At Maker Faire Bay Area 2026, Udder Mayhem was exhibited as an alternative-controller rhythm game built around four silicone udder teats. The player takes the role of a barista and prepares café lattes by squeezing the teats to the beat.

The game was programmed in Unity, while the custom controller uses a Teensy 4.1. According to Make:, some visitors returned repeatedly to defend their scores.

The original 1993 DOOM has been rebuilt so that its game logic and graphics run in SQL inside a database. The game loop runs at the original 35 FPS, while the database can produce the complete 320×200 frame buffer at up to 60 Hz. The project was created by a team at CedarDB.

The renderer alone takes about 1,300 lines of SQL, with roughly another 4,000 lines for the rest of the project. Python only handles keyboard input, timing and displaying the bitmap returned by the database, and multiplayer deathmatch works too.

Some Samsung Bespoke AI four-door refrigerators in South Korea reportedly stopped working after a firmware update delivered through the SmartThings app. The affected units did not merely lose their network connection; their refrigeration function also stopped.

Samsung's online forum received dozens of complaints, including reports from users who had to discard spoiled food. The timing coincided with a major holiday period in South Korea, making the disruption more serious.

For his student final project, Jude Robinson built Daisy, a robot that automatically makes literal daisy chains. Two opposing XY gantries with grippers alternate handling flowers, taking each daisy from a conveyor and threading its stem through the previous flower.

The machine makes a short slit in each newly added stem, then places a thin threading post through the opening to prepare for the next flower. Because daisy stems vary in shape and diameter, V-shaped grippers and other mechanical constraints keep the process aligned without relying on sensing.

Throaty Mumbo built a custom GBCTube cartridge to play YouTube video on a Game Boy Color's 160×144 display. The project progresses from displaying images and video to streaming over the link cable, then adds custom Wi-Fi-capable hardware.

The video demonstrates playback on real Game Boy Color hardware and covers the cartridge electronics, battery and enclosure built for the project.

Matty Benedetto of Unnecessary Inventions built The Buzz Buddy, a miniature digital drinking companion that attaches to a can. Its sip-detection system registers each time the user drinks, making the on-screen character take a matching sip and gradually filling its Buzz Meter.

Over time the character evolves into progressively looser states. Tapping it makes the character dance, while swiping down displays usage statistics.

At Maker Faire Tokyo 2026, the Ultra-Compact Hovercraft Laboratory exhibited its 11th single-seat hovercraft, designed to hover and move using human power alone. Pedaling drives four reciprocating compressors that pump air beneath the craft, while the rear propeller is also powered by the rider.

According to the report, hovering only requires pedaling at about one revolution per second, but moving forward under propeller power takes an all-out effort. The group has experimented with many different hovercraft mechanisms over the years.

A playable electric guitar has been built without a conventional neck or body, using strings, frets, and tensioned aircraft cable. Instead of relying on the usual wooden structure to withstand string tension, the instrument supports its playing components on a tensioned cable system.

It was built by Burls Art, a YouTuber and guitar maker known for unusual instruments. The build video ends with the finished instrument actually being played.

The MetMo Cube is a desktop fidget toy precision-machined from solid stainless steel using wire EDM. Pressing it produces a smooth sinking motion that uses pneumatic resistance inside the mechanism.

The specialized machining is time-consuming enough that production is limited each month, with separate September and October 2026 shipping waves offered on the product page.

The official report from Hebocon 2026, the robot contest for people with low technical skills held on August 29, is now online. It covers this year's matches and machines, including a robot that scatters candy like caltrops and a robot-bowling exhibition in which 16 eliminated machines run at once.

This year's event also featured HEBO-GPT, a dog-shaped toy connected to AI, while teams of children made a strong showing. The report includes award winners and many of the strange moments from the event in photos and videos.

AcoustiHarvest is a headphone system designed to harvest tiny amounts of electrical energy from the vibration caused by traffic, construction, and other urban noise. Piezoelectric material in the earcups converts sound pressure into electrical current, which is stored and used by the audio electronics.

Creator Alessandro Sgarzi designed the full audio chain to consume just 17 nW so that it can operate from the very small amount of power available from everyday city noise.

PicoDMG rebuilds the original Game Boy experience with modern microcontrollers while preserving the original shell, controls, and AA-battery feel. Game files live on microSD, and a game can be selected by holding a cartridge fitted with an NFC tag near the system.

On the original Game Boy, changing games meant inserting a cartridge into the console. PicoDMG modernizes that interaction too: the open-source project by dodger-one can associate an NFC tag in a cartridge or other object with a corresponding ROM and launch it when scanned.