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Articles, Podcasts, Video Games

Portable Wii Laptop, Podcast Episode 11 and a “Fun Video”

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Lots of crap for you all today, starting with the Wii laptop!

Don't forget your wrist strap
Wii!!

I’m hoping people have forgotten my “Request for a Wii” back in November so this comes as a surprise but if not oh well. For more photos and a video of this sucker in action check out Engadget (a site I write for) using this link below:

Engadget Wii Laptop Article

Quick specs, this unit has a built-in close-range sensor bar, stereo sound, Gamecube port, 16:9 widescreen LCD, A/V jacks, port for external stock sensor bar, built-in power supply and even a compartment for the cord. It measures 8.6″ wide, 7.7″ long and 2″ total thickness.

I am also writing a 3-part “Making Of” to cover the process of building this thing. It will be the most detailed web-based “making of” for one of my projects yet and will appear episodically on Engadget starting this Tuesday, AKA January 23rd. Hope you find it insightful.


The Wii Laptop is one of my more “mechanical” looking designs.

Next up is our latest podcast, episode 11. Quite the doozy, we have a guest on from the Benheck.com forums, recap gaming news, talk about our HD-DVD and Blu-Ray first impressions and of course, discuss what we would do during a zombie apocalypse. We also talk about what game we thought kicked the most butt in 2006.

Visit the Benheckpodcast.com web site to download this and other episodes! (On average each episode sucks up about an hour of your life) You can also check out this page to see some companion photos for Episode 11 if you’re listening to the audio-only version.

Finally, Jones and I put together a video for some reason. I don’t really know what to say about it, I guess it speaks for itself. It’s on the front of the podcast or you can download a higher resolution copy below.

Article Links:

Video – “Wand of Confusion” 640×480, MP4, about 7.5 megs

Benheckpodcast.com Site

Engadget Wii Laptop Article

Podcasts

Benheck.com Podcast – Episode 10 “New Console Wrap-up”

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Check it out, our first podcast of the year! There’s a video intro to this one, so it’s encoded in MP4 format as iPod video, though it will also play in normal QuickTime on a computer.

In this episode we do a wrap-up of the 3 next-gen consoles now that we’ve played them all. It was a close call to get it in there, only on New Year’s Eve Jones did finally get the play a PS3 for a bit so he could form some opinions on it.

User Agreement: ESRB Rated H for Hair-Pulling
What will take up most of your time on the PS3…

So far we’ve both played Wii sports for several hours, I got about 5 hours into Zelda and also beat Resistance: Fall of Man on co-op. Ah yes and I played COD3 Wii as long as I could stomach it. With that under our belts it’s time for our impressions of the systems and suggestions to buyers. Personally, I vote “36DS” for the win (instead of the off-spoken but not as catchy or realistic “Wii60”) but we have a lot more to say than that so give it a listen.

Article Links:

Benheck.Com Podcast – Official Site

Direct Download of Episode 10 (MP4 Format, 50 megs)

MP3 Only Version

Note: It might also be interesting to read my old “Future of Videogames” article from 2001, where I made predictions on the PS2/Xbox 1/Gamecube race. Granted I said Nintendo wouldn’t release another console, and thought the 360 would have a drive much bigger than 20 gigs (who didn’t?) but other than that many of the predictions are fairly accurate.

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Articles

The end of 2006

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Well that was quite the year, wasn’t it? I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make more portables, between finishing the music for Port Washington and doing the Xbox 360 laptop a lot of my time was eaten up. Also the Ghost Documentary is still in the works, sigh… And I never made any “mass producible” portables like the Phoenix either. (Venting my regrets)

However we had over 1 million visitors this year, which I think is a record, so that’s pretty cool. Top projects were the Xbox 360 laptop and the single-handed controller. (I’m making another version of that BTW)

2007 should be better. For starters I always enjoy odd-numbered years more, not sure why. Probably because I always have the difficult projects on even numbered years (Lizard of Death 2000, Port Washington 2002, book 2004, Xbox stuff 2006) Strange how I become more superstitious as the years go by…

I’ve got several projects in the works at the moment that will emerge during the first few months of the year. The new makings-of for my projects will include about 75% more detail than before.

Also later this week we’ll have our first new podcast of the year which will cover our impressions of all the new systems and HDTV.

So thanks for the ride, be reasonably safe for New Year’s and have a great 2007!

Podcasts

Benheck.com Podcast – Episode 9 “The Christmas Special”

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I’ve been waiting to do this podcast for quite a while now. It has a super-sized intro that is relevant to the holiday season, gaming and the podcast topic (for a change). Enjoy! (Note: As with most of my podcasts it’s intended for older listeners)

The actual meat of the podcast involves the hot coffee-flavored topic of violence and adult material in games, our take on it and the whole “blame game” mentality. We also discuss the ESRB ratings and how effective we think they are, or aren’t.

Article Links:

Benheck.Com Podcast – Official Site

Video Games

Atari VCSp Revision 7

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Here it is, only the second Atari 2600 portable I’ve made all year:

VCSp Rev 7 - Slowly But Surely
Click image for a larger version

I had a request to build a new VCSp a few months ago and the person said I could “go nuts” with the design. So I decided to use my long-lost “folding screen” design as sort of seen below.

Drawn during an earthquake it would seem

For whatever reason this was going to be called the “VCSp Liquid” and I did this sketch on my PDA back around the 2001 Classic Gaming Expo in Vegas. Years later (last month) I thought it’d be cool to try and make a small as possible VCSp along these lines.

It's like a mini Atari laptop!
Top lid of the closed unit.

To see internal photos, read the making of and check out the bonus section click the link below. While this unit was too highly customized to make it “mass produced” I am curious to see if there’s still an interest in the old 2600. All I get these days are emails about Xbox 360.

Article Links:

VCSp Revision 7 – “Making Of”

Articles, Video Games

Attention TV producers, I have an idea!

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Why not make a show about people who go around modding and building things? They could take viewer requests to make things as “challenges” and there’d be a couple teams to allow 2-3 projects per episode. Thus if a project fails and is unusable there’s always a backup. Naturally the teams are assembled in such a way to create drama and arguments along the way.

Everything they build would then be auctioned off for worthy charities. So basically it’d be like American Chopper in that you see things being built, with a healthy dash of Mythbusters since everything is by viewer request. Then of course throw in deadlines to create a “ticking clock” a la Overhaulin’. It would also create a great community of people following the work and trying their own versions of it.

Of course I’m suggesting this here on my site because I would want to be involved. Maybe I’m off my rocker but I think it would be interesting – I’d certainly watch a show like that. Let me know what you think.

Podcasts

RSS feed and subscriptions for the Benheck.com Podcast

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After several months of spewing it out 1890’s style you can now actually subscribe to my Benheck.com podcast in the normal way. Amazing, isn’t it? Use the link on the right side column for both it and the Sonic Boom podcast of which I am a co-host. You can also visit my podcasting site at www.benheckpodcast.com.

Thanks to George of the Sonic Boom podcast for setting this up! In other news there is one more portable project coming before the close of the year, based off “the system that started it all”. (And no, not the Altair 8800)