Hasta La Gadget!

Sure, you’ve played Super Mario Bros. with your friends, but I bet you have never played it with 974 people at once. Well, that happened. At the 2013 Gamescom in Germany, Stabyourself.net recorded 974 people playing their custom Super Mario Bros. time trial. After collecting all 974 playthroughs, they merged them into a single amazing video.

At times it looks like a snake slithering through the level as all of these players race toward the end, running, jumping, and trying to survive. You might notice some frozen Marios too. That is because there was a three second penalty for dying.

The best time was 41.32 seconds. It really is mesmerizing to watch. It’s like the Borg suddenly discovered the NES and played it collectively.

[via Motherboard via Laughing Squid]

You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

There was a time when gearing up to go back to school meant little more than picking up a new backpack, some clothes and the latest HP calculator. Those days, of course, are long gone, and even fifth-graders can expect to start the school year with a new smartphone and laptop.

In this issue of Distro, Engadget’s annual back to school guide presents our latest recommendations for everything from tablets to TVs to gaming gear. And if you’re a US resident over 18 (sorry fifth-graders), there’s still time to enter our Back to School sweepstakes, where we’re giving away tons of great gadgets, including laptops, e-readers and smartphones.

Filed under: Misc

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The launch of a new game console is a fairly unique event in this industry. Unlike a smartphone or tablet, you don’t see a new one released every year, or even every five years, and you likely don’t have to worry about it feeling outdated a few months after you buy one. This year, we’re getting two, with Microsoft and Sony jockeying for position to be the choice of gamers this holiday season. We saw that sparring at E3 earlier this summer, and it was again on display at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, where Sony made news with a release date for the PlayStation 4, among other things.

We didn’t get a date for the Xbox One from Microsoft, but the company did have plenty of other things to announce and show off. Read on for a recap — or a refresher, as the case may be.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One may be the big next-gen stars at this year’s Gamescom, but Oculus Rift is here as well, continuing to draw our adoration with news of a developer portal called Share. The portal facilitates easy distribution and cataloging of apps for current Oculus Rift dev kits, essentially centralizing the software world of the Rift in one convenient place. Company co-founder and Rift creator Palmer Luckey told us during GDC Europe this week that Share is just the tip of the iceberg — a precursor to the future consumer portal of VR applications that’ll exist alongside the eventual consumer model of the VR headset.

He and product VP Nate Mitchell sat down with us for a candid interview, touching on everything from the future of Share, to VR as a platform (and the challenges therein), to why mobile is the next space to watch for virtual reality (seriously!). Head past the break for the full video…and for a peek into the future of gaming’s most innovative product in, well, maybe ever?

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD

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