Technabob » bowling

Zombie Bowling Balls: Heads Will Roll!

Technabob — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:44:32 +0000

It’s not often that you come across creative bowling balls. Sure, there was the time we had those Star Wars balls, but they didn’t even bother to make a Death Star ball. How lame is that? Somebody needs to get to work on that. One thing that is not at all lame are these awesome zombie head bowling balls.

Each hand-painted ball features a disfigured and decapitated zombie noggin, with plenty of gore oozing forth from the strategically-placed finger holes in their eye sockets, nostrils and mouths. The gashes on the back of their heads is a nice touch too.

The zombie bowling balls were created by Jung van Matt/Elbe ad agency to help promote Germany’s 13th Street horror/science-fiction television channel. These are the same guys behind the equally clever Stationery of Horror.

Even better yet, they went around to various bowling alleys, swapping out the standard balls for these. I would so play with these if I saw them at the local alley. If nothing else, I know what my accessory should be for my Halloween costume this year.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Thinng]

CTA Bowliing Ball for Kinect, Wiimote, Move Strikes Out

Technabob — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:56:36 +0000

We can always rely on the guys at CTA Digital to show up at CES with some goofy add-on for gaming consoles. This year is no different, and they’re showing a variety of silly business. My personal favorite (next to these inflatable karts for Mario Kart) is their bowling ball add-on for the various motion-controlled games out there.

This thing is rather ridiculous, especially the one for the Kinect, as it’s really just a plastic bowling ball with a wrist strap attached. At least the Wii version has controls built in, and the one for the PlayStation Move holds onto the controller.

Here’s a quick video clip I nabbed of the Kinect version in action.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Check out the incredible bowling skills of this CTA Digital employee as she knocks down a whopping one pin. At least she didn’t throw it through the screen.

Frankly, I don’t really get accessories like this. You can really only use them for a single game, and with the Kinect, you could just use an actual bowling ball if you wanted to be accurate. Just remember not to release it from your hand.

Earl, the Robotic Bowler

Technabob — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:49:45 +0000

I actually was pretty decent bowler when I was a kid, but on the rare occasion that I go bowling these days, I usually get a score that I’d rather have for my golf game. It would be cool to have have one of these robotic bowling machines to bring to the alley, so I could still beat my friends on a consistent basis.

EARL, the Enhanced Automated Robotic Launcher is, according to this video clip, “the single greatest piece of bowling technology known to man.” Hmmm. I thought the ball was the single greatest, followed closely by the pin.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As you can see, EARL takes on PGA bowler Chris Barnes, and manages to hold his own for the most part. However, EARL’s perfection is ultimately its Achilles’ heel. Since humans can make tiny corrections to make sure they’re not wearing down the same spot in the alley over and over again, Barnes manages to beat EARL by a score of 259 to 209. Still, that’s about double a “really good” game for me.

My favorite part of the video is where Barnes says (referring to EARL,) “the capabilities are fairly limitless.” Really? What else can this bowling ball-throwing robot do? Cure cancer? Turn around the economy? Eh, at least it can get a Turkey. That’s way more than I can pull off.

[via Adafruit Blog]

Bowling for Gnomes

Technabob — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:43:08 +0000

While this doesn’t really qualify as a techie gadget or a video game, I came across this quirky game and thought it was just too good to pass up.

Instead of knocking over some ordinary pins with this bowling game, you knock over a bunch of little plastic lawn gnomes. The set comes with 6 colorful plastic garden gnomes (10-inches tall each) and a couple of bright plastic bowling balls (one blue, one red) to knock ‘em down with.

While you could sneak around your block stealing your neighbors’ lawn ornaments and bowling them down with a regular bowling ball, this set lets you gnome bowl without breaking any laws. You can grab the set over on I Want One of Those for about $50.

The Bowling Pin Lamp

Technabob — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 14:37:25 +0000

Industrial designer Josh Owen has created this simple lighting fixture that’s cast in the shape of a bowling pin. The cool part is that it’s got a tilt sensor inside of it that turns off when the lamp is knocked over, and turns back on when stood upright.

While it would be really something if the lamps had the heft of a real bowling pin, these ones are made from plastic, and stand 15-inches tall, just like a regulation pin. The lamps run just $22 each, so you could set up an entire set of ten pins for $220 (assuming you have enough outlets!)

P.S.: I don’t recommend trying to knock these over with an actual bowling ball.

[via Spluch via Gizmodo]