The idea is that you are chasing Smithers and Mr. Burns to save Maggie as you battle through eight familiar Springfield locations. Are you guys going to buy this one? Let us know in the comments.

[via Major Nelson]

For starters, there’s the new iCade Mobile, which enshrouds your iPhone 4, 4S or iPod Touch with a proper D-pad and gaming buttons. This should be great for playing arcade games on the go, especially ones better suited to a gamepad than a touchscreen. ION expects about 100 games to be compatible with iCade Mobile by the time it launches.

It adds about 1-1/2″ inches on each side of your iPhone, so it is a bit wide, but those added sections provide ergonomic gripping areas which seem make sense. The gadget works in either landscape or portrait modes too, although it does look a little funky in portrait mode.

If you’re thinking more about classic arcade gaming, then check out the iCade Jr., a miniature version of the popular iCade arcade cabinet, stuck in the shrinker ray for your iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s basically a mini version of the iCade, though it only has four buttons on front, instead of eight. It also has four “rear trigger buttons,” though I’m not sure what those look like or what purpose they serve.

Last, but not least is the iPad-compatible iCade Core, which takes the same arcade quality joystick and eight buttons found on the original iCade, and does away with the cabinet. Sure, it doesn’t look as cool as the iCade, but it’ll likely sell for quite a bit less than the $100 original. ION also announced that Namco’s Pac-Man for iPad is now compatible with iCade – and I can’t think of a more perfect game for it.

All three devices use Bluetooth to communicate with their respective iOS devices. ION Audio is showing off all three at this week’s CES show, and expects to release them sometime in 2012. The iCade Mobile will retail for $79.99 (USD). Prices haven’t been announced yet for the other models.

This 100% cotton quilt was made by David McFarling (aka “McFrogling“) and it features the likeness of DK himself, Jumpman (not officially known as Mario at that point), and the damsel in distress (definitely not Princess Peach.) The pixelated characters are placed into a larger-than-life setting of girders and broken ladders, just like in the arcade game.

It measures in at 60″ x 58″ and definitely would look good on a full size bed (or probably a queen too), so this isn’t just for the little kid’s room. I like how Kong id dropping a barrel nowhere near the plumber, so he hasn’t had to whip out the sledgehammer yet. On the other hand, it looks like the only ladder up is broken, so his chances of reaching his ladyfriend are pretty darned slim. Oh well, it wasn’t designed for its gameplay accuracy? Creative license and all, right?

If you want to cover you bed with some Donkey Kong goodness, head on over to Etsy, where you can order it up for $175(USD). While you’re there, hop on over and check out McFrogling’s just as fun Frogger and Super Mario quilts.

These bras are completely washable and have been thoroughly tested. You can wear it as an everyday bra if you want. Bra sizes apparently include all of the USA Standard Bra Sizes. For ladies with really big power pellets, maybe they can make you a special Super Pac-Man bra from the game where our hero was giant.

It’s just $29.99(USD) from Rainbowkidshop on Etsy. If you have to cover them up, you might as well do it with Pac-Man.

[Reddit via Fashionably Geek via Geeksaresexy]

Europeans have had this arcade stick for a little while, and now it’s our turn here in the States. As you can see it features several characters from the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 game on the base of the controller itself. Each one has an arcade-quality joystick, eight gaming buttons, and a turbo function. The Xbox 360 version also has a connector for newer headsets.

The Hori Fight Stick for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $149.99(USD). You can get one from Hori’s US website. It’s a bit late for Christmas, but hell, you deserve one last gift.

[via Capcom and Ubergizmo]

Mad Dog McCree is just $4.99(USD) from the iTunes App Store and it even has some remastered game footage. Though there’s nothing you could do to fix the horrible acting and dialogue.

[via Joystiq]

I love these drinkUP coasters which look like giant versions of classic arcade buttons. They look just like those concave Happ buttons you’d find on your favorite arcade machines.

They come packaged in sets of four coasters, and are available in either a four-color pack, or with buttons for 1 through 4-player modes. Why not buy a set of each? You can order them over at Surface Tension, where they sell for £9.99 a set, or £17.99 for both sets including UK shipping, and £12.99 (~$20 USD) a set, or £21.99 (~$35 USD) for both including shipping outside of the UK.

This real-world version of OutRun was built by a guy named Gustavo. It has little cars which speed down an endless-loop racetrack as the driver steers to avoid obstacles. The controller has a steering wheel from an R/C car, and miniature gas and brake pedals you can control with your fingertips. A scrolling backdrop contains the obstacle cars, while your vehicle is on a motorized track that moves it side to side. LEDs and photosensors are used to detect when your car reaches the edges, and magnetic sensors detect when you’ve collided with another vehicle. Here’s a video showing Gustavo’s analog OutRun game in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The funny thing about this is that SEGA’s 1960s arcade game Grand Prix was actually analog, and used similar mechanical principles, as you can see in the video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Microsiervos (ES) via FaseExtra (ES)]

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

If you love classic arcade or Atari 2600 games and own an iPad (and don’t own an iCade), you must check this out. It is available directly from Discovery Bay Games and Target today and in Apple Stores and Toys R Us starting in November.

Turns out, he was pulling a different kind of all-nighter, at the an Internet cafe located near the school, that is. I don’t think the Laundry Arcade Concept is targeted only to people who are like him, but I’m sure he’d be ecstatic with this design by Lee Wei Chen.

Basically, the Laundry Arcade works like this: you put your dirty stuff into the washing machine, insert some coins, and start playing. As long as you’re still alive in the game, your laundry will keep tumbling. When you run out of lives, you need to put it more coins to resume the game (and resume doing your laundry.)

I don’t think this will be a hit for those who are in a hurry to do their laundry, but it is a fun way to get the younger ones to do their laundry.

[via Design Week via Dvice ]

That’s right, what we have here turns your iPad into an old time Space Invaders arcade cabinet. The cabinet may only have one button and a ball-top joystick for your gaming, but it also offers a charging dock with stereo speakers and a headphone jack. This looks like a must-buy for Space Invader geeks like me.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It will hit Japan on October 11. We have no idea if or when it will arrive on our shores. Unfortunately, the launch price for our Japanese friends works out to be about $205 (USD). Yes, that is more than twice the price of the iCade and Atari’s offering is expected to be  just $60. Both have more buttons. You are really paying for that Space Invaders branding. They may have to lower the price to compete, unless Space Invaders loving geeks are richer than I thought.

[@johnnyram via GameSetWatch via TUAW]

Turns out that there is a new iPad-compatible joystick in the works, which you can use to play all those classic arcade and Atari 2600 games in the aforementioned collection. Now you already know that there’s been an arcade joystick out for a while now called the iCade, which has awesome retro arcade looks, but is also quite pricey (at $100).

The Duo stick does away with iCade’s fancy arcade cabinet design, instead going for a minimal look that’s likely to keep the price much lower. Due to its open-air design, it’s also likely to do a better job at supporting both landscape and portrait modes than the iCade can.

While I love my iCade, I have to say that I’m totally bummed out that there aren’t yet more games that take advantage of it – and I really want a trackball and spinner controller for many of the games anyhow. But if you’re looking for a way to play those joystick-based classics, and don’t want to break the bank, you might want to keep an eye out for the Atari Arcade Duo Joystick over at Discovery Bay Games. No word yet on a release date or pricing, but there’s no way it could be as expensive as the iCade.

If you are on the Android platform and like Tetris you can hop over to the Android Market right now and get a copy of the game for free. The free version of the game has the familiar music you remember from the original and features the marathon game mode as well.

The game uses touchscreen controls where you rotate and slide the parts around using your fingers. Tetris Free also stores your scores so you can compete against yourself and others online.

The Elecman (From Mega Man) cabinet was created using a Boardwalk bank from Toys r Us. That one vibrates and has LEDs, but won’t shock you. Although these look full sized, this one is just 9-10 inches tall.

The Mario Ironclaw game features all kinds of cool toys inside and was made the same way. The coolest of the trio is the Wario cabinet. Just ask him for your fortune. Your fortune is simple by the way, Wario says that he is going to win.

I wish they had stuff like this on boardwalks today. Too completely awesome. Check out all of the details on Kody Koala’s site.

The Pacmania bowl looks like the perfect thing for munching down on your favorite snacks and desserts – especially cherries, pretzels and the occasional key or Galaxian spaceship. It was designed on a whim by Christopher Locke, and is only a concept at this point. But that doesn’t make it any less awesome. Sure, the green and purple Pac-men aren’t exactly color-matched to the original, and I don’t remember Pac-Man having stubby little corgi legs, but that’s part of the fun, IMHO.

Chris needs to hook up with someone like Suck UK or Fred & Friends (who already produce cool licensed Pac-Man garb) and get his design produced. I’d fill my entire cupboard with a bunch, as I’m sure many a retro game geek would too.

If you like Chris’ Pacmania bowl, be sure to head over to his page on Behance and show your appreciation!

The game uses a dot-matrix receipt printer, hacked to continuously print out a road, while a player uses a controller to keep a light beam (representing the car) in the center of the course. One wrong move, and the printer stops. Of course if you run out of the 50-meter roll of paper, it’s Game Over too.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Joshua Noble, Martin Fuchs, and Philip Whitfield (aka “undef”) built the game as part of the CreativeApplications.Net workshop at Barcelona’s digital culture OFFF festival. There’s a web-based version of the game over at undef’s website, but it’s not nearly as cool as the printer-based version in the video above. Of course, the game does seem just a little wasteful, with all the paper and ink that it consumes. I wonder what other games could be reproduced this way – pretty much any top-down or side-scroller with obstacles could work

[via Nerdcore via Neatorama]

Made over in the UK by Steven C. Gauntley of Retro Heart, these miniature machines are each handcrafted from wood with custom vinyl graphics, and sheets of acetate for the “glass” tops of the pinball tables and fronts for some of the video games. In all, he’s made over 100 different machines, and continues to add to the collection. Check out a bunch of my favorites in the gallery below:

I was always a pushover for Paperboy and Burgertime, but I have to say that the pinball tables are really great too – gotta love The Simpsons. Each machine is built in a limited-edition, at 1/12th scale. To put that in perspective, both the pinball machines and arcade cabinets stand about 6 inches tall. It’s just too bad you can’t actually play any of these. But then again, my fingers aren’t that small.

The arcade cabinets sell for £14.99 to £19.99 (~$24 to $32 USD) each, and the pinball machines go for £24.99 (~$40 USD) a piece, while the extremely special Star Wars cockpit sells for £39.99 (~$65 USD). Steven also offers a substantial discount for orders of 10 arcade cabinets or 5 pinball machines. Plus, if you’re looking for that special machine you just couldn’t get enough of, Steve will do custom orders too. Ready to build out your miniature dream arcade? Just head on over to Retro Heart and get started.

Perhaps the biggest design flaw of the Virtual Boy (besides the strange red on black graphics) was the cheap stand it shipped with. To cure the latter problem, modder Tighe Lory decided to build an upright arcade machine with the Virtual Boy built right in.

Tighe got his inspiration from the periscope-style display and dual joystick design of Atari’s Battlezone. I can only imagine the full-size joysticks being an improvement over the D-Pads on the Virtual Boy controller. The Virtual Boy is mounted on an adjustable height rail, so it can be used by people of varying heights, too.

Other parts of the skinny cabinet come from an old Simpsons arcade machine, along with custom vinyl graphics from a guy named Ed (aka Kawydud). Ed, you did good. The graphics are what really push this thing over the top.

The cabinet even features a plaque, dedicating the build to Yokoi Gunpei, creator of the Virtual Boy and the majority of its games, as well as a little system known as the Game Boy (and before it Nintendo Game & Watch). Yokoi could be considered the father of modern handheld gaming.

Here’s a video clip that shows a little more of the Virtual Boy arcade cabinet in action:

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You can read more about the build over at Tighe’s blog as well as on KLOV, and view the complete Virtual Boy arcade gallery over on Picasa.

[via Ben Heck Forums]

What you’re looking at here is a custom replacement light switch made from arcade push buttons. I’m not quite sure how the guys at AlephDesign managed to make these work, since arcade buttons are springy and don’t lock into place, but they say that they’re fully functional.

I like the idea of these for sure, although I’m not a big fan of the yellow and blue color combo shown here. Thankfully, you can request buttons in your choice of colors. Personally, I’d just like red and white. Or even better, I’d love to get those ones with the one player and two player icons on them but I’m not sure if they can get those for you. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

To order yours, head on over to AlephDesign’s Etsy shop, where they’re selling these for $25 (USD) each. I don’t recommend that you try and do any combo moves on these buttons unless you want to blow through a whole mess of lightbulbs.

The tiny Skee-Ball machine looks just like the arcade original, only smaller. It measures just 22″ (h) x 16″(w) x 30″ (l) and weighs 25 pounds. It’s even got tiny little wooden balls for you to shoot into those elusive cups. The cabinet is built from MDF, steel, PVC, and Plexiglas. Under the hood of Sam’s build is an Arduino controller, responsible for calculating scores, playing sound effects, and spitting out tickets for winners.

See it in action in the video clip below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Best thing about this build is that you can own it. It’s currently up for auction over on eBay with a starting bid of $500 (USD) and a Buy-it-Now price of $1200. Check out Sam’s complete build log in video form over on YouTube.

[via Make:]