-Controlled SNES Emulator on iPad
- Flash-Cart Lets You Play SNES ROMs on Original Console
- Awesomeness
- The a320 Handheld Emulator is a Pocketful of Gaming History …
- Portable Megadrive/Genesis Puts Sega In Your Pocket
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Three-In-One Retro-Console Uses Original Game-Controllers
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Tags: Air, awesomeness, correct, Gaming, gaming-history, genesis-puts, greatest, iPhone, LED, NES, Retro, second-mission, supplied, toys and games, Video |
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