The Beer-obot #
A fridge, an iPhone, and an air cannon walk into a bar… wait… no, that’s not right. What do you get when you cross a fridge, an iPhone, and an air cannon? The Beer-obot! While my punch line is about as weak as the swill that shoots from the beer-obot, the device itself is pretty cool.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen a fridge that shoots beercans, but it is the first I’ve seen that’s paired with an iPhone app, a webcam, and a twitter account. You use the iPhone to select the type of beer that you want (unfortunately, the creator only stocks it with Swill, Swill Light, and Swill Special Reserve), then aim the cannon using the video feed coming from the webcam, wait three seconds, and duck/catch. International acclaim awaits when a photo of you catching the beer is auto-magically posted to Twitter.
It’s the perfect blend of laziness, ingenuity, and firepower.
Donkey Kong’s secret history #
This year marks the 30th anniversary of that classic Nintendo video game responsible for launching Mario; Donkey Kong. What most people don’t know, however, is that Donkey Kong, Mario, and Pauline (it wasn’t Princess Peach back then) were originally Bluto, Popeye, and Olive Oyl.
Hear me out here. Back in the ’80s, Nintendo were licensed to manufacture Popeye merchandise, including cards and a Game & Watch (remember those? wipes nostalgic tear from eye). Shigeru Miyamoto started work on a Popeye video game, but some time during production, the license fell through, and Miyamoto was charged with creating replacement characters; a heroine in distress, a hero to save her, and an angry brute that threw things. And so, some of the most memorable video game characters of all time were born. Now, time to go play some Popeye Cart.
Megacollection of PS2 games #
Collectors are strange people. Some collect tea-cosies, some collect knives. One thing they have in common, though, is dedication. This guy takes that dedication to the next level. Not only did he decide to collect every single NTSC PlayStation 2 game, but he decided to collect a sealed, first edition copy of every single NTSC PlayStation 2 game.
It’s not yet fully complete – and games actually still get released on the PS2, so he’s constantly playing catch up – but, as it stands, this collector has over 1,850 titles, not counting variants. A staggering effort that puts my collection of 13 novelty wigs made popular by Australian celebrities to shame.