Tech: Homemade arcade Cost: $50 to $800 Time: 20 to 40 hours Space Invaders. Battlezone. Pac-Man. Donkey Kong. Mortal Kombat. Anyone who spent a geeky adolescence haunting loud, dimly lit arcades knows that playing those games on a PC just isn´t the same-a keyboard is a poor replacement for a joystick, and most PCs don´t stand up to even a single full body slam. So Tim Eckel, a self-employed systems analyst, devised a compromise.
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Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?