Electromechanical "running of the bulls" game

Found in the MAKE Flickr pool:

This electromechanical game, created by Greg Borenstein and Scott Wayne Indiana, is based on the (in)famous Running of the Bulls event held annually in the Festival of San FermÃn in Pamplona, Spain (and other places).

The linear motion of the bulls is powered by a stepper motor pulling a six foot long timing belt. That belt moves a car made of pulleys and shafts that rides on two tracks built out of 1/2″ metal pipe. That motion will pull the bulls towards the player avatar. Simultaneously, the bulls will move side-to-side via servos attached to Scotch Yoke mechanisms and running a simple simulation of the logic of a stampeding bull (if you get too close to a wall or another bull, reverse course). The player will control his avatar via a joystick which will turn a servo to move their avatar from side-to-side to dodge out of the way of the bulls. There will be a small CCTV camera installed behind the player’s avatar hooked up to a the screen on which the player watches the game. If any of the bulls collide with the avatar, the player loses. If all the bulls pass without a collision, the player wins.

(Notice how the bulls are mounted on Scotch yokes? Leet!_ See the Flickr set for more views.

UPDATE: Scott wrote in with a video, which I’ve added above.

4 Responses to Electromechanical "running of the bulls" game

unigamer on May 13th, 2010 at 9:31 am said:

that’s an awesome idea, here is a link to a video that gives a good demonstration of it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unavoidablegrain/4585591059/in/set-72157623719448565/

PS. Make – the comment form often says I’m logged in, I type my comment and then submit it and then it says I am not logged in. It wouldn’t bother me much except I need to type out my comment twice because it loses it the first time.

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- kongorilla on May 13th, 2010 at 10:23 am said:
  
  I’d like to second what unigamer says about adding comments. It happens to me, too. It really freaked me out when I was trying to enter my Makerbot contest entry at 4:30am on the last night before the deadline. I’ve learned to copy all text to the clipboard before “submitting”.
  
  Reply ↓
toyotaboy on May 14th, 2010 at 7:03 am said:

As a pinball fan (and a child that grew up with mechanical games like baseball), I LOVE this! It’s a shame mechanical arcade games have died, but I understand (it’s easier to replace a board than figure out a mechanical issue). Perhaps this will make a comeback?

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