Reader Tucker Cummings bought the Bandai Gun O'Clock. Here's what she thinks of it!

I have never been a morning person. I need at least a liter of coffee to function between the hours or 8 and noon. I pity anyone who tries to wake me in the morning. Sleep is an awesome, awesome thing, and woe betide anyone who tries to come between me and my REM cycles. My mom could never wake me up in high school without me swearing at her, although my alarm clock always seemed to take the brunt of my morning aggression. And I'm sure I'm not alone in my hatred of that most awful of inventions: the alarm clock. I can't even tell you how many alarm clocks I have broken over the years by throwing them across the room or pounding them with angry morning fists. So of course I was intrigued by reports of an alarm clock that actually encouraged you to shoot the damn thing.

So I pre-ordered my Bandai Gun O'clock from Strapya World, and I picked it up from the post office this morning on my way to work. It was totally worth the cash I plunked down to have the thing shipped here from Japan.

The clock is, thankfully, fairly intuitive to operate. The clock does come with instructions, but they are Japanese-only. Setting the time was easy to figure out, but I did have to refer to the directions to figure out how to set the alarm (thankfully I have 2 semesters of Japanese under my belt, but it was still embarrassing to realize all I had to do to enter the Alarm Set Mode was hold down the alarm button, instead of tapping it).

The clock and gun were both a little smaller than I expected them to be when I finally extracted them from the packaging. I ran around the house hunting down the 6 double A batteries I needed to run the clock (two for the gun, and four for the clock).

The gun itself is a cute little thing that looks like it was modeled after a Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol. It's espescially fun to shoot because it makes a cute “pew-pew” noise, and the slide action actually moves when you pull the trigger.

The Gun O'clock has all the fun of Duck Hunt on the NES. Which is to say, it's fun, but I wish there was more to do. Both game modes are designed for very short rounds of play, which I found tremendously disappointing.

The clock's display goes to sleep after a few minutes. The backlight turns off, and the numbers turn from red to black, rendering the clock pretty much useless. Clearly, this is not the clock you should buy if you are looking for a useful time piece. But chances are, if you bought this clock, it was for the coolness factor.

And there is plenty of cool to be found. The sound effects that play as you cycle through the numbers to change the time sound like a gun being cocked and then fired. If you start a round of gameplay, but then change your mind and go back to the clock setting without shooting the target, a loud ARGH is played. When you hit the target in game mode, a very American sounding voice praises you in flawless English.

My only complaint about the sound is that there is no way the alarm clock can be used for it's intended purpose. The alarm buzzer is waaaay too quiet. It's a soft chime that does not increase in volume. I'm a heavy sleeper, and there's no way that chime would wake me up.

Overall, a great conversation starter, and a great item to add to your collection of quirky Japanese imports. But Gun O'clock is certainly not your best bet for an alarm clock. Until Bandai releases Gun O'clock version 2.0, I'll just have to keep shooting my alarm clock with my real gun every morning.

This original Nintendo cartridge sleeve, repurposed as a pen holder, doesn't really deserve the distinction of being a hack or mod, but it did remind me just how sultry and gorgeous those vinyl sleeves really were. I really don't think protective packaging has ever managed to be more simple or attractive. And they smelled great.

NES Pen Holder [Flickr via MAKE]

The game didn’t disappoint. Gameplay is easy, you can use 3 simple touch-buttons on the screen to steer left and right… and the last button you can press for more gas. To slow down/brake simply take your foot off the gas and you slow down pretty fast. I love how when steering around corners you can get a ton of ‘drift’ if you’re going too fast… You want to go into corners with the right speed and angle to reduce the drifting and get around the track as fast as you can.

Don’t get me wrong here, the graphics are nothing spectacular. However, for a free app, the gameplay is killer and if you’re into retro games like I am, you’ll probably want to download the full version.

Black Mamba Lite lets you race on the first level/track of the game. It took me 3 tries to win the race, and when I did… I honestly wanted to go ahead and download the full version (although I haven’t… yet!).

The full version of Black Mamba is available in the App Store for only $1.99. It features over 25 ‘missions’ and 9 tracks to test your driving skill. iTunes links are below for your gaming pleasure:

• Black Mamba Lite (FREE)
• Black Mamba Racer ($1.99)

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Another in a long line of cheap Chinese knock-off systems, the 2PG TC8281 handheld plays a mish-mash of questionable 8-bit and 16-bit retro games that come only on special multi-game cartridges.

The 2PG console comes with five built-in games, as well as an additional “112 in 1″ game cartridge, for a total of 117 games for under $50. Hundreds of additional games can be played if you know where to look for the proper cartridges. The system also has an AV out and comes with a cheezy-looking Playstation clone controller so you can play games on your TV.

If you’re willing to take a gamble on one of these somewhat suspect systems, you can get your hands on one over at DealExtreme for $48.80 USD.

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Here’s a really cool NES Hack that involves installing an alarm clock inside the SNES.  Of course, you can even use the joystick to set the time, which gets double-whammy thumbs up.

Our story begins with the gutting of the SNES and the desoldering of the cartridge connector and reset switch from the mainboard. To my great surprise and greater fortune, the cartridge connector’s pins were precisely the same pitch as the through-holes for the display ribbon on the alarm clock, and on top of that, the display required 23 connections, which is exactly the size of one side of the middle part of the connector. Display out, cartridge connector in, very smooth. A little dremel work, and a nice shrouded polarized 2-prong AC connector, which I happened to have a cable for, went nicely into what was the “multi out” port.

via thinkunique

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

NES Hack - How To Make an SNES Alarm Clock!

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The auction ended at $9,000.00. Some of the specs include: a SONY Digital Navigation System #NVX-F160, SONY Pre-Amp XDP-U50D, SONY 10 Disk CD Changer CDX-U404, SONY Hi-8 VCR, Pioneer CD player DEH-85 in the dash….comes with the batman theme on cd!, Alpine Bat Phone #91530, Super Nintendo NES Game system with Batman Forever game, SONY Interface Equalizer #XE-744 and a whole lot more. Strange, but we dig it.

[ebay] VIA [Geek Alerts]

Remember iRiver’s all-touchscreen phone we saw at the CES? Well, it’s coming not this but next year, with first mobile operator to carry it being South Korea’s KT.

Apparently, the iRiver Wave will start selling on March 9th and will come with such specs as 3-inch 480×272 (or that’s 400×272?) pixels touchscreen, WiFi, FM radio, 4GB of internal memory that is further expandable with memory cards. Pre-installed apps include media player, ebook reader, electronic dictionary… and the device can also sing along Bugs Music Service. As for the size, the Wave measures 110.5×52.5×15.5 mm and has a weight of 103 grams.

And that’s about all we know at this stage. Guess we’ll have more details after CES, when we expect to learn about iRiver’s plans for the western hemisphere. Stay tuned…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

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Having recently bought a car myself, I'm familiar with the vagaries of used automobiles. My headlamps are a bit out of weak and the carburetor needs some tweaking, for instance.

But learning the quirks of a new car is half the fun of buying used. I shudder to imagine how much joy I'd have discovering how to work this one-of-a-kind Batmobile based on a '73 Opel GT and stuffed to the gills with early '90s electronics.

Check out some of the stuff that was inside:

1. SONY Digital Navigation System #NVX-F160

3. SONY Magic Link System with pager. This is the original vehicle PDA system before there were PDAs. Google Sony Magic Link System to get an idea. I do not know how to use it but it is there. I think you send emails, messaging, etc.

4. SONY Magic Link SkyTel Card

6. SONY Hi-8 VCR

7. Pioneer CD player DEH-85 in the dash....comes with the batman theme on cd!

8. Alpine Bat Phone #91530

11.Super Nintendo NES Game system with Batman Forever game.......yes, a game system that plays batman!

13.Alpine 80-80 Remote Commander RMX 38 (something to do with the alarm I think)

14.Alpine Alarm 8401 with paging system, unlocks and opens doors, windows...It will take you a full day just to learn the alarm system.

1973 Opel GT [eBay via Jalopnik]

But ironically enough, this eBay-buyable Batmobile, a converted 1973 Opal, is filled with tech that's been out of use for well over a decade. (Superman's grandma has a newer cellphone than this "superhero.")

1. SONY Digital Navigation System #NVX-F160

2.SONY Pre-Amp XDP-U50D

3. SONY Magic Link System with pager. This is the original vehicle PDA system before there were PDAs. Google Sony Magic Link System to get an idea. I do not know how to use it but it is there. I think you send emails, messaging, etc.

4. SONY Magic Link SkyTel Card

5. SONY 10 Disk CD Changer CDX-U404

6. SONY Hi-8 VCR

7. Pioneer CD player DEH-85 in the dash....comes with the batman theme on cd!

8. Alpine Bat Phone #91530

9. Pro Series Boston Acoustic Kicker Box #6-2 with bat decals inside clear plexiglass

10.Rockford Fossgate Puch 45 Amp

11.Super Nintendo NES Game system with Batman Forever game.......yes, a game system that plays batman!

12.SONY Interface Equalizer #XE-744

13.Alpine 80-80 Remote Commander RMX 38 (something to do with the alarm I think)

14.Alpine Alarm 8401 with paging system, unlocks and opens doors, windows...It will take you a full day just to learn the alarm system.

Poor Batman, calling back Alfred on an analog network after getting his page...only to look up cheat codes for his one SNES game. If the Joker gets wind of this, there will be no living with him. [eBay via Jalopnik]

Perfect for the occasional on-the-road game of Super Mario World or Star Fox, this portable SNES was put together by retro modder Kotomi, who’s earlier work includes the great NES in a cartridge mod.

It’s a really clean build job, echoing the design of the original Super Nintendo console and gamepad, only with a nice big LCD screen smack dab in the middle. The cartridge slips nicely into the back of the portable, making it about the most streamlined SNES portable I’ve seen.

Great job, Kotomi!