Games and gear

Nintendo announced Wednesday that it will be releasing a boatload of new games on its 3DS handheld console.

Not only will there be a host of Super Mario Bros spinoffs, but the game maker also is launching Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country, and The Legend of Zelda series. Based on the games Nintendo is choosing to release, it seems the company is tipping its hat to the Game Boy days of the '90s but tossing in a modern 3D twist. … Read more

One man's junk is another man's treasure, but as you're about to learn, what Goodwill perceived as junk was actually a very valuable piece of video game history.

Kotaku tells the tale of a North Carolina woman who, upon visiting Goodwill, happened to come across a nearly sealed copy of the 1987 NES video game Stadium Events. She bought the game for $7.99 and walked out of the thrift store with something worth thousands more.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Did 4chan just find the Boston Marathon bomber?.

- 4chan's Boston bombing Google Doc culls photos, speculation, and accusations.

- Internet tough guys and girls already pointing fingers at the Middle East. Response: "Please don't let it be a Muslim."

- Beating conspiracy theorists at their own game.

- Using Microsoft Photosynth to recreate a panoramic photo of the bombsite.

- Encode hidden messages in your Facebook pics with "Secretbook" extension.

- Demonic portraits and other evils lurking beneath waves of musical spectrograms.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Former 404 guest and Internet Archivist releases Web's largest collection of historical software.

- Judge holds himself in contempt for cell phone going off in court.

- NY Philharmonic phone disruption: A cell-phone etiquette reminder.

- Here's a 90-year-old granny freaking out over Oculus Rift.… Read more

Some technologies are ageless. We've been dreaming of virtual-reality worlds for a long time. With gadgets like the Oculus Rift headset, many people are getting their first shot at engaging with a virtual-reality environment. Paul Rivot's grandmother is one of those people.

Rivot posted a video of his grandma trying out the Oculus Rift for the first time using the Tuscany demo. She looks out over the wide landscape and jokes about bringing her swimsuit for a dip in the ocean. "It's so real," she says. "Is it my eyes, or are the leaves blowing in the wind?"… Read more

It's called Project Unity, and it's been the labor of love for the modder known as Bacteria. It's taken three years and 3,500 hours of work, but it's finally done.

Unity houses the original circuit boards from 15 classic consoles, all powered by a single PSU and outputting via a single Scart cable.

Most clever of all is the single master gamepad designed by Bacteria. The controller actually takes a custom-built cartridge, which maps out the control interface for the required system. So, to play a PlayStation 2 game, for example, you plug the PS2 cartridge into the gamepad and it'll behave like the appropriate controller. … Read more

The Sims Social was once heralded as Electronic Arts' "most successful Facebook game," but now it's being laid to rest along with SimCity Social and Pet Society. These three social games will be extinct from Facebook as of June 14.

The game maker made the announcement today, saying that it was a hard decision but had to be done in order to "reallocate servers and resources to more popular titles," according to the FAQ section of its Web site.

"Today we are informing players of the difficult decision to retire some of our Facebook games: The Sims Social, SimCity Social, and Pet Society," EA wrote in a blog post today. "After millions of people initially logged in to play these games, the number of players and amount of activity has fallen off."… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Ever wondered how Apple employees travel around the Cupertino campus?

- Taking New York's upcoming Citi Bike Share plan for a test ride.

- Why don't cell phones have a dial tone?

- Forget following teens, your new favorite Tweeter is 94 years old.

- Speaking of old people, here's Jeff's dear, old granny with a 404 sticker on her walker.

- Speaking of speaking of old people, here's a soul-cuddling video of an older landlady lip-syncing her favorite song from the 1930s.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Electrosensitive community moving to a secluded town in Green Bank, Va.

- Facebook fixes comment threads for Pages and public figure.

- A promising 'Home' for the Facebook obsessed.

- Five ways to get more out of Facebook Home.

- Prepare a digital will for your Google accounts.

- Roger Ebert's Twitter lives on.

- Microsoft exec reportedly leaves job following testy Xbox tweets.… Read more