Taito Egret II Mini Arcade Cabinet Can Switch from Landscape to Portrait: Old Bird, Old Trick

Many popular arcade games are side scrollers, but there are just as many classic ones that play from top to bottom, like shmups. Well, mostly shmups. The important thing is that someone at Taito had a stroke of genius and revived a forward-looking feature from one of its old arcade cabinets. The Egret II Mini is a mini arcade cabinet with a 5:4 display that can be physically switched between landscape and portrait mode, just like the original Egret II.

You simply push in the display and rotate it to your desired layout. Taking advantage of that display are the 40 built-in games, which include Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, and Elevator Action.

But that’s not the only modern convenience of the Egret II Mini. It has an HDMI out if you want to play on your non-rotatable but larger TV or monitor, and it has two USB ports for the optional wired controllers. There’s a controller version of the built-in arcade-style layout, there’s one with a classic gamepad layout, and there’s a paddle-style controller. The latter is even more special because it has an SD card slot, and it comes with 10 games that are meant to be played with paddle controls.

You can pre-order the Egret II Mini and its controllers now from Rakuten, but there’s no need to hurry because they won’t ship until March 2022 at the earliest. The mini arcade cabinet costs around $170 (USD), the paddle controller is around $110, the arcade controller is around $80, and the gamepad goes for about $30. That’s a lot of money. The Switch Pro or whatever it will be called might be cheaper than the Egret II Mini’s whole bundle.

[via The Verge]

Yep, They’re Working on a Space Invaders Movie

As far as I know, the entire plot of Space Invaders is “increase speed, drop down, and reverse direction!” But making vapid and obtuse movies based on popular franchises is what Hollywood does best these days, so I guess I wasn’t too surprised when I heard there’s a Space Invaders movie in development.

According to a report from Deadline, New Line is getting closer to starting production on said film, based on the 1978 Taito arcade game. Greg Russo (Mortal Kombat) is said to be writing the film, while Akiva Goldsman (Fringe, Star Trek: Discovery), Joby Harold (John Wick 3), and Tory Tunnell (Robin Hood) are responsible for producing this future trainwreck. I haven’t been this concerned about pixels being on the big screen since, well, um, Pixels.

Seriously, Hollywood folks, what particular strain of sativa are you smoking these days? I suppose these 8-bit characters have just as much potential as any of the other one-dimensional crap we see on screen these days, but I’m not optimistic.

[via io9]

‘Space Invaders’ movie is closer to becoming a reality

Warner Bros. bought the movie rights to Space Invaders years ago, and now it looks ready to do something with the classic alien-blasting franchise. Deadline reports that Warner's New Line Cinema is advancing production on the film, with Mortal Komba...

Super Mario Big Ballpoint Pens: The Pipe Is Mightier than the Sword

What do you get when you infuse a pen with a Super Mushroom? Taito’s Super Mario Big Ballpoint Pens. The set comes with two pens, each about 12″ tall with a miniature Mario or Luigi on top. When you pull the clip down, the figurine on top disappears, only to reappear at the bottom along with the pen’s tip.

super_mario_pipe_pens_1zoom in

Take a warp pipe over to NCSX and pre-order the pens for $20 (USD).

[via Tiny Cartridge]

Space Invaders Fridge Magnets: Once Your Base is Destroyed, So are Your Perishables

Get your laser cannons out, folks. The invaders have arrived in your kitchen and you need to start blasting away at them ASAP. But unless you’ve got a cannon that fires an anti-magnetic field – or one of those stainless steel fridges like mine that won’t hold onto a magnet to save its life – you’ll soon be in a world of hurt.

space invaders magnets

However, for those of you with good old metal fridge doors, you’ll be able to watch the pixelated invasion as it takes over your icebox, and starts blasting away at all of your perishable foodstuffs.

space invaders magnets 2

Well before my imagination runs away from me, I should tell you that these officially-licensed Space Invaders magnets come in a set of 34, including 15 aliens, one UFO, one laser canon, 16 bits of ammo, and a Space Invaders emblem. What, no shields to protect us? How will we ever survive as they increase speed, drop down and reverse direction across the face of our fridges?!?!

The set sells for  €8.95 (~$12 USD) over at GetDigital.

Space Invader Playing Cards Let You Play with the Alien Queen

…no, not that Alien Queen, just the pixelated 8-bit type appears on these fun, officially-licensed Space Invaders playing cards.

space invaders playing cards

Designed by Pieter Woudt, these playing cards have a cool perforated design which lets you see through them, without being able to see the rank or suit of the card from the back. They’re actually even waterproof, so you can take them in the pool if you think you’ll be safer from the alien invasion in the water.

Each of the face cards features a different alien design, and the Joker is most definitely that little bugger of an invader who’s the last one left on the screen and races at you at what seems like 1000mph.

They’re available over on Amazon for about $9(USD) a deck.