Hasta La Gadget!

There’s multifaceted, and then there’s X-Arcade’s Solo Joystick. Following up on the outfit’s aptly-titled Dual Joystick, the Solo here is a 12-pound beast that’s built to withstand just about anything. And, indeed, function just about anywhere. Up for pre-order now, the gamepad is set to ship to gamers everywhere on December 1st, bringing with it 11-inches of arcade-style glory. It’ll function with PC, Mac and Linux rigs right out of the box for $99.99, while optional adapters enable support for nine different gaming consoles (PlayStation 1 / 2 / 3, Wii, Dreamcast, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Wii U). Oh, and since you’re wondering, they company claims that it’s “hard at work on new adapters for the upcoming Xbox One and PS4,” and it’s throwing in a fully licensed version of Maximus Arcade Software for anyone who places an order before September 1st.

Filed under: Gaming

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Via: HotHardware

Source: X-Gaming

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]

Boy, I haven’t seen a reel-to-reel tape deck in years. After 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, MiniDiscs and MP3s, we’re at least five generations past the everyday use of these things. And dekstop calculators? I haven’t used one in a very long time either. Between my smartphone and my computer, I’ve had no reason to have one. But that hasn’t stopped somebody from mashing up these two obsolete technologies into one new device.

This retro-style LCD calculator combines these old-school gadgets into one – though it only works as a calculator and won’t play your old spools of magnetic tape, no matter how hard you try. On the plus side, you don’t need to worry about getting your tape tangled up.

If you actually have some use for this thing, it sells for £8.49 (~$13USD) over at I Want One of Those.

[via The Red Ferret]

There are hacks out there which transform the original Macintosh into an aquarium, or the original iMac into a pet bed. But those require that you have an actual computer shell you’re willing to part ways with. Here’s another fun design that looks like an old Macintosh, but it doesn’t make you tear apart a vintage computer.

The MaCool is a thermal insulated carrier that looks like an original Apple Macintosh. It’ll keep cold drinks cold or hot food hot, and holds up to 8 drink cans and ice. As an added bonus, it’s guaranteed never to eat your 3.5″ floppy disks.

Here’s an amusing clip of the creator of the MaCool bringing it in to the Genius Bar for repair:

You can pledge to order the MaCool insulated cooler over at Kickstarter for $59(USD).

If you love the idea of playing classic arcade games, but don’t want to be tied down to just a single machine, you could always build a MAME cabinet. But that doesn’t give you the exact controls and screen of the original machine. If you’re an arcade purist, you need to play on the actual machines.

But if you’re like me, you don’t have the money or space to dedicate to dozens of arcade machines in your home. Well, assuming this new service takes off, you may soon be able to play different arcade machines all the time, using a model similar to Netflix or GameFly.

With All You Can Arcade, you can keep arcade machines in your house for a rental fee of $75 a month each, or you can trade them in whenever you feel like it for another machine. Renters can select to keep 1, 2 or 3 games at a time. The site provides not only geotargeted listings of available machines, but tools for arcade machine owners to manage their rentals and deliveries.

The site charges no delivery or pickup fees to renters. Arcade machine owners keep 75% of all rental fees to cover the cost of the machines and their costs. While I’m not certain there’s a ton of money to be made, there’s definitely an opportunity for arcade machine owners to earn a little extra money from their machines – as long as they can handle the local pick-ups and deliveries without too much expense.

At this point, the service is launching with a number of games available for delivery and pick-up in the San Francisco and Sacramento, California areas, but hopes to expand to other areas in the future.