balls

Pool Break Lite/Pro

Gameplay Pool Break features four main billiards modes: Pool, Snooker, Carrom, and Crokinole, each with their own variations (such as 8-ball in pool or Snooker 6-Reds) and table options. All of the modes feature options to either play solo, against the computer (appropriately named Droid), and network play. Pool Break Pro also includes manuals to explain the basics of each game for those new to the world of billiards.

Features Graphically, this game is gorgeous for an Android game. Pool Break simulates a full 3D environment with four scenes to choose from. Although the game runs extremely well, options are … Read more

Classic arcade games for iOS

Back in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, one of the favorite destinations for kids after school and on weekends was the local video arcade. Many readers will probably remember changing dollars for tokens, stacking up tokens and quarters on machines to indicate you "had next," and how quickly you could blow your money by playing game after game. Sadly, arcades slowly died out as home gaming consoles improved and stand-up arcade cabinets--for the most part--became a thing of the past.

When iOS devices and the iTunes App Store came along years later, the developers of those old games (… Read more

Swipe to roll through fanciful worlds

Gears is a fun ball-rolling game with a steampunky feel, excellent 3D graphics, and both swipe and tilt control schemes (the former much easier to use than the latter).

The game has 27 levels spread across three worlds, and in each level you're trying to safely roll your ball from the top of the level to the bottom without falling off, while picking up as many points as possible along the way. You roll down ramps, over rotating gears, through gates and past blowers, trampolines, and an increasingly diverse array of obstacles--and you also have to choose between alternating … Read more

Crave 42: Grocery robotics (podcast)

Self-service checkout is for suckers. The future of grocery shopping is a robotic clerk/bagger developed by Willow Garage. Eric and Donald also argue over the best way to spend $500, the best ball-based game machine to alienate you from your loved ones, and the cheapest X-Wing fighter ever made.

Subscribe in iTunes SD Video | Subscribe in RSS SD Video… Read more

In case you run into a Gorn, here's what to do

"Star Trek" aficionados may recall the episode in which Captain Kirk gets transported down to a planet by super-powerful aliens to do hand-to-hand combat against the Gorn. Without giving away the plot--in case you were deprived as a child and never saw the show--Kirk used his wits to defeat the lizard monster by assembling a primitive cannon from elements he found lying about.

Now comes Dylan Hacker (I'm assuming he goes by his "stage" name), who runs a San Francisco production company called Household Hacker. This morning we stumbled across his highly entertaining video recipe for putting together a "Superman hand cannon"--basically an enhanced tennis launcher, assembled from bits and pieces of junk that probably are lying around your basement--just in time for the summer. Definitely worth a look-see. (It's amazing how far duct tape will take you, especially on the odd chance that you, too, run into a Gorn somewhere down the road.)

This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com.… Read more

Boom Shakalaka!

NBA Jam is an updated and faithful recreation of probably the most popular standup arcade basketball game of all time. For those who never went through several dollars in quarters at the local arcade playing this fun classic many years ago, NBA Jam is not your standard five-on-five simulation you see on consoles. This game is all about two-vs.-two high-flying dunk basketball, where just about every play is worthy of a highlight reel.

The control system for NBA Jam on offense includes a directional pad on the lower left part of the screen, and pass, shoot, and speed boost … Read more

Game by 14-year-old outsoars Angry Birds

While Angry Birds is still the top paid iPhone game, a game written by an eighth-grader has spent the last few days atop Apple's free charts.

Bubble Ball, a physics simulator, was coded by Robert Nay, a 14-year-old from Spanish Fork, Utah. The game challenges players to use objects and gravity to guide a ball to its destination.

Nay spent the better part of a couple of months writing the game, which debuted in the App Store late last year and is also available for Android devices. In recent days, though, it has been rivaling Angry Birds Lite atop … Read more

CES: How men from NASA decided balls were more fun

LAS VEGAS--It's not that I stagger around CES looking for indicators of man's doom. It's that they accost me with the precision of a pastry chef.

"Hi," said a very charming man (for an engineer), as I stood entirely mesmerized by a little ball rolling between a couple of cones.

Adam Wilson is one of the founders of Orbotix. He told me that half of the folks at Orbotix used to work at NASA. Now they make Sphero, a little ball that rolls between a couple of cones.

Oh, did I mention that the fun … Read more

No dunks, but still: great arcade basketball

StarDunk is a free, 2D hoop-shooting game with slick production values, great multiplayer features, and an optional system of in-app purchases that somehow isn't obnoxious.

StarDunk adds fun twists to some pretty basic gameplay: You have two minutes to score as many baskets as possible, as you touch the screen to set your ball's trajectory and then release to shoot. The ball is on the right side of the screen and the basket on the left (left-handers can swap sides), all against a spacey backdrop that matches StarDunk's electro soundtrack. The basket's backboard has four tiles … Read more