Hasta La Gadget!

Valve’s Steam platform has earned the loyalty and respect of many desktop gamers because of its progressive online marketplace and social network. The frequent deals and discounts help too. Recently Valve launched a new meta-game designed to keep its members locked in to Steam. It’s called Steam Trading Cards.

The idea is to collect a complete set of certain cards. To complete a set, you have to spend time playing the supported games and trade cards with other Steam members. Note that you can’t complete a set just by playing or trading alone; you have to do both to be the very best.

When you complete a set, you can use them to craft a badge. These badges are unlike the normal Steam badges. They come with random goodies such as emoticons, profile backgrounds and even DLC or game coupons. If you collect the same set multiple times, the badge of that set levels up. The badge’s image and title changes with each upgrade.

Crafting or leveling up badges also levels up your Steam profile. When you level up, you earn non-tradable items such as extra slots on your friend list. Here’s a demo of the crafting courtesy of YouTuber PlaysVidyaJames:

Steam Trading Cards is still in beta, so as of now it’s only tied with 6 games – DOTA 2, Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Don’t Starve. I guess the Beta status also explains the errors and hiccups in the video. Are you ready to play a game about your gaming habits? Then sign up for the Steam Trading Cards Beta on Steam. Read the FAQ as well while you’re at it.

[via GamesRadar]

Last year we found out about Brian Egenriether’s pet project – a machine that automatically separates Skittles by color. It’s fun to watch it work, but ultimately it was a novelty invention because it went about its task at a leisurely pace. It turns out Brian kept working on his machine and has finished its third version.

The Skittles Sorting Machine 3 can sort different types of Skittles as well as M&M’s and Reese’s Pieces candies. It’s easy to use too – there’s an on and off switch up top, and a series of switches on the body lets you indicate what candy you’re about to put in. It’s also more polished than its predecessor, thanks to the parts that Brian made using machinable epoxy. There’s only one problem:

Yep, it’s still slow. The Skittles Sorting Machine 3 – more practical, still impractical. You can find out more about the machine on the video’s description on YouTube.

[via Boing Boing]

It may not be the best arcade cabinet ever, but Redditor mystery_smelly_feet’s arcade cabinet is no slouch either; especially since he made it with his own two hands. Unless of course he has six hands, in which case this sort of thing is to be expected. But I doubt it. If you’re more concerned about the logic behind a NES arcade machine, don’t worry, there’s actually a PC inside.

Mystery_smelly_feet’s gaming PC has a 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, 16 GB RAM, a 2GB GeForce GTX 660 GPU and a 2 TB hard drive. He wired the sticks and buttons to an Ipac 2, which he says mimics keyboard input. The monitor is a 32″ Viewsonic DE3201LED. He didn’t say what brand the speakers were, but a Redditor pointed out that they might be one of Logitech’s surround speakers.

Mystery_smelly_feet used MDF to build the cabinet, with the help of the instructions made by Arcade Controls forum member stevenpbhs as his guide. He also said the he ordered the joysticks and most of the buttons from Suzo-Happ. He got the player 1 and player 2 buttons from Paradise Arcade. Finally he based the sweet NES controller graphic on this design by deviantART member BLUEamnesiac.

As you may have guessed by now, mystery_smelly_feet uses emulators to run games from different consoles on his PC. All in all it took him a total of 2 months and close to $2,000 (USD) to finish his one of a kind gaming setup. Good job man! Now go do something about those smelly feet.

[via Reddit via Joystiq]

HardOCP forum member CrazyLefty modded his gaming PC’s tower to make a legendary item. He and his wife made it look like it came straight out of Borderlands 2. It’s brightly colored, filled with dents and grime and even has a cel-shaded look.

The tower is a Cooler Master HAF 932. CrazyLefty applied white and black primer, a metallic gray coat, a yellow coat and a white stripe. Then his wife used a black Sharpie to create the convincing cel-shaded effect. Then they used a hammer and a Dremel to grind and dent the case. As a final touch, CrazyLefty added a few rivets on one side of the case. They also made a carrying case for his keyboard and made it look like a DAHL dumpster. He said they used ketchup, tea and coffee grinds to give the case a fresh Pandora look. And stench.

Fast Travel to CrazyLefty’s thread on HardOCP to see more pictures of the case.

[via HardOCP]

We’re no stranger to Matt Armstrong aka Monsterbrick’s brick–snapping prowess. Some of his newest creations are for the upcoming LEGO Star Wars Days that will be held at LEGOLAND California from June 15-16, 2013. Matt made these astromechs using the instructions on the official LEGO R2-D2 kit and parts from his own LEGO collection.

Matt calls this rainbow-colored astromech RU-KRAZY (the droid’s answer is yes, by the way). The black one is called the Death Star Droid R2-Pi while the pink, purple and beige mech is called R2-QT-Pi. Awwww.

Even if you can’t make it to LEGOLAND, you can still view Matt’s mechs up close on his Flickr page.

[via Tie Fighters]