Hasta La Gadget!

PopCap’s tower defense game Plants vs. Zombies is available on pretty much every modern gaming device, from PCs to smartphones. And it’s also on at least one classic console: the Sega Genesis aka the Mega Drive. The Penny-Arcade Report’s Ben Kuchera stumbled upon this 16-bit curio at PAX Australia.

Image by Ben Kuchera

Unsurprisingly, the port is an unofficial and illegal game. Dave Cudrev of Retrospekt bought a copy of the game on eBay for around $30 (USD) from a Russian coder. YouTuber Stepan V, whose video of the game appears below, was also able to snag one from an “underground retro video game market” in Russia. The game’s graphics have taken a considerable hit, plus it’s in Russian, but otherwise it seems to be the same as the original game.

It would be hilarious if it got DLC via the Mega-CD.

[via The PA Report]

It’s really amazing how today’s technology enables us to build complex gadgets on our own. Just take a look at Instructables member Ye Xiaobo’s fully functioning cell phone. It can send and receive phone calls and text messages, and it even has a touchscreen. How it looks – and costs – is another thing altogether.

The phone is based on the Arduino Uno. It has a 2.8″ TFT Touch Shield for a screen, a GPRS Shield to connect to GSM and GPRS networks, a rechargeable Li-ion battery and a 3D printed housing.

Put your MacGyver jacket on and head to Instructables to find out how to make your own cell phone. Xiaobo also put together a one-stop parts list on Seeed. Here’s the funny part: the phone will cost you $173.10 (USD) to build, excluding the cost of printing the housing. Oh, and then you need to pay for phone service.

[via Hack A Day]

Gaming peripherals, while pricey, are quite durable and full of features that even the sternest desk-jockey can appreciate. Recently, I saw a couple of LED-powered keyboards that had me drooling, since they lit up very brightly to highlight gaming keys. The Mad Catz RAT has always been an extremely good mouse for gaming, since it allowed you to get the perfect shape for your hands. If you don’t like to buy off-the-shelf peripherals like these, then check out this 3D-printed alternative.

Granted, the Statial mouse housing costs a lot more than I expected, but if you can get similar functionality to a higher priced mouse, then you’re still winning. The Statial is a cover that will turn any Logitech M100 mouse into an adjustable alternative. Each section of the Statial cover can be adjusted to fit the form of your hand. The Statial was designed by Pyott Design.

Unfortunately, the $69.99 price tag for the shell on Shapeways makes this kind of a non-starter, since you can buy gaming mice with more functionality for the same total price. Still, if you’ve got the blueprints and a 3D printer, you can always print your own custom mouse cover.

Last time we checked in with Ben Heck he made his own portable gaming device based on a Raspberry Pi. Recently he talked about another custom gaming project on his blog. Ben pried away the Steam Box concept from the abyss of Valve Time and decided to make his own. Now he’s ready for the Steam Summer Sale.

Ben made his PC in console’s clothing last winter as part of a series of projects commissioned by AMD. His rig is based on AMD’s A10 5800K APU, which combines a 3.8GHz quad-core CPU with an AMD Radeon HD 7660D GPU. He also added 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. Now before you say News Flash: Man Assembles PC! in the comments, let me tell you that Ben also made the case from scratch. He laser-cut the front plates out of acrylic and brushed aluminum plastic. The curved sides are made of interlocking acrylic ribbings screwed together, while the base is made of aluminum. Finally he used parts from an Xbox 360 console to make the AMD logo and controller sync indicator light up.

Ben says that this is one of the rare times that he wanted to keep something he was commissioned to make. So now he’s on the run from AMD. Just kidding. Ben’s going to make another one for the company.

[via Ben Heck]

There are dozens of ways we can modify our voice, but designer Nic Wallenberg made a silly device that bypasses the vocal chords altogether to make unusual sounds come out of one’s mouth. Hence the name Human Speaker.

The Human Speaker looks just like a neck collar, except it has sockets for two wires in front. I’m not sure what it’s connected to, but according to Wallenberg the collar sends vibrations to the wearer’s upper throat. All the wearer has to do is open his mouth and a sound will come out. It’s like reverse ventriloquism. The wearer can then play with the sound as one would his own voice, by moving his mouth and lips. The Human Speaker can only make two notes at a time though, so you’ll need several people to make complex music. Or you can do what Wallenberg did:

I bet it’s made from the throats of Daft Punk.

[via Nic Wallenberg via WeWasteTime]