Etsy artist Jess Firsoff makes NES cartridge rings. All you have to do is insert them into your loved one’s front-loading cartridge ring slot. You can ask her to make a cartridge stud out of any game, including the famous gold cart of The Legend of Zelda.
If you don’t specify your game of choice when you place your order, Jess will just make you a Mario Bros./Duck Hunt ring.
Jess normally sells the NES cartridge rings on her Etsy store Oh My Geekness for $25 (USD) each, but she temporarily closed the shop “for a few days” so she can work on her exams. I suggest you use the time to decide which cartridge you’d like to turn into a ring.
The crew of Skit-B Pinball made this wonderful homage to one of the most recognizable NES games, Duck Hunt. It may not be as complicated or have fancy lighting effects and ramps like other modern pinball machines, but the craftsmanship is so good that it looks like an official Nintendo product.
As if the wonderful art and parts weren’t awesome enough, the machine borrows gameplay and graphical elements from Duck Hunt. You have to hit the two orange and white circles in the middle of the playfield to fire at the ducks while some of the holes act as score multipliers. You get feedback by way of an LCD monitor installed in the backbox. And yes, if you lose your ball, that troll of a dog will appear to mock you.
The fact that they built the machine in their spare time makes me want to cry during my upcoming spare time.
This strange looking box is capable of something no other device ever built is – it can play the original cartridges, ROMs and discs from 18 different retro gaming systems.
The beastly Project Unity system was built by modder Bacteria, and it took him over 3500 hours and three years to assemble. Inside, it contains original circuitry from 15 classic systems, but works with a single master controller, a single power supply, and a single (SCART) video output connector. All tolled, it cost Bacteria about £700 (~$1076 USD) in parts to build, but its really his time and labor that represents the majority of the cost.
Inside the system is approximately 100 feet of cabling, and the whole thing weighs in around 44 lbs. The system has physical hardware from an Atari 7800, Sega Master System, Sega MegaDrive (Genesis), Super Nintendo, Nintendo NES, Nintendo 64, NeoGeo MVS, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, NEC TurboGrafx X, Colecovision, Intellivision, Sony Playstation 2, and Amstrad GX1000 consoles. He says it can actually play games from 18 total systems, including PS1 games on the PS2, Atari 2600 games on the 7800 and GBA games on the GameCube.
In order for all of the games to work with a single controller, he built a series of special NES cartridges which plug into the controller, providing system specific interfaces for the single mega-controller.
Bacteria explains the build and how Project Unity came together and how it works in the extensive video below. The system and controller demo starts around 9:30.
You could play all of these consoles using MESS or other emulators, there’s something to be said about using the original hardware to play games without the quirks that most emulators exhibit.
If you’re wondering about the big nondescript square box it’s all set inside of, Bacteria says he built it that way so it would all fit neatly into the cabinet under his TV. While it may not be the prettiest looking console I’ve ever seen, you’ve got to hand it to Bacteria for his persistence and technical abilities.
I’m sure Mega Man fans already know – and pre-ordered – about the old school Mega Man statue that Capcom unveiled for the Blue Bomber’s 25th anniversary. But if you’d rather be Mega Man, go grab Capcom Japan’s limited edition Mega Buster and Helmet set.
Not only are both items wearable, they’re super soft too. You can morph into Sleep Man just by closing your eyes and resting your head on the most huggable arm cannon ever made.
Turn into Pre-order Man and head to Capcom Japan’s online store, where you can get the set for ¥6,090 (~$61 USD). Don’t live in Japan? Try White Rabbit Express and see if they can help you out.
While the G4 model of the iMac more than resembled a desk lamp, the original G3 iMacs just looked like cool and colorful all-in-one computers. So if anyone were to convert an iMac into a lamp, I would have assumed it would have been the version with the pivoting base. Oh yeah, someone already did that. So with that ground already covered, I guess somebody had to go and Think Different.
Jenny Serwylo snapped a picture of these cool iMac ceiling fixtures which hang in the Toronto, Ontario offices of the company she works for, G Adventures. The colorful, translucent shells of the classic fruit colored iMacs is perfect as a light source. What a cool idea.
While the very first Apple computer actually came without a case of its own, the Apple II (and ][+) featured an iconic beige wedge case design that went on to define an era of personal computing. While I don’t really have room in my office to set up an old Apple, I might be able to squeeze in one made out of LEGO.
This miniature Apple II Plus was created by Chiu-Kueng Tsang, and it’s really quite extraordinary. Not only does he nail the look of the classic computer with a minimal number of bricks, he’s even made a pair of tiny disk drives, a monitor and even the internals under the lid.
Very impressive indeed. The funny thing is that using today’s technology, you could probably fit a working system that’s way more powerful than the original Apple II Plus inside of its case. I’ll get on that right away.
When Ericsson launched the T28 in 1999, it was the lightest and slimmest phone on the market. It was also the first handset ever to use a lithium polymer battery. The T28 was a premium device — Ericsson described it as “designer technology”, and it was successful with business executives before the Blackberry became popular. Unlike its bar-shaped competitors, the T28 was immediately recognizable by its signature antenna stub and “active flip” keypad cover. Ericsson packed the phone with state-of-the-art features like voice dialing and an optional Bluetooth dongle. It came in three versions: T28s (GSM 1800 / 900), T28z (GSM 1900) and T28 World (GSM 1900/900). Our T28z review unit started life on VoiceStream (eventually acquired by T-Mobile). How does this classic handset stack up to our modern pocketable computers? Find out after the break.
In a club far, far away, Marco of Picotek Design must be wowing the crowd not just with his beats but with his one-of-a-kind gear as well. His highly modified turntable is based on another highly modified piece of equipment: the freighter-turned-smuggler’s ship Millenium Falcon.
Marco said he stumbled upon the toy replica of Han Solo’s ship and got it for a mere $2 (USD), albeit with some of its parts missing. He stowed it away for a couple of years, then one day decided to combine it with another relic from the 70s, a Technics 1200 turntable. Marco says he’ll upload more pictures of the turntable soon.
I suppose you could put a Space Invaders mobile in any room you’d like, but if you’ve got a youngling in the nursery, then you’ll want to get them started right away on their path of geeky righteousness from the earliest age possible.
This cool laser-cut bamboo Space Invaders mobile was made by Shawn Hampton of Pixel Party, and is the perfect thing to hang above your baby’s crib, so they can count aliens as they drift off to sleep. I think if I had these above my crib, I might have turned out differently – as in, I might have actually been able to make it past the first couple of waves of the game.
The mobile measures about 36″ (W) x 36″ (H), so you’ll need a good amount of space to display it. Perhaps the invaders can help you secure some. So blast through your bases and head on over to Pixel Party’s Etsy shop to grab the Space Invaders mobile for $75(USD).
There’s something to be said about watches that cost more than cars. Needless to say that this analog wonder of a watch will cost you a pretty penny, but it will probably last you a lifetime. But how about watches that cost as much as your house? Or two?
The MB&F HM4 Final Edition Watch isn’t just any old watch, it’s a “horological machine” which has 311 components. It’s coated in plack PVD titanium and its design was inspired by the F-117 Nighthawk. The turbine-like pods for time and power reserve indicators are connected to the power reserve using unique vertical gear trains.
This watch looks simply amazing, but get ready to mortgage everything you own, because they sell for $230,000(USD) apiece and they’ll only be making eight of these.
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