Hasta La Gadget!

The retro gaming insurgence seems as strong as vinyl these days, but you don’t see as many people looking for a CRT monitor to complete the set. More likely, they’re playing a HD remake or the original title on a digital screen in more detail than the developers ever anticipated or intended. A group of Georgia Tech students are looking to change all that by modifying open-source Atari 2600 VCS emulator Stella to give players that good ole fashion analog vibe. As highlighted by associate professor Ian Bogost, key attributes such as color bleed, “burned” afterimage, RF-engendered signal noise, and texture created by the phosphor glow have been imitated here in recreating the effect. Hit up the gallery below for pictorial examples while we wait anxiously for video and / or the mod itself to rear its blurry head.

Filed under: Displays, Gaming

Students create CRT emulator, hope to recapture that analog gaming vibe of yesteryear originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 May 2009 06:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A crafty Guitar Hero DIY-er has built a little project with possibly startling implications. The includes ambient light sensors in front of the television which are triggered by the light of the notes on screen during Guitar Hero gameplay. The sensors trigger an Arduino to turn on LEDS on a nearby setup. In the video (which is after the break) you can see the entire thing in action — which maker Joe says can eventually lead to a rig which plays the game for you. The horror!

[Via Make]

Continue reading Guitar Hero arduino note visualizer lights our fire

Filed under: Gaming

Guitar Hero arduino note visualizer lights our fire originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With no picture to show for it, unfortunately (that’s the 8 series, pictured), Samsung’s gone ahead and announced the 46-inch and 55-inch B9000 HDTVs, which looks to be a follow-up to the A950 models from last year. According to flatpanelshd, the latest addition to the Touch of Color series include LED backlights with localized dimming, Medi@2.0 with YouTube / Yahoo! widgets, built-in USB port, DLNA functionality, built-in DVB-T and DVB-C tuners, and most interesting, a wireless connection to an external media box that’s reportedly similar to Sony’s ZX1 — no word on whether or not that means it’s using WHDI. As for the other details, including pricing and availability, you’re gonna have to keep waiting, we’re afraid.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Samsung’s 46 and 55-inch B9000 HDTVs boast widgets, wireless external media box originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay Bandai, we get it. After over 50 years of making cheap toys and video games you want to show the world you can make overpriced stuff too. As if your $2,200 Ginza diorama wasn’t enough of a statement, now you’re producing a $525 box that lights up and blinks like a miniaturized monochrome disco floor. It’s called Project A.i.R., or Art In the Room, and it’s basically a 5 x 5 grid with blue LEDs covered by some sort of translucent fabric. Inside each square in the grid is a fan that makes the cloth billow, slightly increasing the brightness of that section of the grid. It’s an interesting effect for sure, but as you can see in the video below its functionality is somewhat… limited. But is it art?

[Via CrunchGear]

Continue reading Bandai’s Project A.i.R. is a $525 blue grid that blows up

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Bandai’s Project A.i.R. is a $525 blue grid that blows up originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Apr 2009 06:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba is back and ready to make good on some of the higher end HDTVs promised at CES, after showing off the energy efficient C8000 REGZA LCDs, it’s time for the 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio local dimming LED backlit ZX8000 (labeled SV670 in the U.S.) series. These also pack the latest edition of Super Resolution+ upconverting, ClearScan 240Hz motion and fifth generation Pixel Pure image processing. We’ve heard those picture quality claims and seen the (sometimes controversial) results before, but a few features anyone can appreciate are InstaPort HDMI for lagless switching between inputs and AutoView calibration for room lighting conditions. Add-on hard disk drives are also available, and the ZX8000 models are expected in late June / early July for 46- and 55-inch models topping out around 600,000 ($5,944.) Willing to live without LED backlighting, 240Hz or other bullet points? The ZH8000, Z8000 and H8000 models are ready and waiting for appropriately lower prices.

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Toshiba matches prices, ship dates to LED backlit REGZA LCDs in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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