Want to play all your favorite classic retro console games? Sure you could cheat and buy yourself a Dingoo, but what fun would that be? This custom-built portable uses hardware from a couple of other devices to create a system that plays games from the Nintendo NES, SNES and Sega Genesis.

Modder Trstn18 created his SNEGENES P handheld with the parts from an authentic “mini” SNES, and a Gen-X clone machine. The whole thing is set into a custom see-through case so you can see all the electronic goodness inside. While I wouldn’t necessarily call a system that’s 8.6-inches wide, 5.4-inches tall and 1-inch thick “handheld”, it’s still a pretty great mod job.

The SNEGENES P is powered by six 2600mAh batteries, which let it play for somewhere around 5 to 7 hours on a single charge. There’s also composite video and stereo audio outputs, which let Trstn play his favorite games on a TV. Here’s a brief video clip showing off the SNEGENES P in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Now why the video clip is backwards, I have no idea. Maybe it’s because “snegenes” sounds like a backwards chant you’d hear in a subliminal message on a Beatles record. Just hold your computer up to a mirror and you can watch it properly.

[via Ben Heck Forums]

The thinking geeks at ThinkGeek recently unleashed one of their most awesome creations: WEARABLE ROCK. Their Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt features a semi-guitar with 14 major chords – which were recorded from a real electric guitar – assigned to different areas on the neck, so you can play songs for real without really knowing how to play the guitar.

It even comes with a magnetic pick for some strumming action, and an awesome mini amplifier that has “Think Geek” written on it using the same font that Marshall uses on its amps. Aside from controlling the volume, the amp also has a tone knob.

Ready to go beyond randomly waggling your fingers when you’re rocking out to your favorite song? Then get the Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt at ThinkGeek for just $30 (USD). Requires 4 AAA batteries, not included.

The old man in the beginning of The Legend of Zelda has got to be one of the most helpful dudes in video game history. He doesn’t say anything cryptic. He doesn’t require you to fetch anything. He just hands you a sword and offers a mild warning. Who better to have around if you’re going to take the risk of smoking?

Of course, if you’re not a smoker, you can still take the old man along with you; he doubles, in this incarnation, as a card case or a very thin wallet. See, not only is he helpful, he’s also useful.

Best of all? He’s pretty cheap. You can get your hands on this versatile case for a mere $15. It’ll go really well with all those nifty lighters we’ve seen of late.

Even if you were asked to name a hundred beautiful objects, would you include flashlights in your list? Of course not. But what if the flashlights were made of porcelain?

Oooo shiny. Of course they’re not portable, but who cares right? Nothing says you’re a millionaire like porcelain hanging flashlight lamps! They’re just $42 (USD) a piece at Fred Flare, whether you want the small, medium or large version. So what are you waiting for? You gotta get yourself some porcelain flashlights!

[via holycool]

What do you get when you’ve got a crapload of Rubik’s cubes lying around the house, and some serious artistic talent? You make some major pixel art, that’s what.

These Rubik’s pixel portraits by Irish artist John Quigley are truly mind-boggling. Not only did he have to map out the precise pixel positions for each cube in these creations, he had to rotate the sides of each cube into exactly the correct color scheme to make it all work. To put it all in perspective, the Space Invaders scene above required a whopping 1,330 cubes.

And while Sonic only took 784 cubes to get his spiky blue hairdo, he’s still cool in my book. Not all of John’s creations require hundreds or even thousands of cubes either. Check out this Pac-Man scene, created from just 102 cubes – it still gets the point across just fine.

And Mario is no less fun, even though he only consumed 24 Rubik’s Cubes.

For obvious reasons, I’m drawn to his retro video game pixel creations, but I couldn’t leave you guys without showing you John’s unbelievable 2,622 cube portrait of Barack Obama.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Be sure to check out all of John’s amazing Rubik’s Cube creations over at the Neo-literal Cubist’s flickr page. He can also solve a Rubik’s Cube in 44 seconds.

This interactive work of art uses 20 individual iPod Touches, tied together to produce synchronized visuals across all of the displays.

Created by Japan’s PROTOTYPE design team, iPod Cluster Media is an early proof-of-concept that stitches multiple independent iPod Touches into a hive-mind display wall. Each iPod Touch knows what the other one is up to, letting touch signals on one display influence all of the others. There’s even a remote-control iPod that can be used to send information to the display wall. Check out the video below to see some of the cool multi-multi-touch action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The system can even send control information to an external interface (notice the synchronized LED base in the video). PROTOTYPE envisions that their creation will one day be used for interactive digital signage for tradeshows and other exhibitions. While the first version of the iPod Cluster display is formed from a grid of 20 individual iPod Touches, but from the looks of this image, these guys have much, much bigger plans up their sleeves:

I really hope there’s an App for that some day real soon.

[via Mongoose Studios]

Here’s a sure-fire way to tell if your girlfriend really loves you. Get down on one knee -there ya go – then whip out the velvet ring box – yep, that’s it – then give her this awesome Cylon Centurion engagement ring and ask her for her hand in marriage. If she says “yes”, it’s true love.

Each one of these chunky retro Cylon Centurion rings is made from a silver-toned metal, with an inset red glass scanner eye. Unfortunately, it doesn’t move back and forth. Too bad there’s not enough room to hack in one of these LED eyeballs.

Galactica fans, you can find the Cylon Centurion rings over on ThinkGeek for $39.99 to $49.99 (USD), depending on size.

…oh, and if she tells you “no”, just whip out your laser blaster and evaporate her.

It all comes down to this, people: either you’re with Pac-Man, or you’re with the ghosts. If you’re dedicated to the clear side of evil, make sure you warn everyone you see by labeling yourself somehow. These ghostly gadget cases ought to do the trick nicely.

Tell me that isn’t the face of evil–mischievous, adorable evil. Coolbeans717 has a massive Etsy shopfront just packed with all sorts of geek-inspired felted gadget cases. If you prefer, say, The Legend of Zelda, or maybe Spam (in a can, not in your e-mail), you can veer away from the path of Pac-Man, though it is inadvisable. There’s not much that compares to the ghost cases.

The pouches aren’t exactly cheap, as these things go–most of ‘em are priced at $20–but they look great, and it’s always wonderful to buy handmade.

Do your kids scare easily? Are they budding serial killers? Then these plush stuffed animals are probably not for them. On the other hand, if your kids are into gross stuff, and understand the difference between play and real life, these car-flattened stuffed animals might be fun sitting beneath the Christmas tree this year.

Each Roadkill stuffed animal comes packed in its own see-through body bag, complete with all of its plush and squishy guts pouring out of its body. They even throw in a death certificate and an “I heart Roadkill” bumper sticker in each bag.  The smashed menagerie includes Twitch the Racoon, Grind the Rabbit, and Splodge the Hedgehog (Sonic’s long-lost cousin?). There’s also Pop the Weasel, who’s not stuffed at all – rather a flat rubber door stop. (You can read their obituaries here.)

UK readers can find the entire series of squashed Roadkill toys over at the RoadkillToys website for £25.00 each. Live in the U.S.? The guys over at Charles & Marie are selling Roadkill animals for $40 (USD) each.

“The birth of the Homo Spaciens.” That’s how Spanish-based Galactic Suite Ltd. describes its vision of a hotel in space, one that enables guests to literally go around the world in just 80 minutes and see 15 sunrises and sunsets in a day, and of course marvel at a breathtaking view of our planet. Best of all, the optimistic crazy confident folks at Galactic Suite Ltd. claim that the Galactic Suite will be available to the public by 2012. By “the public” I mean “those rich and insane enough to blow $4.4 million (USD) on a 3-night stay in a hotel located in one of the most hostile environments known to man.”

The Galactic Suite will look more or less like these artist renditions. Before customers can get to these glorified pods, they’ll have to undergo an eight-week training course, which will be conducted on a freaking tropical island. Then they’re off to the shuttle for the day and a half trip to the pods. Galactic Suites Ltd. Xavier Claramunt compares the pods to a mountain retreat, because there’s no staff there. But the shuttle will be docked with the pods the whole time, meaning the astronaut-pilots will be staying with the visitors, who by the way will wear velcro suits that stick to the walls of the Suite. Stay in a space hotel and be like Spiderman in one go. Damn you rich people.

Claramunt et al claim that a “billionaire space enthusiast” has invested $3 billion in their project, and that they already have 43 people on the reserved list. I hope these customers donate millions to charity too. I mean I know it’s their money, but come on. Whether the hotel will be operational in 2 years or in 5, space tourism will eventually take off and there will be takers, but these outrageous prices just makes me think how misplaced our priorities can be sometimes. But as I always say, it’s your money, so do what you want with it. If you’re interested, you should check out the company’s website for more info.

[via Yahoo! News via DVICE]

These clever Dosogus 2.0 pillows by designers at Art Lebedev Studio are embroidered with a directory listing from everyone’s favorite command line operating system – DOS.

All your old favorites are there, including AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. But if you look carefully, there are directories for WINDOWS and a HIBERFIL.SYS file, so this pillow must actually be running Windows XP or a newer version. And watch out for the PRON directory – you never know what’s hiding in there. The pillow also appears to have been infected with a trojan, so you might not want to actually sit your butt on this pillow.

The Dosogus 2.0 is actually an upgrade of Lebedev’s earlier Dosogus pillow, and I have to say the new model crashes a little less frequently than the original. Want one? Head on over to Lebedev’s online shop.

Sometimes you just have to warm your head, so you might as well do it in style… in Legend of Zelda style, at that. Link’s hats are part of the iconic character’s charm, and now you can dress your head just like perennial hero, so long as you’ve got a handful of rupees to spare.

Of course, if you prefer a different shade of green or perhaps a nice red, no worries–there’s a fleece hat for all tastes, so long as those tastes involve Nintendo characters. If you have to have something more absurdly elaborate, there are even Kingdom Hearts hats available from the same Etsy shop.

You’ll pay through the nose (head?) for one of those fancier numbers, however–that Kingdom Hearts hat is $50, compared to an average of $26 for the other available designs.

Sadly, all pointy ears sold separately.

That’s right, by day Roombas are just plain ol’ cleaners, but at night, they sneak off to Lithuania and compete in underground sumo competitions.

Okay actually the 2009 Baltic Robot Sumo Cup wasn’t illegal; in fact it was sponsored by major robotics companies like iRobot and ABB. 60 robots participated in 3 categories – Mini Sumo, 3 kg Sumo, and of course Roomba Sumo. But it was really held in Lithuania. And Roombas really do sneak off at night. They meet with other miniscule warriors and oshitaoshi the circuits out of each other. True story.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Of course the only move that these robots have is “push”, but I’m sure ten to fifteen years from now, when Roomba v. 10.10 or something will be out, and it’ll look like a human, only with 4 arms and missiles for fingers, we’ll all look back to these pioneers, and curse iRobot for coming up with the darned things, because obviously we’ll be the ones who are cleaning the Roomba’s homes at that point. So enjoy their limited functionality and their silent yet comedic fights, because it won’t last long folks. It won’t! What was I talking about? Oh right, android tennis! Awesome stuff.

[via BotJunkie]

I’m not sure there’s much I can say about this Thundercats Xbox 360 that it doesn’t say for itself. I mean, sure, I can throw some adjectives around, but I propose instead a moment of silence, in which we all look about the might of this design (and possibly despair).

Look at those muscles! Look at that intensity! Surely the other side can’t be quite this badass, right?

I’m pretty sad right now that this isn’t my Xbox 360. I’m pretty sure the only thing that’s better than this custom shell would be, say, an actual planet named Plun-Darr or something.

[via Xbox Freedom via Gamefreaks]

How’s this for mildly confusing: Mass Effect 2 will be available in a Collector’s Edition set packed with goodies, and the game will feature enemies named Collectors. I’m pretty sure they will not be filled with goodies, not even if you hit them with a plank of wood while blindfolded. Wrong game entirely.

The sequel to the far-reaching Mass Effect is due out in January, and if you’re willing to drop the extra cash, you can pick up an art book, a DVD, and a comic book, all packed into a pretty tin box. The superplusgood edition will be available for $69.99 (Xbox 360) or $59.99 (PC).

As for the in-game Collectors, they are an advanced insectoid race prepared to throw down some nastiness against your Commander Shepherd. They’ll be joined by Abominations (super Husks), Batorians (a flying formation of Husks, quite possibly the scariest idea ever), and Scions, some crazy zombie-fied humans grafted onto weapons. Those sound a little more like Abominations to me.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Joystiq]