Hasta La Gadget!

Metroid is one of the best classic games ever. If you are a fan, check out this cute and cuddly amigurumi that PixelBlock created. Experience the softer side of Samus and you can’t help but smile.

For those of you who have been sleeping under a rock for the last 26 years, Samus Aran is the famous intergalactic bounty hunter from Nintendo’s Metroid series, and she was one of maybe a handful of female heroes in video games at the time – not that we knew she was a woman until the end of the game. Now she is all cute and adorable as a handmade amigurumi!

This Samus measures about 3.5″ tall and is hand-crocheted and embellished from an original pattern. She comes complete with a small collectible card and in a handmade themed gift box. It’s a pretty cool find for that Metroid fan on your holiday list. It’s just $25(USD) over on Etsy.

[via Geeks Are Sexy]

The first time we talked about the 8-bitty controller for your mobile gaming device was back in February. Yeah, we never thought it would ship either. If you’ve been waiting for that little old school Nintendo-style controller to finally ship, today is the day. As of right now you can hop over to ThinkGeek and pick one up for yourself for about 30 bucks.

The 8-bitty is a small handheld controller powered by a pair of AAA batteries. It uses Bluetooth to connect to a number of different portable devices on the market today including iOS as well as Android tablets and smartphones. The controller has eight buttons total including four buttons on the face, a select button, start button, and a pair shoulder buttons.

It also has a D-pad for controlling movement. The controller was developed using an open platform with no licensing fees or permissions needed to create apps that support it. ThinkGeek says that it is fully compatible with the Atari Greatest Hits iPad app, and any of the over 150 other games with iCADE support.

Those cords on vintage video game consoles sure got in the way whenever you weren’t playing. They were long enough that they always got twisted up and tangled everywhere. So if you have a bunch of old Nintendo controllers, you might as well use all of that cord length to make some art.

That’s what artist Erika Iris Simmons (aka iRI5) did in a series titled ‘Ghost In The Machine’. Extending the series of cassette tape art we saw a couple of years back, she now uses the cords from old game controllers to create characters including Mario, and Link as well as Pac-Man. Some were recently for sale in a gallery exhibition for $2,000(USD) each. Not a bad profit margin for controller cable doodles.

Check out the rest in her gallery. She makes some pretty awesome stuff.

[via Geekologie]

We’ve featured some mechanical versions of arcade games in the past, but I think this is my new favorite. That’s because this real-world version of Donkey Kong is actually controlled by an NES gamepad. That just makes it that much more awesome.

Builder Martin Raynsford built this Arduino-controlled analog version of the arcade classic using a bunch of laser-cut wood parts, and a mechanism that fires a barrage of ball bearings down the ramps in lieu of tiny flaming barrels. And since the balls are magnetic, they stop Jumpman in his tracks if he fails to jump over them.

As you can see in the video clip below, the game is still a work-in-progress, as Jumpman is just hanging out in the middle of the game field and can’t really move around yet. But Raynford’s goal is to make the game fully-functional with time, and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product, which he plans on showing off at next year’s UK Maker Faire. I’m curious to know how he’ll pull off the barrel-smashing sledgehammer.

You can check out more details of the build and mechanism over on Martin’s blog.

[via Kotaku via Engadget]

The NES was pretty awesome back when it came out, but by today’s gaming standards it’s pretty lame. I mean, it’s not like it could actually shoot people with a laser and burn their flesh. Oh wait. Yeah, now it does.

To make things interesting, there’s a 2W+ blue laser hacked into this original 80s Nintendo Zapper gun. You could go duck hunting and cook your dinner at the same time with this modded NES Zapper. A dog may even rise out of the brush and laugh at you.

The gun was taken apart and filled with a 445nm diode, some batteries and some wiring by the people of North Street Labs. This zapper gives new meaning to the name.

[Engadget via Obvious Winner]