If you think about it, Solid Snake can’t really be anything but Chaotic Good. But I’m sure some of the other entries will ignite forums and websites with warring geeks, disputing the accuracy of the assignments. Oh, Nakabeast, you thought you were merely making a fun poster, didn’t you? You don’t know what you’ve started.

For example, a bunch of jokesters at Reddit point out that Link bashes pots, steals from shops and beats up helpless poultry and so he can’t be Lawful Good. Also, how the heck does Koopa embody Lawful Evil? Download the full-sized version at Nakabeast’s deviantART page, grab some food and drinks and your AD&D rulebooks, and start debating!

[via Reddit via GoNintendo via Level Select]

Watch MsFrizzyHair flutin’ out on Avenged Sevenfold’s Afterlife on Expert. Yeah weird choice right? But is there a song in Rock Band that would go well with a flute?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

98%! Nice. Also, notice how she can’t seem to keep her eyes open when she talks? She must be a silent driver.

[via Neatorama]

If you’ve seen the trailers before then you’re probably familiar with the graphics, but I believe this is our first glimpse at the HUD and controls of the game. Also, BIG-ASS SWORD!

I don’t know why this dude and his MegaBastard Sword only appears at the very beginning of the game – although it seemed like whoever was playing could control Sir Huge Sword here, note that the HUD is absent – but according to 1UP’s Kevin Gifford, players will be able to customize and  swing huge swords. But of course, even heroes have to start somewhere – here’s the puny little fight stick the king gives the hero as he starts on his quest:

According to the same 1UP article that I linked to above, players will be able to choose from three archetypes – the Hero, the Prince, and the Adventurer. If you like none of those three, you can make your own hero, dot by dot, and even customize its animation. Going back to the footage, here’s the world map, which is very reminiscent of Link’s Map in the first Zelda, except that this one is pseudo-3D:

All in all, the game does have a very old school feel, but the cute graphics will probably lure in kids as well. Gamersyde is have bandwidth problems so they’ve disabled embedding for now, meaning I can’t post the video here, but all you have to do is go here to watch the high quality version, and here for the low quality one. You can also download the video if you want.  The Japanese version of 3D Dot Game Heroes just dropped this week; a North American release is coming, but we don’t know when exactly.

Months later, the students released a video with a proof-of-concept of the D&D-Surface mashup, which they named SurfaceScapes, including a look at how combat plays out.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Virtual d20 ftw.

[via Wired via Penny Arcade]

Here’s a side view of the machine:

Unfortunately, Tugrik doesn’t go into the details of the machine’s geekification, saying only that “We just dressed it up for a shop party this weekend on a whim. The machine is an old Vendo96 with stickers designed by my friend Peggy and printed on our large-format printer.” And what’s a Nuka Cola vending machine without Nuka Cola?

They even have the glowing Nuka Cola Quantum!

Unfortunately Tugrik et al don’t have the Quantum Chemist perk, so that’s not a real glowing Nuka Cola Quantum. That’s just a Lemonade bottle with an aqua blue LED taped to its bottom. Still looks awesome though! Check out the rest of Tugrik’s pics here.

Actually I’ve only been able to play Katamari Damacy once, briefly, so I don’t know whether the different headgear actually exist in-game or if the designer took liberties. Either way, the designs are awesome.

Here’s another shot of the groom and his entourage. Damn this is weird.

And there’s the happy couple and their cake. There are a lot more pictures of the wedding at Kirsten Shultz Photography. Wonder if we’ll ever see a  Contra-themed wedding.

[via Boing Boing]

Or a cardboard power cord. Or a cardboard RCA jack. Or a cardboard TV. Or a cardboard player. Or a cardboard house. Or a cardboard world. How inconsiderate.

[via Forever Geek]

(In other news, I’m announcing the establishment of the Technabob Charity Foundation: We are a Worthy Charity.)

The bidding ends on July 20th; bidding starts at $1000 (USD). Bidders can email Ben Heckendorn at C64.Auction@gmail.com. You will be informed of the current highest bidder once you place your bid. The only question now is: are you rich enough to own a Commodore 64?

Okay so it’s really Megaman vs. Metroid, but we all know who the champion of Metroid is. Made with SNES-era graphics, the game plops the Blue Bomber down into the world of Metroid, presumably with Samus as the final boss, in order to settle once and for all which hero is better at using a literal hand cannon.

I say presumably because, well, I wasn’t able to finish the game, what with our deadlines and all. Blogging is hard work you know.  So why don’t you head on to 8-bit.com right now and beat the game, so you can tell me how it ends. And then tell me how to finish it as well.

[via level select]

The Megalodon headphones come with a remote control for adjusting volume (I’m not sure if I understood its tech specs correctly but it seems to like you can tweak the volume of the virtual speaker separately), microphone sensitivity, levels and mute for both mic and speakers. The remote control also lets you easily switch from 7.1 surround to 2.0 for less demanding audio needs.

The Megalodon is priced at $150 USD. It won’t be available until June 30, but you can pre-order it now at Razer’s website. It’s for PC users only (Windows XP onwards), but I don’t think anyone actually expects gaming headphones for the Mac.

[via EverythingUSB]

The joystick has a 2-stage metal trigger, an 8-way hat switch, a dedicated POV switch, 6 programmable buttons, a “pinkie shift” button, 3 analog trim controls, and contactless X & Y positional sensors. The throttle’s tension can be adjusted, plus it’s packed with buttons and switches as well: 2 4-way hat switches, 2 rotary analog controls, 12 programmable buttons including the 8 customizable LED-lit ones on the base.

Not to be outdone, the foot pedal also has adjustable resistance control, toe brakes, a retractable carpet lock, and stainless steel treads.

The G940 will be available in the US and in Europe come September for $250 USD. I heard you can program it such that it’ll play by itself.

[via fareastgizmos]

The well-reviewed machine is loaded with a powerful Intel Core 2 E8400 CPU, running at 3GHz, with a 6MB cache and 1333MHz front-side bus. Graphics come courtesy of an SLi Dual nVidia GeForce 9800GT with 512MB of memory. And while 2GB of high speed RAM is de rigeur these days, you can easily upgrade as much as 8GB if you want to max things out. And there’s a speedy 7200RPM 500GB SATA hard drive to make sure your games and videos run as fast as possible. As for the pre-loaded OS, you’ll get Windows Vista Home Premium, 64-bit Edition to support all that RAM.

The deal is available over at Dell Home, and is only currently set to run for 1 day. So if you want to get your hands on a great higher-end PC without completely breaking the bank, you should check it out.

Of course if you want the smokin’ Red bezel chassis, you’ll have to pony up an extra $20 bucks – pushing the price just north of $1000.

So what is Game Booster? It’s just a shortcut tool: it provides users with a quick and easily accessible way to turn off certain system processes and programs running in the background. The objective is of course to free up as much resources as possible for your game.  Obviously if you’re anywhere above a computer noob, Game Booster isn’t offering anything new or something that you can’t already do on your own. But for beginners and lazy people, Game Booster is a neat app, especially since it eliminates the need to fire up services.msc and check/un-check stuff every time you want to play a game or do something resource-intensive. It also helps prevent clueless users from borking their computers; like most things in life, messing with the system processes is risky business if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Game Booster is currently in Beta. You can download this tiny (661 KB) program at IObit’s website. It’s compatible with Windows XP, Vista and even 7.

It’s elegantly designed by Lee McCormack and beautifully engineered by McLaren Applied Technologies. Which makes me wonder why there are no images of the ovei’s interior on the product website. Dammit. I want to see! At least they have video:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

What the hell’s a multimeedyer? I guess it’s something that only rich techies would know: the base price of the Ovei is £50,000 ($70, 855). People won’t be paying for the 5.1 Surround Sound, 26″ screen, climate control and all that tech: it’s the suave side of the Ovei that demands that joke of a price. I hope they release a shabbier but cheaper version.

If you’re rich enough to buy an Ovei, give me some money. Also, you can email the Oculas Group at sales@oculas.com or call them at +44–(0)20–7613–4293. Everyone else just drool over the brochure.

[via Web Urbanist]

This card tells it like it is (or like you want ‘em to believe) with a simple message: I love you more than Xbox. It doesn’t get more straightforward than that, and it might just buy you a Saturday night of Left 4 Dead campaigning. Maybe pick up a few and save them for those moments when you just aren’t quite ready to stop playing and wash the dishes.

And, hey, if you want to vary the message (you can probably get “I love you more than Halo” or “I love you more than Rock Band”), Storeyshop’s Etsy marketplace offers personalized greeting cards. Whatever you need to get yourself out of the doghouse, buddy.

The decorations are a real mix, from gaming icons like Mario, Link, and Mega Man, to upstarts like the Weighted Companion Cube from Portal, and they’re all made out of paper (and the sweat of effort). It’s enough to make one wary of the candy canes. Paper is not so delicious, after all.

For those brave enough to try to recreate this tree, or do a mix of your own ornaments, a number of the instructions are available on Maire’s page, and others on the cubeecraft site. Now we just need to add some of these papercraft consoles.

[Maire's deviantART page via cubeelog]

]]> http://technabob.com/blog/2008/12/22/papercraft-xmas-tree-is-a-colorful-fire-hazard/feed/ 0 http://technabob.com/blog/2008/12/06/hey-youve-got-your-arcade-in-my-table/ http://technabob.com/blog/2008/12/06/hey-youve-got-your-arcade-in-my-table/#comments Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:14:02 +0000 lambert v. http://technabob.com/blog/?p=5885 Elevator Action, Lode Runner and Star Force. Years later we would discover booze, another crucial element in our pursuit of happiness/self-destruction. I’m sure you’ve spent many wasted nights wondering how you can combine the two. Well your wondering is officially over, because the Arcade Mania is…]]> When we were kids we discovered the joys of arcade classics like Elevator Action, Lode Runner and Star Force. Years later we would discover booze, another crucial element in our pursuit of happiness/self-destruction. I’m sure you’ve spent many wasted nights wondering how you can combine the two. Well your wondering is officially over, because the Arcade Mania is here.

The Arcade Mania is a glass-top table with a built-in 150-in-1 arcade machine. Okay so the booze isn’t built-in,and technically the Arcade Mania is a coffee table, but come on man. Twinbee and tequila. Beer and B-wings. Goonies and gin. Hell, Goonies is good with anything. And yes, it supports 2 player drunken gaming. If you’re mind isn’t blown by now then you suck. I hate you. You and your healthy lifestyle.

For those whose minds are blown, the Arcade Mania can be yours for £1,660 (approx. $2,440). There’s also a stand-up version for people who like standing up more than sitting and enjoying life.

The DigitalLife conference features consumer, gaming and entertainment technologies and runs from October 12th through October 15th, 2006 at the Jakob K. Javitz Convention Center in New York City. Over 200 consumer electronics and gaming exhibitors will be showing their latest wares. In addition to the exhibits, the show features a gaming pavilion featuring playable game systems from Microsoft, Nintendo, Alienware, HP and more. Keynote speakers will also be in attendance from Microsoft, Sony, Intel and Electronic Arts. There will also be free how-to sessions and daily prize giveaways.

Each ticket is good throughout all four days of the event and include access to the entire DigitalLife exhibit floor (including the Gaming Pavilion). Tickets do not grant access to any additional paid conferences. Gaming tournaments also require separate registration.

To claim your free ticket, click here, and enter “INSIDER” when prompted for a source code.

In addition, a variety of special offers for show attendees can be found here.