Hasta La Gadget!

The Nintendo DS has many puzzle and platforming games, but I bet not many DS owners expected this nice surprise. A small group of fans are working on Aperture Science, an adaptation of Valve’s hit game Portal for the Nintendo DS.

GBATemp forum member Smealum is handling Aperture Science’s code while his buddy Lobo is working on the game’s graphics. According to Smealum, the goal is to make an original campaign with deranged scientist Doug Rattman as the hero. The game will also come with a level editor to extend replayability. Here’s a brief look at Aperture Science:

It even has its own cover art!

Aperture Science is not a lie. It’s a work in progress though. You can download a playable build on Smealum’s website, but you need a flash cart and a program called NitroFS to play Aperture Science.

[via GBATemp via GoNintendo]

We’ve seen plenty of awesome NES casemods and portables over the years, but this example is 3D-printed. It is called the NESPo and was made by modder Dave Nunez. Dave used a Nintendo-on-a-chip (NOAC), because he didn’t want to destroy an original console. Anyway, there is practically nothing inside the box when you use a NOAC.

He purchased an NOAC for $15 in the form of the Retro-BIT RES, then opened it up to get the guts. A $20 4.3-inch TFT camera screen was also used, along with a NiMH rechargeable battery. The system gets around three hours of life on a charge.

The case and buttons are all 3D-printed. Dave designed the parts in OpenSCAD, then printed them out with polylactic acid using the Makerbot Replicator 2. The entire printing process took 14-and-a-half hours. After that, he simply put it all together. It looks pretty sweet, even if it is a bit chunky. You can check out more build details at Dave’s blog.

[via geek]

A few months ago we featured the Neo-Plug, a mobile device charger with a two-piece magnetic tip similar to Apple’s MagSafe. Designer Jon Patterson recently showed us a similar concept but for a headphone jack. He calls it the Pogo. I call it a headphone saver.

Like many of us, Jon was tired of having his headphone cable snag or break when he accidentally pulls it. When he left his job at Nooka, Jon spent his time developing the Pogo. Now he’s ready to show off his prototypes. Like the Neo-Plug, Pogo is split into two parts. Each part has a neodymium magnet that securely connects the halves and four Pogo pins that bridge the connection.

All wired connections should be like this. Jon is looking for partners that can help him mass produce the Pogo. If you’re interested, you can contact him here.

[via Jon Patterson]

I’ve seen some unusual user interfaces and input devices over the years, but one that I’ve never thought of before now is a pinwheel. Sure, there are games on the Nintendo handhelds which require that you blow on its microphone to create virtual wind, but this is definitely much a more tangible interface.

This pinwheel-based interface was designed by Adi Marom and the LAB at Rockwell Group as a mechanism for users to control videos of convertible Ultrabooks in Intel’s booth at CES 2013. A user simply blows onto the pinwheel, and it moves the frames in the video accordingly. The harder you blow, the faster the video advances. Here, check it out:

Pretty neat, eh? Sure, I can’t think of too many applications for a pinwheel interface, but it’s still kind of fun to watch.

One of the coolest features of the new Xbox One is the extra vibration motors in the triggers. These add a new sensation to gameplay which can provide feedback directly to your fingertips. Now, there’s a mod available for the Xbox 360 controller which adds a similar feature.

The new XCM X1 Plus controller shell not only replaces the outside of your Xbox 360′s stock wireless controller with something much cooler looking, it adds in a pair of rumble motors in the triggers as well.

It’s not clear at this point how the motors are activated though, as current Xbox 360 games don’t pass along data for these triggers independently like they do on the Xbox One. From what I can tell from the video below, they’ve got them set up to vibrate automatically whenever you press the triggers, so I’m not sure how that would feel, or if it would just be annoying.

There’s no word yet on pricing or a release date for the XCM X1 Plus controller shell, but keep your eye out on their website for more info.