guns

Student project: Bolt-action coil gun

I had a fairly good shop program in high school (what's up, Tumwater T-Birds!). Instead of making rickety chairs for our mothers to injure themselves on, or fire-prone wooden ashtrays, our class concentrated on technology. That's where I got to play with my first industrial laser, built my first robotic arm, and designed my first circuit board. It was pretty great.

But not as great as the work of this kid, who, as a side project, built a six-round, bolt-action, high-powered coil gun. For those who don't play video games, a coil gun is an electronic weapon … Read more

Rubber band revolver is your new favorite problem solver

I went shopping for my little brother's birthday last weekend, and I never thought I'd say it, but toys are way too complicated. In addition to having the most complicated packaging ever, all the action figures and playsets look like they were teleported out of some dystopian future. I really do miss the days when the imagination and roleplaying were the only accessories necessary to have a fun time. Which is precisely the reason why I've selected designer/craftsman Andy Mangold's Rubber Bandit modern take on the classic rubber band gun to show off today.

The … Read more

Solid Snake on the touch screen

Metal Gear Solid Touch Lite is a three-level preview of the full-length Metal Gear Solid Touch, which reenacts the story of console hit MGS4: Guns of the Patriots, finally pitting Solid Snake against Liquid Ocelot on the iPhone and iPod Touch. As you might expect from such a high-profile title, this arcade-style shooter shows excellent production values (particularly the audio), a fairly tight and satisfying firing interface, and plenty of breathless backstory.

You face off against a variety of combatants, including PMC mercs and some friendly targets that you need to avoid shooting, and you just swipe your finger to … Read more

Touch to aim, and fire!

Pocket Tanks is the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the popular desktop artillery game Pocket Tanks for the Mac and PC. This app includes some minimal touch controls (including a scrolling, zoomable battlefield) but otherwise it deviates little from the desktop version in both appearance and gameplay. As with similar artillery games, you and an opponent (an AI, or other person sharing the same device) each control tanks that take turns firing at each other over mountainous terrain, adjusting angle and power to line up the perfect shot.

What makes Pocket Tanks interesting is the large array of unusual weapons (… Read more

Countrywide police scanner and Top Gun: iPhone apps of the week

When I was a wee lad my family used to drive an hour north of the San Francisco Bay Area to visit my grandparents in Santa Rosa, Calif. My sister and I were at the age where we needed something to keep us busy at all times, so my grandparents often had to come up with things for us to do once the toys we brought along no longer held our interest. In one room of my grandparent's place, my grandfather had set up a recliner chair right next to a table with an emergency scanner on it. He … Read more

Shoot people with this non-lethal pinhole camera

Franziska Dierschkeare is the designer behind this concept camera, a unique take on the kitschy toy camera popularized by the Lomography Diana, Holga, and the Supersampler...all of which can be found at your local Urban Outfitters, if you dare.

This pinhole camera is slightly different in that there's no viewfinder to look through. Instead, users are encouraged to simply aim the photogun as accurately as possible and blindly pull the trigger. Dierschke claims that this method of shooting puts less emphasis on picture and more on the "playful" act of taking pictures.

Sounds like fun, but … Read more

Time is of the essence

Time Crisis Strike Lite is a fun, free preview of the first stage in Time Crisis Strike, an iPhone and iPod Touch adaptation of the classic arcade game series, in which you fight against the forces of the evil mercenary Wild Dog. Like its stand-up arcade forebears, Time Crisis Strike is a "rail shooter"--a first-person shooter in which you are moved from one static fight scene to the next--but instead of pressing a metal pedal to take cover, you tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch forward to duck and reload (or you can change the settings so … Read more

This laser gun zaps mosquitoes

With news of a new kind of dengue emerging in Singapore, this sounds like a job for...a mosquito laser zapper! Punnily dubbed a "weapon of mosquito destruction" (WMD), scientists are finally declaring a Cold War against malaria and all mosquito-related ailments.

This particular one appears to take a Death Star leaf out of the "Star War" book, with the laser designed to detect the audio frequency of beating wings, zero in on the culprit, and burn it on the spot. The good news is the WMD will be capable of sweeping an entire area or … Read more

Tank blast-o-rama

HeavyMach Lite is a free preview of the first four stages in HeavyMach, a side-scrolling tank game in which you blast through enemy gun emplacements and trucks, helicopters, and other vehicles on your way to battle big bosses. This is a fun, pick-up-and-play game with solid graphics and sound effects, tons of different weapons, straightforward gameplay, and very intuitive controls: you tilt your device to roll left or right, and you tap to shoot--and where you tap controls the angle of your gun. You can also tap a "booster" lever to jump, to overcome obstacles and avoid enemy … Read more