Unfortunately we did not have time to do a Christmas special intro this year. However, for your enjoyment, I’ve compiled the first 4 Christmas Special intros into one file, for your Yuletide listening pleasure!
They include “How the Jack Stole Christmas”, “Video Pirates Save Christmas”, “It’s a Wonderful Half-Life” and of course, “Mel Gibson’s The Nativity Story”.
Here’s the project we built for The Ben Heck Show episode 9. It’s ruggedized PlayStation 3 for use in Afghanistan. It has a 22″ LCD screen, built-in speakers, TV tuner, network switch and storage compartment.
Yes, after years of using other people’s CNC machines I finally bought one of my own. A big one. A 4′x8′ ShopBot to be exact. Now I can build more of everything and hopefully even sell kits / cases in the future.
In other news, after a shaky truce The Pinball Wars have begun anew. Pinball upstart “The Longhorn Engineer” is attempting to have his machine done by the Midwest Gaming Classic in March. It is called “Reset Vector” and is based off all of the tropes in crappy hacker movies.
Also everyone’s favorite ex-Roller Derby girl / engineer Jeri Ellworth hasn’t given up on her custom pinball either. It’s called “As Seen on TV” and celebrates the world of cheesy infomercials.
For myself, I am planning at least 2 new machines. “Tesla VS Edison” and “Lost“. “Lost” is an unlicensed one-off that I’m doing for a friend, similar to Paxton, but “Tesla” is something I’m hoping to build 2-3 of and sell to interested buyers. If you’re interested please let me know.
Upon seeing the first prototype for a car in 1890, Polyphony Digital began production on Gran Turismo 5. First slated as a release title for the Analytical Engine, it was going to be “the finest racing sim ever – also the first!”
But problems arose immediately. Ada Lovelace’s code had to be “completely rewritten, almost from scratch” according to one insider. “Henry Ford really threw a monkey wrench into things too. It took us literally decades to get the paper tape geometry of his Model T working correctly.”
Production ground on for many years and was delayed by the Second World War. “That really took a byte out of us” lead designer Kazunori Yamauchi was quoted as saying, whilst also coining the term byte, “but the discover of Konrad Zuse’s Z3 was a shot in the arm. The team was also thrilled at the invention of the transistor, but it caused us to switch game engines once again.”
With the invention of the hard drive in the 1960′s, Polyphony Digital starting adding even more cars. Yet, “We’re confident the PDP-1 version will ship in time for Holiday ’68″ an unnamed senior producer boosted at the World’s Fair.
Upon release of the PS3, Yamauchi finally saw a machine that could “realize his vision” from 120 years ago. “It’s not that we had to catch up with technology” he recently said at GDC “It’s that technology had to catch up with us.”
Gran Turismo 5 is now available for the PS3. Pre-orders from 1892 are still valid but you must pay the inflation difference. No chicken barters accepted.
Ever try and use a laptop in coach? It’s pretty difficult, especially if the jerk in front of you leans back.
No longer! For Episode 5 of the Ben Heck Show we built the “Coach Section Laptop” – a modified Toshiba Satellite that can transform to fit your needs!
Sha-zam! The rebuilt screen portion has sliding arms that let you move the screen closer to you, and knobs to lock it into place. You now type “under” the screen, allowing you to look busy on the airplane to impress other people even though you’re just scrolling up and down the same spreadsheet for hours. If your flight has WiFi, you can also order things from Sky Mall while in the sky. All it needs now is a cupholder for your half can of soda.
Have you noticed the new branding of the Xbox 360? I have, so I made my latest Slim Laptop match! It’s an all-white shell, with metallic insides, but has the new “green swoosh” colors that you see on all the new games and packaging.
Other than that, it’s the same as the last 360 Slim portable I built, with the exception of the Power and Eject buttons which I made back into regular buttons.
For more pics and a video, see the rest of this article.
It dawned on me that making a see-through Portal shirt might be a huge success. It’s probably the geekiest Halloween costume you could possibly make. You see, I do what I must, because I can.
The system consists of a front-mounted LCD, pocket-mounted battery pack and rear-mounted camera. And the best part is you can watch us build it on Episode 4 of the Ben Heck Show, since it is out of beta and releasing on time.
The construction of this unit is being covered over the first 6 episodes of The Ben Heck Show so be sure and check it out to learn how I put this thing together. This is the actual unit that is up for grabs as part of their contest, so one lucky winner will take this puppy home!
I’m actually building 3 of these so besides the giveaway unit the 2 others are available to buy – if interested please email me.
For more photos, check the rest of this entry. Enjoy, and we’ll see you on the show!
This month marks the 10 year anniversary of my work on the web! While the original VCSp was done in spring of 2000, the original GeoCities site itself wasn’t created until the fall. Shortly after, it moved to Classicgaming.com where it stayed until spring of 2004, when I started my own domain “Benheck.com”. I went with that name because it was an available 7 letter dot com – couldn’t pass it up! Little did I realize I was creating my new nickname. Oh well.
It’s been a long, interesting journey since then and I’d like to thank everyone who supported me along the way and bought my products.
As a fun treat, you can visit a replica of the old site by clicking the image above. This is the oldest working replica of the old site I could find in my archives. Almost all of the old data / stories is on this site as well, just check out the Site Archives link on the lower left to pick a year.
Stay tuned next weekend for the reveal of the new XBox 360 Slim laptop (and watch my show to see how we built it).
For a personal list of what I felt were my best, worst, most influential and favorite projects of the last decade, continue reading!
It’s probably the geekiest Halloween costume you could possibly make. You see, I do what I must, because I can.
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