Games and gear

It's hard to get old-school arcade action with today's controllers. Whether it's the Wii's motion-sensing remote or the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3's wireless gamepads, they just don't capture the frantic, rugged joystick-beating and button-thumping of yesteryear. Don't worry, though. $200 will get you the glory back, thanks to X-Arcade.

X-Arcade makes retro arcade controllers, and the Tankstick is the company's beefiest, most fearsome unit. This massive controller weighs 20 pounds and sports two joysticks, 22 buttons, and a trackball. Most impressive is this bad boy's lifetime warranty; X-Arcade will repair … Read more

The theme for today is flames. We've got pictures of a creative adaptation of Dance Dance Revolution, combining its complicated steps with the added punishment of an inferno in your face. It looks hard and scary! We also have photos of the Nokia N76, a sleek and shiny red phone. Plus, there's the HTC Touch, a phone that could fan the flames of the red-hot discussion surrounding the iPhone's June 29 release. Burn, baby, burn.

Photos: Dance Dance Immolation

At a warehouse in Oakland, Calif., Saturday night, video gamers get shot in the face with fire--but it … Read more

It could be said that GotFrag, a news and social networking site for fans of competitive video gaming, just got pwned--but in a good way. New York-based professional gaming league Major League Gaming announced Wednesday that it has purchased GotFrag for an unspecified amount.

Through the acquisition, Major League Gaming hopes to boost the visibility of professional gaming, especially in the United States, where it's far more under-the-radar than it is in European and Asian countries. This has been an ongoing goal for the professional league, which inked a deal with the USA Network last year to have … Read more

From GSN, the creative minds who brought us such enduring game classics as Kim Jong-Il: Missile Maniac, Rosie vs. Trump and Foley's Follies, comes The Prison Life: Paris, which offers players a behind-the-bars peek at the hotel heiress' life in the clink.

Orange is the new pink in this online title, in which an animated Hilton in stiletto heels, designer sunglasses and an orange jumpsuit attempts to undertake her prison duties under the watchful eye of a baton-wielding warden. "Paris is in jail and the warden has assigned her to design and build license plates. Help her with … Read more

Saturday night in Oakland. What's a team of highly trained, well-funded engineers to do? They like dorky video games and they like blowing things up for fun. "Hey, I know!" one says to the other, "We'll make a game where you blow stuff up!" "Naw," replies the other, "Let's make the game blow up the player!"

And three years later... the result, which must be seen to believed, is Dance Dance Immolation, based on a popular arcade game with a similar name. Click on the image of the lady … Read more

Microsoft, together with Namco Bandai Games America, on Tuesday announced a new version of the classic arcade Pac-Man at the Pac-Man World Championships in New York's Times Square. Pac-Man Championship Edition will have the first new mazes in 26 years. The new title is set to be available Wednesday morning on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft points.

Finalists Robert Glashuettner from Austria (age 28) and Carlos Romero from Mexico (age 27) went head to head on the new version, in lieu of the classic '80s title. Both were competing for the chance to win 100,000 Microsoft … Read more

Sony's PSP has long been a favorite topic among rumor mongers, the latest nugget coming from the BBC about a British Telecom version that would function as a phone among other new features. Nothing has been confirmed, but reports are circulating about some patent filings by Sony for just such a device.

According to the schematic diagrams in its proposal, at least one version of a PSP phone would have a rotating screen not unlike other handsets now on the market. Depending on how the display is positioned, MobileWhack says the device can be used as a PSP, phone … Read more

The Transformers are hitting the big screen this July 4, and that means a whole lot of merchandising going on. Among the hordes of Transformers toys are Hasbro's Real Gear Transformers, a series of toy electronics that turn into robots. Remember Soundwave, the Transformer that became a tape deck? This is the next generation. Click for a slide show of all six Real Gear Transformers, plus the real-life gadgets we think they most resemble.

Do you think you're good at video games? Compared to these guys, you probably aren't.

The World Cyber Games is the world's largest professional gaming league, and it's kicking off its U.S. Open tournament series this weekend in New York. Pros from all across gamerdom are competing in this weekend's tournament for over $20,000 in cash and prices and a berth in the USA National Final tournament. Among the competitors in the U.S. Open are professional Starcraft gamer "Red_ScorpiO" (Ralph Geunhwa), professional Dead or Alive 4 gamer "Master" (… Read more