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Check 'N Chew Foursquare-enabled gumball machine hands-on (video)
When Tyler DeAngelo asked if we'd be interested in checking out his new project, we jumped at the opportunity. After all, we were pretty blown away with Fifth Avenue Frogger, his hacked arcade cabinet that incorporated real-time webcam footage of a busy Manhattan street into gameplay. His latest project, Check 'N Chew certainly has more apparent commercial applications, offering up a form of immediate gratification for social media users. The concept is fairly simple: check into Foursquare, get a gumball. DeAngelo (with help from fellow modders Matt Richardson and Ben Light) has hacked an off-the-shelf gumball machine with a stepper motor, Arduino and an XBee radio. There's also a port on the rear of the machine that plugs into a wall to power it all. The Check 'N Chew communicates wirelessly with an ethernet-to-wireless gateway device. When someone checks into an authorized location, information is sent from DeAngelo's server to the gateway, and a gumball is dispensed. The whole process is quite speedy, only taking a couple of seconds from Foursquare check-in to gumball dispensing.%Gallery-162652%
MMO Family: First Impressions of Project Exonaut
Lately, I've been moving away from my "sword and board" mentality and instead checking out some MMOs that have faster gameplay, such as Vindictus' physics-based, arcade-style combat and Global Agenda's jetpack shooter battles. But while I've had fun grabbing gnolls by the throat and crushing them against the wall in Vindictus and fending off waves of zombies and chupacabras in Fallen Earth, the content isn't necessarily kid-friendly. I wanted to find a game that had action, fast-paced combat, and jetpacks but still touched on all the things that make for a good family game. I stumbled on Project Exonaut, made by Cartoon Network, and decided to check it out. It's a browser-based, free-to-play game that pits you against other players in a futuristic setting. It's not quite an MMO and would probably fall under our Not So Massively heading, but I decided to try it out. Read on for a look at the game and my first impressions!
