Gizmodo: 8-bit

8-Bit Wedding Invitation Acknowledges the Marital Bickering to Come

Chris Jacob — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

I love this 8-bit wedding invitation. Not only for the design, but because it not-so-subtly portrays marriage as a prolonged Street Fighter match.

Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against marriage. And if you've got a wife awesome enough to agree to an invitation like this, it'll probably be pretty smooth sailing from here on out. But let's face it, there'll be times where verbal Hadouken's are thrown. So why not acknowledge that with an awesome wedding invitation?

I'm assuming the front says "Marry Me" in binary, but I'll leave that to those of you fluent in cyborg parlance to decode. Combine this with the Tauntaun cake and you've got yourself a real wedding. [GeekStir, designed by Carla Berrocal]

The 8-Bit Barbecue

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Being a secret Susan Kare fanboy, I like this 8-bit barbecue. But I want my steaks to be 64-bits, thank you very much. And if I'm eating with the rest of the Giz gluttons, it has to be multi-core.

The Barbeque is part of the No Screw No Glue line by designers Joost van Bleiswijk and Kiki van Eijk. [Mocoloco]

Commodore 64 iPhone App Approved! Removed

Danny Allen — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:34:35 EDT

Update: After finally hitting the app store, the fully-licensed C64 emulator has been yanked after a user workaround made Apple realize that Manomio didn't completely ditch the old-skool BASIC 2.0 interpreter it objected to.

Tsk Tsk. Manomio has this to say:

Unfortunately, Apple has pulled the C64 Application from their store as it was discovered by some users that it was possible to enable the Basic program through the interface. We have now fixed the issue and our application has been re-submitted for approval by Apple.

We thank you all for your support and fingers crossed we hope to launch again over the next few days.

The $5 app supports licensed game images sold by Manomio, and $5 gets you 5 games. Included are Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck, and Jack Attack. More licensed games are expected to cost about 99c to $2 each.

Hopefully Manomio can sort its shit out soon. Stay tuned. [Touch Arcade]

8-Bit Trip Might Just Be One of the Greatest Lego Music Videos Ever Created

Jack Loftus — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:25:00 EDT

What combines Lego, stop motion animation and a tribute to 8-bit video games all in one place? Sorry, the answer is this 8-Bit Trip music video, but to be fair I would have guessed paradise too. Updated.

The video reportedly took about 1,500 hours to create, and I pretty much had an acid flashback-type experience while watching it, during which time I traveled back to the 1980s and relived my entire youth all over again in the span of about three and a half minutes.

Pong, Mario Bros., Raccoon Mario, Bubble Bobble—it's all pretty much there, backed by an unmistakably 8-bit beat. Amazing stuff.

Update: Brothers Brick reports that the artist was Tomas Redigh and the song was written by Daniel Larsson. Good work! [YouTube via Waxy via Boing Boing]

NESynth iPhone App Pumps Out Nintendo-Style Chiptunes

Danny Allen — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:05:00 EDT

Like the 8Bitone synthesizer app, NESynth lets you create 80s-style music with 8-bit sounds. But the coolest part: You can control it all with an on-screen NES-style gamepad. Watch the rockin' video after the jump to see what I mean.

Also fun is the $2 app's use of the iPhone's accelerometer to pitch-bend sounds, and its ability to let you jam along with a friend—and hear what they're playing on your phone.

As you'll hear in the video below, NESynth has built-in classic sound effects (jump, fire, laser, etc), and an arpeggiator to help build up melodies using the on-screen piano keyboard.

(For the synth geeks out there: sound generation comes from 3 pulse waveforms, a triangle waveform, and white noise.) [NESynth | iTunes Store]

8Bitone Chiptunes Synthesizer App Lets You Mix It Like Mario

John Herrman — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:30:02 EDT

Everyone's heard the stories about those guys who play entire concerts on their Game Boys, or who recompose symphonies onto NES cartridges. 8Bitone is kinda like that, except on your iPhone, and without the social suicide aspect.

8Bitone is a combination nonlinear audio editor and chiptunes synthesizer, chiptunes being music synthesized in real time on old computer hardware, i.e. 8-bit game soundtracks. While 8Bittone isn't the first chiptunes synth to hit the App Store, it certainly looks like the best: writing, editing and listening to music is all carried out through a thoughtful, attractive interface, and the end result sounds as vintage-y as it should. Due in the App Store any day now, price TBA. [BBG]

Dreaming in Pixels

John Mahoney — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:20:00 EDT

Or digital electric sheep. Both possible with this 8-bit slumber mask, $22 shipped from Thailand. [Studiobo via Unplggd]

Pixel Drink Coasters Can Have Any 8-Bit Shape You Want

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:00:00 EDT

These pixel drink coasters are made of paper and come in 50-unit packages for $8. Nothing special there until you notice that they have different shapes, which are not actually made at the factory: The coasters come in a single sheet, folded in 50 segments that you can cut in any way you want using the one-centimeter-long square perforations that divide each segment into 110 pixels. The results are beautiful, including an obligatory Space Invaders theme.

According to Technabob, the paper is special, which allows to resist the condensation and even get reused. [25togo via Technabob]

Famicase Exhibition Fuses Yesterday's Famicom Cartridges With Today's Curious Artistic Minds

Jack Loftus — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Rounding out our Nintendo news trifecta today is the annual Famicase art exhibition. It's like many other art exhibitions from around the world, made infinitely cooler by the fact that the artwork is composed of imaginary games pasted to old 8-bit Famicom carts. More than 50 designers, illustrators and authors contributed to event this year, which is organized by Super Meteor game shop owner Satoshi Sagagami. Some are crazier than others, but all have a home in this Nintendo lover's heart. Personal favorite? Overly promiscuous R.O.B.—now we know what he's been up to all these years!

[Famicase via Technabob]

Play Famicom Cartridges on Your DS With CYBER Familator Lite

Adrian Covert — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:07:57 EST

The CYBER Familator Lite is an Akihabara-esque gizmo that snaps onto your DS Lite and lets you play old Famicom cartridges on your DS screen (If you can hunt down an adapter, you can play NES games as well). I think we should forget the Familator Lite is bigger than the DS, and that an emulator can do the same thing, because you get real 8-bit goodness on your DS. It's like drinking Coke in a glass bottle – it just tastes better. The CYBER Familator Lite is expected to surface in Japan next month. [CYBER Gadget via DS Fanboy via Technabob]

DIY 8-Bit Game Console

Brian Lam — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:24:36 EDT

The Hydra 8-bit console kit has more juice than an NES, and you can write your own games for it. $200 gets you instructions on how to program for the Propeller processor, a keyboard, mouse, NES-ish joypad, and a 128KB rewritable cartridge to match its 128K EEPROM.

Thinkgeek [via BoingBoing]

Logic3 GamesPower50

johnb — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:03:18 EST

Who needs a PSP or a DS? This wee bugger contains 50 8-bit games and even has a TV-out for playing on the big screen. A 2.5" TFT screen makes it portable and it runs on 3 AAA batteries. Priced at about $80, I could see rocking out to some 8-bit action on the train while everyone else pets their Nintendogs. Should be about $60 when/if it hits these shores.

Product Page [SpectraVideo via TechDigest]