Igor Chak’s Donkey Kong wall shelf is one of the best game-themed furniture I’ve ever come across, but I bet it will be very expensive if it ever becomes a real product. If you’re as strapped for coins as I am, don’t worry. You can still have the barrels stage on your wall thanks to Nintendo and Blik.
You can order the wall decal from Blik’s website for $65 (USD). They’re not that cheap either, but at least they’re officially licensed and reusable.
[via ThisIsWhyImBroke]
If there’s two things in life I love, it’s video games and cookies. I mean, what’s not to like? Apparently, the guys over at Parchment Cookies have the same mentality, and have baked up some epic video game-inspired cookies for us to admire (and eat if we could afford them.)
These incredibly-detailed cookies are based on classic arcade and console games ranging from Galaga, to Duck Hunt, to Donkey Kong, and look great. The level of detail in the icing is spectacular, and really captures the original games in cookie form. I think my favorite set has to be the Burgertime cookies, since they’re food that depicts a video game, depicting other food – including walking hot dog and a ladder-climbing egg.
A dozen of these handmade video game cookies will set you back $54(USD), which works out to be $4.50 per cookie. I know a lot of love and labor must go into each of these, so they’re worth it. I just don’t know if I could bring myself to eat them or if I’d just frame them and hang them on the wall. Ok, I’d eat them – all in one sitting.
Looking for a way to keep cosy as the temperature starts to drop? Well snuggle up in front of your gaming system and bust out some classic games with one of these awesome video game inspired blankets or throws to keep you toasty.
They’re handmade by artist Ana Petree Garcia of iamduckydale, and feature scenes from classic arcade and console games from the 8-bit era. Each one is very well detailed, and every pixel you saw on screen appears in the acrylic yarn patterns you see here. My personal favorite is the Donkey Kong blanket, but her Space Invaders, Pac-Man/Ms.Pac-Man and Mario/Peach designs are also pretty great.
Each piece is made-to-order so can take up to a month for the throws and up to two months for the blankets to be completed. Prices range from $120 to $260(USD), and you can find them all over at iamduckydale’s Etsy shop.
Do you remember how you spent hours trying to avoid barrels in Donkey Kong? Well, this classic platformer has gotten a revamp, nay, it has been transferred over into real life thanks to the efforts of avid DIY enthusiast Martin Raynsford, where this physical representation of a Donkey Kong level relies on an Arduino that will relay signals from the NES controller to the Donkey Kong “screen”. Constructed with near pixel-perfect accuracy thanks to the wonders of laser-cut parts, it is a beauty to behold albeit being rather limited at this point in time.
You will not be able to rack up high scores or anything of that sort since Mario remains smack in the middle, where he is there to face a continuous barrage of barrels and ball bearings to jump over. Torture for the rotund Italian plumber, that’s for sure, while his brother Luigi and Bowser shack it up with Princess Peach, taking turns between themselves. Martin claims that there is a second version in the works, and we certainly hope Mario will have some off time to live out his love life then, too.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Project Sausage Drone parachutes sausages safely, LEGO Go-Kart for humans and not minifigs,
We’ve featured some mechanical versions of arcade games in the past, but I think this is my new favorite. That’s because this real-world version of Donkey Kong is actually controlled by an NES gamepad. That just makes it that much more awesome.
Builder Martin Raynsford built this Arduino-controlled analog version of the arcade classic using a bunch of laser-cut wood parts, and a mechanism that fires a barrage of ball bearings down the ramps in lieu of tiny flaming barrels. And since the balls are magnetic, they stop Jumpman in his tracks if he fails to jump over them.
As you can see in the video clip below, the game is still a work-in-progress, as Jumpman is just hanging out in the middle of the game field and can’t really move around yet. But Raynford’s goal is to make the game fully-functional with time, and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product, which he plans on showing off at next year’s UK Maker Faire. I’m curious to know how he’ll pull off the barrel-smashing sledgehammer.
You can check out more details of the build and mechanism over on Martin’s blog.
We’ve seen quite a few NES mods in our day, but we can’t say we’ve ever seen one hooked up to anything quite like this. Built by DIY-er Martin Raynsford, this contraption / work-of-art makes use of an Arduino (naturally) to relay signals from the NES controller to the Donkey Kong screen brought to life above, which was constructed with near pixel-perfect accuracy out of laser-cut parts. As Raynsford points out, though, things are still a bit limited in the game’s V1 state. There isn’t much of an actual “game,” for starters — just Mario stuck in the middle with a never-ending loop of barrels / ball bearings that you can jump over. A second version is planned with a greater degree of control, but we’re guessing the video for it won’t be quite as hypnotic as the one after the break.
Continue reading Mechanical Donkey Kong game tests your barrel-jumping skills, patience
Filed under: Misc, Gaming, Alt
Mechanical Donkey Kong game tests your barrel-jumping skills, patience originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
After invading living rooms with his Space Invaders couch (which btw are now for sale), Igor Chak imagines the king of shelves, patterned after one of the most famous videogame stages ever made: the construction site aka Barrels stage from the legendary 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong.
The concept took shape when Chak imagined where the props in games are taken after they’ve served their purpose. He thought of a way to “encourage Mario” – who has since moved on to pipes and bricks – to take back these old steel beams and ladders. I’m not sure if Mario owns the construction site, but I’m sure both he and Donkey Kong would love to have this shelf in their cribs. After all, they owe a lot to this pixelated scene.
Insert a token in your browser and jump to Chak’s website for gorilla-sized versions of the images. I sense a trend of platformer-inspired shelves incoming.
[via HiConsumption]
If when you close your eyes each night in bed you see visions of pixelated arcade apes performing game-like quests, you can be sure you are a true gamer at heart. And now that we’ve cleared that up, you might as well embrace it, and indulge yourself with a little Donkey Kong-inspired interior decor. More »
Say the words Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Centipede, Galaga or Joust, and you’ve just named some of my all-time favorite arcade games. So when I stumbled onto these unusual variants of these 1980s classics, I was at once befuddled and at the same time intrigued.
These mash-up prints were created by 9times1minus1 (also known as “eight”) over on Etsy, and they envision the characters from iconic arcade games invading other games. So for instance, there’s Donkey Dug, which puts Pooka, Fygar and Dig Dug on Donkey Kong’s girders.
Then, there’s Joust Bros., which is the perfect synthesis of Joust and Mario Bros. I always thought those levels looked similar, and flinging turtles into the lava pit below makes just about as much sense as ostriches anyhow.
Other mashups include Donkey Burger (DK x BurgerTime), and the oddly named, but somehow appealing Ms. Paciaga (Ms. Pac-Man x Galaga).
While I’m not sure that I would have wanted to play all of these games, I have to say that some of them look like they would have worked just fine as 9times1minus1 envisions them. When you really think about it, did the plots and characters in any 1980s video game really make that much sense? Why couldn’t Jumpman have been a chef on a quest to make the perfect hamburger? I would have ponied up a quarter to try my hand at that.
If you’d like to line your walls with these unusual video games, they’re available for $25(USD) each as 16×20 digital prints over on Etsy.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
