Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

If you love classic arcade games and you have to have a big screen, you’ll love the new Dream Arcades 100-inch Home Video Arcade Center. The system features a 100-inch diagonal screen and a 2000 lumen DLP front projector, running at 1024×768 (XGA) resolution.

If you’re feeling nostalgic for the game systems of the 80’s, but still want all that the latest consoles have to offer, look no further than the Retro Revolution skin for the Nintendo Wii. DecalGirl’s 8-bit NES skin for the Wii is made out of vinyl and features a protective gloss coating.

A day doesn’t seem to go by without another silly USB device. Today’s useless invention: The USB Bowling Ball. Just try and lug one of these around the next time you need to store something on a flash drive.

Here’s another in a long line of wacky USB devices: the gold bar USB hub from Thanko Japan. The USB 1.1/2.0 gold bar hub features 8 powered USB ports in a mock-gold style befitting storage in Fort Knox.

There are all kinds of stories starting to surface on the web about how the Wii-mote is flying out of people’s hands and breaking various things. Apparently the wrist strap isn’t really designed for significant stress.

On the surface, the upcoming Luna from XtremeMac just looks like another pretty iPod dock. Under the hood, it’s going to offer a bit more. Sure, the Luna IS an iPod dock with built-in amplified stereo speakers, but it’s also a highly configurable alarm clock too.

Japanese watch gurus Tokyoflash have introduced the latest in their series of contemporary wrist watch designs. The 1000100101 Watch features a grid of 31 green, yellow and red LEDs to show the time, day and date.

The next in the series of Lucasfilm-approved Star Wars USB memory sticks (known as “mimobots”) has been revealed and it’s everyone’s favorite droid, R2-D2. Stormtrooper, Chewbacca and Darth Vader models were previously announced. These limited-edition mimobots come in 1GB ($79.95), 2GB ($119.95) and 4GB ($169.95) versions and will start shipping in early January 2007.

Some enterprising dudes out there have figured out that the Nintendo Wii’s “Sensor Bar” doesn’t actually “sense” anything. In fact, the sensor bar appears to simply be a set of IR transmitters that provide the Wii-mote with a sense of direction.

VidaBox, makers of some very nice home theater / media center PCs has announced that they will be releasing their STEALTH media center PC tomorrow. The VidaBox STEALTH is a well-appointed HTPC that’s just 3.6″ tall in a slick black anodized case that feels more like a piece of high-end audio gear than a computer.

If I hadn’t seen this with my own two eyes, I would have thought this was a product from a fake commercial on SNL… The GR8 TaT2 Maker from Spin Master Toys lets tykes aspire to greatness with their own junior tattoo parlor.

The Ecosol Powerstick is a universal device for quickly and easily recharging portable devices in a pinch. Designed for on-the-go charging of PDAs, MP3 players, digital cameras, mobile phones and other mobile gadgets, the Powerstick hooks up to any USB port and stores a charge in an small lithium polymer battery for later use.

If you’re frustrated with how long it takes to convert your videos into a format that can be played back on your portable device, this new device promises to significantly reduce the time required to encode videos into the popular H.264/.mp4

While it’s way too soon to know what kind of post-launch issues Playstation 3 users will encounter, a video has surfaced of a new PS3 console which has died a tragic death. Apparently these guys were playing Tony Hawk’s Project 8 for about 3 hours when the console died.

“Don’t Touch it, Don’t even look at it…” Actually, I don’t seem to remember seeing this one in Nigel Tufnel’s guitar collection… The NES Paul electric guitar case mod, is the mutant offspring of musician/gamer, Jason Cox (aka ‘XOC’,) who decided to meld two of his favorite passions into a single ax of doom.

Ever wonder what’s inside those “top secret”-looking aluminum briefcases you see in spy movies? Designed by famous German model maker Faller, this case is filled with a tiny little slot car track, complete with 1/87th scale racers and two remotes for controlling your cars.