I grew up in the arcades of the 1980's. During that era, video games were new and exciting and as a young kid, I could never get enough quarters to slug into those glorious games. Some machines even caused coin shortages in Japan -- one of them being Space Invaders!

Well, Space Invaders has returned, this time as a small piggy bank that will actually collect your coins and return them to you. The small game is patterned after the classic cocktail style arcade machine and has a small LCD screen upon which you can actually defend the planet against the invading aliens. The only problem is that it's designed for the Japanese market and collects 100 yen coins rather than American quarters. It can probably be modified, but who knows. The game keeps track of how many coins you insert, up to the maximum capacity of 80.

Start your Space Invaders savings plan for $59 and have a bit of classic style fun in the process.

[Thanks]

Nearly everybody is familiar with the Friday-night bowling alley events where a stodgy, old bowling alley attempts to draw in younger customers by adding UV lights, playing modern music, and using colored pins.

Well, now your local pool hall can do something similar with these light-up billiard balls. Thanks to four built-in LEDs, each ball will flash for a couple of seconds on any impact with other balls, the rail, or the floor. The built-in batteries are rated for at least 50,000 flashes, but when they're dead, they're dead. Oh, and the manufacturer says they're lead-free, which is always on the mind of every pool player I'd imagine.

Grab the Lighted Billiard Balls for $110 including an oak carrying case. At that price, the local pool hall may not have them, but feel free to bring your own on Friday nights!

Anyone who's been in an arcade in the last few years knows that the trend has been to have "realistic" video games, such as motorcycle racing games where you actually sit on a fiberglass model bike and lean it left and right to play the game.

The problem with these arcade machines is that they're huge, heavy, and expensive! For a motorcycle simulator game, you're easily looking at 600 pounds or more and for something relatively modern, a staggering $14,000 pricetag for the machine!

So, for most people, their kids will just have to do without... or will they?

For $30, you can get this inflatable "motorbike" for your 3+ year olds to ride while playing a moto-cross style game. It plugs into your TV and give racing sounds while your future racer zooms around the course using the built-in handlebars. Not bad, and for most kids, it'll do the trick.

Get the Inflatable moto-cross video game setup for $30. If your kids aren't easily fooled and/or you're rich, feel free to shop the games below instead!

MOTOCROSS GO MOTORCYCLE ARCADE VIDEO GAME MACHINE

US $1,295.00

MACH RIDER MOTORCYCLE Nintendo NES Video Game

US $9.75

SEGA Manx TT Twin Motorcycle Racing Arcade Video Game

US $2,400.00

Motocross Dirt Bike Motorcycle Racing PC Video Game NEW

US $12.99

Motocross Dirt Bike Motorcycle Racing PC Video Game NEW

US $8.99

Motocross Dirt Bike Motorcycle Racing PC Video Game NEW

US $8.99

Atari Roadburners Motorcycle Video Game

US $850.00

ROAD BURNERS MOTORCYCLE VIDEO ARCADE GAME ATARI

US $933.33

Cybercycles Arcade Video Game Coin op Motorcycles Used

US $2,300.00

1998 NAMCO 500 GP ORIG VIDEO MOTORCYCLE GAME FLYER

US $8.77

So, you and your geek buddies are looking to take a break from the LAN party and decided that you'd go non-virtual by playing a bit of poker. Poker's cool and all, but it's decidedly missing that certain nerd mystique.

Well, with the Star Wars Poker Chips, you can inject a heaping helping of geekiness into your poker games! The chip set includes a chrome Death Star dealer button and each poker chip is adorned with an illustration of Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan, or Darth Vader depending on the color. As if that's not enough, the chips are translucent so that when they're stacked inside the included carrying case, the built-in LEDs ("no less than 72" of them!) they glow "like light sabers". At least when you lose all of your money playing poker, you can sit and look at the chips glowing in the case!

Get the Star Wars Poker Chip Set for $150.

Stars Wars Clone Wars Heroes and Villians Poker Pl

US $17.50

LADIES OF STAR WARS POKER PLAYING CARDS 1 DECK

US $4.24

STAR WARS CLONE WARS POKER PLAYING CARDS 1 DECK

US $4.24

STAR WARS MOVIE QUOTES POKER PLAYING CARDS 1 DECK

US $4.24

STAR WARS MOVIE POSTERS POKER PLAYING CARDS 1 DECK

US $4.24

STAR WARS A NEW HOPE POKER PLAYING CARDS 1 DECK

US $21.24

STAR WARS VEHICLES POKER Playing Cards 2 DECKS

US $9.34

STAR WARS POKER CHIP CARD GUARD STARTS 99c

US $.99

Star Wars PROLOGUE TRILOGY Poker Playing Cards card

US $9.90

Star Wars Clone Heroes Villains Poker Playing Cards

US $7.99

Star Wars DARTH MAUL Poker Chip Card Guard Cover

US $6.99

4 SET Star Wars Poker card guard cover Darth Vader Maul

US $.99

STAR WARS Lucas Films 200 Pcs Light Up POKER SET New

US $124.95

Star Wars Poker Chip Set Cards Heavy Case Lights Up

US $89.99

NEW Star Wars The Clone Wars Poker Playing Cards WSOP

US $7.99

Let's face it. If you gave most kids free reign of their time spent watching TV or playing video games, most would spend the entire day doing it. So, most parents set limits on the number of hours their kids can spend each day in front of the TV, which is good.

The problem comes with enforcing those time limits. You might get busy doing something in the kitchen and forget to pry the controller out of Joey's hands or perhaps Janey gives you a hard time claiming that she didn't get her full allotment of time to watch Shrek.

That's where the Bob Screentime Timer comes-in. Simply plug the TV or computer monitor into the Bob and you can program the amount of time each of your children are allowed to use the device per day. The kids then login to the timer with their own account and can begin using the connected device while the timer keeps track of their time remaining. Up to six accounts can be created on the timer, so you can assign different limits to older children for example.

The Bob Screentime Timer, like most things kid-related, is relatively expensive at $100. You'd think that they'd be able to choose a better name than "Bob" for that kind of green.

[Thanks The Gadget Website]

I've owned my own home arcade with several full-sized stand-up machines from the mid 1980's (when arcades were good!) They're great fun and something that you really take pride in owning, but they sure do take up lots of space. Oh, and they're heavy too at about 300 pounds each!

So, if you're a bit less serious about collecting classic arcade machines and just want to play once in a while, you should check-out this portable, easy-to-store table-top machine. It plays licensed versions of Pac-Man, Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man -- basically the three "must have" games for most people looking to relive a bit of their 80's youth. The machine cabinet is painted to look like a real game and the controls are a genuine arcade-style joystick and buttons. The only thing missing? The quarter slots.

Make a grab for those distant memories of playing Pac-Man and Galaga with the Tabletop Pac-Man/Galaga/Ms. Pac-Man machine for $2,000. Yeah, that's a ton of quarters, but you're got a few more today than when you were a kid, hopefully.

Fill your infant's dreams with pixelated images of classic Space Invaders with this hand-crafted freely-rotating mobile. It's sewn from stuffed wool felt and features nine invaders plus one base station. The baddies are balanced on rods which can spin in different directions. A great combination of retro tech with old school crafting.

Since these are hand-made, you may have to wait for the artist to sew some more if the demand is high. The Space Invaders Mobile is $70 which isn't bad for a one-of-a-kind piece of art!

Sadly, I just had to sell my home arcade which consisted of several full-sized standup games and a pinball machine. The games are incredibly fun to own and play, but they sure do take-up loads of space!

One idea I've been tossing around is building a counter-top style computer to play MAME games (or whatever). You could build it with a nice lightweight LCD monitor and make the cabinet small enough that you could store it whenever you need to.

Or, you can buy the DreamAuthentics Katana. It's exactly what I was describing above: a small cabinet with real arcade controls and an LCD monitor to save weight. It's perfect except for one thing: the price. The base model will run you $2500 and there are add-ons you can configure which take it even higher.

Still, for the well-heeled MAME player, it's a very nice machine. I wonder if it has a touchscreen option so you can create a MegaTouch type game...

[Thanks]

I'm one of those people who plays a lot of games. Many of those games are MMORPGs, so I spend my fair amount of time running all over the place. However, I often try to cram a lunch in while I'm driving my character around, and sometimes that takes two hands. So, I've often wondered why nobody made a gizmo for your feet that would connect to the computer and give you a couple of extra buttons. The Fragpedal is just that.

The FragPedal Elite USB footpedal gives you a couple of easy-to-press buttons which sit on the floor and can be pressed with your feet. Now, you can throw a grenade or even just launch (or hide) solitaire without moving your hands. For me, I can run my MMORPG character around, steering left and right as I use my hands to stuff a sandwich in my piehole

You can buy the Fragpedal Elite USB footpedal for $70-80 depending on if it's on sale or not. Also, check-out this review of the Fragpedal.

Now, you can own your very own gigantic backyard chess set, similar to those which you've seen in city parks or other public gathering spots.

The chess set consists of a 9 foot square "board" and the requisite set of game pieces which are about 16-25" tall. The pieces are molded of lightweight plastic and carry the Rolly Toys name. Supposedly the pieces are heavy enough to be relatively wind-proof, but you can add more weight if needed.

If you'd like to own your very own over-sized backyard chess game, it'll cost you around $600.