Kit -- Engadget

kit posts

Fuzebox 8-bit DIY game console, strictly for those who'd rather DIY

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Nov 26th 2008 at 4:37PM

What do you give the person who has everything this holiday season? How about a game system without any games? Fuzebox is a homebrew, open source 8-bit game console kit based on an ATmega644 8-bit processor, with a whopping 4K RAM and four-channel MIDI sound. The console plays games written in C, accepts two SNES controllers and should come together in an hour and a half or so, as long as you have some skill with a soldering iron. Seventy bucks will get you a bare bones rig, or for an extra thirty you can go all out -- components, enclosures, a controller, necessary cables and one power adapter. If you're one of those people who like to give your kids educational toys that they'll never use, you're welcome. Even if you're not, there is an action packed video (with obligatory breakbeat soundtrack) of the prototype after the break.

[Via Make]

Continue reading Fuzebox 8-bit DIY game console, strictly for those who'd rather DIY

Open source "Game Boy" has five awesome parts, zero games

by Laura June, posted Oct 28th 2008 at 1:43PM

The Arduino-based, DIY GamePack is sort of like the Mignon Game Kit we saw in 2005, but it definitely looks much, much radder. For a mere $249.93, all the necessary parts -- CPU, "Inputshield" customizable, vibrating controller / button component (say, for right or left-handed configurations), "TouchShield Stealth" OLED display unit, and "MeCap" lithium battery pack -- can be yours. Once you've cobbled it together, of course, the real fun begins -- it's pretty much a blank slate with little more than code for a color-changing dot to start with, so if you want to play any "games" on that new "Game Boy" of yours, you're going to have to write them yourself. See a video of the device in action after the break.

[Via technabob]

Continue reading Open source "Game Boy" has five awesome parts, zero games

Total Console pre-built Wii mod "I-case" is shiny, but so 1998

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 26th 2007 at 6:34PM

Hey, we've got nothing against LED abundance, or even a bit of translucency here or there to let the light shine through, but we're not sure we're quite ready to relive those heady "design revolution" years of '98-'00, where shiny, see through, iMac-inspired gadgets reigned supreme. At least this I-case Wii mod isn't bondi blue, or we just might have to quit the biz. The good news is Total Console is selling this mod as a kit for a mere $45, so you won't have any more blood on your hands than is already implied.

[Via Digg]

Spatula + e-recipes = coo.boo

by Ryan Block, posted Feb 8th 2007 at 8:35PM

We love a good concept design as much as the next gadget site -- even those designs a little far fetched. But despite our inability to nail down a decent e-book reader for den studying purposes, we're still happy to adopt the concept in another place we could a little help navigating: the kitchen. The hours we work writing about gadgets, we've long since abandoned our dream of making an appearance on Iron Chef, but we could definitely see ourselves spending a few more hours over a hot stove with the IF Design Award-winning coo.boo recipe-reading e-spatula handy. We've got no real idea how far away we are from an actual teflon coated heat-resistent display that would make something like the coo.boo possible, but given the chance we might just veer ever so slightly to jump on an embedded display cocktail shaker instead.

[Via Shiny Shiny]

SK-Pang's Gogic Five hobby bot

by Paul Miller, posted Dec 13th 2006 at 11:50AM

As much fun as the KHR-1HVs of the world are, not everybody is quite ready for that kind of commitment -- or that many servo motors to plug together. Enter the Gogic Five from SK-Pang, which features a more digestible 5 servo motors, but can still walk around, punch and kick with the best of them. The bot features an SD card slot for loading programs, and Gogic can play back audio from its memory slot as well -- we're sure Nabaztag/tag and Gogic would get along swimmingly. You can program the robot via Windows XP or Mac OS X, or use a general-purpose TV remote to control the bot. Unfortunately, with all his simplicity, Gogic Five still isn't exactly a steal: the kit will cost you 28,000 yen (about $239) when it debuts in late January. Pre-orders start December 15th.

[Via Impress]

Read - Gogic Five
Read - Gogic Five's awesome music video

Kondo KHR-2HV robot kit headed for international waters

by Paul Miller, posted Oct 25th 2006 at 9:45PM

If you find you've "outgrown" your Lego Mindstorms kit (as if!), and are looking to get into the humanoid robot game without putting a second mortgage on your house or pursuing an advanced degree, Kondo just started shipping the KHR-2HV humanoid robot kit to us non-Japanese sods. Kondo's KHR-1 was all well and good, but the KHR-2HV includes more controls, gears and servos, along with improved software and looks. The 2HV can even manage back flips and cartwheels if you've got the technical chops to slap this thing together. Plus, at $1,199 (via Japanese importer AudioCubes) it's practically a steal, and we hear with these smaller models it's fairly unlikely they'll try to kidnap your spouse and children in an effort to grab power from municipal governments. Hopefully this means we have another MANOI on the way as well, since we can't say the 2HV looks quite as swell in the buff.

[Via I4U]

Koolance's pricey Xbox 360 cooling kit

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 28th 2006 at 6:31AM

We're not sure what type of person would spend as much on cooling their Xbox 360 as they spent on the console itself, but the folks at Koolance must think they're out there, buried under bags of Doritos and aging laptops in dank cellars; probably why they're releasing a heavy duty liquid cooling kit for the hefty sum of $394.99 US. The kit (available in silver or black) includes Koolance's Exos-LT cooling system, CPU and GPU liquid blocks, an AC power adapter, and mounting hardware for the Xbox. However, Koolance is quick to warn that performing the necessary modifications to your Xbox is "not for the faint of heart" and that it will certainly void your warranty, meaning that there's a good chance you'll inflict more harm on your console by messing with it than a little over-heating could ever do -- and you'll be stuck without a way to return it. Par for the course though, right?

[Via Joystiq]