Hasta La Gadget!

Nintendo couldn’t have put all those glorious names of third party developers up alongside its Wii U announcement earlier this month without giving those companies at least a glimpse at the actual hardware they’d have to code on. Sega Europe’s Gary Dunn was among those to have tinkered with a development kit before we even knew what the Wii U would be called, but he says that Nintendo intends to refresh that hardware to the latest prototype model at some point before the end of July. According to Gary, coding for the new system is pretty straightforward, and though he wouldn’t get into specifics about performance, he does expect more details to emerge once Nintendo starts distributing the latest version of the Wii U dev platform. Asked about how it compares to the Xbox 360 and PS3, Sega’s dev leader simply said the new Nintendo console is “different.”

Wii U dev kits to be updated to latest prototyping hardware in the coming weeks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Tokyo Toy Show was held today showcasing everything from magic carpets to virtual fishing games, 3D airbrush pens to laser controlled cars, and everything in between. There were plenty of Tokyo Sky Tree themed exhibits as the city counts down to its opening next year and it was clear that the eco trend has filtered through to the toy market also. Not content with mum and dad having the coolest gadgets and hobbies, many companies also had ipad and smartphone design concept toys for small children to practice using, and bizarrely there were even gambling games redesigned for toddlers!

As with industries across the board the Toy Show showed how many sectors are focusing their marketing efforts on the eco credentials. Wind up and non electric toys being the staple of toy boxes 10 years ago they have largely been replaced by digital battery powered alternatives. However it was interesting to see a resurgence in traditional and wind up toys, with dynamo powered toy cars complete with non battery operated flashing lights. One company was even making play things form waste, taking discarded plastic bottles, cans and packaging and turning them into robots, helicopters and cars.

Gunk, slime and chemistry combined in a really fun booth from Takara Tomy, turning bath time into a messy experiment. Igniting an interest in the sciences whilst making their own bubble bath, the simple idea plays on every kids love for anything slime based.

Sega also displayed their extended range of Homestar planetariums, with an R2D2 Robot version complete with a projection of the Death Star, and a limited edition Tokyo Sky Tree series.

Starting them young there were a number of toys and games on show that played on different Japanese gambling games! We were surprised to see a Disney version of mahjong, a Chinese dominoes style game popular in smokey Japanese drinking dens, and even an Anpanman pachinko game, another popular gambling past time.

Of course no Tokyo Toy Show would be complete without the obligatory Pokemon exhibits, cute and fluffy characters. With the prevalence of ipads, and iphones/ smartphones in Japan right now there were a number of app related games such as the virtual pet shown below. To ensure the public purchases all the paraphernalia that also go with the app, the virtual pet pictured will actually complain of the cold until wrapped up in the “animal jacket”, nothing like a whining iphone! A simliar tactic was seen with remote control cars complete with matching sneakers, as obviously kids have to match their outfits with their toys nowadays.

Finally one of the most bizarre items on display had to be this magic exhibit. Described as a third eye, it purportedly enables wearers to use telepathy to read cards…all whilst looking particularly fetching.

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LulzSec is having a busy few days. Earlier today we reported that the hacker group had managed to gain access to the porn website pron.com. In the process, they grabbed over 25,000 user logins, 55 admin accounts, and a bunch of .mil and .gov logins. Now LulzSec is teasing another hack, and this time it’s […]

Test driving an app isn’t entirely unheard of — Apple introduced its lackluster “Try Before You Buy” system last summer and the Android Market’s got a 15-minute return policy. Now T-Mobile’s teamed up with mobile gaming outfit WildTangent to bring a novel approach to looking under the hood of gaming apps: rentals. The partnership promises to bring 25 cent game rentals to your phone or tablet (considering you’re a T-Mo faithful rocking an Android device), giving you the opportunity to see what a particular game is working with before you commit. The new service also lets users play games for free with advertisements, and applies the cost of rentals to future purchases — rent-to-own style. So it won’t bring the same juvenile thrills as the arcade, but it will let you get your game on at 25 cents a pop. No word yet on when the service will go into effect, so don’t go breaking that piggy bank quite yet.

T-mobile, WildTangent to bring 25-cent game rentals to Android devices, harken back to arcade days originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 06:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The shuttering of New York’s Chinatown Fair back in March marked the end of an era for the city — a last vestige of a time when social gaming meant more than just logging on to Xbox Live. The arcade experience hasn’t completely disappeared form the metropolitan map, however — in recent years, a new crop of venues have remixed the concept of yesterday’s arcades, places like Brooklyn’s Barcade, a shrine to 80s gaming machines that does brisk business serving spirits to Williamsburg’s 21 and up crowd. Launched in Ridgewood, Queens by game developers Kunal Gupta and Syed Salahuddin, Babycastles takes the re-invention a step further, offering up something between an arcade space and an art gallery.

Continue reading Babycastles brings its indie arcade action to The Engadget Show (video)

Babycastles brings its indie arcade action to The Engadget Show (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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