Hasta La Gadget!

Want an retro arcade cabinet, but don’t have a ton of space for one? Look no further than the Minimal T80s, a pint-sized arcade cabinet that you can buy for your desktop.

This weensy little arcade cabinet measures just 15.7″(H) x 7.87″(W) x 7.87″(D). The cabinet is made from durable MDF, melamine and PVC, and has a real 8-way arcade joystick and four buttons. The controls are connected to the tablet via USB, to ensure instantaneous feedback, and the whole thing plugs into a wall outlet.

Games are played on a built-in 7″ Android 4.2 tablet, which is preconfigured with MAME and a custom small-screen front end, and ready to load up your favorite game ROMs. Naturally, since it’s running Android, it can play all kinds of other emulators as well.

So bust out all those rolls of quarters you’ve been saving for the arcade, and head on over to Etsy to order your Minimal T80S arcade cabinet for about $280(USD). The cabinet comes with the standard vinyl decals shown here, but you can order custom ones for around $28 extra.

Looking for something to put on your desk alongside your tiny Atari 2600 and NES? Why not print out a miniature Commodore 64 computer, complete with 1541 Floppy Drive so you can load some tiny programs onto it?

This miniature C64 model is yet another design from Dave Nunez – the guy behind the tiny 8-bit consoles, and I think he really nailed it yet again. This weensy version may not have every key on its keyboard, but it still captures the essential design attributes of the classic 8-bit computer. The two-inch-wide system includes joystick ports and function keys as well.

I like how he even made a tiny little box and styrofoam insert for the computer too. If you’d like to print out your own miniature Commodore 64, head on over to Thingiverse to download the model. Great job again, Dave! Now all you need to do is hook up with Ben Heck and convince him to stuff functional systems inside of your models.

We just posted the world’s smallest stop-motion animation over on The Awesomer earlier today, and now it turns out that’s not the only animation IBM’s team of scientists have created. They also made a special one just for Trekkies.

The animated GIF you’re looking at above is actually made of individually manipulated atoms, arranged to form various iconic images from the Star Trek franchise.

In addition to the Star Trek logo, they created still images of the Vulcan salute, and a U.S.S. Enterprise in two sizes.

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The images were created by IBM’s Almaden research facility, in celebration of the impending release of Star Trek into Darkness, which opens on May 17th.

The most amazing image of all is this tiny Enterprise that measures just 1 nanometer in height:

While I’d imagine it would be pretty easy to lose such a small Federation starship, at least it’s not likely to be spotted by Khan or any Romulans – unless their ship is equipped with an electron microscope.

You can check out more amazing atomic images created by the team over on Flickr.

Arduino microcontrollers are beloved by students and hobbyists because they’re affordable, small and versatile. Those are the same exact traits that the RFduino microcontroller possesses. In addition, it has one thing that other Arduino boards don’t have: built-in Bluetooth connectivity.

The RFduino was developed by Open Source RF, an electronics shop that makes Arduino-compatible peripherals and modules. The shop’s tiny invention makes it possible for people to make small gadgets and sensors that can be controlled or monitored wirelessly using a smartphone. You’ll have to buy and then fit a separate wireless shield to an Arduino board to achieve the same functionality.

Speaking of shields, the RFduino also has compatible shields that extend its functionality, including one with a USB-port and another with a coin cell battery slot. It also runs code written in the Arduino programming language, which should really make it an enticing platform for Arduino users. Check out the video below to see how the RFduino can be used:

They should have called it the Fleaduino – a small board with mad reach. Build a Pledge-Bot and pay at least $19 (USD) on the RFduino Kickstarter by April 4, 2013 to reserve your own unit.

For a moment there, I wasn’t sure if these sculptures were real, however, they are. These incredibly tiny sculptures were created by an artist using a microscope. They are incredibly detailed for art of this scale, and I imagine need to be quite careful when you’re around it, otherwise it could be crushed or simply blown away.

Russian artist Nikolai Aldunin has to keep his hands perfectly still in order to build his microscopic art. He takes inspiration about a Russian folk tale about Levsha, a left-handed craftsman so talented that the was able to put horseshoes onto a flea, and cues from the Bible.

Nikolai uses syringes, toothpicks, and superglue to make his art, and he works under a microscope as he crafts them.

[via Daily Mail via designboom]