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Racing wheels have come a long way, featuring excellent accuracy and realistic force feedback. But they're still quite awkward, requiring a properly positioned table or precarious lap placement. The RennSport Wheel Stand by Fanatec solves these positioning problems, holding the wheel, pedals and even stick shift in the perfect, adjustable spot for each player.
While games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero require huge peripherals to play, the AirG for the upcoming Wii title PopStar Guitar fits in your hand. Just slip the Wiimote into the AirG case and you can rock out wirelessly with four fret buttons (sans strum bar). The game will run $US60 but include two AirGs right out of the box. The PS2 version of the game will settle with using existing toy guitars to play. Available this November, it's a simple peripheral, but we have to appreciate the easy storage as we trip over these fancy Rock Band 2 drums. [PopStar Guitar]
With the upcoming XCM Rapid Fire Gear Lite kit, Xbox 360 gamers will be able to add machine-gun style turbo buttons to their controllers. Working across multiple games and easily toggled with a top-mounted switch, the kit will also nearly double the controller's D-pad range of motion to 6 degrees in each direction. It will essentially take the stock 360 pad and juice it like [fill in your favourite baseball player here who you are absolutely SURE never used steroids].
America will soon join Europe, Japan and some other lucky folks and have access to the elite Club Nintendo...club. Sure, it's a Nintendo marketing ploy to get users to register products and fill out surveys, but Club Nintendo is also the only outlet to buy the most sacred, extra limited edition Nintendo gear. We'll keep our ear to the ground and let you know when registration begins, but until then, check out this awesome SNES Virtual Console controller that was offered earlier this year by Club Nintendo Japan. Pretty great, right? [Kotaku and image]
Ah, video games and casual drug use. They go together like World of Warcraft and loneliness, don't they? That's why we saw a water pipe made out of an N64 controller last year, and that's why Giz reader James dedicated this past weekend into converting an old NES controller into a bong. It doesn't work, unfortunately, but I'm sure you'd be bad enough at playing after using this thing without having to try to smoke while also controlling Mega Man. Nice work, James. We like to see young people using their time constructively. Hit the jump for another picture of this masterpiece of ingenuity.
Ever since the PlayStation 3 QWERTY keypad was announced, we've been wondering (incessantly night and day) whether or not you could actually reach the thing as it sits perched on top of the DualShock 3. But according to some pics snapped by MTV, it doesn't look like you'll need grotesque, alien fingers to reach the buttons—though we're still a little worried that our palm fat is going to knock those analogue sticks around a bit. And are palms are quite svelte. Really. [MTVMultiplayer]
Posted by Nick Broughall at 2:30 PM on October 1, 2008
Let's do a little word association game, shall we? You know - I'll say a word or a phrase, and you say the first thing that pops into your head. Okay, let's go:
Red Xbox controller...
...
Did you say Red Ring Of Death? So did I. Which is weird, because the two have very little to do with eachother. In reality, Microsoft's new red Xbox 360 controller is exactly the same as all the other (official) Xbox 360 controllers on the market, except it's red. Oh, and it comes with a Play and Charge cable and a red rechargeable battery, which gives about 25 hours worth of gameplay per charge.
The red controller hits stores November 7, which is the same day as Gears of War 2. I wonder if they wanted it to remind you of blood? In any case, it'll set you back $99.95 RRP.
[Xbox]
We've seen Wii lightsaber attachments before, but Thrustmaster's version actually looks like something we'd be excited in using. These add-on sticks are powered by three AAAs and have 17 blue or red LEDs for glow-in-the-dark action. Nice, but we're not sure how much more "gameplay" it'll add to The Force Unleashed. Bonus shot for awkward Canadian teens after the jump. [Thrustmaster via Go Nintendo]
Parallax has just released their NES controller socket to the delights of modders everywhere. Instead of forcing them to chop up an old NES to get the 7-pin socket, Parallax has made it available for only $US2 on their site. The NES controller would be great for all kinds of little projects, from robots to old-school gaming devices, and we're really looking forward to seeing what inventive modders can do with the humble and much-loved controller. [MAKE]
We've featured a couple of Wiimote charging solutions before, but here's one that's gotten around the pesky problem of charging without metal contacts--annoying if you actually use those Wiimote jackets. Teknocreations' InCharge allows you to dock up to two 'motes, silicon and all, to grab 25 hours of gameplay juice. How? Magic (i mean, inductive charging)! InCharge retails for $US34.99. [IGN via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
