All Entries Tagged With: "games"

Computers Know Everything, Even How To Avoid Landmines

Sick of military games showing children even wilder ways to kill? A new game, Landmine Lookout, goes the other way, teaching young lads in war-torn countries how to help keep everyone alive.
Developed by students and faculty from Michigan State University (MSU), the game looks to educate children on the finer points of avoiding unexploded landmines. Obviously not for the majority of people, it’s designed for use in areas ravaged by years of wars, with landmines intended to catch enemies still littering now-public locations.
How drastic is the need to educate people on landmines? According to the United Nations Mine Action Service, as many as 20,000 people are either killed or injured in landmine-related accidents worldwide. In countries like Cambodia, which literally went through decades of civil war, millions of landmines are estimated to remain buried under soil, waiting unattended and ready to claim their next victims.
The [...]

Use Your Nintendo DS As A DSLR Controller With The Open Camera Controller Project

Finally, hardcore photography and hardcore gaming converge. The unlikely pairing comes courtesy of HDR Labs’ Open Camera Controller Project, which turns an old Nintendo DS into a powerful, open-source DSLR controller.
Why the DS? Because it’s touchscreen, portable and carry a full eight hours of battery life. Take that, iPhone. J/K we still love you too. With physical buttons and dual displays, it probably does lend itself to being a better camera remote than other options too, doesn’t it?
The Open Camera Controller actually makes up for a lack in the market – that of a programmable OS for high-end cameras. Pros, after all, tend to want more than what comes with the box and this DS hack ably fills in for that. Originally developed for Canon cameras, it provided a way to shoot HDR images for film production, overcoming the platform’s limits for shot bracketing. [...]

NES Harmonicas Let You Play Zelda And Mario Cartridges Without A Console


How do you play games without a console? Well you don’t. In the case of these NES Harmonicas currently selling on eBay, you actually play the cartridge itself.
Yep, it’s harmonica hardware crammed into a gutted-out NES cartridge. It’s supposed to play just like a regular free-reed instrument, except you’re blowing down the butt of a broken game instead of a slab of rectangular plastic or steel. The mod is also nothing new, with the original tutorial for putting a “Harmonesica” together (and whoever made the ones on auction followed it to the letter) published by Monthenorium way back in 2008.
The three functional instruments being auctioned on eBay, however, are all pre-assembled for your convenience. All you have to do is blow your cheeks out and carry a tune (easier said than done, of course, if you’re terrible at music). Three NES Harmonica cartridges are [...]

Power Gig Does Rhythm Gaming With Real Guitars

Not a fan of the way Guitar Hero and Rock Band have dumbed down playing music to the level of button mashing? Then you may find Power Gig: Rise of the SixString refreshing, as it delivers a real six-string experience to the music gaming genre.
Announced at the start of the Game Developers Conference earlier today, the novel approach comes courtesy of Seven45 Studio, who develop and publish the game, as well as manufacture their own controller for it. Like other music-based titles in the market, Power Gig allows four player support with voice, guitars, drums and bass. Unlike them, however, the peripheral is a completely playable guitar.

An early version of the game was shown off at the conference, along with the prototype controller. The default mode of the game supposedly plays much like Rock Band and their ilk, where you match notes shown on the screen [...]

7-In-1 Rotating Game Table Puts An Entire Game Room In A Single Rig

Looking to stock your game room with a good amount of tabletop games?  Look no further than the 7-in-1 Rotating Game Table, which bundles seven classic tabletop fares in a single rig.  And they’re no lousy roll-the-dice board games either.
Instead, you get fully-functional foosball, ping-pong, air hockey, backgammon and pool tables, each occupying an entire panel of the rotating surfaces.  There are also smaller games, chess and checkers, together on one side to round out the package.  Simply put, this is a real gaming rig with competitive games you will actually want to play.

Boasting fiber board and plastic construction, topped off with a modern design, the 7-in-1 Rotating Game Table should fit right in with any room of your house.  No repeated assembly and disassembly required – simply rotate to other games once you get bored of one playing surface.  It comes with all the accoutrements needed for each game, [...]

Even Drunks Need To Pass Time Too – The Tavern Puzzle Collection

Don’t be alarmed.  While the above photo looks like your creepy neighbor’s S&M collection at first glance, it’s really not.  Instead, it’s the drunk-worthy Tavern Puzzle Collection, a set of steel-clad brain teasers that’s bound to send alcohol-addled brains into an even worse frenzy.
Made up of beads, chains and rings of all sorts (making the S&M confusion a bit understandable), each mindbender challenges you to find a way to unhook the metal rings from inside the convoluted contraption.   Four different puzzles come with each set, consisting of varying levels of difficulty, namely the classic Bottoms Up, intermediate Clef Hanger, difficult U-Turn and the brain-melting Long Island Catch.
Each piece is made out of 6mm steel, with the beads built from wood.  It ships with a similarly-constructed puzzle perch rack with brass mounts and hooks, so you can hang the games when your inebriated friends are already drooling on their stools, unable [...]

Cryptic Canvas Clues You In On Empire Magazine’s 50 Favorite Films

Empire Magazine is celebrating their 20th year anniversary and, among other things, created a “Where’s Waldo”-type game made to commemorate the occasion.  Called the Cryptic Canvas, it involves a painting with 50 visual puns on their favorite films of the last two decades – find the clues, identify the movies and don’t win a prize.  Yes, it’s just a fun time-waster if you’re into cinemas and such.
Basically, you’ll have to look at the painting and find images that correspond to a movie.  When you guess a title right, the text box turns green and the particular image dims. The clues aren’t that hard, as long as you’ve carefully paid attention to the last 20 years of cinema.    If you’re like me, who pretty much didn’t care, I reckon your score will be near the same paltry 11 answers I got correct.
To play, simply click on any image in the canvas [...]

Family Road Trips Can Be Fun!

Ever since the invention of in-car televisions and DVD players road trips have been surprisingly quiet for parents.  However, there are so many times your kids can watch ‘The Little Mermaid’ without their brain eventually rotting inside their head from underuse.
From now on, make sure they occasionally use those noggins with the Family Road Trip.  This may not keep things quite as serene as the latest kid’s movie on the tiny little television screen in your mini-van, but it will keep your kids having fun for hours.
The Family Road Trip includes games such as The License Plate Game, I Spy, Travel Scavenger Hunt, and seven other classic travel games.  The kit also includes twenty five quiz questions to gear up that gray matter, and 25 conversation starters like “What is your favorite souvenir you have brought back from vacation?” and “If you were captain of a cruise ship, what would [...]