My appearance on the Engadget Show is now online and you can watch it right here.
I haven’t watched it yet, but I recall a) drinking from a Dan Aykroyd skull vodka bottle b) a lot of pinball stuff c) the PS3 laptop d) being too tired at the end of it all to do much drinking on State Street.
Enjoy!
We’re still here after 62 podcasts with #63! Granted we don’t always get them out as regular as we used to, but hey, they keep coming don’t they?
In this podcast we discuss the Zune HD versus iPod Touch, Zune Marketplace versus iTunes, Uncharted 2 and Jones’ foray into the amazing experience of Fallout 3. As always, enjoy! (Or not, your choice)
Listen to Benheck.com Podcast Episode 63
Addendum to podcast: Having beaten Uncharted 2 now I’d say it is worth the praise heaped upon it. While the variety of enemies remained lame throughout, the ingenuity and scope of the setpieces is amazing and puts all other action games to shame. Also the storytelling, motion capture and cutscene voice acting is top notch and I really cared about the outcome of the characters.
Ever see the under-appreciated Disney movie “Atlantis”? Well the second half of Uncharted 2 is basically like that movie but in the snow. (That’s meant as a compliment by the way) It’s a great game and one every PS3 owner should seek out. Sony may not have as many exclusives as it once did, but the ones they do have are excellent and more interesting – to me at least – than the exclusive titles seen on the Xbox.
I’m thinking about building another one of these, perhaps in a black/burgundy color scheme as seen above. Why? Why not!
Any interested parties? This is your chance to get one before it’s claimed! Contact me…
Work continues on Bill Paxton Pinball – the longest suffering Ben Heckendorn project of all time. The unit now has legs, a functioning input/output controller, tilt sensor, power supplies, fuses, front coin door panel, plunger assembly, start button, sound amplifier and some temporary targets.
Check out the video after the break!
Click here for a close-up of the wand
It has come to my attention that the Tucker Max movie “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” has come out. Last year I was approached by that movie’s prop department to come up with a “highly customized Xbox 360 controller for a game-obsessed character.”
Above you can see the result. It didn’t have to actually function but I insisted it did. I actually built 2 of them since movies always have backup props (well, mine don’t). The idea was the controller had a lot of “business” potential – that is to say the character could move around it with and act out functions in an overstated manner.
Having not seen the movie, my question is “Did it make it into the final cut?” Please let me know, I am curious!
The “pitch drawing” I sent them to get the gig.
Fun fact: the cost of these props exceed that of Possumus Woman’s entire budget.
Click here for larger version.
Last month I ran out and bought one of the new PS3 Slim consoles. You can check out my “tear down” of the unit here.
I had some other projects to finish first at the time, but now I’ve gotten around to building a laptop out of this thing. It might still be my fastest project of a new console, I think the Wii was 2 months after launch, this is about 35 days.
Anyway, specs:
Click here for larger version.
For the “Making Of” story, pics and video see below.
When I was young I used to do a lot of BASIC programming on my Atari 800 computer. Many years later I got an SIO2PC cable from eBay, which allows you to use your PC as a virtual disk drive with an old Atari. This allows a person to make disk images of their old stuff. Knowing how fragile the old FM disks were, I was excited to make backups.
Sadly, about 3 minutes after getting the transfer cable my 810 drive conked out. However recently a customer found me a working 1050 drive at a thrift store (how come thrift stores in Wisconsin aren’t that cool?) so once again I can share these old games with the world!
If you ever wondered what the “amazing” Ben Heck was doing at age 11, now you can find out! Though a programmed a lot of stuff, I’m only including what is complete or fairly playable.
Should run on most modern emulators, or a real Atari if you have an SIO2PC cable. Enjoy!