In these days of high-tech graphics and intuitive user interfaces, a retro, joystick-equipped, button-covered, suitcase-sized arcade machine might seem like a bit of a hard sell. But the R-Kaid-R system from Swedish designer Love Hultén is a surprisingly beautiful throwback that even modern gamers can appreciate.

Each wooden R-Kaid-R cabinet is hand crafted – a reaction, says Hultén, to the mass-produced plastic throwaway gadgets in wide use today. The cabinets are designed to breathe and grow with time rather than to become obsolete almost immediately. The beauty of every R-Kaid-R comes largely from the amount of care put into its creation.

The joystick is removable and doubles as a handle for the case when it is closed. When the case is open and the joystick installed, the R-Kaid-R is capable of some pretty modern, high-tech feats. It contains an 8-inch LCD screen, rechargeable battery, USB port, and SD card slot. It has built-in support for MAME and ScummVM, letting gamers play their favorite games from retro systems like Super Nintendo, Atari 2600, and plenty of others. The R-Kaid-R runs on a custom OS and comes with the game Cave Story pre-installed on an SD card.

The gorgeous craftsmanship that goes into each cabinet makes even the most rudimentary of 8-bit video games seem like a work of art. The craftsman likens it to hanging a painting on your wall. This particular “painting” will set you back a lot more than even the most extravagant XBox One bundle, however – one R-Kaid-R is priced at €2,499 (around $3,400). For serious gamers and for serious retro enthusiasts, the R-Kaid-R is worth every shiny penny.

The post Handmade Wooden Arcade Cabinet is Equal Parts Art + Tech first appeared on Gajitz.

We miss giant arcade machines. Playing games on iPhones is alright, but it doesn’t have the immersive thrill of burying your face in a screen, manipulating the joystick, mashing buttons and being deafened by various beeps and buzzes. ThinkGeek must feel the same way, because they’re introducing a tiny arcade machine you can wear on your wrist.

The Classic Arcade Wristwatch is an itty-bitty version of a Galactic Defenders arcade game. Although it doesn’t function as an arcade game, it definitely functions as a watch. The joystick doesn’t do anything, but the red button lights up the watch’s display with red lights and makes an awesome “PEW!” sound.

The face of the watch is definitely the best part. Instead of second, minute, and hour hands, the watch sports space rocks in place of the hour and minute hands, and a spaceship in place of the seconds hand. Normally we’d make a joke here about watching time fly, but we’re too busy scrounging up $50 in sofa change to buy one.

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As gruesome as it seems to us today, public executions used to be a source of entertainment for the whole town. Families would walk to the town square where they would watch a convicted criminal be killed in any number of ways. Not exactly the kind of thing most of us would enjoy today, but back in the 1920s English toymaker Charles Ahrens decided that it would make a delightful penny arcade game.

Surprisingly, at least one working model still exists and is being offered for sale on eBay at the probably-reasonable asking price of $17,499.99. In the demonstration video, the seller shows how, after feeding a coin into the machine, the interior lights up and the doors open. Inside you can see three figures assembled around the condemned man. A few tolls of the bell and the bottom drops out beneath the convict, letting him drop to his supposed death.

The gruesome subject matter of the display doesn’t detract from the excellent workmanship and beauty of the machine itself. The one-of-a-kind cabinet brings the macabre display just up to eye level for a child, perhaps giving them a warning about what happens to people who choose a life of crime. According to the seller, this machine has even been converted from accepting English pennies to taking American quarters.

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The various iterations of the Angry Birds games have gotten more popular than anyone could have predicted. The game that involves launching birds to knock down structures and squish evil pigs has inspired all kinds of sequels, toys and other merchandise. But this slingshot controller made by a couple of hackers could be the neatest AB-related accessory ever invented.

Using a motorized fader from an audio mixer, Hideaki Matsui and Andrew Spitz built the controller that they call “Super Angry Birds.” It has force feedback to make it feel like an actual slingshot being pulled back and it tilts to allow for different trajectories.

When you’re shooting with the birds who have special abilities, the attached TNT plunger controller activates them. The finished controller makes the game controls more intuitive and natural-feeling than the standard touchscreen controls. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the creators are ready to start marketing the ultra-cool controller anytime soon – this was a one-off fun project.

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Not everything about Soviet-era Russia was cold and gloomy – there was fun to be found at times. Like in these arcade machines which used to grace the (probably) dark and depressing arcades of Mother Russia but which now reside in the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines. Although they look familiar, they are far removed from the flashing, beeping, high-energy games that kids in other countries grew up with.

The subject matter is one of the most noticeable differences. While we in America had games in which characters used their bare fists to pummel opponents, Russian kids used the above game to pull on a virtual turnip. Repka Silomer was a strength-testing game based on an old children’s story about a turnip so large it took an entire family to pull it out of the ground. Strangely, a score of “old man” meant that you showed impressive muscle. The goal of another game is to collect sticks in an on-screen basket.

Many of the Russian arcade games were loosely based on the Japanese games being manufactured in the same era, with some significant tweaks. Even in skill games where a player accrued points, there were no “high score” lists. Most games didn’t encourage competition, although a few did allow for two players to play at once. Instead of the pleasure of seeing one’s initials on the screen, the games rewarded high scores with free plays.

The Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines was created in 2007 by four friends attending Moscow State Technical University. They hunted through old warehouses and dusty basements, seeking out and repairing these Soviet-era gems to bring nostalgic joy to visitors. Appropriately enough, the collection is kept in a dreary old bomb shelter beneath an MSTU building. As of now they have over 40 machines, some of which work perfectly and others which can’t quite be restored to their glory days.

In most cases, Soviet games were destroyed or otherwise permanently disposed of once Western-style games began to hit the market in Russia. The models being collected by this unusual museum are among the last of their kind. The engineers who work to restore the games to working order often have to combine parts from several machines to get one to function – and since the appropriate parts are no longer manufactured, once the restored machines wear out the world will never see their like again.

The post Communist Arcades: In Soviet Russia, Game Played You! first appeared on Gajitz.