This is pretty darn weird. Dolby and SIM2 have created an HDR system for backlighting images using a backlight copy of the image to increase brightness where it needs it an reducing brightness in darker areas. Take a look at the image above. Rather than backlighting the entire image, SIM2 will only light some parts of it, thereby reducing washed out pictures associated with most projectors and LCDs. No availability just yet but it’s an interesting concept.

Or, at least, an adult approximation. Some of my fondest memories from childhood are from birthday parties at places like this – if not Chuck E Cheese then Funtasia, Funplex, or later Gameworks. Nothing to do but cruise around, waste money on games, drink Dr. Pepper, and listen to terrible music. Of course, in my private Chuck E Cheese, things would be a little different.

It would still be stocked with arcade classics old and new, from Pac-Man and S.T.U.N. Runner to modern masterpieces like Crisis Zone and, yes, even Golden Tee. Instead of a TV in the pizza room, I would have a hi-def digital projector hooked up to all manner of consoles, DVD-players, and a dedicated multimedia PC with 4TB of RAID storage for all my totally legal TV shows and such. There would be a fully stocked open bar and several of the arcade machines would be hosted in Gamerators full of chilled High Life for when you’ve just got to have it. There would, of course, be wi-fi, and a kick-ass sound system controllable from any device on the network.

Now that I’m visualizing it, it actually sounds a lot like Penny Arcade’s Olympus.

There are lots of cool little doodads out there right now, but it’s all about convergence. I want the old school mashed right into the new school, with cutting edge and retro bumping uglies and coming up with something freaky like an interactive Zelda map projected onto a huge touchscreen we can put our drinks on. Sure, I’d also like an iPod Touch or maybe Super Mario Galaxy, but even if I got one, I’d probably be too busy chilling in the ball pit or playing Cadillacs & Dinosaurs to even care. Don’t worry, though, you guys can come over if you want.

Looking for an ultra high-end 1080p home cinema projector that you won’t want to hide in a cabinet? Well, Sim2 seems to own this category and the latest edition is now shipping and it looks great. I had the opportunity to check them out and see David Lynch in full HD from his home in California (I think). He loves the Sim2 and picked them out of a handful of other high-end projectors. The C3X 1080 is the smallest and most powerful full HD 3 chip projector available today. It certainly owes a lot to TI’s DLP DarkChip 4 that enables it to output such great video.

The C3X 1080 might be on the hefty side at 22 pounds, but it looks gorgeous thanks to Giorgio Revoldini. The projector is built around three 0.95-inch, 1080p DLP chipsets with the DarkChip 4 being the main attraction. It basically makes the black, blacker and everything brighter.

The C3X 1080 features two HDMI inputs that are HDCP-compliant as well as S- and composite-video and RGB connections. There’s also a USB and RS-232 serial port. And an optical digital-audio output on top of IR sensors.

It comes in high-gloss Gunmetal, Black , Red and Gold. It’s $31,995, but the picture quality is incredible.

Sim2