The graphics on the side and front of the tiny cabinet are reminiscent of the ones on Space Invaders, and it’s got a little joystick and fire button for playing its rudimentary Invaders knock-off (called Earth Defenders) on its LCD screen. Each time you drop a coin in the bank (yes it can even be a penny) you’ll get 2 minutes of gameplay. As time ticks down, you’ll get a warning when you only have 30 seconds left so you can put another coin in the bank.

Sure, it’s not as cool looking as that official Space Invaders piggy bank from a few years back, but at $19.95 (USD), it’s also way cheaper than that one. You can grab the Arcade Piggy Bank over at Kleargear.

The billing system will use the same backend as in-app purchases. Developers will be able to set up the billing interval for subscription services and Google Play will handle the recurrence on the backend. Consumers will be able to login to their Google Play account and view their subscriptions as well as change them.

Apps requiring a subscription will have to state the price and the billing interval such as weekly, monthly, or yearly right on the app page so there aren’t any surprises for consumers. The subscription service is already being adopted by game developer Glu with a special currency subscription networks across any of the company’s games.

[via Android Developers]

I think it sounds cool enough to work for a video game company like Bethesda and it just got cooler. It’s like having a part of the game with you all day. And it looks amazing. This 25′ x 8.5′ wide recreation of Alduin’s Wall has been dedicated to the late Adam Adamowicz, an insanely talented game artist who designed the wall in Skyrim, and worked on Fallout 3 among other things.

Just look at that huge slab. Now that is art my friends. Awesome video game geek art. You can find more pics of this awesome thing over on Flickr.

[Bethesda Blog via Geekosystem]

Here Commander Steve, Play Video Back:

Which did you choose? The 240p, 360p, 480p or 720p version? Were you satisfied with the diversity of choices or enraged at the fact that you got the exact same video regardless of your choice? Should we sue Avemagnadude and YouTube for making the video that way?

[via Kotaku]

Most of vehicles in the pack are Porsche streetcars, but there are some notable racing cars. The expansion pack includes GT and GTC class vehicles that raced in the American Le Mans Series.

The expansion pack is available for download right now via Xbox Live. The cost for the 30-vehicle expansion pack is 1600 Microsoft points.

[via Gamasutra]

The mod was done by one Zachariah Perry Cruse. In case the old Xbox 360 model didn’t clue you in, Zach – can I call you Zach? – made this ages ago, 2010 A.D. to be exact. As you can see it has Famicom Iron Man’s colors, a 120GB hard drive marked ‘Stark Industries’ and its own light-up arc reactor. Because this is an old model let’s just imagine that the reactor is the only thing preventing the console from RROD’ing.

So where can you get one? From the guy who bought it. This kick-ass console was sold just a couple of days ago, which is as unbelievable as it is unfortunate for the rest of you who would’ve wanted to own one. I also saw a similar mod for the slim version of the Xbox 360 made by Major League Mods, but it seems that one’s been bought as well. I guess you’d be better off pulling a Tony Stark and make your own case mod. Or maybe not.

[via Zachariah Perry via GameTyrant]

The new Arcadie jumps into the iPhone arcade controller market with two key differences – one, it’s aiming for a reasonable price, and two, it skips Bluetooth, avoiding the battery drain for both iPhone and controller. It does this using a bit of “low tech” trickery, using a couple of pads and a series of wires which tap spots on the bottom of your gadget’s screen, rather than any sort of electronic connection. Clever – but I’m not sure how responsive or durable this setup will be.

The Arcadie looks like a miniature arcade cabinet, and comes complete with an 8-way joystick and a pair of buttons for your mashing pleasure. Just pop your iPhone or iPod Touch into the dock in the back of the Arcadie, flip it into place, and start playing. At this point, there are only a handful of games, but Zeon, the makers of the Arcadie say there will be “numerous games” from the App Store at launch for free. One thing to keep in mind is that the Arcadie intentionally shows only part of the iPhone’s screen, so games play in traditional arcade landscape orientation.

Looking on their website, there are at least six games planned – all of which are clones or similar to classic arcade games. I only wish that Apple would establish a standard API for third party controllers (at least up/down/left/right and buttons) – that way, all games could be compatible with all of these controllers. Oh well, I can dream, can’t I?

Zeon says they recently secured Apple approval, and will be releasing the Arcadie “very soon.” Pricing hasn’t been finalized, but they expect it to sell for just about £20/$30 (USD).

Currently, the rewards offered to Farmville players are limited, but it seems like they plan to add more. Signing up or converting an existing account will earn you $63(USD) of in-game money, and the first five purchases made with the card that are over $25(USD) will earn you 50 dollars in-game. Harvesting your money tree, adding money to the prepaid card, etc will earn you smaller amounts. So how many of you are getting a Farmville card?

[via Geekosystem]

These shoes were made by KyozoKicks, maker of custom footwear with art from games such as Phoenix Wright, Minecraft, Okami, Sonic and more. I actually like all of those more than this design, but unfortunately KyozoKicks isn’t selling those anymore.

The Twilight Princess Vans slip-ons are indeed for sale, but you better have a link to a fat wallet to cop a pair, because KyozoKicks is selling them for the grass-slashing, pot-breaking, chicken-throwing price of $195(USD).

[via Fashionably Geek]

If you want to make these yourself all you need is a sharp crafting knife, and be prepared to supervise your kids if you plan on letting them help. A sharp knife is being used after all. Check out Kate’s blog for the templates and directions.

[via Geek via Geeky-Gadgets]

These ear plugs were made by deviantART member Marcus Hermansson. For those of you interested, unfortunately he’s not interested in selling them. Maybe you can one-up him and plug actual parts from consoles into your lobes. +1 if you can fit an entire console in there.

Head to Hermannson’s gallery at deviantART for high resolution images, including a picture of his LED plugs, which lets him see in the dark as long as he swings his head from side-to-side.

[via Sprite Stitch]

What you’re looking at here is the Bioshock Mr. Potato Head – called Potato Daddy, or as I like to call him Mr. Bubbles Head.

This crazy creation is the work of one Ginger Troll, and is the perfect mashup between Bioshock’s Big Daddy and Mr. Potato Head.

I love how he still has the googley eyeballs from Mr. Potato Head, but wields that nasty killer drill. From the looks of things he’s even a little bigger than this Bouncer, so maybe he could take him on in a fight. Er, maybe not.

Check out more pics of Mr. Bubbles Head over on Ginger Troll’s Flickr stream.

[via Kotaku via Nerd Approved]

Conceived by Cuusoo contributor Zombieattack, these simple sets would let you recreate classic scenes from NES games including Mario, Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt, Balloon Fight, and others using a mix of standard and custom LEGO blocks.

Each set would produce a small diorama, with LEGO representing both pixels and individual characters and objects from the games. These sets sort of remind me of the dotgraph kits that Namco released a few years back.

If you’d like to see these made into actual LEGO sets you can buy, drop by LEGO Cuusoo and show your support. Personally, I’d pay good money just to have that blockheaded dog and some square ducks.

At its core, Incantor involves players casting a spell to defeat monsters or other players. Spells are cast via gestures made using the wand, which as I said communicates to the smartphone app via Bluetooth. It also has haptic feedback, so your hand will feel how a fireball feels like. Apparently it feels the same as getting a text message.

Another unique and possibly expensive feature of Incantor is that there are different types of wands – some deal direct damage, others heal or give status effects. Perhaps other wands can make wishes come true. If you’re interested, you should check out the Incantor blog for more details on the game’s mechanics. Get back to me if you see something about that wish granting wand.

Developer Movable Code is currently raising funds for Incantor on Kickstarter; a pledge of at least $100(USD) gets you a wand and a copy of the game, which will be available for both iOS and Android devices. Unfortunately, the prospects of the fundraiser reaching its goal of $100,000 seem slim at this point. As of this writing they’ve got 21 days to go and have only raised $7,277.

I’m no marketing wizard but I think it would have helped if they targeted kids instead. Children won’t give a damn about being seen in public waving a wand about, but older gamers might need to cast an invisibility spell beforehand.

[via TechCrunch]

The level is appropriately called Whimsyshire. It can only be reached by playing a game-long Easter Egg hunt of sorts. You’ll have to collect items and a plan as you play the game. Here’s footage of Sanctuary’s dreamland:

If you want to join in on the fun, BattleNet forum member Zerofire will tell you how to get to Whimsyshire. If only there was a secret offline single player level.

[via Destructoid]

The numbers refer to three of the most common errors that players encounter while trying to play the game. Personally I’ve only managed to play about 15 minutes of the game in two days, not that I incessantly tried logging in for the past 48 hours. To console myself I’m just imagining that no one at Blizzard talks to this guy anymore. They just give him cold stares whenever he’s around.

To the people who say we knew what we were in for: really? Instead of thinking that gamers should have expected this, I say Blizzard should have expected this. They did beta tests. They have experience with server load with World of Warcraft. They have a tally of pre-orders to work with. They have loads of money. How financially disastrous could it have been for them if they over prepared? “Jeez, we set up too many servers, now more people will be able to play. Can’t have that.”

I don’t care what reasons Blizzard has for not including an offline single player mode in Diablo III – DRM, preventing hacking and cheating, more profit from the Auction House – none of those “good” intentions matter if your users can’t play, which, correct me if I’m wrong, is kind of the point of a videogame.

[via Reddit]

Artist Lucy Sparrow of Felt Sew Good makes several cushions based on old Nintendo systems. For starters, theres a shiny Famicom controller, which looks like it would make a nice pillow behind your neck during long gaming sessions.

There’s also a Game Boy cushion as well as a Super Nintendo console along with a matching controller. What I love about these is that they’re not just tiny pillows – each one is quite substantial.

While those are all awesome, my favorite has to be the one based on the all-time classic controller from the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

Each cushion sells for £37 (~$59 USD) plus £7.50 (~$12 USD) for shipping to the U.S., and can be ordered over at Felt Sew Good’s online shop, where you can also find Lucy’s cool ZX Spectrum and Speak and Spell cushions. Cat ears not included.

[via r/SUATMM]

Regardless, a game with as much hype and cost as Diablo III should take a REALLY LONG time to beat. If this is really true, I guess the game is not as epic as many of us thought, which is a shame. Oh well. We have plenty of other games to play anyway.

[via Ubergizmo via Geeky-Gadgets]

I can also imagine that there are some very angry gamers out there when they tried to login to play the video game for the first time only to be greeted with error messages. Blizzard has acknowledged that some users have been getting an error 37 message when they try to login to play the game. Blizzard says if you’re getting that error message just give it some time and try again.

However, once gamers are able to login you aren’t guaranteed to be able to create a character play the game. Other errors are happening during the character creation phase of the game that have caused the game to crash kicking some people back to the login screen to start over again. Presumably, once launch day traffic dies down the servers will be more stable and gamers can play.

[via Geek.com]

It also comes with a mouse pad with a gimmick that only makes sense if you place the mouse on Mario or Luigi’s hands. Although judging from how cheap the mice are, I think you might need the mouse pad for traction anyhow. You can order the Koopa shell USB mouse from NCSX for about $31 (USD). It comes in red and green. Because a blue shell would destroy you and anyone you ever loved.

[via Wonderland]