While Nintendo cashed in on the idea of using cheap cardboard peripherals with the Nintendo Labo for their Switch console, other console manufacturers and third-party companies depend on good old plastic and traditional manufacturing when it comes to expanding video game interfaces for a variety of gameplay styles. One of these interface peripherals that gamers…
Swedish designer Love Hulténn is no stranger to video game nostalgia. After making countless homages such as a handmade arcade wall cabinet and a glass-encased Nintendo console shrine, one can only wonder how Hultén could top his penchant for the machines of yesteryear. Enter the Yesterday Vision—his latest handmade wooden enclosure built to play emulated…
For those who haven’t tried it yet, Overwatch is a cartoonish multiplayer video game set in the not-so-distant future. With a diverse roster of characters—from the giant talking ape Winston to the gun-slinging cowboy McCree—Overwatch’s cast is as wacky as it is all-inclusive. One of these wacky characters—a Swedish engineer by the name of Torbjörn—is…
Back in the day, when video game software was all pixelated and had far less storytelling capacity than the games of today, console hardware was somewhat primitive. Instead of connecting to the internet to play with strangers online, you needed to have actual friends to invite to your actual home. And instead of using a…
From his tribute to the Commodore PET 2001 to a visual synthesizer for building fractal patterns, Swedish designer Love Hultén is a master at combining age-old wood crafting techniques with modern(ish) tech. Inspired by his passions for both traditional craftsmanship and modern technology, the Gothenburg-based designer is capable of commanding thousands of dollars for each…
As modern video games continue to break out of their mold and become a new medium for immersive storytelling, so too does the need for more accessible—and considered—hardware designs for a growing population of gamers. While we’ve seen a number of brilliant one-off solutions from hardware modders including Ben Heck, whose various one-handed PS4 and…
The massively popular first-person shooter Overwatch is two-years-old! To show their appreciation to fans who have played the game over the past 730 days, Blizzard Entertainment has cooked up a little stop-motion video featuring three main characters – Tracer, Reaper, and a massive Overwatch cake. But making this two-minute stop-motion celebration took a lot more…
The last we heard from SolidSmack favorite Love Hultèn, the Swedish designer had just announced a retro-inspired portable wood arcade cabinet containing 100 classic 2-player arcade games back in the Fall of 2017. Hultèn, who seamlessly blends traditional wood craftsmanship with modern technology, is already at it again with yet another take on the retro…
With his near-seamless ability to fuse traditional craftsmanship with modern technology, it’s no wonder designer Love Hultén consistently makes his way into mainstream media with his clever interpretations of retro arcade cabinets. Heck, one of his creations even ended up on the Tonight Show. The Swedish designer, whose approach to design is to present genuine…
While video game consoles are becoming increasingly more advanced and powerful, it’s only natural for there to be a growing interest in retro consoles that hark back to simpler times—as evidenced by the massive demand for Nintendo’s NES and SNES Classic consoles alone. Well, now old-school favorite Atari is making a comeback for a slice…
In what is likely going to be a more commonplace business strategy for some hardware developers, Valve, creators of the popular Steam gaming platform, have released the mechanical CAD geometry for their popular $49.99 Steam Controller. Under Creative Commons licensing, the geometry for all of the externally visible parts is free to download in a…
Over the past 30 years, the landscape of video controller design has been nearly just as colorful as the varieties of game options that they are controlling. When comparing the simplistic directional pad and two-button layouts of some of the earliest controller designs to the more ‘smart’ (and complicated) designs seen in today’s Playstation and…
Still the most iconic of all video game systems, the original NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) is arguably still just as relevant today as it was when it released in North America in 1985. With its expansive game library and lo-fi simplicity, it’s a breath of fresh air for not only retro gamers but also those…