Hasta La Gadget!

Art games on consoles tend to be unpopular creations, Mario Paint about the only one to even approach retail success, but maybe all they needed was a proper input method. That’s what THQ is hoping, at least, announcing the uDraw GameTablet for the Nintendo Wii. It’s a chubby, pencil-like stylus tethered to a tablet that connects wirelessly to the console thanks to the Wiimote that slots right in. The tablet comes with a drawing game called uDraw Studio, while THQ is also working on an artsy platformer called Dood’s Big Adventure and a digital version of Pictionary, which could be this thing’s killer app. (You can catch a glimpse of them all in action in the video after the break.) The tablet will cost $69.99 when it ships by the end of the year, while games will be a rather more affordable $29.99. THQ also promises more games to come through 2011, but we’re guessing their release is somewhat contingent on just how many little Picassos find these in their stockings this holiday season.

Continue reading THQ’s uDraw GameTablet is like a Wacom for Wii (video)

THQ’s uDraw GameTablet is like a Wacom for Wii (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, gamers — time to fess up. Even if you’re a self-proclaimed new schooler, there’s no way you’re passing up the option to flash back to yesteryear in order to play GoldenEye 007 the way it was meant to be played. The Wii remake of the game actually doesn’t look all that different than the original when it comes to polygon count, but for those who aren’t keen on taking control of Pierce Brosnan (let us dream, okay?) with a Wiimote, there’s the gilded Classic Controller Pro. The limited run controller itself is a familiar beast, but rather than being coated in a standard black hue, this one will be doused in much the same color as 007’s Golden Gun. It’ll reportedly ship later this year within a “Classic Edition” game + accessory bundle for $69.99 (a $20 upcharge over the software alone), but it’s still unclear if it’ll be available as a standalone peripheral. Not like it matters — you know you’re buying this game, anyway.

Continue reading Wii Classic Controller Pro gets gilded for revamped GoldenEye 007

Wii Classic Controller Pro gets gilded for revamped GoldenEye 007 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on January 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

There is no doubt that the Wii causes enough damage as it is from arms being whipped through the air as excitement builds in a game. Heck, there is even a site, Wii Have A Problem, that is dedicated to sharing everyone’s stories on how they got injured or what objects they have broken. All of this commotion comes from one little video game system that has motion sensitive controllers.

So now Engadget decided to go all out and assemble the Wii console into a laptop…thereby forming the ultimate weapon. I’ll get into that in a second, but first checkout this video of the Wii laptop:

It has everything from a 7-inch screen to a built-in power supply, which gives you nearly everything you need to play your favorite Wii games no matter where you are. So what’s the problem? Swinging arms! I could only imagine the number of people that would get hurt when they are on a airplane or a bus traveling somewhere with a portable system like this. With the Wii controllers it would feel natural to swing your arms and I’m sure it would be tough to hold yourself back. Thank goodness this isn’t a mass-produced device.

I do have to admit that this “laptop” was very well designed and they plan on revealing all of the juicy design details next Tuesday. With the Wii’s small size the whole package measures just 8.5 x 7.7 x 2-inches, but what I really want to know is how much it weighs. Maybe they’ll divulge that detail later on.

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If you aren’t thrilled about 3-D movies or 3-D TV, how about a 3-D smartphone? Sharp say sit will have a 3-D cellphone out by the end of the year that doesn’t require consumers to wear special glasses.

The phone will also include a 3-D camera module, a Sharp spokesperson told Reuters.

A 3-D phone from Sharp is likely to include the same kind of display that the company has shown on the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console. The 3DS has a 3.5-inch display that lets consumers hold the device up and perceive 3-D images using the idea a parallax barrier. The technique uses a layer that’s placed over an LCD screen to produce the feeling of depth by directing slightly different images to each eye.

As cellphone processors become more powerful and telecom carriers introduce 4G networks capable of transporting more data, companies are looking at 3-D as a way to differentiate and excite consumers. In 2009, Japanese wireless carrier KDDI started selling the first commercially available 3-D cellphone called the Hitachi Woo. More than 300,000 devices were sold in in just a few weeks.

Last month, MasterImage 3-D, a Burbank, California, company that makes 3-D displays told Wired.com that it is talking to almost all major handset makers in the U.S. about offering 3-D display to consumers. The first 3-D cellphone could be available in the United States next year, says MasterImage.

Sharp hopes to beat that. But it needs better luck with the planned 3-D phone that has had with the Kin–the last much-hyped cellphone that was manufactured by Sharp.

See Also:

• 3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses
• 3-D PCs Will Make a Splash at Computex
• 3-D Goes DIY With Amateur Photos, Videos
• 3-D: Coming Soon to a Cellphone Near You
• Next-Gen Cellphones Will Run 1080p Video and 3D Games

Photo: (Josh Hill/Flickr)

While Xbox Kinect may soon make controllers obsolete, allowing us to flail around in front of our TVs to play video games, some young DIYers couldn’t wait until November to go hands-free. So they modded an old-school Nintendo with some extra gear that allows them to play Super Mario Bros just by moving their eyes.

The group that created the eye-tracking hack is Waterloo Labs, an Austin, Texas-based engineer collective. But unlike Kinect, their version isn’t wireless. The mod tethers a player to the NES with electrodes attached around their eyes, which read the movement of the player’s eyeballs. Because our eyes are polarized with a negative charge in the rear and a positive charge in the front, when they move, the electrical field around them changes.

The electrodes detect these changes and send a signal back to a custom daughtercard mounted on a circuit board that filters and amplify the signal produced by the player’s eyes darting back and forth, allowing them to control Mario. So if you look up, Mario will jump, if you look left that’s where he’ll run.

In addition to the video of them playing (badly) with their eyes, Waterloo has additional videos on their Youtube page that shows in more detail how they built the mod, so you can try it at home, if you’ve got the skills.

But it’s likely that if you do make the NES mod, it’ll be much like the Wii. In other words, everyone will think it’s cool, your friends will all want one, and within a month it’ll sit dormant by your TV, never to be played again.