Our resident Queen High Slapper, Sez pointed these out to us as seen over at fanboy.com.

"In 1983 they had a series of “Video Arcade Gum” which came in individual boxes that were shaped like (you guessed it) video arcade games! I’m surprised that this product never took off because I don’t remember seeing it back in the day. The games they featured included Donkey Kong, Q*bert, Zaxxon, Frogger and Centipede"

Be sure to check out the flickr album for more pics.  Very cool stuff!  I'd almost be willing to buy a case today, although, I'm sure the gum has long since lost it's ability to be chewed by any mortal human being.

From Thinkgeek comes the Ice Invaders Icecube Tray .

"It was 30 years ago when the first Japanese geek shouted "スペースインベーダー!!"and dutifully dropped 100 yen coins into that stand-up video game cabinet. Though only green and black, 2 dimensional, and lacked any breast-physics at all, Taito's Space Invaders was still one of the most successful video games ever....if you've read this far, you're a Space Invaders fan, and will want to buy this food-grade silicon ice-cube mold! Make your own little invaders, and drop them in your drinks. What more needs to be said?"

And for you White Russian drinkers, why not try some Tetris blocks as well!

ThinkGeek Invaders Icecube Tray

Jeff Rothe of Rotheblog.com gave us a heads up that he'll be hosting a live chat with none other than Steve Wiebe himself this coming week:

"The latest in my series of live chat sessions at Coinopspace.com, Steve Wiebe is going to be joining us on April 15th 2009. The only requirement to chat with Steve is to be a member of the website and you can ask any respectful question you want."

Be sure to sign up.  I'm sure it'll be a lively chat.  As the underdog of King Of Kong, Steve has become a bit of a cult celebrity with a strong following of supporters.

Coin-Op TV recently came across a custom pinball machine dedicated to Swedish band The Hellacopters. Hellacopters' album artist Dirty Donny and fellow enthusiast Wade Krause completely rebuilt a Gottlieb Kingpin and the end result seems to be a very impressive game with awesome artwork. More details over at Coin-Op TV.

Ever since Rob Craig's article in GameRoom Magazine a few months back covering his DIY digital pinball machine I've had the itch to do something along the same lines. It looks like I'm not the only one; BadBoyBill (creator of the HyperSpin videogame frontend) has started development on a stunning way of wrapping Future Pinball or a similar pinball simulator into a similar dual-screen 'digital pinball' project...

For more details check out the Arcade Controls forum thread or the HyperSpin website.

Asteroids and Van Halen fans will get a kick out of this time burner.

Take one classic 80's Music Icon and add one classic 80's Video Game and you've got the Diamond Dave Edition Assteroidz v1.0.

I only played for a few minutes becaue I new I'd get sucked in for sure, but be sure to take in the creativity as you're playing.

Pretty original to have Sammy Hagar be the spaceship coming after you and the sound effects will definitely take you back.

Check it out!

Geek.com spotted a new Jakk's Pacific Controller at CES 2009

The infamous M3talhead brought this one to our attention.

Via Make Magazine:

"If you're into building retro gaming cabinets, you probably have a bunch of joysticks hanging around, and look what an attractive coat rack they can make! If you don't have them around, they're really easy to get on ebay."

Pretty cool idea.  I seem to recall someone using Atari Joysticks for this a while back, but the effect is the same.  A great place to hang all your retro gaming wear or just pick the coats off the ground that are left laying by the door.  What?  Am I the only one that does that?

Make Magazine