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DefCon Ninja Badges Let Hackers Do Battle

Posted by timothy on from the that-is-some-nice-schwag dept.

eecue writes "The folks at DefCon, the world's largest hacker convention [previously on Slashdot], have been making awesome badges for years. Last year along with the convention badge, a group of hackers known as the Ninjas created an electronic badge for their exclusive party. This year the Ninjas have taken the whole electronic badge thing to the next level with an interactive, wireless, encrypted ninja battle video game badge. I convinced the Ninjas to give Wired.com an exclusive sneak peek, and let me tell you, this thing is awesome."

2 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. It's the Ninja from Bruce Lee! by beej · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's from the game Bruce Lee for the C64. That I recognized it has to be worth at least one geek point. ;-)

    http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Bruce_Lee

  2. Re:Wireless is cheap, why so unpopular? by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now that wireless hardware is so cheap I'm surprised we don't see more of these made commercially. Why are there so few of those little handheld electronic games that have wireless connectivity? They could sell like 4 of em together in one package.

    They're too expensive.

    If we take a BOM cost of maybe $15 for all those parts and assembly and such, you're looking at a toy that'll sell for $60+. Which is a super-expensive toy - parents balk at paying that much. The ideal toy price is around $20 - $10 is great, $30 is tops, and $50 is expensive.

    Those little electronic handheld games that sell for $10 probably cost $1 in total cost to the manufacturer, and the retailer probably paid $5 for it (probably $6-7 after warehouse and shipping and such). $20 game may probably cost $3 to manufacture.

    If the manufacturer was making low margins, that $15 badge would probably sell for $25 wholesale and maybe $50 MSRP.

    If you think those margins are high, remember they include store overhead, defect overhead (many of these things are just thrown away if a customer returns it as defective, and the manufacturer and retailer look at those return rates to determine how much will be paid), plus shipping from manufacturer to retailer warehouse to retailer. Plus, when the retailer starts discounting as well...