Many gamers still enjoy playing NES classics even though there haven’t been any official releases for over two decades now. Fortunately, there’s a way to try out new games to this day, thanks to something called “NESMaker”. Think of it as Unity or GameMaker, complete with various modules that enable you to make platformers, shooters, action adventure, etc. games, without any coding experience. You’ll be able to design your own art, adjust the physics, and if you have the technical know how, even modify the code, all the while running on actual NES hardware. The end result is an .nes ROM file that runs on any emulator, or you can just use the “Burn” function with the cart flasher to create a functional game cartridge. Read more for a video showcase of some of the games made with NESMaker.
NVIDIA’s Jetson Nano is basically an artificial intelligence computer that makes it possible to create millions of intelligent systems. Available as a $99 devkit for developers and the $129 production-ready module, this tiny CUDA-X AI computer delivers 472 GFLOPS of compute performance for running modern AI workloads and is highly power-efficient, consuming as little as 5 watts. Not only does it support high-resolution sensors, process many sensors in parallel and run multiple modern neural networks on each sensor stream, it also supports many popular AI frameworks, making it easy for developers to integrate their preferred models and frameworks into the product. Read more for a video showing Intelligent Video Analytics for 8 channels at 1080P 30FPS powered by DeepStream SDK running on a Jetson Nano.
Anker’s Soundcore Liberty Neo Truly Wireless Earbuds offer Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, and can be picked up for $49.99 shipped, today only, originally $64.99. Exceptional sound clarity is delivered through its graphene drivers with deep, resonant bass. When fully charged, you can expect 3.5 hours of non-stop music, which is extended to 12 hours with the charging case. Using satellite technology (LDS antenna) Liberty Neo maintains a super-strong Bluetooth connection up to 33-feet. Product page. Read more for a video review and additional information.
Studio MDHR announced today that Cuphead will officially hit the Nintendo eShop on April 18, 2019, and is available for pre-purchase starting today for: $19.99 USD, $25.99 CAD, £16.99, and 19,99€. Aside from the game’s Switch launch, a major free content update is going to be made available for all versions of Cuphead (Xbox One, PC, Mac) on the same day with several new features, including: a playable Mugman in single-player, new fully animated cutscenes, never-before-seen art and fight intros, ten additional languages, a plethora of bug fixes, and plenty of secrets for players to discover. Read more for another video and additional information.
Instead of completely redesigning the AirPods, Apple has decided to keep the same look more or less, but instead focused on a new H1 chip to replace the W1. This new H1 chip, developed specifically for headphones, offers faster connect times, more talk time and voice-activated, hands-free “Hey Siri.” They come with a standard charging case ($159) or a new Wireless Charging Case ($199) – you can also add a personal engraving to the AirPods if ordered online. Read more for a video explaining everything you need to know and additional information.
Facebook officially unveiled the Oculus Rift called Rift S at GDC 2019 today. At $399 and set for release this Spring, it’s compatible with both apps and games from its predecessor, all powered by your gaming PC. The virtual reality headset also replaces the original PenTile OLED panels (2160 x 1200) with a single LCD panel offering 2560 × 1440 resolution, or roughly 40% more pixels. There’s five onboard cameras for “inside-out” tracking, while the controllers are nearly identical to the original Oculus Touch. Set up is a breeze, thanks to “proprietary technology” passthrough mode, called Passthrough+, that uses computer vision algorithms to deliver “stereo-correct passthrough” while tracing out Guardian boundaries. Read more for two hands-on videos and additional information.
Set for launch on April 26 in the US, Samsung’s Galaxy Fold features two displays as you may already know; its front cover has a small, 4.6-inch display in the center designed for one-handed use, and when folded open, a 7.3-inch display is revealed. Samsung rated the fold mechanism as supporting up to 200,000 uses. The tablet display sports a large notch in the top-right corner, and is coated with a custom multi-layer laminate instead of glass. A new video has leaked from a manufacturing hub in Vietnam showing the handset running on the AT&T network a full month before its official release.Read more to see the visible seam and additional information.
Apple today refreshed its iMac line with up to 8-core Intel 9th-generation processors and powerful AMD Vega Pro graphics options, delivering impressive increases in both compute and graphics performance. The 21.5-inch iMac (starts at $1,299) now boasts 8th-generation quad-core, and for the first time 6-core processors that deliver up to 60% faster performance, while the 27-inch model (starts at $1,799) can be configured with 9th-generation 6-core and 8-core processors, delivering up to 2.4 times faster performance. Read more for another video and additional information.
Photo credit: Joe Matus / NASA/MSFC
The final supermoon of 2019 will appear in the night sky on Wednesday, March 20th, coinciding with the spring equinox, and officially called the “super worm equinox moon”. Supermoons occurs when a full moon has reached the closest point to Earth in its monthly elliptical orbit around the planet, thus appearing larger and brighter in the night sky. Read more for another video about this special supermoon and how to watch.
Gamer “Silius” has probably seen a fair number of custom NES consoles over the years, especially from Ben Heck, but instead of trying to recreate one, they decided to built one based on an actual Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition to a flip-up screen, it still takes cartridges rather than just emulate them, which means it retains most of the original hardware. “The carts are inserted like into a normal unit. It has volume control and the display attributes can be adjusted. I’ve found the screen on eBay and it fits really well. I’m still working on it but it’s been running perfectly so far. I want to cover the circuit board with a painted aluminium plate and maybe I manage to make some bezel for the screen as well,” said its creator. Read more for a video showing exactly what’s going on inside the NES and additional pictures.