But then, that's nowhere where you haven't been before, so probably he won't give a damn either. And I won't blame him. [Joystiq]

A lot, apparently. To actually play games on this SNEGENES P portable, you have to jam actual cartridges into the back of the portable.

It's not an issue for collectors, obviously, but in this day and age of cheap emulators it seems a bit excessive. Let's see a lite version.

Note: The modder recorded the demo video incorrectly. This system doesn't actually play games in reverse. [Ben Heck Forums via Technabob]

I want to recount the story for you here—I really do. The feeling of running down the stairs that morning, tearing into a tower of gifts balanced on one of the tall, pink chairs of our formal living room. I want to tell you about almost opening a small, rectangular box just two gifts into the unwrapping (one with an eerie resemblance to the size and shape of a Sega Genesis game box), before my parents recommended I work my way through the the pile in a different direction to save the pièce de résistance for last.

But to tell this story again, the pinnacle of my Christmas experience, one properly softened by a Vaseline-coated lens while simultaneously sparkling with double starburst filters, feels disingenuous.

You see, I wrote it all down on paper once before. I was 10, putting me in fifth grade. Still obsessed with my Genesis, this tale of Christmas morning 1992 (late adopter) would be the perfect narrative for the English portion of Mrs. Lustig's class. And I have little doubt that my adultish perspective—one that has difficulty tuning out today's culture for a time when kids only got gifts for big holidays, one that is so spoiled it can call in any toy at any time from any company—has clouded the importance of that Sega Genesis to me. I'll simply never recapture the unbridled love placed on paper via number 2 pencil with this clunky Macbook keyboard I'm typing on now. And an LCD does so little justice to childhood memories when compared to a piece of looseleaf, pulled without regard from a spiral notebook.

The Sega Genesis was my Red Ryder BB gun. It offered me the elation of its receipt, the disappointment of Tazmania and the eventual perspective that memories will forever be altered by the ones that follow. I'm not sure I'll ever relive a moment quite like ripping through paper to find, in complete shock, that I'd gotten exactly what I'd wanted that Christmas. But there's always next year.

The Dream Cat Venus is coming to Japan this month for $110. Both touch and sound sensitive, the Venus (no relation to the planet or the feminine razor) reacts to your petting and talking with a proper amount of nudging and purring. And like the Sony Aibo, the Dream Cat can actually "see" through its camera-enabled eyes.

But does this poor robot need to look like the product from a My First Taxidermy kit? Drop the realism for a moment, Sega, and let these helpless kittenbots out of your dungeon in the uncanny valley. Such amoral plush tactics may work fine to tease the buffets of Melmac, but no one wants to see Japan become Melmac...any more than it already has. [Sega Toys (pdf) via CrunchGear]

You'll be able to create your own "shows" with 55 different explosions which you can then take anywhere, as the device is designed to be portable—it takes AAA batteries for power and looks fairly diminutive. It'll retail for around $160 when it's released, but that release isn't until August 1st. Releasing a fireworks machine, virtual or no, four weeks after both July 4th and Canada Day is like investing in pumpkins in mid-winter. [Sega via OhGizmo]

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The Retro-Gen (branded Sega, though we can't imagine Sega actually had anything to do with it) features a USB-rechargeable battery and comes pre-loaded with 20 "classic" games (we're not sure what they are, hence the quotes). It says it'll only play licensed ROMs, though who knows what that means; we'd imagine you can just load it up with whatever you've got. It doesn't look like it has an extra port for another controller, which would come in handy for multiplayer games using the handheld's TV-out, but you can't have everything, right? It's available for pre-order now, for a $50, $10 off the usual price. [Video Game Central via The Mirror]

UPDATE: ThinkGeek responds in the comments below.

The home experience always felt half-baked and watered down—but that was also in the days before everybody had a 46-inch TV and you had to share a single display for multiple people. Now, it's coming to Xbox 360 and people have giant TVs, but there's no twin-stick to play it. Yet, anyway.

But you can build it! (Oh yeah, that was the point of this post.) All you have to do is find two tube-like candy containers and some arcade buttons, then re-wire your Xbox 360 controller like so. Done! And so worthwhile. [Gamerbook via 1UP via Kotaku]

The new and much-improved Power Glove is positioned as kind of a 20th anniversary present to the original Glove. The video below gives a pretty detailed instruction for how to tear apart your own Power Glove, presuming you can find one, and also shows him using it with an iPhone boxing game he's developing.

Power Glove 20th Anniversary Edition — Build Video from Matt Mechtley on Vimeo.

Finally, the future looks like we imagined it would in 1989. [Instructables, creator's blog]

Emulating NES/Famicom, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Super Famicom and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis titles, the GAME-800 is a crudely controlled but effective looking pocket emulator with a 3.5-inch screen and 4GB of expandable storage. It also doubles as an MPEG4 player, eBook reader (with Chinese/English text to speech) and a low fidelity camera.

The GAME-800 is available now for an $80 import. [China Grabber via technabob]

Storm-G is a futuristic bobsled arcade game that features a cockpit, which physically turns you around at every turn. While simulating tunnels, it'll also flip you in insane 360-degree circles that are definitely bound to make you puke and give you whiplash. Kind of makes you wonder if gamers will have to sign a waiver before pretending to be Jamaican bob-sledders. [AkihabaraNews via UberGizmo]

It's all in the controllers—to the eye, they're nearly indistinguishable from the late-generation, 6-button controllers offered by Sega. Plus this version of the Genesis should come with improved A/V connectors (maybe even S-Video?) to put a prettier picture on your honking HD set.

With 15 free bundled games (Alex Kid, Alien Storm, Altered Beast, Arrow Flash, Bonanza Bros., Columns, Crack Down, Decap Attack, E Swat, Fatal Labyrinth, Flicky, Gain Ground, Golden Axe, Shadow Dancer, and Sonic And Knuckles), the Blaze Sega Mega Drive will be available soon for about $50. The only catch is that it's probably for PAL TVs only, so you'll need to keep an eye out for an NTSC version. [Play via Kotaku]

According to Brazilian new site Globo, the man invaded a house in Samambaia, a city near Brazil's capital Brazilia, to get them to pay a debt of 42 reales ($111). However, instead of breaking their legs with a baseball bat, the guy tried to pew-pew them with a Sega Light Phaser, which if funny until you see the two kitchen knives he was also carrying with him.

After ten hours of negotiation, the man liberated the woman. According to the police, the man had previous charges for killing and drug abuse, which explains the use of the Light Phaser. [Kotaku]

Discovered on the IGN forums, these unsigned pieces (anyone know the artist?) may be a tad idealist, but they make up for any naivety in sheer cuteness. And I'll tell you, if my Wii ever teared up over the loss of the Dreamcast, I'd be rocking that thing like Alec Baldwin.

[IGN via GoNintendo]