Giant robot lovers, rejoice! And then buy plane tickets to Japan.

Japanese game purveyors Banpresto and Bandai joined forces to release Senjo No Kizuna, which features mechs from the ultra-popular Gundam universe blowing each other up. Sitting inside a simulator, the player controls her mech with both dual joysticks and foot pedals. Each pod is a single-seater, closed environment, has a panoramic display and is networked so players will face combatants from adjoining pods and from units in other arcades in matches of five versus five. Senjo No Kizuna also issues players a Pilot Card that stores all of their combat data and allows them to build upon their record with consecutive plays.

Click through to see a video of the game in action. — Kevin Hall

Article

Hey racing buffs, do you find it’s just not as satisfying to pull off hair-raising turns with your average controller? If you’re looking for the off-screen action to match your gameplay, the D-Box GP-200 gaming chair might do nicely.

Picture a padded bucket seat propped up on three hydraulic legs and fitted with five speakers. Now imagine said hydraulic chair wiggling all over the place, turn-for-turn with your virtual race car, meanwhile your ears throb from the roar of the engine. It’s the kind of fun you could normally only enjoy while playing an arcade simulator, though at several times the price: $16,425.

Yowza! If you’re still with me, the D-Box GP-200 works with a handful of racing games, as well as other simulators such as Flight Simulator X. — Kevin Hall

Article

Love planes? So do we, but it’s probably a safe bet that John Davis loves them more. Rather than go for a bedroom built into a plane, he turned his own into a fully functional, professional-grade simulator.

Now 47 years old, it took Davis eight years and over $30,000 to complete his working replica of a Boeing 747 cockpit. His rig has a center screen measuring 12 by nine feet flanked by two 19 inch flatscreens, and uses Microsoft Flight Simulator and Aerowinx PS1 for the visuals. All the attention to detail has really paid off — Davis shelved his graphic design job and now rents out time on the simulator to pilot trainees looking to get their wings.

Our favorite line from Gizmodo’s interview with Davis: “There’s no room for anything else — that’s why my wife had to go!” — Kevin Hall

Official Advert

Now you can hook up a dirt-cheap SATA disk drive to your PC or Mac by simply plugging it into this USB desktop adapter that works just like an iPod dock. Until now, if you wanted to add a bare hard drive to your computer, you either had to put it in some sort of enclosure, or open up the hood of your PC and install it next to the other drive in there. That’s not easy for the uninitiated.

This disk dock couldn’t be simpler, accommodating 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch disks that you simply plug into its top. It’s a cinch to connect it to your PC or Mac, too, because all you need to do is hook up a USB cable between this dock and your computer, just like you do with your digital camera. Then that naked hard drive acts just like any more-expensive external drive. All this convenience is relatively cheap, costing you just $46.79. — Charlie White

Article

f gaming wasn’t already on the hot seat, now those violent games your parents and senators hate so much can now simulate gun shot and other torso wounds. The TN Game’s Third Space Vest is the work of physician Mark Ombrellaro who got the idea from a type of vest used in a real medical circumstances to simulate and investigate types of injuries.

The vest is designed with the shooter game in mind (even though it could be used for other types of games). It includes eight different zones that can apply a wide range of feedback — anywhere from a simple tap, to a full blown explosion-type of force.

This vest will be available in November for $189 and come bundled with a space game and Call of Duty II. A software development kit will be available shortly and expect patches to come for other big name shooters like the Quake, Doom and Unreal Tournament series. — Travis Hudson

Official Website

George Lucas will slap the Star Wars logo on just about anything, and now it looks like Ferrari is following by putting the stylish red paint job and yellow seal on everything from pens to laptops. Now the company has teamed up with Segway to release the Segway PT i2 Ferrari Limited Edition people mover. Other than the paint job and logo, not much has changed; you still get 25 miles per charge. If you thought the regular Segway was really expensive, then prepare yourself, the PT i2 will set you back $12,000. As a bonus, the PT i2 does come with a leather bag to store your Grey Poupon. — Stephen Schleicher

Mortars pose a significant threat to infantry as even if they aren’t always lethal, they drop out of the sky and can effectively pin a squad down. Well, some crazy military engineers decided to take the Phalanx M61 (pictured above) that protects naval vessels from anti-ship missiles and toss it on the back of a truck to counter mortars before they can land.

That big white lump on the top of the M61 is a radar. Once an incoming mortar is detected, the M61 spews out several hundred shells from its six 20 mm barrels until said mortar explodes. The Phalanx M61 “Counter-Rocket” is a closed-in weapon system (or CIWS) — meaning it takes care of itself for the most part — and it can fire 4500-7000 rounds per minute.

Click on through to see the M61 play target practice with a few mortars. — Kevin Hall

Official Article

We were surprised at Hitachi’s 32-inch HDTV whose thickness was just 0.74 inches. Now it looks like Samsung has topped that, creating a flat-panel HDTV that’s half that thick. Imagine a TV that’s just 10mm thin — just over a third of an inch. That’s the depth of this 40-inch 1080p LCD TV (pictured at right) from Samsung that will be unveiled at the FPD International 2007 convention in Yokohama, Japan later this month. When a panel is that thin, the design looks more like a pane of glass than an LCD.

To accomplish this feat, Samsung uses miniaturization techniques it learned from manufacturing desktop monitors, and upscales them into TV size. That 46-inch screen pictured at left is just as thin, but the screen’s bezel has been shrunk as well, to just 10mm wide (as opposed to 30mm). Samsung’s not talking about when such paper-thin TVs will ship, but you can be sure the company aims to beat that Hitachi set’s announced release date of 2009. — Charlie White

Let’s hope the Biplane didn’t get its name from something that happened during test runs — motorcycles tend to be at their best with at least one wheel on the ground.

The Biplane is a concept motorcycle design that Suzuki is showing off at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. Details are scarce, but it looks damn fast and the sleek, yellow shell looks like something straight out of an anime. Click through the gallery for a few other angles of the Biplane. — Kevin Hall

Jalponik, via BoingBoing Gadgets

ey, kids! Have you ever wanted to listen in on the conversations of other people without them knowing it? Create codes that allow spies in the field to get information about enhanced interrogation techniques without those killjoys at Amnesty International finding out? Dress up as a totally extreme rapping turtle and get a blow job from a sexy lady squirrel? Well now you can, thanks to the Cryptokids— the NSA’s new program for young people and furfans. The Web site, with detailed biographies of its cadre of rad furry spies, has had so much more effort put into it than we’re comfortable thinking about. But it’s important to recruit children into the spy apparatus, as it’s the best way to get info on the parents. We call them “nature’s hidden listening devices”! As for the furries, well: do you want that fat sweaty guy in the raccoon suit working for us … or for the terrorists?

Official Website