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Zip Zip offers up USB flash drives within Lego blocks
We're not particularly sure if Lego is actually getting a cut on these newfangled USB flash drives, but an Australian firm is offering up said storage options within Lego blocks nonetheless. The Zip Zip Memory Bricks will be available in black, white, red, blue, green, and yellow here shortly, and all house 1GB of storage and sport USB 2.0 connectivity. Additionally, a nifty lanyard allows you to attach your new 31- x 15- x 10-millimeter drive to your key ring, and while the A$59 ($48) pricetag may seem a tad high for just 1,024MB, you know the diehards can't resist picking this up to go alongside their Lego LaCie HDD.
Today's most re-sellable video: Lego Star Wars trailer
While LucasArts says it's adding some new content, we fear that the upcoming Lego Star Wars game, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will just be a new name on an old title. Still, the humor in this series is worth a second look -- at least in cost-free trailer form -- and this ad for the game reminds us why we enjoy this unlikely franchise at all.In time for the 30th anniversary, see epic Star Wars events reenacted with Legos after the break.
Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga uses the Force to extract money from wallets
We all suspected as much since the beginning of the month, but today LucasArts has made it official: Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga is going to be hitting all major platforms, including the Wii, come this Fall. As a game that is comprised of two games, it will undoubtedly find an audience on the console, as we're all hungering for something to play. Then, there's the folks who never played either game and might think they'd like to see what all the fuss is about.Are you looking forward to some sci-fi, plastic-blocked hi-jinks, or are you sick of the Wii getting nothing but what seem to be ports?[Via Joystiq]
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga to brick 360, PS3, Wii, DS
Nothing beats the satisfaction that arises from successfully assembling a Lego masterpiece out of a handful of meaningless blocks. LucasArts must be glowing with delight then, since they've just managed to construct a fully functional ATM by just clipping two of their pieces together. On the eve of the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, LucasArts has officially announced Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and DS. The game will be a combination of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and last year's Lego Star Wars: The Good Original Trilogy, with additional characters, enhanced levels and features tossed in by developer TT Games. The group promises to take "full advantage of the unique capabilities of all three next-generation consoles" (three?) and notes that the DS version is unique in being constructed from "the ground up." Brick your favorite console when Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga arrives this Fall.
Honor your Wiimotes with a brittle, knobby throne
For those of you whose Wiimotes are heart-breakingly horizontal, and whose Lego bricks are crying out to be moderately useful, then we have the perfect solution for both of your problems. Everyone else: we have a picture of a Wiimote stand made of Lego for you.When the Wii-playing Lego robots win control of all of Earth's resources in a series of high-stakes Wii Sports Bowling tournaments, we will all be locked in their vast factories and forced to build giant versions of these thrones from which they'll beep their terrible edicts. There's no stopping them, so we might as well get some practice building those thrones.
LEGO Johnny Five is (kinda) alive; needs input
While we're no strangers to the crazy robots people build out of LEGOs, Daniele Benedettelli's LEGO Johnny Five has got to be the most awe-inspiring brickwork we've seen in a while. The NXT-based 'bot actually contains two NXT units that communicate via Bluetooth to provide Mr. Five a full range of motion from his 6 motors and as much input as he can handle from up to 8 sensors. Benedettelli built the model after careful study of Johnny Five photos to determine his precise measurements, and two previous attempts. While we applaud all this effort, we can't imagine how much time it's going to take him to plate version 4 in gold. Check the read link for plans and videos of Johnny in action.[Via MAKE: blog]
Saints Row and Lego Star Wars II go platinum
Got some money leftover from Easter that's still burning a hole in your pocket? For less than the cost of a $3.95 latte every day for a month solid, you can score yourself Saint's Row and Lego Star Wars II for the Xbox 360 ... and still have enough left over to pick up a full-priced title of your choosing. Saint's Row stretches out the GTA-style replay value with downloadable content, and Lego Star Wars II is about the most fun you can have bashing Lego bricks, so either one ain't a bad value.
Lego-built "self tracker" train does things at its own pace
Got an immorally excessive amount of free time, and a good helping of patience to boot? Then peep the video after the break. We fell asleep a full three times watching the 1:44 video of David Wegmuller's Lego "self tracker," but that doesn't mean we don't recommend you give it a look yourself. The machine is basically a souped-up "train," which can place its own track, Wallace & Gromit style. The sluggish bot rolls onto a freshly lain track piece, and then turns to grab the one behind and swing it around in front. We're impressed greatly by the total lack of utility and all-around foolishness / ingenuity of the project, and can't wait to see what David brews up next.
LEGO Star Wars goes Universal
A long time ago, in a squarish galaxy far, far away... Aspyr media, in an effort to save Mac users of the planet Earth from certain doom and boredom, released a Universal patch for LEGO Star Wars. That's right: it's been a while since we've had to write about an app (finally) going Universal (Adobe CS3 notwithstanding), and even longer since I've had the opportunity to make a Star Wars pun, so there it is. All joking aside though, Aspyr apparently released this patch earlier in the month, but I just caught it in today's newsletter. You can snag the 4.71MB update from Macgamefiles.com.
RIM uses Lego to test BlackBerry
Back in 1998, when BlackBerry was just starting to garner some attention with its messaging devices -- voice was still but a dream at this point -- RIM engineer Matthias Wandel found a low tech solution to a high-tech testing problem. The BlackBerry 950 was a 900MHz device and moving them a couple centimeters this way or that or changing the devices orientation produced significantly different test results. Eschewing high-tech wizardry for the kid's Lego bin, Matthias was able to construct a device that could rotate the 950 through it's horizontal axis and vertical axis, looked sweet, and likely cost all of 10 bucks to make. We commend anybody who can create useful real world tools with toys, though of course we expect RIM can now afford Robots for this type of chore, or at least Lego robots.[Via Slashdot]
Killer Lego sumo bots are back for more
Round 3 of the 2007 DivX Lego Sumo Robotic Championship is just as much a DivX sellout as ever, and the required browser plugin still isn't winning any friends, but despite those caveats, we're still glued to our screens for these exciting Lego bot deathmatches. With new bots like "Blue Wedgie" and "Joker" making quick work of their competition -- thanks to Blue Wedgie's clever wedge action and Joker's active sensing technique -- the matches were a bit more expedient this time around, but still quite entertaining. Nerd sport of the future? We think so.
The 2006 Engadget Awards: Vote for Robot of the Year
Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Portable Media Device of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Sunday, April 15th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: Cornell's "conscious", adapting robot, Lego Mindstorms NXT, Manoi AT01, TMX Tickle Me Elmo, Whitebox Robotics 914 PC Bot, and Wowwee Robosapien RS Media. %Poll-259%
Lego dock provides home to full assortment of handhelds
It doesn't get much better than when the Lego bricks of our youth meet our gadget stash of today, and while we've seen Lego docks for various devices before, Chris C built himself an all-in-one unit to house his 8525, iPod and DS Lite in plastic digs. We've gotta hand it to Chris for mixing an indie Lego-hacker ethic with three of the most stereotypical devices of their respective categories, but let's hope that iPod's running Linux, the DS has a DS-Xtreme cart in it, and he's got some sort of snazzier Windows Mobile Today Screen for his 8525 -- live the dream, Chris![Thanks, Chris C]
Build your own WiigoBot, the Lego NXT Mindstorms Wii Bowling Robot
Other than causing excessive pain to people walking around carelessly with bare feet, there's a lot of things you can do with Lego bricks. We recently saw that it's possible to make a fully automated Wii Sports bowling machine using Lego NXT Mindstorms, and now the complete guide has been posted over at BattleBricks. The fun has to be in the construction here, because unlike previous efforts, about all you can expect to gain from completion is a machine that can repeatedly throw a virtual bowling ball. You'll need a fair amount of kit here too, so be prepared to scrounge around that box of bricks to find those eight "Technic Pins with Friction and Slots" which you swear you saw at the bottom the other day. In the end, we're left wondering how abstract all this can get: will someone end up building a real life bot that automatically flies virtual, long haul flights? If so, how enthralling.
Wii robot bowls 300, feels no emotion with victory
The Lego hackers at BattleBricks have created a robot that throws Wii Bowling strikes every frame, dominating any human that dares face off against this plastic giant. The robot looks like a spastic uneven bars runner-up, but it does the trick; its controls move the bowler off-center, hold B for the swing, and release it at the perfect time. It even resets itself -- and its Mii -- after each frame.And yes, of course the robot is supported on each side by Linux and C++ guides -- it just doesn't get any more perfectly geeky. See a video of the robot in action after the break.[Via Engadget]
Lego robot designed to bowl perfect game, actually does
Maybe we're the only ones who fear a robot uprising and the enslavement of all humanity at the cold, metallic hands of cruel, unfeeling robotic overlords? No? Well, then why are people dying to build robots that perform human tasks? Bueller?And, in case you didn't follow all of that, the embedded video past the post break presents a robot designed to bowl a perfect game in Wii Sports: Bowling. Whether the credit belongs to the robot or individual who made the robot is anyone's guess. We're going to go with the individual, however, since we hate robots. Please do keep the human resistance informed of any new developments in the robotic community, won't you?[via Battle Bricks]
Lego Batman developer hints at even more Lego titles
We imagine the office floors of UK developer, TT Games, being completely covered in developers sitting with their legs crossed and their eyes firmly fixated on their latest Lego creations. When other groups are hard at work stringing together reams of code and drawing concept sketches, these guys are building bridges, stacking blocks and crying in anguish whenever a careless passerby kicks over a wall. They're making Lego games -- and lots of them too.The studio's head of production, Jonathan Smith, tells GamesIndustry.biz that the Lego tracks have been put down beyond Lego Batman (bricking multiple consoles in 2008). "We have genuinely exciting plans for future Lego titles," says Smith, noting that the positive response earned by the Lego Star Wars games is pushing his team to exceed expectations. Though the titles have been popular among the young ones, it's not unusual to spot an "adult" having a good time with familiar characters and equally familiar building blocks.Though no other Lego-fied franchises are mentioned, we eagerly anticipate the arrival of Lego Pink Panther, Lego Carmen Sandiego: Where in the World is That Damn Piece?, Lego Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Brickening and of course, Lego Lego Batman (the game based on the Lego based on the game).
WiigoBot melds Lego with Wii bowling, knocks down all 10 pins in our hearts
If a lowly blogger could die from awesomeness, we're pretty sure we'd be keeling over right about now. The Lego Mindstorms geekz0rs over at BattleBricks have managed to reach new heights of human ingenuity, melding a Mindstorms NXT kit, some clever programming and Nintendo's Wii to create an unstoppable bowling machine capable of tossing a perfect game without breaking a sweat, growing a nasty mustache, or sporting a beer belly. While the BattleBricks folks don't provide precise instructions on how to build this yourself, they've got plenty of evidence that it does, indeed, bowl like a champ. So peep the action video after the break, and then start plotting your own NXT creation conquer some other form of automated Wii Sports point inflation -- we never could quite get the hang of tennis.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Today's stop-motionest game video: Lego SMB
For tonight's video, we chose the Super Mario Bros. Lego video that's been floating around recently. This stop-motion animation shows Mario as a regular-shaped Lego man; instead of making a video as close to SMB as possible, Mario, mushrooms, enemies, and other items are warped through the Lego lens. There's a place for literal Lego game tributes, but we still like this short. Love those sound effects!See the video after the break.
Lego Batman coming to 360 in 2008
After witnessing the huge success of the Lego Star Wars games, Warner Bros. is going to work with Lego to make a Lego Batman game. With Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment heading the publisher duties, TT Games is returning to develop the title, which is slated for a 2008 release on new generation consoles. Did you play and enjoy either of the Lego Star Wars games, camera issues aside? Looking past some gameplay issues, we were able to have fun and enjoy The Original Trilogy for what it as. So, do you think "Lego-izing" the Batman universe could see the same success as the Star Wars franchise did? [Via GameStooge]
