Hasta La Gadget!

When I was growing up, one of my favorite toys was the good old Lite Brite. I’m guessing that it was an indication that I would later find myself hopelessly addicted to pixel art. Now, technologists are working on tiny robots which can create Lite Brite style art all on their own.

Created by Disney Research and the Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zurich, PixelBots are round, palm-sized robots which have a LEDs inside of them, and a drive mechanism on their bottoms. An overhead camera tracks the positions of each robot and a computer controls each robot remotely. They’re designed to be able to swarm together to create rudimentary images composed of dots.

Currently, the robots can replicate images drawn on a tablet, and the can also change between images using gesture controls. They can also automatically recover their position if a user picks one up and moves it out of place.

One other neat thing is that their wheels are actually magnetic, so they could not only be used on tabletops, but they could stick to whiteboards too. While I’m not sure there are too many practical application for PixelBots, they sure look like fun, and I’d certainly love to have a fleet of them at my command.

You can read more about how PixelBots work in the research paper Image and Animation Display with Multiple Mobile Robots.

Show off your love for retro gaming with this animated pixel art frame. Similar to the Pixel and Pixel V2, Game Frame is a digital canvas that can be loaded up with hundreds of your favorite 8-bit video game characters and symbols. Time to show off some 8-bit art in your home.

Basically the frame is a grid of 256 ultra-bright LED pixels, for showing off all kinds of geek art. In fact, Game Frame comes with over 40 brand new animations from eBoy. The hardware is Arduino-based, and the complete source code will be released once they ship. Thousands of images & animations can be stored on SD and played back the way you want, configured by two buttons on top.

While it’s not as high resolution as the Pixel, there’s something to be said for the chunky square LED pixels on the Game Frame.

A pledge of at least $230(USD) will get you a completely assembled Game Frame, while you can pick up a kit version with all components but the frame for $150, or without the LEDs for $60.

[via This is Why I’m Broke]

Displaying pixel art at larger sizes in your house can be as simple as making a large print, but that means you’re stuck with a single image. San Francisco’s Jeremy Williams wants to make something a little more dynamic, so he has created the Game Frame, a square box with 256 LED lights that’s designed to make it easy to show off pixel art and OG video game art.

The Game Frame calls to mind a simpler time, when we used graph paper to create most digital art, and if you could assemble colored squares, you could help build a AAA video game title. It’s also a modern interpretation, however, and a way to display either your own original creations or those that live in your fondest memories.

Pre-installed on the Game Frame are 40 new animations from pixelart legend eBoy, but you can easily move your own over via SD storage using BMP files with a maximum resolution of 256 pixels (or 16×16, though larger images are supported via panning). The SD card can potentially store thousands of images, according to Williams, and the frame itself is Arduino-based and works with all existing Adafruit libraries, plus it’s fully modable, and has a playable Breakout clone pre-loaded, so it’s not just for showing off pretty art.

Backers can pre-order a unit at $210 fully assembled, or less if you want to supply some of your own parts plus some elbow grease. They’re going to ship in June, according to the project page, in batches of 300 per month. Ideally, someone buys a bulk order and opens a gallery using these things, because they’re pretty awesome.

Minecraft fans will enjoy hanging these paper snowflakes on their Christmas tree this year. You have probably already downloaded and cut some other paper snowflakes. Now you can add some Creepers.

These snowflakes are from Instructables contributor Penolopy Bulnick. You can choose from snowflakes with weapons or one that looks like a bunch of Creepers. They looks great and blocky just like in the game. If your tree happens to be pixelated, these will look even better. At least until the Creepers explode.

You’ve spent hours upon hours playing the game, so you might as well deck the halls with Creepers this year. Have a very Minecraft Christmas and a Creeper New Year!

[via Nerd Approved]

One of the more annoying parts of Super Mario World is when Bowser goes flying around in his clown-copter thingie at the end of the game. It’s just plain silly, and it’s kind of an annoying boss battle if you ask me. Now, you can commemorate this wacky moment in gaming history with this handmade Bowser beaded wall hanging.

Etsy artist Andee Rasheeda Browne-Tatro handmade this Bowser wall hanging from thousands of tiny beads, meticulously threading them on her bead loom.

The finished hanging measures about 4.1″ wide x 6.6″ high, and it really looks great. Beadwork like this is certainly one of the more impressive forms of pixel art as far as I’m concerned. I suppose it’s only fair that it’s selling for $265(USD) – I can’t imagine how much time it took her to make.