NOW, This is the Droid We’re Looking For…
DIY (Do It Yourself) is all the rage right now. So is retro video games. Popular Science (the cool kids call it PopSci) reader Brian de Vitis decided to design and fabricate a retro video game station out of a old Star Wars R2-D2 cooler (kind of like the ones you see at the local food mart full of ice with drinks). Brian was able to hook up this R2-D2 unit with eight different console gaming systems (everything from Atari 7800, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo, Super Nintendo,Nintendo Game Cube, etc.), a sound system, and even a projector mounted to Artoo’s head. Whats even cooler is that you can plug all the game controllers right into R2-D2 front body panels. Artoo is one bad ass astrometic droid mofo.
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Award winning 3D designer/modeling/illustrator, Tai Chiem of Victoria, Australia shows us a glimpse of the future (his future at least) of what the next generation PlayStation and XBox may look like. These conceptual designs named “PS4″ and “XBox 720″ integrates touchscreen technology in a sleek compact design. Tai Chiem explains his conceptual PlayStation 4,
As the designer expects, the Playstation 4 will sport a high end touch screen rather than glossy body that the current generation gaming console sports. The CD ROM has a sexy placement and a gloss cover that can be customized would definitely be an added advantage, what say? Even the PS4 controllers are designed to perfectly match with the console and will sport a few touch screen options. From the images given, it seems that the gen next Play station will also have an embedded OLED screen, which makes this Playstation 4 game console here twice as cool as expected, right?
I’m not a professional designer so I can only make comments based on what I like and dislike. The ideas are great, but the XBox 720 looks like a what an android crab’s shell would look like, and the PS4 looks like “HAL 9000″ (2001: A Space Odyssey) if he was designed by Ikea.
One thing I do notice is that whether it is a gamer/designer like Tai Chiem, or Sony and Microsoft, the controllers are hideous as hell.
Hit the jump to see close ups of Tai Chiem’s designs.
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Sony finally confirms all rumors regarding a PlayStation 3 Slim at Gamescon Expo in Cologne, Germany. The new PS3 Slim will feature a new dashing slim case which will go for a meer $299 (or €299 and ¥29,980) when it goes on sales in September. For those of you that have been waiting for a price cut on the PS3, your patience paid off considering the new PS3 Slim system will be 33 percent smaller, 36 percent lighter and 34 percent less power use. The new PS3 Slim will have all most of the features that it’s big brother, PS3 features, which means there will be no backwards compatibility with your old PS2 game collection. One feature that was left out of the PS3 Slim system is the user’s option to install another operating system such as the highly popular, Linux. Unfortunate news for those hoping to play ‘Starcraft’ on their PS3. No “Zerg rush” for joo.
Hit the jump for more info and pictures.
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