AI-powered game development has recently been blamed for flooding app stores with low-effort mobile games, but every now and then, the technology produces a far more interesting result. Google lead product and design executive Ammar Reshi says he used Fable 5 to port Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour to the iPhone and iPad.

This is not an emulator or a cloud-streamed version. According to Reshi’s GitHub page, the actual 2003 game engine has been compiled natively for ARM64 and runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The project uses EA’s GPL source release and builds on existing community work, while adding the iOS and iPadOS port.

How Claude helped move a PC classic to iPhone

The port was not as simple as making an old Windows game run on a new screen. The original engine expected a writable PC-style file system, while iOS apps live inside a locked-down, code-signed bundle. Save files, cache paths, and configuration writes had to be redirected.

The graphics pipeline also needed serious work. Zero Hour was built around DirectX 8, while Apple devices use Metal. The project routes that through DXVK and MoltenVK, translating the old DirectX renderer through Vulkan and then to Metal.

An RTS also needs a mouse, which the iPhone obviously does not have. Reshi’s port adds touch controls built around strategy gameplay, including tap selection, drag-box selection, two-finger scrolling, pinch zoom, and long-press actions.

A better use for AI in gaming

Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour was one of the great PC RTS games of its era. It was fast, chaotic, and made its Generals Challenge mode feel like a proper test of strategy.

For anyone who grew up playing RTS games on PC, this is the kind of AI project that actually feels worthwhile. Gamers have generally had a negative view of AI in games, especially when it is used to replace human creativity or flood app stores with forgettable titles. Here, it helped bring a classic to devices it was never meant to run on.

Reshi’s port still depends on EA’s source release and years of community modernization work, which he has credited. But seeing Zero Hour run natively on an iPhone is still a wild outcome.

You may be able to charge your devices much faster. Let’s find out.

How iPhone and iPad charging speeds are measured

ridho try syahpitra/Shutterstock

The latest iPhones and iPads charge at between 40 and 60 watts

With the RM9L RGB-Mini, TCL doesn’t skimp on HDMI 2.1 ports. There are four total, and each one can support a 144Hz refresh rate for low latency PC gaming or whatever you want to throw at the television. One of the HDMI 2.1 ports is for eARC passthrough audio to powered speakers or a receiver. I added an Xbox Series X and a Google TV for testing and connected Klipsch the Nines II speakers. There are two USB ports (one coaxial), an Ethernet port for a wired connection, and a digital optical port. The TV uses Wi-Fi 6, which is fast and compatible.

I liked the remote for the most part, since it is clean and easy to use. The brightness controls are on the right-hand side, which is a surprisingly brilliant design choice. For late-night gaming sessions you can crank down the brightness quickly or pump it up when the sunlight pours in. Tiny notches on the remote for volume and channels help you locate them without looking. The buttons for free television channels and a few others seemed like overkill. Also, the Home button is not centered, so it’s harder to find. Thankfully at this price, the remote is backlit.

Real-World Testing Results

Two movies I always test right away, especially to see if the contrast and brightness are as exceptional as they should be for a television’s price, are Awake on Netflix and The Creator on the Fandango at Home app. That’s because these movies have extremely dimly lit scenes at night or predawn. Even some OLED models look washed out during a cycling scene in Awake in which the actor Gina Rodriquez passes a guy in a blue shirt. Only after selecting the Vivid picture mode could I see what was going on. I find Mini RGB tech to be fussy at times, requiring picture quality tweaks.

For The Creator, an early scene by the ocean just didn’t have the vividness I would like for the price, looking slightly washed out without enough blue or deep blacks. Even after using Vivid or Dolby Vision IQ picture modes, the scene still looked too grayed out.

For skin tone benchmarks, the RM9L underperformed compared with the LG Micro RGB Evo. I noticed a lack of tonal variation, but in a side-by-side test against the LG television, there was more of a difference. That meant the RM9L matched up more closely with the midrange Sony Bravia 7 Mark II and the Hisense UR9 that also benefited from Mini RGB tech.

In a demo reel benchmark, there is one tough challenge involving white mist over a snowy mountain. The Leica Cine Play 1 projector is admittedly not a fair test (even if it’s cheaper) because that model has such an exceptional lens, but the mist was far more distinct on it. Green grass near a fence in winter was more noticeable and obvious than on the Hisense UR9, and the two televisions were about equal during a segment with buffalo on a field, showing different shades of brown. The LG Micro RGB Evo rendered several scenes with more color, including a yellow flower, a red cactus, a purple butterfly, and dark trees in a nighttime scene.

What could you do if you could make a circuit trace by just bending a piece of paper? How about bridging modern technologies and traditional handicrafts while providing opportunities for learning skills in both.

As part of our interdisciplinary research into digital craftsmanship at the MEI Lab at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, we came across research that demonstrated how to impregnate paperlike material (technically a “nonwoven textile”) with the kind of liquid metal used to make conductive ink. Initially, the impregnated material is nonconductive because an insulating oxide layer forms that encapsulates microscopic droplets of the liquid metal. However, applying pressure via shaped molds will crack open the insulating layer, allowing neighboring particles to merge, and thus creating conducting regions in the shape of the mold.

Both of us were introduced as children to origami and kirigami (similar to origami, except that cutting is allowed in addition to folding). We, along with our colleagues, decided to see if those traditional techniques could be used on the new material to eliminate the need for molds. Our goal was to allow crafters to make hybrid papercraft creations that contained easily integrated elements such as LEDs and motors.

In particular, we were interested in the possibility of combining the separate stages of creating a papercraft object and adding electrical conductors. Previous approaches to creating electrified papercraft objects relied on adding a separate flexible conductor—such as adhesive copper tape—to the paper. This increases the effort required and runs the risk of creating open circuits as the conductive material conforms to the object’s shape.

Isopropanol and a gallium-indium liquid material are used to impregnate a paperlike material that is 55 percent polyester and 45 percent cellulose. Electronic components such as LEDs and motors are held in place with masking tape. James Provost

Our first step was to see if the pressures involved in bending and cutting alone would be sufficient to create conductive traces. We became frequent visitors to our university’s materials science and engineering department to fabricate samples and then to borrow equipment to characterize their behavior.

We soon confirmed that the pressures involved in folding and cutting—ranging from 2.5 to 100 megapascals—were enough to create conductive traces. We also confirmed that normal handling of the paper didn’t accidentally create conductive paths.

We made a number of changes to the original method for creating the impregnated paper. For example, instead of immersing the paper in a mixture of isopropanol and liquid metal, we used an airbrush to spray the mixture onto the paper. That allowed us to vary how much was deposited on the paper and to use cardboard stencils to mask some areas from being impregnated, allowing folding and cutting in those regions without creating unwanted conductive traces. We also experimented with the ratios of isopropanol and liquid metal.

We became frequent visitors to our university’s materials science and engineering department.

After optimizing the mixing ratios and amount applied via airbrush, we were left with a material that reliably conducts with a resistance of 23.18 ohms per centimeter for cut edges and 4.4 Ω/cm for folded edges. The folded edges retain their conductivity even if later flattened out, and the conductivity is the same on either side of the paper. We estimate the combined cost of the paper and liquid metal (available from many online vendors) is about US $1.80 to make a 10- by 10-cm piece.

The next step was attaching electronic components to the traces. To make the connections more flexible, we cut down the rigid leads of LEDs and attached conductive thread to the stumps. We then held the threads in place using masking tape. Similarly, we connected conductive thread to the terminals of a power supply.

As our goal was to use this material educationally, we now needed to make it easy for a beginner—whether in papercraft or electronics—to try it out. We created a toolkit, dubbed LiqMetCraft. This consists of all the required materials, plus a browser-based software tool that lets the user select or create designs and then gives guidance on physical construction.

We created three versions of LiqMetCraft. The first is based on Chinese papercraft in which a piece of paper is folded into a fanlike segment and then cut to create a radially symmetric design. We provided circles of paper with a doughnot-shape impregnated region, with an untreated region that created a gap in the donut. We attached positive and negative terminals to either side of the gap. The user could specify in the software how many times they wanted to fold the disk and then draw potential cuts, receiving immediate feedback on what the unfolded disk would look like, as well as guidance on how to place LEDs.

To make our paper sample, isopropanol and liquid metal are mixed in specific ratios while being cooled by an ice bath. Sonic waves are used to ensure the liquid metal breaks up into microscopic droplets. The mixture is then applied via airbrush, while stencils prevent some areas being covered for different papercraft templates. James Provost

The second version of LiqMetCraft was based on origami. We supplied rectangular pieces of paper with two conductive regions separated by a border down the middle. The software tool provided templates for 12 origami designs, with step-by-step instructions for folding them. Once the project was completed, the user could add components, such as a motor, by taping them to the folds.

The final version supported 3D paper model making. In this case, the initial paper supplied was a rectangle with an untreated rectangular central area. By cutting this paper in half and then further cutting the halves into patterns separated by a spacer, the user could make various self-standing models. The software allowed the user to draw a pattern on screen, and then have a cutting machine produce a template for cutting the impregnated paper.

We had 42 participants, evenly divided into three groups, try out the different versions. All found it easy to use, and we were pleasantly surprised that some participants moved beyond the supplied designs to their own creations.

For full details of the current process, see our open access LiqMetCraft research paper published in CHI ‘26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. In the future, we plan to try different substrates for the impregnating solution, as well as explore further types of papercraft, such as pop-up books. We’re also interested in developing ways to use the material to support inputs as well as outputs by constructing switches and potentiometers directly out of the material. Imagine traditional papercraft creations becoming interactive devices!

This article appears in the July 2026 print issue.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built this machine years ago as a ground twin for the Perseverance rover. It sat in the Mars Yard outside Pasadena, rolling through simulated terrain while teams tested commands and fixes before beaming them to the real vehicle on another planet. No one planned for it to fly anywhere. Now that same hardware sits at the center of a serious discussion about placing a nuclear-powered rover on the Moon.

The vehicle’s name is PROMISE, which stands for Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration. It started life under a previous name, OPTIMISM, as a full-scale engineering model and testbed for perseverance. Parts of the previous Curiosity testbed were also included into its systems. Exact duplicates of flight hardware provide it with proven wheels, suspension, processors, and cameras that have already withstood years of rigorous usage on Mars.

Sale

LEGO Technic NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle LRV Building Set – Craft Kits for Adults, Ages…

• Build a realistic LEGO Technic lunar rover model – This LRV building kit for adults is packed with authentic details including seats, steering…
• NASA model for adults – Enjoy a mindful project assembling all the details of the rover and equipment including the battery pack, heating and…
• A build for NASA fans – Remember the Apollo 17 mission with a display that features the lunar roving vehicle alongside 3 detailed equipment…

The rover is around the size of a small car and weighs about one ton. It has six wheels and the same rocker-bogie suspension that Perseverance and Curiosity used to climb steep slopes and cross broken ground. Its mast has camera systems similar to those found on Mars rovers, while an instrument arm extends for close-up work. According to NASA experts, several of these science capabilities, such as mapping resources and examining permanently shadowed regions, will need to be modified to meet lunar aims.

The real advantage is in its power system, which uses a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator to transform the steady heat produced by decaying plutonium-238 into electricity and warmth. Unlike solar panels, this source operates during the two-week lunar night and inside craters that never get sunlight. Temperatures in those shaded areas might fall below minus 200 degrees Celsius. The generator’s output also prevents electronics and mechanisms from freezing solid, eliminating the most significant limitation that solar-powered devices confront near the south pole.

NASA’s Moon Base program manager, Carlos García-Galán, highlighted the practical benefits. With nuclear power on board, the rover can explore any terrain without waiting for daylight or relying on recharge facilities. Long drives into difficult-to-reach locations become more practical, as Curiosity and Perseverance have proved on Mars. Administrator Jared Isaacman has stated that the agency is “looking very hard right now about launching Promise to the Moon” because the hardware is already available and can give results faster than starting a new project from scratch.

When considering the 1960s sitcoms Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, both of which featured women with supernatural powers navigating life with mortals, most people wouldn’t connect them with pursuing an engineering career. But Karen Panetta did. The sitcoms’ main characters—Samantha Stevens, a witch; and Jeannie, a genie—were “strong, empowered female leads using magic,” Panetta says, and they inspired her to become an engineer, as it was like sorcery to her.

Panetta, an IEEE Fellow, is dean of graduate education at the Tufts University engineering school, in Medford, Mass., outside of Boston.