Tag Archives: Prototype

Science

SpaceX fires up all 6 engines of Starship prototype (video)

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SpaceX fired up the engines of its space-bound Starship prototype Thursday afternoon (Sept. 8) in a dramatic test that also set some of the surrounding landscape ablaze.

All six of the Raptor engines on SpaceX‘s Ship 24 vehicle blazed briefly Thursday at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT) at Starbase, the company’s South Texas facility. The “static fire” test marked another step toward launch for Ship 24, which is slated to conduct the Starship program’s first-ever orbital test flight in the coming months.

The static fire lasted just a few seconds, but flames burned at Starbase for a while afterward. The test sparked a grass fire that brought the local fire department out as a safety precaution, as a livestream by NASASpaceflight.com (opens in new tab) showed. (Rocket Ranch Boca Chica (opens in new tab) also captured footage of today’s static fire, which you can see in the video above.)

Related: SpaceX fires up Starship Super Heavy booster again in long engine test

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Starship is SpaceX’s next-generation deep-space transportation system, which the company is developing to take people and payloads to the moon, Mars and beyond. The vehicle is composed of two fully reusable elements, both of which are powered by Raptor engines: a huge first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft called Starship.

SpaceX is gearing up for the landmark Starship orbital flight, which will involve Ship 24 and a Super Heavy known as Booster 7. The company has been testing both vehicles at Starbase over the past month or so, performing static fires and other work.

On Aug. 31, for example, SpaceX lit up three of Booster 7’s 33 Raptors, in the first-ever Super Heavy static fire to engage multiple engines. (NASASpaceflight footage suggested that just two of the three Raptors fired properly, however.)

And Ship 24 ignited two of its six Raptors on Aug. 9.

SpaceX’s Ship 24 Starship prototype performs a six-engine static fire test at the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas on Sept. 8, 2022. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said Starship has the potential to unlock the heavens, making Mars colonization and other bold exploration feats economically feasible.

He’s not the only one to see promise in the giant vehicle. For example, NASA selected Starship as the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program of moon exploration. If all goes according to plan, a Starship will put NASA astronauts down near the lunar south pole in 2025 or 2026.

Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).  



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Retro’s Mysterious Zelda Spin-Off ‘Project X’ Apparently Had A Playable Prototype

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Image: Nintendo

New details have emerged online today about Retro Studios’ mysterious Legend of Zelda title ‘Project X‘. Although this spin-off never saw the light of day, it seems there was actually a working prototype.

In the same ‘DidYouKnowGaming?’ YouTube video, the gameplay within this title was discussed. According to ex-Retro Studios developer and programmer Paul Tozour, it was an “experiment gone wrong that happened to be set in the Zelda universe”.

While a prototype was up and running, it was described as a simplified version of ‘Whack-A-Mole’ and was believed to be seriously undercooked. Players would control Sheik, fixed in one place, and would hit different types of wolves with the Wii Remote.

“There were four or five wolves, maybe six, and they would just be in their idle state waiting to pounce at you, then they’d jump one-by-one and you’d go ‘Whack’. So that’s literally all it was, just detecting when the player swung the Wii Remote. If so, the wolf dies, and if you don’t do it correctly, you take damage.” – Paul Tozour, ex Retro dev

There was also overworld traversal – separate from the game’s combat, where players would be thrown into random battles, similar to JRPGs. Tozour further described it as a “hot mess” and even though the art might make it seem like the team was working on something special, there was just “no gameplay” present.

Concerns were raised about the direction of ‘Project X’ on multiple occasions, but leadership ignored warnings and supposedly refused to change direction. Tozour adds how he heard the prototype didn’t go down well with Nintendo:

“[Nintendo] couldn’t really make heads or tails of it. Their reaction was basically boils down to ‘this is seriously what you’re proposing? Really?…[It was] immediately rejected [that’s what I was told,] but I wasn’t there when it happened, and I suppose there’s a possibility it never actually happened and they decided not to show it to Nintendo.”

A separate anonymous source from Retro suggested the project also may have been axed due to the departure of Retro’s top developers around the same time. All up, there was believed to be at least seven people working on ‘Project X’ at Retro Studios before it was eventually cancelled in 2008.

There are claims Nintendo is still interested in a Sheik project. You can learn more in the video below, and more about Paul Tozour’s experience with ‘Project X’ in his previous chat with the podcast KiwiTalkz:

It turns out Retro was also working on another Zelda spin-off called Heroes of Hyrule. You can read more in our previous story.



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Technology

A GTA developer claims Rockstar has issued a copyright strike against his prototype videos

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Rockstar Games [272 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/take-two-interactive/rockstar-games/”>Rockstar Games has allegedly issued copyright strikes against two videos by original Grand Theft Auto developer Mike Dailly in which he showed old development materials.

In a tweet, the developer, who was one of the founders of DMA Design (now Rockstar North [133 articles]” href=”https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/take-two-interactive/rockstar-games/rockstar-north/”>Rockstar North) said: “I see Rockstar are going full fuckers mode again, issuing copyright strikes to any GTA video they can find – including both my prototype videos.”

“So now they’re trying to block all release of anyone’s work on a game – and any old development footage.”

The prototype video in question showed off one of the original builds of GTA which was created in the mid-90s when the Dundee-based DMA Designs were still most well-known for the Lemming’s franchise.

Development documentation surrounding the creation of GTA is rare, but several of the original developers who worked at DMA during the series’ early days have posted some behind-the-scenes development videos in recent years.

Dailly’s allegation suggests that Rockstar is currently targeting those videos, though Dailly’s tweet is the first notable public mention of this.

VGC has reached out to Rockstar for comment, and will update this story should it respond.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will take place in an area based on Miami, and may feature a female playable character, it’s been claimed.

Bloomberg reports that the game, which it claims began development sometime in 2014, is “at least two years away”.

“Early designs called for the inclusion of territories modelled after large swaths of North and South America,” the publication states. “The company reeled in those ambitions and cut the main map down to a fictional version of Miami and its surrounding areas.”

Last month, a Rockstar insider who’s accurately leaked information about the company’s games in the past claimed remasters of GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption “were on the table a few years ago” but are no longer planned.

Kotaku later backed up the claims. Citing sources with knowledge of Rockstar’s plans, it said the studio has – temporarily at least – parked the remasters to fully focus on GTA 6.

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Technology

DeLorean Alpha5 EV Prototype Revealed at Pebble Beach

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After an initial tease back in February and a rendered reveal of the whole car in May, DeLorean Motor Company officially revealed the real-life prototype of its upcoming Alpha5 EV at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance car show in Monterey, California today. IGN was there to see it, and you can take a look at our photos of the functioning prototype in the image gallery below.

The four-seat, two-gullwing-door Alpha5 coupe is the new DMC’s attempt to revive the brand after the initial car, the stainless steel DMC-12, went out of production after the 1983 model year when the original company went bankrupt. Here’s everything we know about the new car so far, including its expected range, performance, and price. The classic DeLorean, of course, has lived on in pop culture ever since, though, thanks to its starring role in the timeless Back to the Future movie trilogy, where it played the part of the time machine that sent a teenage Marty McFly from 1985 back to 1955, then later ahead to 2015, and eventually back to 1885.

DeLorean Alpha5 EV Prototype Photos

The real-life story of John DeLorean, the larger-than-life automotive engineer who rose through the ranks at GM, creating the Pontiac GTO and starting the Muscle Car Era before becoming the head of Pontiac and subsequently leaving to start his own car company, has been told in a few mediums in recent years, notably in the excellent docu-drama Framing John DeLorean, starring Alec Baldwin.

The new iteration of DMC that’s creating the Alpha5 has no relation to the original company, though it owns Classic DMC, the long-running service and restoration network based out of Humble, TX that offers original, remanufactured, and new and improved parts for the original DMC-12, of which 6,000 examples are estimated to still be on the road of the original 9,000 or so built. (Disclosure: the author owned a 1982 DMC-12 from 1999-2012).

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.



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Technology

Prototype GeForce GTX 2080 graphics card spotted, the only known GTX with ray tracing support

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GTX 2080, a proof RTX branding was the last minute change?

Reddit ascendance22 posted photos of the unreleased GeForce GTX 2080 graphics card, and no, that’s not a typo.

GeForce GTX 2080, Source: ascendance22

At NVIDIA GeForce 20 series launch in August 2018 NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made a joke of announcing a GTX 1180 graphics. That was contrary to the rumors of a new GeForce RTX branding making a debut. Such GTX model was obviously never launched, but it seems that the original plans might have been to use GTX branding after all.

Redditor found an engineering sample of GTX 2080 graphics card, or so it seems. The card features the same reference cooler design, but the absent RTX branding was replaced with GTX. There is also no 2080 logo on the card’s front and backplate.

GeForce GTX 2080 prototype, Source: eBay

It looks like this card was purchased from eBay for around 360 USD. This prototype above looks identical to the card posted on Reddit. Interestingly the seller has been using these cards for … cryptomining. The sticker on the back confirms it’s a PG180 board, the same board the retail RTX 2080 graphics card uses.

GeForce GTX 2080 prototype, Source: eBay

Such NVIDIA prototypes are very rare, especially for the gaming series and NVIDIA reference design (Founders Edition). The card supposedly offers identical performance to the retail unit so for gamers it’s just a GPU, for enthusiast that’s a collector’s item for sure. And yes, it supports raytracing and DLSS, the only GTX card to do so.

GeForce RTX 2080 Founders Edition, Source: NVIDIA

Source: Reddit



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Technology

Nintendo DS Firmware ‘Prototype’ Reveals System’s Unique Boot Up Sound Effect

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Image: Forest of Illusion (via Twitter)

Nintendo preservation website Forest of Illusion has managed to acquire another rare piece of gaming history. It’s been able to archive a Japan prototype of the Nintendo DS X4 firmware – recovered from an X4 prototype unit.

According to the source, “just about every aspect of this version is different from the final retail release”. One of the highlights is the boot up screen. Instead of featuring the Nintendo DS logo, it appears to be a GBA placeholder screen and a sound file of children shouting “Nintendo” (you can have a listen below).

The menu is also a lot different from the final version. The Cutting Room Floor details how the placeholder menu features DS and GBA boot options, wireless play, and Nitro settings – containing user information (console name, birthday and colour), the date and time, language options, touch panel settings and more.

A Cutting Room Floor contributor also notes how “some parts” of this prototype have a strong resemblance to the early DSi settings app:

@trashbandatcoot – “Should bring up that some parts of this prototype strongly resemble those of an early DSi settings app, mainly the layout of the menu settings itself and the touch calibration menu. “

Some DS enthusiasts have also got the firmware up and running on their own units, thanks to Forest of Illusion’s efforts:

Nintendo previously showcased prototypes of the DS at E3, which was at the time internally known as Nitro. What do you think of this slice of firmware history? What about that boot up sound effect? Leave a comment down below.



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Technology

Steve Jobs’ original Apple 1 computer prototype up for auction

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 Kelly Intelligence founder and CEO Kevin Kelly and Starship Capital managing partner John Meyer react to Apple’s new changes and explain what they mean for the stock.

A historic computer prototype which once belonged to Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs has been listed for auction.

The 1976 prototype – which is named the Apple 1 – was hand-soldered by co-founder Steve Wozniak, according to RR Auction – a Boston-based auction house.

Jobs reportedly presented the Apple 1 to Paul Terrell, the world’s first personal computer retail shop owner.

RARE STEVE JOBS MEMORABILIA, ITEMS FROM APPLE’S ORIGINS GO UP FOR AUCTION

The Apple 1’s demonstration is said to have happened at Terrell’s computer store which was named The Byte Shop, in Mountain View, California, and the demo led Terrell to request a fully assembled computer that would later be sold for $666.66.

Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs led the company on-and-off from 1975 to 2011. | Getty Images

Eventually, Terrell submitted a purchase order of 50 Apple 1 computers.

“That was the biggest single episode in all of the company’s history,” said Wozniak, the computer engineer who designed the Apple 1 and Apple 2.

“Nothing in subsequent years was so great and so unexpected,” he told RR Auction.

RARE APPLE 1, SIGNED BY STEVE WOZNIAK, COULD BE WORTH $400G

Apple has gone on to become a multibillion-dollar tech company with a $2.47 trillion market cap.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
AAPL APPLE INC. 152.95 -1.14 -0.74%

The current owner of the Apple 1 prototype hasn’t been named, but RR Auction reports that the anonymous seller obtained it from Jobs approximately 30 years ago.

RR Auction said the prototype was soldered onto a “unique ‘Apple Computer A’ printed circuit board” and matches Polaroid photographs Terrell snapped in the 1970s.

APPLE’S EVOLUTION FROM STEVE JOBS TO TIM COOK 

“The board’s present condition lends some insight into Jobs’s judgment of it: he saw the prototype not as something to be enshrined, but as something to be repurposed,” the auction house wrote in its product listing. “Several of the ICs have been plucked from their sockets, as have the microprocessor and other components, presumably for use on early production Apple 1 Computers.”

Although the prototype is missing pieces and has visible cracks on its upper right side, RR Auction said the computer’s new owner can recreate components based on the photographs Terrell captured.

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The auction for the prototype will close on Thursday, Aug. 18, at 7 p.m. EST.

RR Auction estimates the prototype has a $500,000 value. So far, 15 bids have been placed.

The Apple 1 prototype has experienced light wear and tear in the last five decades. (Photo courtesy RR Auction / Fox News)

“There is no Apple 1 without this prototype board — it’s the holy grail of Steve Jobs and Apple memorabilia,” said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, in an email to FOX Business.

As of Monday, July 25, the leading bid is $278,005.

APPLE’S EVOLUTION FROM STEVE JOBS TO TIM COOK 

RR Auction spoke at length about the Apple 1 in June during an episode of Fox Nation’s “Selling History.”

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Technology

Alleged Google Pixel 7 Pro prototype surfaces on reddit

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Another alleged Google Pixel 7 prototype has surfaced, this time from a Reddit user who says they bought it on Facebook Marketplace. From appearances, it’s a Pixel 7 Pro, which Redditor AMC20_ says was listed as a Pixel 6 Pro without a box. It is not, in fact, a Pixel 6 Pro.

Google’s phones have a long history of unusual leaks, but even by Pixel standards, this is a strange one. It’s also the second time a prototype Pixel 7 Pro has surfaced in the last week. In case you missed episode one of this saga, someone listed a Pixel 7 prototype on eBay. As Android expert Mishaal Rahman pointed out, the photos seem to have been taken with another prototype unit — a Pixel 7 Pro, which can be seen in the reflection on the phone’s glossy back panel. The person who purchased the 7 Pro prototype on Facebook thinks that his phone is the same one used to take those photos.

The buyer says this phone was advertised on Facebook Marketplace as a Pixel 6 Pro without a box.
Image: Reddit user AMC20_

Google pre-announced the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro at its I/O keynote last month, revealing what the devices will look like and… not much else. They’ll very likely make their formal debut in October with Android 13. These alleged prototypes haven’t shed much more light on what we can expect from the phones, either — just confirmation that it’s using a different modem than the Pixel 6 series and that it appears to come in a variant with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM.

There probably won’t be much more we can learn from it, either. The purchaser of the alleged prototype said that the phone had been functioning fine until a few days ago when it seems to have been remotely wiped. That’s not surprising — if it’s the genuine article, Google would have a safeguard like that in place in the event that the phone went missing. But given the Pixel series’ track record, it probably won’t be long until we see another leak.



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A Google Pixel 7 prototype popped up for sale on eBay

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An alleged prototype of Google’s upcoming Pixel 7 smartphone has been posted on eBay, giving us our first look at the new phone in the wild months ahead of its scheduled fall release (via Android guru Mishaal Rahman).

Google just revealed the phone a few weeks ago at Google I/O, and what we can see in the prototype matches up with what Google has already shown. The distinctive camera bar is back, and this year it’s an aluminum bar with cutouts for the cameras. And the alleged prototype’s casing is a deep black that looks just like one of the colors Google showed off at I/O.

One of Google’s official Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro images — including that deep black.
Image: Google

The eBay listing includes a few photos of the front, back, and sides of the device, though there’s not much to see that you can’t already spot on Google’s official renders. A photo of the phone turned on shows it has 128GB of storage, which suggests Google will once again be offering a 128GB model as an option for the final phone. A screenshot says that the phone’s model is GVU6C. And one photo indicates that this eBay seller may have gotten their hands on a Pixel 7 Pro as well, as you can catch the reflection of what looks to be the Pixel 7 Pro’s camera bar on the back of the Pixel 7 prototype.

We’ve collected images from the eBay listing into the gallery below, if you want to scrutinize them for yourself:


In messages with The Verge, the seller claims they bought the Pixel 7 prototype from a wholesaler without knowing what it was. The seller says they realized it was a Pixel 7 after doing research and seeing pictures that seemed like the phone they had. They also say they had a Pixel 7 Pro, but sold it already.

The listing has been closed, so you won’t be able to snap up this device for your collection. There were no bids for the prototype, and the starting bid was $450. Google didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

This Pixel 7 listing is just the latest major pre-release leak of a Pixel device, which has a history of surprise appearances dating back to the very first phone to carry the name. A prototype of a Pixel Watch was apparently found at a restaurant shortly before the smartwatch’s announcement at I/O. A mention of the Pixel 6A appeared in a coloring book all the way back in January. Somebody filmed what appeared to be a Pixel 6 Pro test unit a few weeks before Google officially launched the device. I could go on.

Unfortunately, we’ll likely be waiting a few months before Google shares more about the Pixel 7. The phones aren’t set to arrive until the fall, and if past years are any indication, we should expect some kind of launch event in October. Until then, these photos from eBay might be our best look at the upcoming phone… well, until it inevitably leaks again.



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Technology

Google Pixel 7 prototype reputedly shows up on eBay

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It seems just can’t stop its upcoming hardware from showing up in the wild. Weeks after was left at a restaurant (and before Google confirmed the device’s existence), it appears someone tried to sell a Pixel 7 on eBay.

The eBay for what certainly looks like a prototype Pixel 7 on , but it has since been taken down. The images that the seller posted didn’t shed a ton more light on the device. The front looks similar to the Pixel 6, hole-punch camera and all. The camera bar on the rear has two lenses as well.

Take a closer look at one of the images, though, and you’ll see something that might raise your eyebrows. In the reflection of the purported Pixel 7’s rear is what looks like a Pixel 7 Pro — the device that the seller was using to take the pictures. This suggests that, whoever the seller is, they had access to both models of the upcoming Pixel lineup. 

meetveeru/eBay

In the description, the seller claimed that Pixel 7 was running Android 13, with apps that are at the developmental stage. They said the phone has 128GB of storage and 8GB RAM and that they were selling it as is with “no guarantees of any sort.” The phone would have shipped from McKinney, Texas.

Although Google and its Pro sibling at I/O, it’ll be months before the devices, which will run on a , go on sale. Google will surely provide a more in-depth look at them at a hardware event. But, given the leaks to date, we might already know every detail by the time Google formally shows them off.

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