Awesome Games

(PG-13: Language) Nintendo didn’t start making arcade games. The Japanese video game juggernaut made playing cards, toys, and board games for years before getting into arcade and console gaming. Videogamedunkey offers up a brief history of Nintendo’s early days and the origins of the game that would change everything.

8BitDo makes lots of cool gadgets and accessories inspired by retro gaming systems. Their N30 wireless charger incorporated design elements of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s classic gamepad. The charger offers 15-watt fast charging and is compatible with just about every wireless charge-capable phone.

Following up on their awesome cyberpunk city and medieval house computer case mods, Martina and Hansi from Nerdforge are back with an aesthetic upgrade for the PlayStation 5. After questioning the uninspiring looks of the console, they transformed it into a dwarven kingdom with molten lava pouring down its sides.

The Xbox 360 had one of the best game controllers ever. Hyperkin is readying a new version that’s compatible with the Xbox Series X/S and Windows 10 and 11 devices. It’s very similar to the original, with the addition of Menu, View, and Share buttons, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and detachable USB-C cable.

(PG-13: Language) Sonic Frontiers was one of the most hotly-anticipated video games of 2022. But does the high-speed, open-world 3D platformer live up to the hype? Videogamedunkey offers his honest take on the game, its level design and control quirks, visual glitches, and occasional moments of actual fun.

To celebrate the release of God of War Ragnarök, artist Steven Richter created this impressive likeness of the game’s protagonist Kratos. He started by sculpting a clay bust, which he used to create a silicone mold. After filling the mold with resin and letting it set, he painted on all of the details and applied facial hair.

Adam from North of the Border was trying to come up with a way to sculpt Sonic the Hedgehog that was different from what’s already out there on the internet. So he created a clay sculpture of SEGA’s mascot in his iconic “Naruto run” pose, then covered the figure with flocking to give him a delightfully fuzzy blue finish.

Inspired by the official LEGO Mario kits, builder Brandon Jones wanted to build a display that looked like a full level from the Nintendo game. At BrickCon 2022, Beyond the Brick’s Joshua Hanlon got an up-close look at the impressive 12,000-piece mechanical diorama, which uses 14 motors to bring the Mushroom Kingdom to life.

G-SHOCK and Nintendo created this sweet Super Mario Bros. watch, inspired by the classic 8-bit game. Its bezel and dial are done up in the color of Mario’s red overalls, while the bezel is the sky blue of the Overworld stages. The band features Mario pixel art print, and the LCD screen has an EL backlight with a Mario 1up graphic.

With enough time and creativity, you can create incredible structures in Minecraft. German builder Timtenth shows off his largest project to date with time-lapse footage of the process. It took him 1000 hours to assemble this awe-inspiring digital Babylon. Stick around to the end for a fly-through of the finished environment.

LEDclaw makes all kinds of geeky lights, including this wall light inspired by an Xbox game controller. The 20″ W x 14.5″ H light is made from wood and cast acrylic and is backlit with colorful LEDs. They also make some cool lights based on floppy disks and cassette tapes.

Paranormal Tales is a psychological horror game inspired by The Blair Witch Project. Its bodycam perspective looks incredibly immersive and is sure to induce plenty of jump scares. The game sends you on a spine-tingling mission to discover what happened to others who disappeared before you. Add it to your Steam wishlist.

Clockwork’s compact uConsole computer was created for indie game developers and programmers. Its mainboard has swappable cores, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-A, USB-C, Micro-HDMI, headphone, and MicroSD connectors, and the kit includes a 720p 5.0-inch IPS screen and a backlit QWERTY keyboard with game controls.

Most driving games involve competitive racing. But Anslo’s driving game is about relaxation. The browser-based Slow Roads drops you behind the wheel of a virtual car as it drives along an endless, procedurally-generated road filled with scenic vistas. You can control the car using your keyboard or mouse, or enable autopilot.

The music from the first couple of Sonic the Hedgehog games is some of the best in the history of video games. Among our favorites is the music from the Chemical Plant Zone, which drummer gotobejake made even better by adding a live rhythm track. We also enjoyed Jake’s take on Duck Tales.

Print shop Dorothy pays tribute to 50 years of video games with another postage-stamp-inspired design. It features images based on 42 iconic video games, from Pong to Sonic the Hedgehog to Grand Theft Auto, each represented as a minimalist graphic along with the year of its release. The print measures 80 cm x 60 cm (~31.5″ x 23.6″).

A while back, Techmoan showed off the Atari Video Music, a device that produces colorful patterns from audio. YouTube channel Atari Video Music CRT Garage makes music videos with the 8-bit box, displaying its images on a roomful of TV screens. There are more than 40 videos in the series. Here’s a playlist of our faves.

This arcade game is as small as they come. It runs on an Arduino-compatible 32-bit processor and has a tiny full-color OLED screen, a D-Pad, two pushbuttons, plus a built-in speaker. It comes pre-loaded with three homebrew games, and can be expanded with more games via a MicroSD card. Takes about 10 minutes to assemble.

After watching the trailer for the Super Mario Bros. movie, Boylei Hobby Time was inspired to recreate the fire-breathing Bowser scene as a diorama. He started by making the buildings out of wood and foam, added a 3D-printed Bowser, painted everything, and created the fire effect using LED filament lights and cotton.

The CyberOne is an adjustable standing desk for gamers. It adjusts 29″ to 47″ tall and has dual pull-out drawers, USB/USB-C ports, a wireless charger, and cable management. The upgraded Plus and Pro models add features like a perforated backboard, a storage bin with a cup holder, LED lighting, and a tower PC bracket.

Duck Hunt is one of the OG light gun games. The NES game used a photosensor in its gun to detect its position as you aimed at the birds on screen. Atari Video Music CRT Garage rigged up the game so it could be played on the world’s smallest CRT monitor – just 0.5″ across. It looks like the zapper can’t hit anything at this size.

The DragonForce track Through the Fire and Flames is widely regarded as one of the hardest songs to play in music pattern-matching games. The insanely quick song has made its way into the PC game Trombone Champ. YouTuber DerpyChap is trying his best to master the punishing track, while Salient seems to have it down.

Artist and designer Dom Riccobene painstakingly replicated the full single-player map of Los Santos from Grand Theft Auto V as a 3D model. Because of the size of his 3D printer, he broke the map down into 24 quadrants, then assembled each piece onto a 20″ x 30″ base. We enjoyed watching the map legend being carved too.