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Tiny Tower breaks ground on Android
Android takes another step closer to iOS's arguably superior gaming offering, adopting cult low-fi sim Tiny Tower. Froyo is the minimum requirement for the game run, but given the very dominant status of Android 2.0 and up, most won't find it an issue. This management sim lets you create a mix of businesses and attractions to draw Bitizens (the pixelated chaps you see above) to come live, work and play in your property. There looks to be some kind of smartphone game exchange going on, with this not-so-tiny timesink transfer following the recent appearance of Minecraft on iOS. Those willing to write off the rest of the weekend can download it now at the source below. [Image credit: Box Brown]
ExciteBike motorcycle built out of wood hits us like a ton of pixels
To say that ExciteBike ate up a ton of our childhood gaming time would be an extreme understatement. In fact, we still occasionally hear that particular "vroom vroom" noise in our sleep. So the fact that someone -- in this case Justin Harder -- cobbled together a 'pixelated' ExciteBike bike, trophy and helmet out of wood in a months-long labor of love is truly impressive to us, and brings wondrous, dazzling feelings of nostalgia. We're also fairly certain that 8-bit Gary's going to be buying one to tool around town on. Seriously, watch the insane video after the break.
8-bit Gary and real Gary compete for our affection
Kiel Johnson and Klai Brown built this 8-bit costume for a Toshiba ad. Made of bits of high density foam glued together, the wearable, pixelated version of Gary looks surprisingly like the actual Gary, though possibly a bit handsomer (in our opinion). Hit up the source for a lot more photos of the process of Gary's construction. Also hit up the coverage link for videos of the Garys in action.
Nintendo DSi XL review
Since Nintendo first asserted sole domination over the handheld gaming market with the release of the paperback-sized Game Boy in 1989, the company has striven time and again to make its pocket systems smaller, meeting fantastic financial success along the way. Nintendo did it with the Game Boy Pocket, the Advance SP, the Micro, the DS Lite and again ever so slightly with the DSi -- the last even at the expense of backwards compatibility and battery life. Now, for the first time in the company's history, it's made an existing platform bigger, with questionable reasons as to why. Does the Nintendo DSi XL squash its predecessors flat? Or is Nintendo compensating for something? Find out inside. %Gallery-89058%
Edge magazine subscribers receive coolest poster ever
Seems like somewhat inconsequential news for us to report on, right? "Magazine subscribers get cool bonus item?" Who cares? Well, we care, you probably care, and anyone who has ever picked up a video game controller should care about the poster in question -- drawn by gaming obsessed artist Gary Lucken and packaged with the latest edition of Edge magazine, this pixelliustrated work of art contains references to every video game ever made.Seriously, we were going to try to list the video games referenced in the poster (visible in somewhat higher res here), but really, it would probably be easier to list the games that aren't. Let's see ... Klax, and ... well, just Klax, we guess. Sorry, Klax!
Company has tech to compensate for crappy cameras
The latest piece of technology originally intended for military / security applications to be rebranded for peaceful, consumer purposes comes from a Silicon Valley startup called MotionDSP, which has licensed technology from a military research project that can enhance low-resolution video and improve the output of phone cameras, webcams, and other low quality feeds. The technology, which will go into a consumer beta later this year, compares multiple frames in a video to replace lost pixels in any given frame without an increase in file size. Eventually the company plans to offer an online service where consumers can enhance their pixelated creations for free, although the company also wants to make deals with current online video services. Until that day comes, we'll continue to suffer through our daily fix of YouTube in all its aliased and pixelated glory.
