Hasta La Gadget!

Today at CES, Mophie showed off a prototype of its Pulse game grip for the 4th-generation iPod touch, which features battery-powered front-facing stereo speakers and haptic feedback by Reflex Technology. We spent some time using the Pulse and came away rather impressed. Game audio, music, and even the keyboard tick sound get translated into convincing pulses and vibrations. The iPod touch interfaces with the Pulse via the 3.5mm headphone jack, and a switch on the bottom left edge turns the haptic feedback on and off. As a bonus, the Pulse also offers full case protection. No word yet on availability or pricing, but you can check out the prototype in the gallery below.

Mophie Pulse haptic game grip hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cameras and wands may be the game controllers du jour, but it seems there’s still room in the world for virtual reality experiences a bit more concrete — like these buckets, filled with water, that let their user physically paddle through a digital dreamscape. “Channels” uses a pair of flex sensors attached to plastic spoons to monitor the flow in each bucket as a projector throws the minimalist 3D environment up on a nearby wall. Meanwhile, “Cadence Chair” uses an antique rocking chair outfitted with an accelerometer to align ribbons of light, and if you do it in the right rhythm it plays a hidden video. Both are student projects from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Project, and as you’ll see in videos after the break, both look pretty darn cool. We’re having this sudden urge to go back to school.

Continue reading Water buckets and rocking chair become spiffy interactive art projects (video)

Water buckets and rocking chair become spiffy interactive art projects (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sega, the once proud innovator of console design, is back in the gaming hardware business! Only not in the fashion you might think. The company has just rolled out a trial of its Toylets system, which embeds a pressure sensor into otherwise innocuous urinals and gives life to every bad piece of joystick-related innuendo you ever heard. Four games are available right now, to be enjoyed through a display mounted at eye level, including one where the intensity of your delivery helps blow a girl’s skirt up and another that offers (asynchronous!) multiplayer competition. The latter game matches you against the previous dude to have used the porcelain repository, thereby finally providing Japanese men with a measurable way to settle pissing contests. It’s official: we’re moving to Japan.

Continue reading Sega Toylets lets you game with your boy bits (video)

Sega Toylets lets you game with your boy bits (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aww, would you look at that, the iPhone’s trying to play big boy games! Following in the well received footsteps of Rage HD, today marks the debut of Infinity Blade, the second in what’s hopefully a wave of gorgeous-looking iOS games boasting advanced 3D graphics, if not 3D gameplay. Epic Games has put aside the chainsaw-equipped projectile weaponry of its wildly successful Gears of War console series to deliver the first mobile game built around its Unreal Engine 3. You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s utterly delicious to look at, and the visuals certainly helped transport us to this alien realm of swords, axes, shields, and magical rings — where body armor is optional, but helmets apparently are not. Jump past the break to see this visual feast in motion and to soak up some more of our impressions.

Continue reading App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone)

App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s really been big today on emphasizing that Gingerbread is better than ever for game development, and that’s already bearing itself out thanks to a page culled from the Android 2.3 SDK where we see a handful of new keycodes in the system clearly targeted for gaming: L1, L2, R1, R2, Select, Start, and so on. Does it have anything to do with the Sony Ericsson Zeus Z1 and all the PlayStation phone noise, though? We imagine it lays some of the groundwork, but all told, it’s hard to say — after all, PlayStation famously uses shapes for its primary controls, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Sony were working on a separate development environment of some sort for PlayStation-branded titles rather than letting it all flow through the official Android SDK proper. We also don’t yet know whether Sony Ericsson’s gaming efforts are coming in the Gingerbread or the Honeycomb timeframe (though we’re definitely expecting news next February at MWC), but one way or another, game devs should find it a little easier now to map the controls they need.

Android 2.3 definitely supports game controls, may (or may not) be PlayStation-related originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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