Arcade Lounge

Looking for the perfect fuel for a late night gaming marathon on your surface tension coffee table? You should try 9-Bit Mega Coffee. As you can probably tell from the packaging, it was inspired from Sega’s Mega Drive system, to give you a retro cup of coffee which serves as a great fuel for gamers or anyone who appreciates good coffee.

But where on earth did a retro gaming icon and coffee blend find themselves thrown into the mix? Cornwall, actually, or to be more precise the Loading Games Bar in Falmouth: the South West’s spiritual home for gamers, techie types, nostalgia junkies and anyone who likes their coffee made properly.

Created for gamers, by gamers (FGBG), this awesome coffee is blended from 9 different kinds of coffee bean. So grab yourself a can, warm the espresso machine, pull on your sweat bands and load one of those big clunky cartridges – we’re powering back to the 1990’s!

If you don’t live close enough to Falmouth to pop into Loading Games Bar, their 9-Bit Mega Coffee is now available from Firefox for pre-order priced at £14.99.

It’s a real-world question mark block! Making it really obvious that you love 8-bit gaming, this unique question mark block lamp features a quarter inch poplar frame, colored translucent acrylic, and colored paper to add texture to the bricks on either side of the question mark.

Will it contain coins or a power up? OK, well, neither actually – just some custom electronics, and the only thing you’ll get if you punch this thing is personal injury and a broken lamp.

via: Gizmodo

…and that’s official.

With the launch of the Guinness book of records: Gamer edition, comes a huge feat. A bunch of students in the Netherlands have produced the worlds largest game controller. When I was at university, I was too busy playing Mario Kart.

I hope they are working on plans to retain their title basing it on the N64 pad.

One of the other records set was a man playing Mario Galaxy in a vertical wind tunnel for 18 minutes. Maybe I can get in there too by playing GTA in a bath of beans…

Guinness world record controller :: Make

The MWE Emperor 200 may be labelled a “workstation”, but surely that would be a waste of its true gaming potential. This should not be for work, this should be for play.

The chances are your humble work desk and chair setup does not have an “ergonomic leather seating unit”, three touch-screen monitors (each a 24″ LED display), motorised screen and chair adjustments, LED lighting and THX surround sound system. It even has an air filtration system, supposedly in case you smoke. Or just don’t smell so good.

At that price it’s aimed squarely at the ultra-rich (it goes for £28,900), but the rest of us can dream, right?

via: technabob

We couldn’t help but swoon over the awesome technology in Microsoft’s Surface multitouch table. The only issue was the physical restrictions put on it by the required internal cameras.

Well, this has all changed now and Samsung are apparently ready to roll out the SUR40, which will replace the existing system. It’s multi-touch is now a proper touchscreen and supports 50 points of contact.

The display will be shipping out at $8,400 ($9,049 with legs). This is for a 40″ full HD screen, sealed against water and resistant to shock. It’s all running on an Athlon X2 245e CPU, with 320GB of storage and Radeon video card.

So, how do we get our hands on one?

Microsoft Surface

There are plenty of iOS speakerdocks available to choose from, but if you are looking for something a little more retro and original, this modified Atari 2600 might be the perfect iOS speaker dock for you.

This retro iOS dock has been created by Daniel McLeod of Black Mountain Audio. He removed the original Atari’s internal electronics and replace them with a pair of computer speakers and subwoofer, together with a modified gaming cartridge which has now being converted into a 30-pin dock, for either your iPhone or iPodTouch.  Don’t worry, though. This Atari was already non-functional.

On the back for the iOS Atari 2600 speaker dock there is a power button, volume control, audio input jack, sub out jack and a power cable. The original controls and joystick are unfortunately for aesthetic purposes only.

McLeod explains:

“I had an old Atari 2600 that had stopped working and I couldn’t just get rid of it, so I converted it to a portable media audio dock. The Atari console had holes in the top where speakers could have gone, but Atari never built it with speakers. I took an old set of computer speakers that had a subwoofer and mounted the raw speakers and amplifier inside the console.”

If the modified Atari 2600 iOS speaker dock is something you would love to own unfortunately you’re just a little too late! McLeod made it available on his Etsy shop page priced at $100 and it was snapped up immediately.

via: PCWorld – Geektech

Ion, the manufacturer of the first iCade, which started its conceptual life as an April fools joke, have released a few more models for Apple devices. Seen at the current CES show.

Below we have the iCade mobile (left) for iPhone and iPod touch. The device sits inside the iCade and connects by Bluetooth to give you that handheld gaming experience. The cost on this on is expected at around $80.

The iCade Core (right) is a stripped-down version of the original iCade. Communication is still via Bluetooth, but this will have the ability to charge your iPad in-situ.

Next up is the iCade Jr. This is a mini arcade machine, like the iCade, but for the iPhone. Again, the comms are by Bluetooth and there will be an integrated charging dock. Cost expected to be $50.

via macrumors

At surface tension, we’re all for multi-functional furniture. So we were very excited to see the Fusion Tables by Belgian manufacturer, Aramith.

There is room for 6 to munch at with the benches, plus a couple more if you use the smaller seats at each end.

You can choose from a range of cloths which cover the monobed slate.

Using the easy-lift system, it’s a doddle to raise it from 30″ dining up to 33″ playing height.

I want.
Fusion tables by Aramith

We know many of you will be back at work this week after the Christmas break and let’s face it, it sucks!! The office decorations have been taken down, you’re feeling dreary and the office is looking that way too. Well we’ve stumbled across a new craze that will brighten up your office and reduce the boredom of being back at work….Post-It window art

Employees at Ubisoft Montreuil in France started decorating their windows with Post-it pictures but, their neighbours across the street at BNP bank took their Post-it artwork as a bit of a challenge, and started firing back with some window images of their own. Thus, the Great French Post-it War of 2011 was born. Clearly, it spawned an epic rivalry worthy of the likes of Mario and Bowser.

If you decide to create some art of your own we’d love to see what you come up with. For further inspiration check out more pictures at Kuriositas

At surface tension, we understand that good things come to those who wait, and wait is exactly what you must do if you would like to get your hands on one of these built-to-order Pac Man ukuleles.

Sold on Etsy by celentanowoodworks, who also produces a host of other uke designs.

Check out the headstock…

Available for 600 bux.

Pac Man Ukulele on Etsy