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Tiny RC Tanks That Fight
Daniel Rutter writes "I've just reviewed a couple of Konami's Combat DigiQs - tiny little remote controlled tanks that can shoot each other. You can stage a two-, three- or four-tank battle, every tank for himself or in teams of two, on a coffee table. They rock."
Toys are just getting cooler and cooler these days. Why couldn't I have had RC Tank wars when I was a kid? It's just not fair.
Oh well. I guess I'll go back to playing with Lego and my good 'ol Speak-n-Spell.
I am a filthy pirate.
http://www.konami.co.jp/th/micro_ir/combat/english /index.html
ThinkGeek's had this for a while
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/5776
It's laser tag though. Office Fun!
$cat
weapons of minute destruction?
The writeup of the article with the same text is already on JesusGeeks.
A playground sandbox, a few quarts of 10w40, and you've got your very own miniature Iraq to "liberate"!
nah you must be confused, that was gorilla.bas :)
But do you actually get killed when your tank blows up? I really find the lack of realism in games these days to be disturbing.
If these fire actual projectiles (as opposed to just a light beam), then I want one for my girlfriend's cats!
However i've had massive problems with every 3D version i've tried. Not only is my first guess almost always rather off because of the complications of the third dimension, but adjusting the shot takes a long time as well. It just takes way too long and isn't as much fun.
Of course hopefully the toy tanks wouldn't take so long to render, and it would be really easy to multi-thread and have them all shooting at once :)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Doesn't the logo remind you of ChronoCross/Trigger? Strange....
-- Breaking Windows: Not just for kids anymore KDE
Scary when the tanks are being dwarfed by their remote controls 8-)
I've solved this problem by continuing to buy toys for myself - and now I've got money!
Fact is that as a kid I don't think I would have appreciated the coolness of this. A friend of mine had one of those helicopters that flew in circles, and model rocketry stuff, and I liked it but I thought it was all part of being a kid.
Now I own a Vectron Flying Saucer and a bunch of other cool stuff, and I still play with at much as if I were a kid. But now I realized how awesome it is scientifically, and the fact that things weren't always this cool.
Somehow wanting something for thiry years makes it that much sweeter. Makes me look forward to being eighty.
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Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.
...those tiny tanks, connected to a PC, so we can play over the Internet with our distant geek friends. :-)
:-)
Yeah of course we have videogames, but it would be much cooler to have the game happening in real-life 3D on a small table in the living room.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
wow, I remember that, I think I downloaded it off some website a few years back.
My potato gun was confiscated by the United Nations. They said I wasn't allowed to have weapons of mash destruction.
Any /.ers care to take on the challenge?
"Knowledge is half the battle!" - GI JOE (he would have read the whole article, then gone off to kick Cobra Commander's ass...)
My brother and I ordered them from Japan back during Christmas. They are in fact really cool little toys.
The advantages these little things have over the other MiniRC craze are:
No ugly/fragile antenna (IR Control)
Better cosmetic detail of the bodies. A couple little plastic pieces to glue on for added effect are included.
The IR Weapons onboard complete the ultimate childhood fantasy of having your little plastic army men fight.
Good control unit with swapable modules so you can use the same radio to control all the different types of tanks...
The IR control is pretty good as far as range is concerned as long as you have line of sight. You have to mind that you point the control unit in the general direction of the tank... I've been stalled and hit a couple times because I didn't pay attention. There are cool little LED special effects and shaking when your opponent hits you with a shot...
These things will have you building little obstacles and battlefields pretty soon after playing a couple rounds...
Glad somebody wrote a review on these Konami tanks... Very cool... There are also hobbyists who make larger 1/15 scale versions but they cost hundreds... You can get two of these for about $100 plus shipping from Japan right now.
I was going to put off the kids thing a few more years, but I need a justifiable reason to spend $125 on these things. So, if there's any women out there who would like to get married and have my child soon there after, and also provide me with your Visa card so I can order these tanks (for are soon to arrive child), please send me a message.
Thanks
Cool features I haven't seen mentioned here yet:
They are a bit pricey, but the WWII Winter set includes two tanks, plus obstacles to hide behind and decals.
The only other downside is that they're a little fragile.
Design for Use, not Construction!
For some time now I've felt that toys like this (especially the ones with the rotating turrets) could be a cool mall concession. Arcades no longer offer any appreciable advantage over home systems and my local mall has a kiddy train that goes around incircles. Put the two together with some sand and rocks and your have fun for all ages! I have to think a 5 or ten min frag session would make more than some crappy train.
FINALLY!
"Stuff that matters."
The normal editors must be on vacation...
What better place to get air support for your ground troops than:
Interactive Toy Concepts
This company has everything from blimps to B2 bomber, and more.
I'm not getting one until it supports the Ogg format.
My
Limekiller
looks just like a real (scale) plane
flies well
is relatively inexpensive and easy to make
Pick any two!
Even so, some people do do R/C combat with scale models ... but it's a lot of work making the planes and keeping them flying :)
R/C plane combat is certainly done. Some is done with infrared `guns', like this, some is done trying to cut a ribbon trailing behind the other plane, and some is done by literally trying to bump the other plane out of the sky.
In all cases, even when you're not trying to, the planes tend to collide quite often. So you need planes that are very resiliant, and that usually means that they aren't going to be scale models of anything -- instead, you concentrate on them flying reasonably well and being tough.
From Konami's OWN English version page:
Please enjoy yourself using this manual.
I sure hope you DON'T use that manual to enjoy yourself! You might want to try reading it first. Or maybe printing it out. =)
Someone already mentioned hooking up an IR controller to their serial port, but what about for over the net multiplayer? Some strategicly placed cameras, 4 tanks, 4 players. I'd do this to have battles with my friends over fields of 486 hardware. I'm sure you could figure out some cool scenarios too with extra IR receivers/senders on the battle field. Stationary guns for defense, minefields, etc. Maybe a game where one team must defend an IR target while the other attacks. This is a must have toy.
Cthulhu Saves.
The American claims are lies. The brave loyal men of the Republican Guard today destroyed 500 tanks. I myself crushed over 50 with my bare feet.
Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
Radio controlled tanks are nothing new - my neighbor had one 60 years ago.
He sat inside it, a radio signal came in, and in response to that message, he shot at Germans.
Good, you've given more explanation for why France and Russia oppose the action than any news source I've seen yet.
Still, even if this is their real concern, ignoring them, and the principles the UN was founded on, is not the right course of action. Why hasn't our "fine" president stood forth with this debt as the prime reason for their opinion?
You also didn't approach the issue of why we've been told there's so much urgency: weapons of mass destruction. We don't have proof of them, no matter how much our president eludes to "sekrit gov'ment files".
Its true that Iraqis are dying, and that's a tragedy. But again, ignoring the systems set in place to resolve disputes and going directly to war is yet another tragedy, and it isn't going to help things. With no broad coalition in place, with only scant support, and with obvious signs of American imperialism, I don't see a "safe, stable, democratic Iraq" in our future.
Look at what we did with/to Afghanistan if you want evidence of our abilities at nation building. That attack was about as clearly justified as they come (and I support it). What have we done since then? We have forces stationed there, but they all reside in Kabul, leaving the rest of the countryside to return to the rule of regional warlords. This is exactly the situation that caused people to support the Taliban in the first place. Our president didn't even remember Afghanistan in the most recent budget proposal. I'm supposed to believe that things will be different with Iraq?
The bottom line for me is: I don't buy it. I don't buy it that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction that can reach us, I don't buy it that we were motivated by altruism, and I don't believe we'll replace Iraq with anything resembling stable. I do believe we've done incredible damage to the systems and principles that give us any hope for peace and freedom.
-Zipwow
(and don't even get me started on ignoring the constitution at home... what a fine example to set for new republics...)
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.