Hasta La Gadget!

Band of Outsiders released a line of Atari-themed apparel this Holiday season. The clothes might as well be adorned with pixel art or random colored blocks to younger gamers, but their dads and moms see cowboys, aliens and car chases there. Unless you look at the Super Breakout sweater, in which case what you see is what you get: a paddle, a ball and a wall.

I chose to feature this sweater not just because I think it looks great but also because it’s not just for Atari or Super Breakout fans. It’s for both Apple fans and haters too. The game you see here wouldn’t exist without Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the same people that led to the iPhone and iPads, which are now home to bite-sized arcade style games in the vein of Super Breakout. If you already know that trivia then this sweater also serves as a reminder of Steve Wozniak’s talent and Steve Jobs’ business acumen, i.e. ruthlessness.

The sweater even has an Apple-like price tag: Band of Outsiders is selling it for $395 (USD). You could do worse: the Super Breakout beanie costs an insane $175.

[via Albotas]

Looking back at the Atari 2600, it really wasn’t very good until Activision came along and raised the bar for graphics and sound for the early 8-bit console. To commemorate these classic games, Chicago Toy Collector Dan Polydoris created this nifty set of custom action figures.

The set of five action figures got their start as various G.I. Joe characters, but they’re now sporting that perfect Activision 8-bit look. While Pitfall Harry is surely the most recognizable of the bunch, the other games were all pretty solid too – especially H.E.R.O. – though I never knew its protagonist’s name was Roderick.

Awesome job, Dan. These are all quite special. I only wish you would make a little burglar dude for Kaboom!

[via it8bit]

The once great console maker Atari has been reduced to a mere pixel of itself these days. While Sony and Microsoft are gearing up for a new console war, Atari is left catering to old school gamers with keychain consoles. Adam of SheekGeek made a display that matches both the figurative and literal size of Atari’s game system. It’s so small that you can barely see what’s on screen.

Yep, that’s the display, which is a module from an old Sony Handycam, next to a U.S. postage stamp. It’s so small that Adam has to use a macro lens on his camera so he can demonstrate it on video.

Now that’s what I call a counterintuitive Retina Display. Head to SheekGeek for the full details of his hack.

[via Hack A Day]

Your Christmas tree says as much about you as it does your love for the holidays. So this year why not skip the traditional ornaments like glass bulbs and shiny stars and go for something that will bring real character to your tree? If you’ve been a gamer for as long as you can remember, ThinkGeek’s got a $20 set of classic controller ornaments that pays tribute to the game consoles you probably received as gifts during Christmases gone by.

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The Internet Archive this weekend released a new addition to its growing collection of historical media, the Historical Software Collection. The collection lets you run old, outdated, and historically important software right inside the modern browser. This marks the first time a project of this kind has been taken on to such a large extent, […]