Just a quick post this time as my Spanish isn't anywhere near good enough to figure-out what they're saying. Perhaps Steve will chime-in.

Anyway, this pyramidal tree displays a mock version of the classic arcade game Pac Man on its four sides. The graphics are slightly animated, so you'll see a ghost bouncing around, but due to the nature of the maze, the game is not actually playable.

Check-out the video of the Pac Man Christmas Tree below.

Now what gaming geek wouldn't want a tree like that?!

I wrote about a virtual pinball machine called the Ultrapin a while ago. Ultrapin was built to look like a normal pinball machine except the playfield has been replaced by a 42" screen which displays virtual bumpers, ramps, and other pinball goodies. It's a neat idea, but by making it look like a regular pinball machine, you can't help but compare it to the Real Thing and therefore find many flaws and reasons why it's not as good.

An Austrian company called TAB is taking another stab at building a better digital pinball machine. This time, they have created a very unique, modern look for the cabinet that says "I'm not your normal pinball machine!" and I think that'll help get people to try it.

The TAB Virtual Pinball Machine features tilt sensors and vibration feedback, to help recreate an exciting pinball experience. It uses a 42" plasma screen to display any one of six included games. Additional games can be downloaded to the game's internal hard drive, and you can link the machine for competitions thanks to built-in networking support.

I can't say that I've ever preferred playing a digital pinball game on the computer over a real pinball game, but something like this looks like it could be a fun addition to a collection of standard pinball machines. The ability to include weird strategy and other games in addition to standard pinball play could make it a great multi-function machine in a gameroom.

Hopefully, I'll run across one of these TAB digital pinball machines at some point and can try it out. Let me know if you've every tried one - I'm curious how well it works!

Wow - I last wrote about this pinball documentary over a year and a half ago! In the time that's passed, the creators of the documentary have finalized on the name "Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball" and have distributed the DVD to a limited set of people to generate reviews and buzz.

The documentary covers the roller-coaster ride that led to the Pinball 2000 platform -- William's last stab at staying alive in the pinball business. Only the higher-ups at Williams will ever know the answer to the mystery of why Williams pulled the plug on the brand new platform even though it launched reasonably well, but I'm sure the several pinball legends who are interviewed on the DVD have their own ideas.

Anyway, the Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball DVD is now available for pre-order for $30 but there are specials if you want to order two or more. If anyone reading this has seen the documentary, either at a pinball show or was lucky enough to actually get a preview copy, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I'm thinking this is a "must have" for a pinball enthusiast, but still would like to hear some opinions on it before I order.

It seems that everything in Las Vegas wants some kind of money put into it, whether it's a slot machine, a valet's hand, or even the mega-buck restaurants that replaced the $2.95 all-you-can-eat buffets.

Well, here's one more thing vying for your coins in Vegas: The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame. The difference is that these machines pay-out in fun and nostalgia and compared to everything else, are pretty darned cheap to play!

The Pinball Hall of Fame (let's call it the PHoF for now) is the result of a super-collector by the name of Tim Arnold and a local pinball collecting club's efforts to create the largest displayed collection of pinball machines. The machines are maintained in perfect condition by the members of the club, under the umbrella of a non-profit organization. The majority of the machines are 1950-1970s, but machines up to the mid 1990s are included (my favorites!) The older machines are 25 cents to play and the newer machines are 50 cents. It seems that even a non-profit group of collectors can't help but to follow the unfortunate trend of increasing price-per-play of the recent years.

Campy is probably what you'd call the LV PHoF with it's decidedly "cheap" look, ranging from the surplus convention carpet on the floors to the witty hand-made signs. Even the change machines were rescued from a trash can when a casino threw them out. They do this to keep costs low and truly remain a non-profit dedicated to promoting pinball playing to everyone. Oh - and there's even a few classic video games as well, so us members of the Atari generation aren't left-out either!

So, the next time you're in Las Vegas and you want to take a break from the slots, head three miles down Tropicana Blvd. to the Pinball Hall of Fame and bask in the glory that once-was the pinball era.

I think that it would be difficult to play some machines from this vantage point and you'd probably have trouble applying any body english to control the ball, but it definitely gets high marks for being an original idea! I'd imagine that with the correct game (meaning the right setup of ramps, toys, and other typical pinball goodies) it could be pretty fun to play.

There are some videos and stuff that you can check-out at the Furminator site. Just don't ask me what all the crazy punctuation symbols are all over for...

Pat Lawlor Design, of which you might recognize the name from classic machines such as Twilight Zone, took the time to document the design process they used to create the relatively new Monopoly pinball machine. A team of just four guys worked independantly to design the machine starting in 2000.

Some interesting tidbits:

• The first (proto) machine's playfield was completely hand-wired so that they didn't have to make boards.
• The software for the Monopoly machine is over 150,000 lines of 6809 assembly which fits in a 128K EPROM.
• The first dozen production games are assembled extra carefully to ensure the processes are working. These games go to distributors for demos and must be perfect.

Overall, it's really neat to see the overall process of a machine coming together all the way up to manufacturing. Pinball machines are one of the more complex things you can design and build -- and they are largely built by hand because of the levels of customization and the low production numbers.

Great reading and photos - a huge thanks to Pat Lawlor Design for taking the time to share this with us! Be sure to read the whole thing!

Nothing can demonstrate the extreme interest in video games during the "gold years" (1980s) like the spin-off toys, gadgets, and inventions that were created at the time. There were dozens of handheld battery-powered games, stuffed toys, action figures, comic books, and much, much more -- all based on the hot games of the time such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, and others.

Well, one of these spin-off "devices" that I had totally forgotten about was recalled when I viewed a Retro Thing post showing the old scratch-off Pac-Man games.

The games were small cards with patches of the gray waxy scratch-off stuff like you'd find on a lottery ticket. You were supposed to scratch them off, one at a time, to see if you won or lost. I could have sworn that I got them at McDonald's or something similar to that, but the scans of the cards shown in the post show they were in Fleer video game trading cards.

Anyway, I got a bit of joy remembering these old "retro tech" type games that we used in the 80s before everyone had Palm Pilots and before electronics were cheap enough to give-away free in food meals.

I think that any good nerd already knows about the arcade emulator MAME. Well, it's also on most of those nerd's to-do lists to build a MAME cabinet, but where do you put it? Well, you could always build it into a coffee table so that it's always handy and ready to play, but that's a ton of work.

Well, lust no more. This professionally built computer-coffee-table is available in several styles, all of which will let you play MAME and other games, as well as stream music, movies and more to your TV, which is likely in the vicinity. Included in the professional level build is a professional level price. However, for your money, you get a very complete and ready-to-run system:

• Intel® Pentium® D - Dual Core Processor
• 160GB hard disk
• 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports for plug & play capability
• RJ45 Ethernet 10/100Mb connector
• 802.11g wireless network adaptor
• 512MB DDR2 SDRAM
• 17”/19" LCD TFT
• Integrated DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
• Internal amplifier and speakers
• Apple Airport Express for wireless music streaming from Apple iTunes
• Compact wireless keyboard with trackball
• Sanwa joysticks
• Happ arcade buttons and illuminated trackball
• Powered by Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Apple iTunes jukebox
• Apple QuickTime movie player
• Taito Legends retro games package
• MAME™ compatible retro-gaming platform
• Firefox web browser
• NOD32 Antivirus
• MSN messenger for instant chat

That's a pretty complete system. The Arcade Game Table will run you about £3,300 with free delivery and installation. Not bad if you're in the UK. Probably too much if you're elsewhere.

This'll be a quick one.

An artist by the name of Rosemarie Fiore had the great idea to take time-lapse photos of classic arcade games such as Tempest, Gyruss, Qix, and Quantum. The results are pretty interesting and would make for some off-beat wall-hangings or posters in your personal arcade or gameroom.

Check-out her Rosemarie's classic arcade game photos. I just wish there were more.