Hasta La Gadget!

If you have a Motorola Droid, a Motorola BackFlip, or an LG Ally, and you love to play video games on your phone, you’ll want to get your hands on the Game Gripper. It’s an attachment for the keyboard of your phone that turns it into a full gamepad, complete with directional pad and discrete buttons for different actions. The buttons on the Game Gripper match up with individual buttons on your phone’s keyboard, so you can map them to functions in your favorite game and then attach the game gripper to play.

Each button has a discrete switch under it so you’re not pressing two buttons on your keyboard with one press on the Game Gripper.  The Game Gripper fits snugly over your phone’s keyboard, and is designed for people who want to load up an emulator on their phone and play some old NES and SNES games.

Right now the Droid, BackFlip, and Ally are the only supported phones, but the creators are working on models for the Devour and N900, and welcome requests for additional phones. The Game Gripper comes in a number of colors and styles, and retails for $14.99. You can buy additional buttons for $3.99.  

A portable Xbox 360? Surely this is a job for Ben Heck. A company called Gaems (pronounced “Games”) is looking to get into that racket too–but without ripping out the console’s guts. The company has designed a brief case-like carrying case for Microsoft’s console. Open it up, and you’ve got a playable system, complete with built-in monitor.

The case is still unnamed; a representative from the company told me that it is running a contest to choose a name. The winner gets a final version of the box, complete with an Xbox 360. The product that in the booth was also, apparently, a prototype. I’m told the final version will look much cooler.

Gaems is also reportedly working on a new case for the slimmer version of the console. I’m betting the smaller Xbox will make the company’s life a lot easier, in terms of portability. And the company is looking to create a version with a built-in battery, making for true portability. I remarked that you can’t take this thing camping, but the rep insisted that you could, using the company’s car charger.

The unnamed full-size version is slotted for a fall release.

A lot of memorable events occurred at E3 this week. But strangely, this is one image that is going to stick with me.

Actually, the bizarre Wii accessories dreamed up by third parties has been something of a quirky highlight of the show for the past several years. And this year, the inflatable racecar from CTA Digital is either the best or the worst–I can’t say for sure.

It’s best in the sense that, well, look at it, it’s a big blowup racecar that you can sit in while you’re playing the Wii–adults and children alike, though like the perennial favorite racecar bed, it’s likely to be a bit awkward for anyone over the age of 10.

It’s potentially the worst in the sense that the car itself doesn’t seem to do anything. It’s not a rumble seat. The Wiimote does slip into the steering wheel, which turns, so there’s that.

This bizarre accessory is compatible with Mario Kart Wii, Need for Speed, and, let’s face it, pretty much any driving game, because, as mentioned above, it doesn’t actually do anything…

Amazon job posting hints at ‘completely new’ video game technology originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony today became last of the big three gaming companies show off its wares with a pre-show E3 press conference. The event, held at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, followed yesterday’s Microsoft Xbox press conference and this morning’s Nintendo event, which ended an hour and a half before Sony was scheduled to begin.

The Sony event was a stark contrast to Nintendo’s in a number of ways. First and perhaps most symbolically was the fact that the company handed out pairs of Real-D 3D glasses at the door, less than two hours after Nintendo’s CEO finished making fun of such eyewear with the launch of the 3DS. The event was also decidedly dark (quiet literally) and much louder than the recently wrapped up Nintendo event.

Over the course of nearly two hours, Sony paraded through a number of parternships, game announcements, and online rollouts, but the real focus of the event was Sony aforementioned push toward 3D entertainment and the company’s forthcoming Move controllers, which made their debut, unnamed, at last year’s show.

The event kicked off with a demonstration of 3D. Sony computer entertainment group CEO Kazuo Hirai showcased 3D demos of forthcoming titles Killzone 3 and EA’s Crysis 2. Hirai promised that, “What Avatar did for 3D movies, [games like] Killzone will do for 3D games.” A number of other titles including MLB 10 the Show, The Fight Lights Out, Mortal Kombat Fatality, Gran Turismo 5, and The Sly Collection will also be available in 3D.

With the PlayStation Move, Sony enters the world of motion-based gaming, alongside Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s forthcoming Kinect. Sony insisted that the device is the most precise motion controller out there, offering up the possibility of adding motion control to the non-casual gaming market (Sony spokesman Kevin Butlet used his appearance on stage to take more than a few digs at Microsoft’s Kinect).

A number of titles, including Brunswick Bowling, The Fight Lights Out, Sports Champion, Start the Party, Singstar Dance, Heroes on the Move, TV Superstars, Socom4, Time Crisis, The Shoot, Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, Aragorn’s Quest, and Tron will be compatible with the device. Some 15-20 will be available at launch.

The move will run $49.99 for the wand, $29.99 for the button controller, $99 for both with a game, and $399 with a PlayStation console and game.