After years of construction and months of rigorous testing, NASA's asteroid-sampling OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft is ready to take off from Cape Canaveral this Thursday, September 8th at 7pm ET. After it leaves the atmosphere on an Atlas V rocket, the space...
This week, asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries announced detailed plans to launch the first private mission to an asteroid by 2020. The California-based company plans to build a successor to its Prospector-X test craft called Prospector&nda...
This week, asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries announced detailed plans to launch the first private mission to an asteroid by 2020. The California-based company plans to build a successor to its Prospector-X test craft called Prospector&nda...
This week, asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries announced detailed plans to launch the first private mission to an asteroid by 2020. The California-based company plans to build a successor to its Prospector-X test craft called Prospector&nda...
From 2012 to 2015, Russia researched ways of deflecting Earth-bound asteroids using nuclear weapons and came up with a best-case scenario, The Telegraph reports. The Central Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building, an arm of Russia's state-...
What started as a drunken purchase turned into an anachronistic arcade game. In 2012, electrical engineer Andrew Reitano bought an Asteroids vector monitor on Craigslist. He wanted to see if he could make it display graphics, but with the help of Todd Bailey and Michael Dooley he ended up with VEC9.
The arcade cabinet is archaic in more ways than one. Not only does it have a decades old main display (shown below), its main controller is taken from an M1A1 Abrams tank. It also has a 640×480 monochrome display (shown above) that shows, among other things, enemy pilots screaming as you gun them down with your laser cannon and chain gun.
Speaking of enemies, the game’s story is darkly comedic. VEC9 was one of several heavily armed bombers sent by the USSR to orbit in a bid to win both the Cold War and the space race. The bombers’ pilots were cryogenically frozen, but only the pilot of bomber VEC9 woke up in the present day. Realizing that the USSR has fallen, the pilot assumes that it was the United States’ fault, so he sets out to avenge his state.
Here’s an early look at VEC9‘s gameplay:
VEC9 will be playable at Chicago’s Logan Arcade starting 11/7.
[via Motherboard via Engadget]
Asteroids is the quintessential vector arcade game, featuring a stark black background and simple, geometric images representing spaceships, bullets and floating bits of space rock. Now, that visual genre gets a modern upgrade in VEC9, a 3D vector...
While many of us fans of classic arcade games would love to have a whole roomful of old arcade cabinets, we don’t always have the space, the money, or the understanding significant other to allow for such dalliances. ArcadeLights has the next best thing.
Instead of filling up tons of space with a complete arcade cabinet, ArcadeLights takes original game marquees and mounts them into wall sconces. They come in a wide variety of designs, and are the perfect addition to your gameroom. Whether you’re looking for Pac-Man, Asteroids, Moon Patrol, or TRON, they’ve got you covered.
Prices range from about $85 up to $225(USD) depending on the rarity and cost of the particular marquee. Head on over to their Etsy shop now to check their current stock. Keep in mind that due to the age of these marquees, they’re not all in perfect condition, but that just adds to the arcade-y charm, IMHO.
And if you miss playing the classics, you can always load up some games on your arcade emulator while you admire your shiny new wall light.