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Halo Lego Elite is brickalicious
Halo.bungie.org got word from Mandalore that he has finally perfected his Lego version of the Halo Elite. The Lego mini-fig is well constructed and even includes a make-shift sword to pwn all those noobs. Any fanboys out there ritually play ... I mean build with Legos and create some video game inspired work? We'd love to see someone create Viva Piñata, Gears of War, or even Geometry Wars inspired creations. Be creative, get building, and send them in![Via HBO]
LEGO Digital Designer
You may have noticed that we seem to have a bit of a thing for LEGOs here at TUAW. We previously told you about the open source LEGO design program Bricksmith, but now LEGO themselves have released version 1.6 of the LEGO Digital Designer. This cool little app lets you generate HTML building instructions for your design, check the cost of your raw materials, and perhaps best of all, upload your creation to an online gallery.LEGO Digital Designer is a free download from LEGO.[Edit: it "runs on Intel Macs" but is not a UB] [Via FreeWareMac]
Microsoft busting onto robotics scene with Robotics Studio
First Windows, then PlaysForSure -- what's the next realm of disparate hardware that Microsoft wants to unify under its big blue banner? Why, robotics, of course. Yesterday Microsoft launched its new Microsoft Robotics Studio, a development environment for Windows that supports "a wide variety of hardware platforms" for making all those crazy robots do their thing. The Robotics Studio includes a visual programming language for drag-and-drop robot programming -- though if hand coding is more your style, many programming languages are supported as well -- a 3D visualisation tool based on AGEIA's PhysX engine for simulating bots, and a lightweight runtime environment for working with a multitude of hardware. Plenty of big names in robotics seem to be getting behind the platform, including iRobot and LEGO, who both announced compatibility with the Robotics Studio. Microsoft's approach is quite extensible, and 3rd party software add-ons for commercial and educational use are already cropping up. The best news is that the Studio is free to hobbyists, students and academics, while commercial developers can score a license for $399. Bill Gates seems to have his full weight behind the initiative, with a self-penned eight page article in Scientific American likening the Robotics Studio to what Microsoft did for the computer industry in the 70's. No matter your stance on Microsoft, it's hard to argue with the unifying effect this app could have on the robotics industry -- but let's go easy on the bundled apps this time around, mmkay?
LEGO car is better at parallel parking than you are
Now that all those cool kids are getting self-parking cars and being all big-headed about it, a fresh Mindstorms NXT creation has come along and put them all in their place. The SPC (Self Parking Car) can detect a space large enough for parking all by its lonesome, do the parallel parking deed, and then at your verbal command of "GO!" return to the road, ready to park another day. For a mere $249 (the price of the kit), you too could be this awesome, not to mention all the gas you'll be saving in the process. Of course, that whole "people moving" situation could get a bit sticky, but we're sure you'll work something out. Peep the video after the break.[Via TechEBlog]
Today's hottest game video: SMB3 in Lego
Today's most-watched YouTube game video is a trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. This upcoming PS3 title ... okay, we just can't do it. Final Fantasy fans, follow the link to get your fix. We're sure you'll love the game; Final Fantasy just seems to come up a lot on YouTube, and we want something different tonight.For the rest of you, we offer the second-most-watched video of the day -- with nearly as many views as the Final Fantasy trailer -- a Lego animation of Super Mario Bros. 3. This brilliant video shows what SMB3 would look like if your TV rendered 2D images in Lego. The animation looks like a pixel-to-brick translation, recasting Mario in bright Lego colors.It's unclear if the animation is literally the labor-intensive process of animating each brick, but it looks great regardless. (Originating site, BitFlicks says that some videos use software effects.) See the video after the break.
Today's hottest game video: Lego DDR
Today's most-popular game video comes from GameTrailer's user-uploaded section. Lego DDR, as the title suggests, concerns the junction of Legos and Dance Dance Revolution. We've always wondered what it would look like if Lego people could play DDR. (Just go with us here.) And not even the articulated Technic guys, but the squat, smiling Lego men.Our questions have been answered by this minute-long stop-motion of frenzied Lego guys hitting some max combos. And then they follow-up with pommel-horse moves on the DDR safety-railing. Nice.See the video after the break.
Bosch unloads LEGO Edition dishwasher to clean toys / dinnerware
A childhood isn't complete without a healthy stash of colored blocks to play with, but let's face it, the miniaturized (and LEGO-branded) version of Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 will eventually end up in the depths of a youngster's mouth one way or another. Taking a stand for germ-free toys (and the right to chew on nearly anything) is Bosch's LEGO Edition dishwasher, which sports a special "Toy cycle" to rid Tonka trucks and NERF blasters of microbial buildup without harming their "shape and integrity" (read: melting them into a pile of goo). While it sports the same grime-busting action as most high-end dishwashers out there, the additional cycle runs at 40 degrees Celsius in order to eliminate germs without destroying the plastic. The device comes in "freestanding, under the counter, and fully integrated" flavors, and can be found (only in Europe, curiously) now for €649 ($816), €749 ($942) and €899 ($1,130), respectively. [Via Slashgear]
Lego Star Wars uses the force, sells 1.1 million copies
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy has sold over 1.1 million units in just over a week. That's a lot of LEGO blocks. Someone please keep this information away from George Lucas, if at all possible. Or else we could be seeing LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Enhanced With New CGI Midichlorian Edition. Still, possible future linings of Lucas' wallet aside, kudos to him and LucasArts for continuing to put out new editions of this game, which really have an irreverent take on the Star Wars universe. The back of the box alone features Darth Vader wearing Princess Leia's bra from her slave girl outfit. That's hot.
UK sales charts, September 9-16: Lego leads the board
Despite entering the charts at number three last week, Lego Star Wars II has proved a popular favourite with the British public, rising to snatch the top spot from Dead Rising this week. The rest of the chart follows in similar vein, demonstrating only a slight shuffle from last week's positions. Several Xbox 360 titles are selling well, but the multiformat nature of Lego Star Wars may have tipped it to the top -- that, and it's Lego, man. 1. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy 2. Dead Rising 3. Saints Row 4. Cars 5. Test Drive Unlimited 6. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training 7. New Super Mario Bros. 8. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories 9. Lego Star Wars 10. The Sims 2
Metareview - LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Traveller's Tales was on to something when they decided to take the popular LEGO brand of Star Wars toys and make a video game based on our favorite bricks. The resulting LEGO Star Wars was a novel, family-oriented romp through the galaxy far, far away. LucasArts was more Force sensitive this time around and assumed publishing duties from Eidos for the sequel, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Overall marks are only slightly higher than the first game, but critics agree the stronger source material makes The Original Trilogy worth its weight in galactic credits. GameSpy (90/100) thinks the sequel's enhanced "born to build" features will appeal to the kid in all of us: "There are a lot more LEGO elements scattered throughout each stage than there was in the first game. By blowing up LEGO objects, you'll often be able to rebuild the scattered bricks into new items that can be used to reach otherwise hidden areas. It really gives you the feeling that you're playing within a living LEGO world." 1UP (80/100) knows the only substitute for a good blaster is a good ship: "While the vehicular stages vary in terms of quality, the mere fact that so many exist really adds to the scope of the game. Lego Star Wars II offers a surprising amount of playtime, and is much larger and longer than the original game (which was one of its biggest criticisms)." GameSpot (77/100) discovered that fancy next-gen visuals not make one great: "The current-gen console versions all look slightly better than the original Lego Star Wars, while the PC version looks a bit better than those, since it can run at much higher resolutions. The Xbox 360 version has the most graphical flair, with better reflections, better explosions, and a cool lens-focus effect. It's definitely the best-looking version, but it's also got a very minor frame rate problem that crops up when there are a lot of particle effects." See also: Batman to LEGO brick consoles everywhere
ULTIMATE Lego Chaingun -- not your parents' rubberband gun
Heck yes. We've been trying to utilize our Lego collection for the production of projectile apparatuses ever since the Pirate sets stopped coming with those flickable cannons. Now it seems our sad attempts have been eternally showed up by Sebastian's ULTIMATE Lego Chaingun, which has 8 barrels, a 64 shot capacity, and an eleven rounds per second firing rate. The rubberband chaingun took over a month to build, and is powered by an honest-to-goodness Lego motor. Sebastian has all sorts of ideas how to mod up his gun even more, including an ammo counter or even faster firing rate, but whatever he manages to do it's clear all we're going to be bringing to our next rubberband fight is a white flag. Keep reading for some hot embedded YouTube action of this thing blasting away.[Via digg]
Batman to LEGO brick consoles everywhere
With the release of LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy being close enough for us to start using words like "imminent" and "impending," it's hard not to "imagine" the possibilities brought on by the next franchise selected for LEGO-fication. CVG reports that the world's greatest detective has been chosen by Traveller's Tales to star in the next instalment of the lighthearted series. Following in the square footsteps of the Star Wars games, Batman's blocky adventure is sure to be an amusing parody of everything we've come to know about the caped crusader, Gotham City and its noticeably deranged inhabitants. "Where does he get those wonderful toys?"If you'll recall, it was just last month that Jonathan Smith of Traveller's Tales confirmed that more LEGO games were in the works. Congratulations to Joystiq commenter 32_Footsteps for correctly pinning Batman as the next victim of geometric simplification. We'd dole out some sort of prize, but we think having Batman busting blockheads and battling a juxtaposed Joker is reward enough.
More Lego games planned, says Star Wars developer
Computer & Video Games is reporting that the next issue of British magazine PC Zone contains an interview with Traveler's Tales development director Jonathan Smith in which he confirms the company is planning more games based on combining the Lego license with established films. Traveler's Tales is the company behind Lego Star Wars, the surprise hit that has already spawned an announced sequel/prequel covering the original trilogy of movies.The C&VG article doesn't mention which movies will be Lego-fied, but the author is clearly hoping some sort of Lego Indiana Jones is in the pipeline. What film (or game) franchises do you think would benefit from the Lego treatment?
PodBrix 1984 set
It has been awhile since we have heard from PodBrix, purveyors of Apple-centric LEGO creations, and now we know why. They were hard at work in their secret labs creating the 1984 playset. Immortalizing the immortal 1984 commercial in LEGOs seems a worthy addition to the PodBrix line.As usual this is a limited edition work, only 100 sets will be created and they will cost $198.99 (I would have gone with $198.40. Get it?). While that might seem like a steep price keep in mind that this set features a backlit movie screen (though you'll have to get your own batteries). This set goes on sale on August 2nd promptly at 9pm EST.
Robosapien RS Media gets new Lego Mindstorm NXT brain
If you're looking to delve a little deeper into the world of robotics, but don't exactly have the time or soldering skills to build your own, you'll be glad to know that you'll be able to hack away at your lovable Robosapien RS Media using Lego's Mindstorm NXT system. Thanks to Robosapien designer Mark Tilden's affinity for Lego, the Mindstorm brain fits perfectly into the bot's backpack, allowing you to program a host of new movements into its already robust and customizable repertoire. We suggest you start with something easy like dancing then move your way up to teaching your Robo to destroy the evil imposter, Robone. The source link goes on to mention a few other interesting projects being worked on at Wowwee headquarters, including a four-foot, Segway wheel toting Robosapien model with voice technology and an internet connection, as well as a robotic spider and dragonfly. It all sounds very exciting to us, and we, for one, would like to welcome our new robot overlords (beat you to it).
Microsoft reveals multi-platform Robotics Studio
It seems that Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Academy isn't the only organization working on multi-platform robotics software these days, as Microsoft has just revealed its own so-called Robotics Studio, which is intended to be a rich, scalable programming environment that can control anything from the simplest Lego Mindstorms creation to a highly-complex, car-assembling industrial bot. Unveiled at the RoboBusiness Conference and Exhibition in Pittsburgh, PA, the new software development kit will let users employ a visual programming tool for building command sets or debugging their applications, and also utilizes technology from PhysX manufacturer Aegia to enable realistic 3D simulations for determining how programs will execute in the real world. Not only does the platform support interaction with properly-formatted third-party languages, it will also allow outside developers to build their own commercial applications in the same way that software manufacturers create programs to run on Windows or Windows Mobile today. You can download a preview of the new toolkit-- which also enables web-based bot control -- by following the Read link, or if you just want to know a little more about its history and capabilities, Channel 9 has a great video featuring demos and interviews with the development team.[Via Information Week]
Multi-bot programming language accepting beta testers
If you have what it takes to spend countless hours tinkering with small robots, coding in a brand new language, and filing a stream of bug reports, then the National Robotics Engineering Center wants you to beta test its new multi-plaform bot programming software. Tasked by the educational outreach department at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy with developing a commercial application capable of controlling the most popular kits on the market, the team came up with a language called RobotC, which can be used to write scripts for both the NXT and RCX varieties of Lego Mindstorms bots as well as that Vex Robotics kit we featured in our Holiday Gift Guide. As part of the beta testing program, you'll get a free copy of the software to play with in exchange for your promise to participate in the Bug Tracking system -- which probably isn't much of a burden for those hardcore enthusiasts who spend all day living, breathing, and blogging this stuff anyway.
The lego flash drive
If you've got some spare Lego bricks, a rather tiny USB flash drive (might we recommend a Lexar USB FlashCard?), a bit o' spare time, and no discernible fears for the safety and well being of your digits and extremities when applying tools to rather small, hard plastics, then we'd like to point you to Stickman's Lego flash drive how-to. Novelty, yes; but why is that a bad thing?[Via MAKE: Blog]
Bricksmith
Bricksmith is a cool app that let's you tinker with a set of virtual Legos on your Mac. How cool is that? Plus, it is now a Universal Binary so Intel and PowerPC Macs can join in the fun, natively. Check out the tutorial to see all the cool stuff you can do with Bricksmith.Bricksmith is donationware, so if you find yourself heavily using it kick in a few bucks to support the project.
Portable LEGO Star Wars II details
Pro-G has some new details on the handheld versions of LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. DS owners will have bragging rights with wireless 2-player co-op mode and 4-player versus mode, as well as customized touch screen controls. PSP gamers also have the co-op mode, in addition to a timed challenge mode that features unlockable characters from the first game. Unlockables are cool, but could introduce some continuity problems for the uninitiated. Then again, keeping track of all the Star Wars timelines ain't like dusting crops, boy! There, I said it.All eight versions of LEGO Star Wars II are scheduled for a September 12 release date.
