One of the best things about Pokémon X & Y are the 3D models of the creatures. However the models are not to scale, despite the Pokédex clearly stating the height and weight of most Pokémon. Why? Because the disparity between their sizes is so severe. If they were made to scale, either some Pokémon would be practically invisible or, well, Wailord:
That image is the latest version of deviantART member DOTBstudios’ Pokémon size comparison poster. It contains all known Pokémon so far – including their Mega Evolutions if any – but it still has a number of mistakes. DOTBstudios will release a high resolution version of the image as well as sell a print of the poster as soon as he irons the errors out.
deviantART member Brianna Garcia made these Cretacious ponies. Despite their sharp teeth and large claws, they still look sweet and friendly. Especially when you compare them to the Cthulhu ponies.
Pinkie Pie looks pumped up. Or hungry. You can buy Brianna’s illustrations as prints or as graphics on various merchandise on Society6.
This is the tale of faceless translators who, on the verge of despair, changed history. Last Christmas a group of fans released an unofficial English language patch for the PSP game Valkyria Chronicles 3: Unrecorded Chronicles, a critically acclaimed tactical RPG that’s only available from Japanese stores. Unfortunately, the patch requires a jailbroken PSP to play, and there’s a bit of software hacking involved to patch a copy of the game.
The video below shows an early version of the patch applied to the game. Naturally, it contains a fair amount of spoilers:
You can download the patch from the Valkyria Chronicles 3 Translation Project website. The instructions for patching are also outlined on the download page. Obviously you need a copy of the game as well, either a UMD or a digital copy from the Japanese PSN store. See this SEGA? The hard work’s already done. The ragnite’s on your court. Seriously I’d love to see a Valkyria Chronicles trilogy bundle for the Vita and the PSP.
If the citizens of Sinnoh ever decide to renovate the Spear Pillar and give it a roof, they should reserve a place for Threadless member Matté Teja’s Pokreation on its ceiling.
Ash, I commandeth thee to catch ‘em all.
Create a browser in your own image, then order the t-shirt from Threadless for $20 (USD).
A few months ago Google rolled out its Street View of some of the facilities at the world famous physics mecca, the European Organization for Nuclear Research aka CERN. The organization decided to have a bit of fun with the virtual tour and set up a scavenger hunt that anyone can join, even CERN employees. It’s basically LEGO Google Street View: the Game.
Right now there are more than 20 LEGO figurines hidden on the two floors of CERN’s Computing Centre. To enter, just go to the CERN Google Street View and find at least three figurines. Be sure to take a screenshot each time you find a figurine. If you can’t see the gorilla minifig in the image above, you probably won’t fare well in the hunt. I’ve found all of them. Okay I’ve only found some of them. Okay just one. Okay I didn’t exactly find the gorilla. CERN gave that one away.
When you’ve found at least three figurines, send your screenshots to TreasureHunt-ComputingCentre@cern.ch. CERN will randomly draw two winners from the valid submissions: one from CERN and one lesser mortal, i.e. the rest of us. The deadline for submission will be on January 31, 2014. Happy hunting!
Bandai recently started a line of smartphone cases called Crazy Case, and they’re backing up their words with action. As you can see in Drool’d’s shot, the first Crazy Case is a Tumbler Batmobile toy car that happens to have a gap at the bottom big enough for an iPhone 5 or 5S to fit in.
The officially licensed case has several LEDs, including a mobile Batsignal. Its front wheels slide to the side to give way to the iPhone’s camera and sleep button. It also looks absolutely juvenile. I want one.
You can order the case from Bandai for about $57 (USD). It originally appeared on the Japanese Premium Bandai shop, but that site seems to be down as of this writing. You can check it out at Bandai’s Hong Kong shop too.
A couple of months ago we found out how Redditor dekuNukem hacked his Nintendo 3DS to automatically hunt for shiny Pokémon in Pokémon X/Y. It turns out he built on that hack and drastically improved it. His new hack, which he calls Poké-O-Matic, not only hunts for shiny Pokémon, it also hatches eggs and does all the other time-consuming tasks associated with hatching.
The Poké-O-Matic is powered by two microcontrollers an Arduino Micro and a Teensy 3.0. dekuNukem switches between his hack’s functions with a push of a button.
As I mentioned, Poké-O-Matic can hatch eggs on its own. That includes biking back and forth to pass the time until his Pokémon at the Day Care Center produce an egg, then retrieving said egg, then walking back and forth until said egg hatches. Then Poké-O-Matic deposits the hatched monster into his PC and repeats the cycle. It can even release Pokémon if his deposit boxes become full.
As before, dekuNukem’s hack can also catch shiny on the field by entering battles repeatedly. It can do so on water…
…on land…
…and even against hordes by using the Sweet Scent skill.
So far so good for the lazy gamer, right? But dekuNukem’s Poké-O-Matic has one more ability, one that is straight up cheating. It takes advantage of the trading glitch in the game to clone Pokémon. It doesn’t work all the time, but dekuNukem himself seems to regret putting this mode. It’s bar none the quickest way to get a shiny, and therefore ruins the monsters’ value.
With all three methods – endless hatching, brute force catching and cloning – it’s no surprise that dekuNukem now has a ton of shiny Pokémon.
Watch his video for the full details and demo. Be sure to turn annotations on so you can read dekuNukem’s explanation.
You can download the Poké-O-Matic program from dekuNukem’s Dropbox, but he recommends that you streamline it further as it’s a mess as-is. As for the merit of this hack, I think this will only cheapen shinies for anyone who uses the hack. As with many things, if you’re not the one who earned it, you probably won’t appreciate its value. But I still admire dekuNukem’s skill and ingenuity for building Poké-O-Matic. The man practically invented a gamer, albeit one that’s a cold-blooded cheater.
John Baichtal of MAKE Magazine shared a hidden gem in Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons website. It turns out writer and illustrator Jason Thompson has been making comic strips of epic proportions for the D&D website. The strips take the form of huge maps based on D&D modules, i.e. booklets that outline preset adventures. Jason annotates the maps with the humorous experiences of a theoretical band of adventurers.
Jason’s drawings are relatively simple, but it’s his writing that makes the maps shine, from mild jokes about traps – “Assassin sticks hand into demon’s mouth to get gem, loses two ring slots” – to terrible player choices – “Leaving the Dining Room, party is attacked by 8 Gargoyle Statues… Shugenja returns to entryway to get his sandals, and is attacked by 4 Dragon Statues” – and even breaks the fourth wall at times – “Cleric of Pholtus and Cleric of Trithereon get in long loud argument about appropriate coverage in women’s armor.”
I’m sure the people who’ve played through or are playing through these adventures will find his annotations even more hilarious. Plus, just look at how out of control the strips can get!
I’d share all of them here, but as you can see that would be doing a great disservice to Jason’s work. I highly recommend that you check out all of them on the Dungeons & Dragons website. Look for the ones with “Walkthrough Map” in the title, except for the latest strip, Ravenloft. If you like Jason’s work check out his other creations, King of RPGs, Manga: The Complete Guide and much, much more.
Here’s one of the latest offerings from one of our favorite geeky jewelers, Paul Michael Bierker. It’s a ring that looks just like Wonder Woman’s tiara. It has five custom cut rubies and can be made from sterling silver, gold, palladium or platinum alloy.
But don’t even think about using it as a tiny boomerang. The cheapest version of the ring costs $595 (USD); the most expensive version is a godlike $12,550. Fly your invisible browser to Paul’s Etsy shop to order the ring.
The six-sided die is one of the most recognizable symbols of gaming and gambling. But as Dr. Matt Fleming states, cubes don’t roll well. You know what does? A dodecahedron. So Matt put the numbers one through six twice on a 12-sided die. Hence the name Doublesix Dice.
Aside from being 12-sided, Doublesix Dice also have the same number of pips printed on opposing sides. Matt says this makes the dice more balanced compared to ordinary six-sided die.
Roll a browser then head to Kickstarter to get Doublesix Dice. A pledge of at least $10 (USD) gets you a pack of 12 dice.
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.
