For the design, the kettle won the World Kitchen Tea Off 2009 back in March, which I sadly had no idea existed until the moments before I typed "World Kitchen Tea Off 2009" for the first time. [Vesselideation via Gamer Grrlz via Technabob]

When game historians recall the late '70s wave of video arcade games, they will correctly identify the major time-wasters, which include Asteroids, Breakout, Missile Defense Command and Space Invaders. (Pong was sort of a brain-damaged predecessor.) But the way it really was, at least in a certain central New Jersey bar, the correct way to describe the arcade video game craze was this way: Space Invaders. Period.

It was like the Beatles of video games. Maybe Space Invaders wasn't such big news to canonical hackers like those MIT Wizards who played Spacewar on a PDP-1 back in the sixties, but to people for whom computers still meant giant data-processing machines the game was a revelation, something totally different from the physical engagement of a pinball machine, yet icily futuristic. There was also the fact that these weird machines would just appear in a bar one day, without explanation. You'd go out for drinks and there in a dark corner was the future, standing head high in a cheesy enclosure with the monitor just below eye level.

I was hooked, of course, compelled to endure the humiliating learning curve where your laser cannon gets immolated by the relentlessly advancing rows of bug-like creatures. Without access to hints or cheat sheets-no, you couldn't Google stuff back then-you had to figure out strategy on your own. (Or hang around until someone really good played it, so you could learn his tricks.)

One key aspect of Space Invaders circa 1979: You played it in a bar. This affected game play, strategy and your liver. After playing it for a while, you got into a groove and could ditch your normal thought processes to become an alien-killing machine. Instead of the soundtrack of dread, the cardiac thumping that accompanied the advancing horde would energize you like a Led Zeppelin anthem, as you'd scoot behind the bunkers, wipe out rows of invaders and finally, in the frantic final stages, go into a ruthless, pixel-shredding melee mode. (Not that you knew what a pixel was.) But this Ender-like zone you were entering was counterbalanced by the fact that longer you were in the bar, the drunker you got.

You have to remember that this was new. Space Invaders was the population's first chance to develop the computer-game chops that are now second nature to a four-year-old. Believe it or not, the heart-stopping mix of bloodlust and panic that sprang up when the "mystery ship" with all its bonus points boogalooed across the top of the screen was a novel experience. (I was about to say that the mystery ship "randomly" appeared but after you played it a long time, you learned exactly when this would happen. Space Invaders might have been a twitchfest, but it was a puzzle as well.)

Should I expound upon the concept that the unforgiving menace of the space aliens tapped subconscious Cold War fears? Nah.

Later on, of course, reasonably faithful simulations of the original appeared first on the Atari 2600 and later on computer software. And now you can play it online, free. But that doesn't do justice to the original context—where you had one foot in the strange new world of digital simulation and the other foot in beer-soaked sawdust. You just can't, in this day and age, replicate the feeling when the last murderous wave finally wipes you out and you know that it's going to cost you another quarter to fight them back.

Steven Levy is a senior writer for Wired, most recently writing about Google's ad business and the secret of the CIA sculpture. He's written six books, including Hackers, Artificial Life and The Perfect Thing, about the iPod. In 1979, he had just left his first real job, at a regional magazine called New Jersey Monthly, to become a freelance writer, and had yet to touch a computer.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

More Space Invaders soaps here. [Etsy via Technabob]

You become the controller in the classic game, which is deliberately intended to promote cardiovascular health: There's a sensor that tracks heart rate and sends it to the game component, where it, in theory, it could be used "to vary game speed and difficulty." The only sad part about this is that the original game was intended to be Pong, which would've been potentially more of a two-player, and thus more dangerous, thing.

In spite of all this new interaction—and a respectable effort of of building and programming put forth by by the three dudes, Clarkson University juniors Allen, Doug and Matt—the object of the game is still quite simple. As you can hear someone tell the vested Allen in the (unintentionally?) hilarious video on Matt's website, "We fixed it. Now don't die." [The Matt Cave via Hackaday via Ubergizmo]

Comprised of 200 tiny walnut and maple squares, these Space Invaders coasters run $50 or five. At that price, you might not want to assemble a whole army as tradition dictates, even if it means you need to scale back that demented drinking game you just thought up. [Etsy via Geeky Gadgets]

Oh, who are we kidding? You have a crappy office job (whether you make a lot of money or not) that doesn't allow you to sit around and play video games in your underwear all day. And nothing about these $25 polyester gaming ties can change that.

But you know what works? Sneak a DS into your desk drawer and take really long bathroom breaks. [Amazon via OhGizmo!]

Ice Invaders is a silicone tray that's prepared to either freeze or bake your very own retro alien invasion. Available this spring (I know, an eternity from now), try not to get too excited. I had a silicone tray to freeze miniature penguins and it never really worked.

Sorry to end this on a downer. Has anyone out there had better luck with silicone ice trays? [FRED via OhGizmo!]

The World Trade Center attacks mark a deep cut in our recent history that is still being processed. The French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley has found an unusual – though obvious – metaphor with his work “Invaders!”, which is based on the 1978 arcade original. In his interactive large installation, the players must prevent the catastrophe by controlling the well- known cannon at the lower screen border with their bodies and firing it using arm movements. Like the original, this trial is ultimately
unsuccessful, thus creating an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy. In this regard, Douglas Edric Stanley sees Space Invaders as “a social tale that can be related to historical tales without losing its poetic power” (D.E. Stanley).

If by "poetic power" the artist meant "Mad Libs," then we're in total agreement. [GC Germany via Kotaku]

It works via a double-buffered, flicker-free video generated by a propeller chip, but Jason reckons he'll have to drop the double-buffering as it uses up too much chip ram. And if counting little grey men is too much for you, you can also tell the time at a glance, thanks to the last four digits of the high score.

[Pr0jects! via Make via New Launches]

Product Page [Charles & Marie via UberReview]

Hello Kitty and Space Invaders are both pop culture icons from Japan in the 1970s, but nobody thought to put them together—until now. Here we see the two have made sweet love and bred a Space Invaders-Hello Kitty cell phone strap. Classic.
–Lisa Katayama

Hello Kitty Meets Space Invaders [TokyoMango]

Etsy [Via Fabulist]

Dangerous recreational activity combined with epic time waster? All aboard. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [mekanism.com via OhGizmo!]

Product Page [Via Uberreview]