Batteries Not Included

This retro-looking handheld gaming device doesn’t rely on batteries to operate. Instead, the console, called the Energy Aware Gaming platform (also known as ENGAGE), is equipped with solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity. Pressing the console’s buttons as you play also generates an electrical charge, providing a secondary power boost.

By switching to renewable sources of power that won’t run out and have to be replaced, developers hope ENGAGE will encourage more environmentally friendly gameplay. “Battery-powered devices like game consoles are a major contributor to the global problem of electronic waste,” says Josiah Hester, a computer scientist at Northwestern University in Illinois and co-designer of ENGAGE.