Games
The two-hundred and ninety-five feet (ninety meter) tall Building 54 on MIT's Cambridge campus has become the canvas for a number of carefully planned and daringly executed visual displays over the years, not strictly allowed by the administration but often looked upon with some appreciation. The building is home to the Institute's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science (EAPS) and has a host of meteorological instruments and radio communications equipment on its roof - but its the grid-like windows to the front that have become the main attraction to hackers, as they are known. The latest hack is the successful realization of a long-standing challenge, a huge playable game of Tetris. Read More
Being lovers of style, comfort and technology, you've doubtless already decked your living room out with a multimedia sofa and a recliner with a built-in sound system. Perhaps you've even gone to the trouble of hiding your plasma TV behind a nice art print or surrounding it in a home-theater-like frame. If you're now a tad underwhelmed by that functional, but otherwise rather dull, coffee table, then we may have something to bring a smile to your face. Furniture maker Charles Lushear has supersized the brick-like controller from Nintendo's iconic 8-bit gaming system launched in the mid-1980s, swapped the cold plastic for the elegance of wood and positioned some mid 20th century legs underneath to make a fully operational Nintendo Controller Coffee Table. Read More
German gaming peripheral specialist ROCCAT Studios has developed a new system which leverages smartphone technology to enhance the experience of PC gaming. As well as being able to use a smartphone to store and activate gameplay buttons, Power-Grid technology also allows users to wirelessly control PC settings from the mobile device, display vital system performance data and keep in touch with the real world - all while staying fully absorbed in the game. Read More
TheO Ball lets you get physical with your smartphone
Playing with your phone just got a little more physical, with TheO Ball. The foam ball is designed to hold your phone within its cushioned grasp, allowing you to literally throw your phone around to play games without fear of damage. Created by PhysicalApps, the idea behind TheO Ball is to get you moving rather than sitting around while playing games with your phone. The company recently showed off the ball and a few games it has developed specifically to use alongside it, at the 2012 Toy Fair in NYC. Read More
A recently published patent application indicates that Sony may be working on a Kinect-like 3D depth-sensing device for PlayStation. If Sony follows through with development of such a device, it will no doubt be looking to make up some ground lost to Microsoft, whose release of the Kinect in November 2010, overshadowed the release of Sony’s PlayStation Move just a month earlier. Read More
"Which Catalan postmodernist architect, known for his monumental buildings, said: 'Through my buildings, I want to receive the kind of adulation usually reserved for pop stars?'" If a night in round the kitchen table with five architecture enthusiasts answering questions like this doesn't appeal, you may wish to read no further. This is just one question from the Modern Architecture Boardgame from NEXT Architects, which pits fans of all things built and beautiful against one another, as they take it in turns to don the iconic round spectacles of Le Corbusier in the ultimate architectural trivia nerd-off. But which buildings do its six iconic playing pieces represent? Inquiring minds want to know. Read More
The rumor mill has been spinning about the next-generation XBox for some time, but Tuesday and Wednesday of this week saw first IGN, and then Kotaku, reveal what appears to be the first non-gaseous (if not concrete-solid) information from inside sources as to the machine's spec. It seems that the console (not officially called the 720, but the placeholder is convenient) will, IGN reports, be approximately six times as powerful as the current generation of consoles. Kotaku says the device will play Blu-Ray discs, and herald the arrival of Kinect 2. Worryingly, it also reports that there's a possibility that the machine will prevent owners from playing pre-owned games. Read More
Ion Audio is to add a new handheld controller for iPhone and iPod Touch to its iCade mini arcade line, along with two scaled-down versions of its original controller cabinet for the iPad, which started life as an April Fool prank. Currently on show at the company's booth at CES 2012, the iCade Mobile, iCade Core and iCade Jr. offer mobile gamers the chance to play it old school using physical buttons and a four-way controller or joystick instead of the touchscreen. Read More
60beat GamePad brings console-like controls to iDevices
While the success of Apple’s iDevices has prompted a swathe of games perfectly suited to a touchscreen interface, many types of games suffer when making the transition from a controller-based interface. As a result we’ve seen a number of peripherals designed to add a physical controller to iOS devices, such as the GameBone Pro, iControlPad and low-tech JOYSTICK-IT. Those looking for a slightly more traditional input device for their mobile gaming needs now have another product to consider in the form of the 60beat GamePad. Read More
iStencyl lets you create and sell iOS games without knowing any code
Who says you need to now how to write code in order to create and sell your own iOS game? iStencyl is a program designed to allow you to create your web and iOS games without having any coding experience. The system lets you develop entire games using its block builder rather than code, however, it does support Objective-C for those who are code-savvy. Read More
