So is this scenario a familiar one?

Partner A: Honey, it’s time to go do the groceries.

Partner B: Yeah. Just let me finish this level.

Partner A: You said that an hour ago. You said we’d go in an hour.

Partner B: Yeah. Well I am not done with the level yet. Just a sec….

Partner A: What’s this button do? (Finger hovering over the power button…)

Partner B: Don’t you dare!

Yeah, this has actually happened to me – and continues to happen on a more or less regular basis. That got me thinking, maybe there’s a way to limit playing time when there are other things to be done?

I found a very interesting solution in John Morrissey’s Game Dr Video Game Timer. This gadget cuts off the power to the console after a specified number of hours. Obviously, someone has to input the number of hours. Once the power shuts off, the timer has to be re-programmed and a password is needed to do this. The good thing is that before it cuts the power off, it gives you several warnings so that you can save your game.

True, it is meant for parents who want to instill discipline in their children but who says adults can’t use it too? What do you think?

Well, a lot of them anyway.

Take a look at the photos on MotivatedPhotos if you don’t believe me.

Via

I love this marriage of concepts and materials — parts of an analog clock fused with original Atari 2600 video game cartridges.

Sadly, if you’re after the game itself you’ll be disappointed to hear that the innards have been removed to make way for the clock mechanism.

Plenty of titles on offer including Ms Pac Man, Pole Position, ET, Donkey Kong, Demons to Diamonds, Swordquest Earthworld, Casino and Asteroids. $20 each.

“CantAffordEmCrafts” will also try to help with requests if you have your own cartridge, though not all of them are easy to fit.

Via

What if I were to tell you that you can play a video game and actually say that you are contributing to the betterment of the world? I am sure you have heard of Sony’s Folding project, which was launched a year or two ago. The idea was to harness the computing power of PlayStation 3 units sitting idle at people’s homes and use them to help with medical research.

Foldit, however, is something else. More than making use of spare computing power, this game actually makes use of the brain power of people playing the game. The video game is a 3D puzzle, which is not much different from other games in the genre. But this is only on the surface. What players are actually doing is helping find solutions to one of the biggest real-life puzzles: protein folding. Yahoo Games explains:

Foldit’s puzzles deal with protein folding, the vital but poorly understood process by which protein chains — some of the most important molecules in biology — coil themselves into compact shapes. Because these shapes determine the function of the protein, a better understanding of the principles behind protein folding stands to help researchers better understand diseases like cancer and AIDS. The better the structure players find, the higher the score they earn.

While I would probably never understand the real-life concepts covered by the game, I am sure that playing the puzzle would be fun. Let’s try it?