Popeye
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ICYMI: Robots so advanced, they cool themselves with sweat
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers from the University of Tokyo devised a better air cooling system for robots that is modeled on their as-yet-overlords, sweaty humans. The 3D-printed bones have spaces for tiny pores, allowing Kengoro to do pushups for 11 minutes without overheating. Next up, world domination.
Spinach-based solar cells get $90,000 development funds from EPA, Popeye delighted
A biohybrid solar panel that substitutes expensive silicon components for a spinach protein has been granted some substantial Phase II funding from the EPA. Students from the Vanderbilt School of Engineering managed to stand out from 44 other university teams vying for funding at the National Sustainable Design Expo held in Washington DC. The team's large-scale panel only ekes out a small amount of electricity from the photosynthetic proteins at the moment, but according to Professor Kane Jennings, the cash injection from the EPA will help achieve higher energy conversion ratios over the next few years. Perhaps you could try wrapping them up into giant 3D cubes, Professor. [Thanks Brandon]
Virtually Overlooked: Popeye
Nintendo's Donkey Kong features an everyday tradesman saving a helpless, reedy girlfriend from a giant brute, using only his agility and the occasional pickup of a trademark item that makes him super-strong for a short time, marked by a fanfare. Replace the carpenter with a sailor and make the ape a bit less hirsute, and you've pretty much got the theme of every Popeye cartoon.It's not that surprising, then, that Donkey Kong was conceived as a Popeye game. And it's even less surprising, considering the runaway success of Donkey Kong, that Nintendo was able to secure the rights to the property for a subsequent game.
Collecting & Obsessing: Game & Watch
Throughout the 1980s, Nintendo's Game & Watch series of handhelds provided the soundtrack to innumerable school playgrounds across the globe. A pre-Game Boy attempt to capture the portable games market, Game & Watch titles were relatively cheap but sturdily built toys which came with a single game and, as the name suggests, a watch. For the best part of eleven years, Nintendo kept manufacturing these forerunners to its other handheld devices, only for the Game Boy and Tetris to emerge in 1989 and squash the whole enterprise flat.Nevertheless, the spirit of Game & Watch lives on through the hundreds of individuals who collect the games. For this one-off piece, DS Fanboy decided to interview two hardcore collectors in a bid to understand their love of Nintendo's first portable phenomenon.Both 35-year-old Michael Panayiotakis (founder of Mike's Nintendo Game & Watch forum and the author of a quite superb FAQ on the subject) and 38-year-old Andy Cole possess the kind of retrolicious Game & Watch collections that we would maim (and possibly kill) for. To find out what they love about this charming series, why they collect Game & Watch, and why they dedicate so much time and money to their hobby, hit the break for our full interview. Once you've done that, don't forget to browse our gallery for a pictorial history of the Game & Watch phenomenon!%Gallery-25216%
Wild Hare, Alten8 to bring a bunch of crappy videos to PSP
In what might be the absolute worst idea in the history of the PSP, Wild Hare Entertainment and Alten8 have announced four movies for its PC2PSP media format. The titles are Popeye 1 and 2, Betty Boop and Zorro and His Fighting Legion Volume 1. What, could they not go the extra mile and give us Little Rascals: The Early Years?The PC2PSP files come on a disc that feature digitally boosted sound and are pre-formatted for the PSP.Earlier this month, we reported Wild Hare and Alten8's partnership to bring content to the PSP. However, I had no idea such atrocities would manifest themselves from this partnership. Unless these companies can actually bring content to us that we care about and aren't older than our grandparents, I highly doubt they'll see any success.
