Hasta La Gadget!

There are thousands of sites that makers can use to sell their costumes, including major ones such as eBay, Etsy and deviantART. But if you want a site that’s focused solely on costumes, check out CosTrader. It’s a new website for people looking to buy or sell costumes, whether brand new or used.

CosTrader allows sellers to put up any number of items to sell at no charge. The site then takes a 3% cut when an item is sold. You need to create an account to buy or sell from the site. It’s a minor inconvenience but I guess it’s to ensure that both buyers and sellers can easily contact and identify each other.

Put on your browser and head to CosTrader to see what’s on display, which is admittedly not much because the site is still young. A market lives and dies by its offerings, so hopefully it attracts quality costume makers.

[via Bleeding Cool]

When I first saw OpenEmu, it was already able to play games from different previous gen systems, but it had this experimental streak to it. Four years later, it has put its wild days behind. The new OpenEmu is a suave and streamlined application that looks and behaves like a native OS X program.

OpenEmu uses open source emulators for the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket, Nintendo DS, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega 32X, Sega Master System, TurboGrafx-16 and the Virtual Boy. The beauty of it is that you don’t have to switch between emulators to play digital copies of games that you legally own (henceforth known as DCOGTYLO). Simply load DCOGTYLO into OpenEmu and it will figure out what emulator each one runs on, similar to how your computer automatically opens your other files in their respective programs (well, most of the time anyway).

Another great feature of OpenEmu is that it downloads game covers for your DCOGTYLO over the Internet, then presents it in interfaces that OS X users will be familiar with, such as Cover Flow. Those two features combine to give you an elegant way to organize and view your DCOGTYLO collection.

But OpenEmu really shines if you take the time to get to know its more technical features. For starters, it supports a wide variety of gamepads, from generic USB controllers to the DualShock 4. It also has a variety of video filters that can make you fell like you’re back in third grade, looking up at a 15″ CRT TV, when you’re actually playing a DCOGTYLO on your MacBook Air. At work. Here’s a great preview of OpenEmu by Lon Seidman:

You can download OpenEmu for free. The emulator’s developers also bundled a pack of homebrew games for those that don’t have a DCOGTYLO to play.

[via OS X Daily]

A couple of years ago the Commodore 64 was reborn with upgraded specs (although the company behind it seems to have folded now). This year it’s the Sinclair ZX Spectrum’s turn to get an update. Actually it’s more of a downgrade. A company called Elite Systems has acquired the right to make officially licensed Bluetooth keyboards that look like the Spectrum. Yep, just a keyboard. Maybe tinkerers can cram a couple of Raspberry Pis in it.

Elite Systems already ported a collection of ZX Spectrum games to iOS, so this keyboard should be the best way to play those games. The image above is not of a mockup, but it’s not a prototype of the Bluetooth keyboard either. That’s an actual Sinclair ZX Spectrum next to an iPad, but Elite Systems says that there’s no better way to visualize what their final product will look like anyway.

The company has set up a Kickstarter for the keyboard, but I’m not going to bother sharing the fundraiser’s video here. Let’s just say they need to hire some PR guys. Pledge at least £50 (~$80 USD) on Kickstarter to get a Bluetooth ZX Spectrum as a reward. Or, head over to eBay UK, where you can pick up an actual ZX Spectrum for about the same price.

The last time we featured console modder Ryan Fitzpatrick aka Platinum Fungi we saw his personal tribute to Mega Man 2. His latest finished project on the other hand is up for grabs. It’s a radical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES.

As with the Mega Man 2 NES, Ryan worked with fellow modder Custom NES Guy on this mod. The star of the project are the cutouts on top of the console, which Ryan painstakingly made by hand. But there are also lots of tiny details to appreciate here, from the great color scheme and paint job to the four bundled controllers, each with an overlay representing a different member of the Turtles.

As I said, Ryan is selling this particular console. It’s going to cost you more than a box of pizza though. As of this writing you have to bid at least $1,275 (USD) on eBay to get a chance at owning the console.

[via Game Informer]

LEGO opened Cuusoo to let fans pitch ideas for play sets. But if you have a 3D printer, you don’t have to wait and beg for a minifig of your favorite character. Just do what Michael “Skimbal” Curry did and make the minifigs yourself. Skimbal even made his minifigs four times larger than the official LEGO citizens.

Skimbal started with a blank jumbo minifig and went wild from there. Although he hasn’t shared new models for about a month now, he already has several popular characters ready for you to download.

See that headcrab zombie minifig? Half-life 3 is a better bet than an official LEGO version of that. Or maybe not. I may be underestimating Valve Time. Print a browser then head to Thingiverse to download Skimbal’s minifig 3D models.

[via Make:]