Hasta La Gadget!

Arcade machines are a part of a generation gone by. With arcade centers closing left and right, a lot of nostalgic gamers have taken to building or buying their own machine for home use. I’m sure many arcade fans would want to preserve the loud and garish old school look of the machines, but if you’re looking for something more subtle check out the Replay Arcade.

The Replay Arcade is a one-off machine made by London-based Tom Goodfellow. According to Tom, the machine is equipped with a JAMMA circuit board (similar to this one) that has 60 games built-in, as well as “arcade industry standard joystick and buttons.” I’m not up to date on arcade standards, but who are we to doubt the words of a Goodfellow? But it’s most outstanding quality is the cabinet’s retro and minimalist design.

Contact Tom via his blog to inquire about the Replay Arcade’s price.

[via Notcot]

Are you one of the many Whovians who wished that you could get your hands – or finger – on the TARDIS ring concept? You wish has come true! Gino Arizmendi, the man who came up with the concept, is now taking orders for the ring.

Sadly BBC turned down Arizmendi’s request to license their storied sci-fi series, so this ring is now officially known as the Police Box Ring.

Contact Arizmendi via email for pricing and other details. Then have one of these made to complete your Police Box theme.

[via Pathetic Peripatetic via Fashionably Geek via Albotas]

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]

I was very impressed by the LEGO Omniboat, but apparently you can take LEGO vehicles even deeper. An engineering student made this remote controlled underwater robot for a school project. I expect bricks to sink, but I was surprised to see batteries and circuits fare well underwater.

The robot was made by YouTuber roboticsqut, who says that while the vehicle isn’t necessarily waterproof, most of its parts will do fine underwater, including the lead-acid batteries and the motors. Roboticsqut used a pair of XBee PRO adapters to send commands to the robot, which is controlled via an Xbox 360 controller that’s connected to a laptop.

Robotsqut should make more and equip them weapons and minifig crew.

[via Dexter Industries via Construction Toys via Reddit]

The Leap motion controller is one of the most hyped gadgets unveiled this year, and it really is promising. But if you can’t wait until next year to have a 3D tracking interface, MAKE knows a way to make one using readily available tools.

The project is based on the RC time constant, which in simple terms is the time it takes to charge a capacitor. It has three cardboard plates covered with aluminum foil and connected to an Arduino Uno. When your hand (or any part of your body) approaches the plates, the capacitance of the plates change. A complementary program then interprets the changes to determine your hands’ position.

Head to MAKE for the full instructions for making the sensor. Obviously it’s not as accurate as the Leap or the Kinect, but at the very least you’ll have built something that show how capacitive sensors work. I’m sure more advanced tinkerers will find ways to make it more functional.

[via The Viral Trend]