Doug Aamoth…

I’m no marketing wizard, but Guitar Hero Smash Hits could have been called Guitar Hero: Songs From The First Guitar Hero Games Before The Drums and Microphone Existed But Now You Can Play the Good Songs from Those Games on the Drums and Sing Too. Again, I’m no marketing wizard.

And Guitar Hero Smash Hits isn’t a bad game at all. It is what it is, though: a greatest hits game. If you’ve played all the Guitar Hero games before World Tour and you’re only interested in playing guitar, then you’ll find little of value here. But if you liked all of the early songs and have always wished you could play the drumming and singing parts, then Smash Hits is worth a closer look.

What’s Inside?

Smash Hits features 48 songs from five earlier Guitar Hero games: Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. All the songs found on Smash Hits are the master tracks from the original bands, whereas some of them were professional recordings from studio bands in the earlier games. There’s not a whole lot of difference other than that, though, except that you can now play the songs on the drums and you can sing using the microphone.

Everything else is your standard Guitar Hero game: Career Mode with a loose storyline, multiplayer, or quick play, plus you can take advantage of the built-in GHTunes track editor now if you want to take a stab at making your own song.

Why Not DLC?

Could all the tracks in the game have been made available as downloadable content and played on Guitar Hero: World Tour instead of inside of full retail packaging? Yes, absolutely. But Activision made an entire game out of it and you end up saving some money in the long run since you get 48 tracks for $60 — that’s assuming you like all of the tracks, though.

Who Would Like This Game?

This is a good game for people who loved the music from the first run of Guitar Hero games and want to be able to play the drum parts and/or sing the music parts.

It’s also a good game for someone looking to get into the whole Guitar Hero thing in the first place. I actually prefer the tracks in this game to the tracks in Guitar Hero World Tour. There’s not as much fluff here — all the bands and songs are easily recognizable and more rock-ish, whereas Guitar Hero: World Tour contained a bit broader set list as far as genres are concerned. This one’s got more pure rock and metal.

Who Wouldn’t Like This Game?

Anyone who just wants to play guitar and has already cruised through most or all of the Guitar Hero games before World Tour. You’d feel downright ripped off, as not a whole lot’s changed on the guitar and bass end of things.

However, you have access to all the songs without unlocking them first if you use the Quick Play mode and it’s easier to progress in Career Mode because you just need a certain number of stars for new venues to open up — those stars can be attained through a pretty big selection of initial songs, so play your favorites to move ahead quickly.

Finally, Guitar Hero Smash Hits doesn’t feature downloadable content aside from fan-made GHTunes tracks. So if you own GHWT and you’ve downloaded new songs, you won’t be able to play them in Smash Hits. That’s a big omission, in my opinion. Activision could have potentially enticed a fair amount of early fans to pick up Smash Hits even though they’ve already played all the songs before had they been able to download new songs to the game.

Conclusion

Guitar Hero Smash Hits is a standard Guitar Hero game through and through. There aren’t a whole lot of surprises here but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (as they say). It takes the early music of the series and leverages some of the gameplay features from Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Metallica to make for a solid game with an above-average setlist.

If you like the series and you like the available songs, you won’t be disappointed. I think it could have been priced at $40 or made available as downloadable content but at $60, it’s still a good enough game to purchase if you’re new to the series and want to get set up with a good track list or if you’re a fan of the earlier games and want to play some of the earlier songs on drums or using the microphone.

Complete Set List

Guitar Hero Smash Hits [Activision]

Old NES controller, meet iPhone. An enterprising individual over on the iPhonefr.com forums (careful, everything is in French!) has turned one of the most iconic controllers of all time into something that holds one of the most iconic electronic gadgets of the present day.

It actually doesn’t look like it’d be all that complicated to produce. Clear out the innards of the controller, make a little slit for the iPod connector to fit into, and glue everything in place. Voila, as the French say.

Forum iPhone [iphonefr.com via Geeky Gadgets]

If you’re sick — SICK! — of all these new Apple fanatics and you want to show them all that you’ve been a diehard fan since the early days, even sticking by the company through Newton and Pippin, then this thumb drive made out of an old Apple keyboard is for you.

Ingredients: an old Apple keyboard, a thumb drive you’re willing to destroy, some workbench-y tools and whatnot, time.

The basic process then involves gutting a regular thumb drive, carving out a notch for it to fit into inside an old Return key, and grabbing the Apple logo from another area of the keyboard. Sand, cut, glue, solder, slice, etc. and you’ll eventually have yourself a nice retro USB thumb drive.

Please observe the detailed directions at Instructables. My directions were NOT very helpful and may result in massive bleeding.

Sports fanatics can get even more ensconced with the goings-on of their local teams with a “Game Time Schedule Watch” that displays season schedules and beeps when games start. Of course, if you’re a big enough fan to think this watch is a good idea then you probably already know when your team is playing.

I populated my Google Calendar with the Red Sox schedule and then embedded the calendar as a widget inside Gmail. Just saying. The watches go for between $65 and $100 depending on the sport and team. We’re talking just about every sport (no soccer, sorry Nicholas) and every team, too.

Like even NASCAR. From what I hear, that’s quite a popular sport. You can get a NASCAR watch that alerts you when your favorite driver is about to hit the track. What a world.

Game Time Schedule Watches [Amazon via Gadget Review]

An arcade on wheels? Now THAT is a good idea. Don’t get too excited, though, as these are basically glorified console setups, not old-school arcade machines. This isn’t about us, though, this is about the children. And the children think Ms. Pac-Man is boring. Ergo, no stand-up arcade machines.

This all comes courtesy of a franchise called Games2U (get it?). Rolling fun-time options include vehicles with screens like the one pictured above, full trailers with indoor climate-controlled playing areas, laser tag, hamster balls (yes!), and stuff like that. Perfect for birthday parties and various other outings swarmed with kids.

Though as Kotaku’s Brian Crecente, who I can only assume is close to the same age as I am, says:

“I like the idea, but I would love it if they actually carted arcade games around to parties. Or better still, like a huge stage that unfolds with fog machines, pyro effects and a stage to play Rock Band or Guitar Hero on. Oh… and groupies, totally need groupies.”

Better still, maybe an exact replica of the living room of my house junior year in college (1999) with furniture from Goodwill, Olympia beer as far as the eye can see, and Mario Kart 64. And Tony Hawk on the PlayStation. Ooh! and GoldenEye.

[Games2U via Kotaku]

This is a solar vest. You can tell because it says SOLAR VEST in big letters across the shoulders, right above the four weatherproof solar panels. This fine gentleman is carrying more than a few gadgets in the pockets of his SOLAR VEST, which he’ll be able to recharge when they run out of juice.

If I were a thief, I’d think that a weiner-y kid wearing something that said SOLAR VEST would have a lot of expensive electronics in the pockets of said vest. He’d be a much better mark than someone wearing a shirt that said DOG CRAP COLLECTOR because what pawn shop wants to buy stolen dog crap?

The vest includes an 8,800mAh-capacity battery and enough tips and power connectors to really make it inconvenient to carry everything around with you. Output is rated at 5V, 6V, 9V, and 12-20V, though, which means you can indeed carry your laptop around with you and trickle a few extra minutes to it.

Available at Chinavasion for $140.

[via Geeky-Gadgets]

According to DigiTimes, ASUS is blowing out 7- and 8.9-inch Eee PCs over in Taiwan and China. According to me, those same savings may trickle into US markets too!

Per the article:

“Prices for 7-inch models in the Taiwan market have been lowered from NT$6,999 to NT$4,999 (US$153) while prices for the 8.9-inch 900A in the China market have been cut to 1,499 yuan (US$219), according to sources in the retail channel.”

Here in the US, you can get a new 8.9-inch Eee starting at around $229 to $249 and Toys R Us, for instance, has been selling the 7-inch versions for around $150 for a while now.

Netbooks generally cost a bit more in Taiwan than they do here so the fact that prices are falling over there may mean that they’ll fall here as well. That, or they’ve fallen as low as they’re gonna go here and Taiwan and China are now finally adjusting.

Big savings on the complete Stargate SG-1 series if you’re looking for something to do all summer (or over the course of a weekend or two). Normally selling for $216.99, Amazon is blowing out “Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series Collection” on DVD today for $131.99 after an $85 instant discount and with free shipping.

The deal is good today only. The collection includes a whopping 54 discs!

Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series Collection [Amazon]

EurekaFest is a yearly event held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that showcases the prototype inventions of high school students from around the country. The inventions consist of various gadgets and devices aimed at helping solve real-world problems.

One of the more impressive ideas I saw during the two days I spent covering the event was a prototype “sensing” cane for blind people. The cane features sensors that can detect objects up to eight feet away, at which point the cane’s handle begins buzzing once per second and increases in intensity as objects get closer.

There were actually two separate teams working on sensing canes – one from Harvard, MA and one from Norfolk, VA. I spoke with the team from Norfolk, which you watch in the above video. Their prototype cane cost only about $140 to put together and consists of PVC piping and an Arduino-like logic board that handles all the information from the sensors. Apparently an earlier prototype was made from carbon fiber, but it turned out to be too expensive and not as easy to work with as PVC.

Other interesting concepts included the following:

Pressure-sensitive illuminated computer cable: USB cable that lights up when you squeeze it, allowing you to easily identify a particular cable among other cables plugged into your computer.

Biofilm membrane for oil remediation: A $40 apparatus that attaches to a well in a rural village and filters out oil from water affected by an oil spill. The actual oil is eaten by microorganisms present in one of the filtering sections of the piping.

Alternative energy refrigerator for northern climates: This is basically a $300 attachment that can be easily installed on just about any refrigerator. It hooks up to an outside vent and uses cold winter air to decrease the refrigerator’s energy consumption by up to 50% during the winter.

Assistive mechanics creeper for car repair: An apparatus that allows people with bad backs, bad knees, and the handicapped to easily work underneath cars. “This invention will allow a person to slide from a wheelchair onto the device, lower, and recline backwards to the position of a traditional creeper. This can be done without the person ever having to get up and adjust it. The device will be able to hold a maximum weight of 300 pounds.”

Cooperative cruise control for hybrid commuter cars: A series of sensors attached to multiple cars in the same caravan that allow one lead car to be followed automatically by up to four other cars.

I also got a chance to check out a hybrid electric car developed by a high school in New Hampshire. The vehicle was made out of a motorcycle frame and featured a gasoline generator attachment for extending the mileage. That, plus all of the other inventions can be found in the video at the top of this post. And here’s a list of all the other inventions as well.

Lemelson-MIT Program’s EurekaFest [MIT.edu]

In the neverending quest to shrink down the size of notebook power adapters, Cooler Master tosses its hat into the ring with the pretty-small SNA 95. It’s a 95-watt adapter with some thoughtful extras like a USB charging port, cable management base, and nine different power tips for widespread compatibility with most notebook manufacturers.

Cooler Master claims to have “the smallest 95W adapter in the world” at 2.9 x 0.7 x 5.7 inches and, indeed, the short, flat, and wide body shape may allow it to slip more easily into backpacks and briefcases. That is, of course, assuming you leave the above-pictured cable management dock at home.

The SNA 95 is available online at Sundial Micro for $70 — I couldn’t find it anywhere else after a quick search but Cooler Master products are found all over the place so it may just be a matter of time as this is still a new-ish product.

SNA 95 [Cooler Master via Red Ferret]