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September 30, 2009

Flashback: Playable Pac-Man Costume

October graces us tomorrow, so of course the supreme maker holiday Halloween is on the mind. Here's another flashback from our Make: Halloween Special Edition, which came out in August of 2007. Russell Luzinski came up with this sweet playable arcade Pac-Man costume, and there's no doubt he was the life of the party. Check out the full tutorial below. And for more Halloween DIY goodness, you can still pick up a back issue in the Maker Shed. Plus, don't forget about our 2009 Halloween Contest.

Playable Pac-Man Costume
Eat ghosts and power pellets with this wearable Pac-Man getup that really works.
By Russell Luzinski

For an 80s-themed Halloween party, I wanted a costume that was unique, incorporated technology, and would be fun for fellow partygoers. I'd been toying with the idea of making a mini arcade machine for my game room, so I decided to come up with one that I could also wear as my costume. What follows is a guide to making your own wearable Pac-Man that guarantees you'll be the life of the costume party. It's fun to build and to wear. And I've since converted it to a bar-top arcade machine, so this costume can play long after the Halloween parties are over.

MATERIALS

¾"×1½" furring strips
1" and 1½" drywall screws
1" plywood
Plastic bathroom corner trim that slides
onto the end of paneling
½" finishing nails
Spray paint
Plexiglass
Wood screws and washers
Laptop computer
USB gamepad controller
Arcade emulation software
Cabinet artwork
Plastic laminate
Saw
Carpenter's square

DIRECTIONS

Step 1: Frame the Pac-Man machine.
Start by measuring and cutting the plywood side panels, so you can use them as a template for the frame construction. I made mine 19" wide by 28" high, but cater yours to your physical size and preference.

Using the furring strips, make the 2 square frame pieces that form the top and the bottom of the frame. Assemble with drywall screws (pre-drill the holes or the wood will split). Use a square to ensure that everything will fit later in the assembly. Make sure the frame is wide enough to accommodate both the width of your chest and the width of your laptop (with your controller plugged in).

Using the plywood templates, measure and cut the 4 main vertical frame supports. I angled the 2 front supports to line up with the angle of the soon-to-be arcade screen. Attach all 4 supports to the 2 square pieces with drywall screws.

Frame up the control panel area in the same way, and then firmly secure the laptop to the cabinet frame. I first made a small ledge to support the laptop's weight, and then added a horizontal piece just above that and behind the laptop. This allowed me to lock the laptop into place by sliding it into the newly made slot. By this point, I was already running the necessary software to play Pac-Man. A simple internet search of the word "MAME" will point you in the right direction.

Finish framing the marquee and a pocket for the controller. I made the joystick removable, so people didn't need to be right in my face while playing. The directional pad on my Gravis Gamepad Pro joystick included a removable joystick ball, but I replaced that with a larger wooden ball from a craft store.

Step 2: Add paneling and trim.

Assemble the plywood panels and plastic corner trim onto the frame. The trim slides onto the edges of the paneling, which makes the whole process pretty forgiving. Use small finishing nails to secure the paneling and trim directly to the frame.

The picture above shows the pocket I made for the gamepad. It was small enough for the joystick to be wedged in pretty securely, yet still allowed for it to be removed.

Step 3: Paint and add finishing touches.
Time to paint! Make sure the room is well ventilated, and wear a mask. I gave the paneling a sand-down and then slapped on a layer of primer. Next up were 2½ cans of sunshine yellow enamel spray paint.

After 3 coats, install the plexiglass for the screen and marquee. I used a utility knife to cut the plexiglass pieces, then fastened them in place with screws and washers. Figure 3 shows the marquee and screen installed, along with the screen's bezel. I found all the cabinet artwork online, printed it on a laser jet printer, and covered it in clear plastic laminate.

I added the side art and a picture of a coin mechanism, and then mounted a small, battery-powered light to backlight the marquee. For shoulder straps, I used bungee cords wrapped in kitchen towels. With that, the build was complete.

Step 4: Wear it, then try some variations.
While I tried to make the cabinet as light as possible, the costume still weighed upward of 30lbs. Make your shoulder straps as comfortable as possible. You might experiment with lighter materials. Also note that the costume is playable only as long as your laptop battery holds out. You might want to bring the laptop charger to the party and use it to give your battery a charge and your shoulders a rest.

I used a picture of an arcade coin mechanism, but a real one can be purchased online at a reasonable price. Finally, while the removable controls worked well enough, I recommend fashioning some kind of locking mechanism to keep the controller from slipping out while being used. Or permanently secure the controller to the cabinet.

About the Author:
Russell Luzinski is a mechanical engineer and currently resides in Green Bay, Wisc.

September 29, 2009

Buy wholesale Cthulhu and save

I just checked the freezer and discovered I was down to my last bag. Don't let Halloween sneak up on you without stocking up.

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

September 28, 2009

Stained glass pixel art

I dunno if these pixel art stained glass windows I stumbled upon in Gary in Cleveland's Flickr stream are his original work or not, but I dig 'em. Can anyone confirm authorship?

September 25, 2009

"He did the MAME, he did the Monster MAME"

By way of the Steampunk Workshop comes this awesome classic horror-themed MAME cabinet by Doug Haffner. Doug is a fan of steampunk, Harper Goff (designer of Disney's Nautilus for 20,000 Leagues) and Kenneth Strickfaden (set designer and prop builder for Boris Karloff's Frankenstein). He decided to combine his love for all three in a MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) cabinet and home jukebox.

The work here is impressive, but especially cool are the Lithopane portholes on the sides, grayscale images of the Frankenstein monster and his bride CNC-carved into Corian plastic (used in counter tops). Once carved and back-lit, you get this cool glowing halftone effect.

Steampunk Arcade

DIY Arcade racing console

Over at 0-60mag.com they have a 60+ page PDF tutorial that shows you how to build an official Need For Speed SHIFT racing cockpit. This build requires a lot of space and money. The cabinet shouldn't be too expensive, but all the associated electronics are going to add up really fast.

In the Maker Shed:

MKNN2-2 3.jpg
In the Maker Shed: XGS AVR 8-Bit Development System

September 22, 2009

Tetris tiles

The Tetris tiles from Tetris-Tiles.com are Tetris tiles.

I mentioned Tetris, right? And tiles? OK good.

September 18, 2009

Augmented Reality Pool / Pool Playing Robot

Deep Green, the pool-playing robot from the Robotics & Computer Vision lab at Queen's University has been making the rounds on other websites recently. Its robot arm uses a huge gantry to move anywhere over the table, and then a special cue stick tool to hit the ball.

It's hugely impressive, but the size and complexity of the hardware puts it out of reach for most Makers [please -- someone prove me wrong!]. So, that's why I was attracted to the second half of the video: The students developed an equally impressive augmented reality mode that works without the robot. By using a projector and a camera located above the table, it recognizes the position of balls. As the player moves their pool cue, the system projects the predicted trajectory of the balls right on the table. If you can hit the ball consistently, this could be a great help in visualizing & setting up complicated shots!

Lifesize papercraft Link is nicely cut

Haywan worked all summer on a truly impressive piece of papercraft art. His 5'8" tall Link model is based on the character's as he appears in the Super Smash Bros series - and looks to be amazingly spot on! A series of videos and photos documents the build in-depth, here's just a sample -

[via Geekologie]

September 10, 2009

Gameboy hard drive makes storage look fun

_n3o_ put the shell from a classic (but busted) Gameboy to work as an enclosure for a 2.5" hard disk. That surprisingly convincing LCD is actually a paper printout set behind the GB's original screen - and sadly the disconnected buttons don't perform any tricks. A thorough tour of the case's innards can be seen over at Hack a Day

September 9, 2009

Super Mario soda stack-up

YouTuber raiian shares some video of a job well done -

I had been sitting on the idea for a while but never got the chance to use it. Finally for this upcoming labor day the local Safeway asked us at Pepsi to do a large display and usually we build a giant American flag but having already done that for the 4th of July the store wanted something different. So I was finally able to put my idea into motion and we got it done: 3 guys, 1000 twelve packs, and 4 hours later.

Seeing creativity at work in an unusual locale is always . . refreshing
!

Related:

8-bit Post-It art

September 8, 2009

NES patchbay for versatile bending

Pete Edwards of Casper Electronics shares his method for modding the classic NES console to generate synth-synced visuals and more -

It is a very simple bend and is a lot of fun to play with. To bend this unit I simply added a patch bay to a handful of points on the video processing chips. The Display can be tweaked by either connecting points together or by feeding in external signals, like audio or voltages from my modular synthesizer. the video shown above is an example of how the visuals can be controlled using clock signals from my modular synth.

Suggested solder-points and more documentation can be found on the project page.

Related:

Modified circuit bent NES

September 2, 2009

Hangmanduino

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Dan put his DIY push-pot design to work as the sole input control for a classic game of hangman -

Hangman on the Arduino. A random word is selected from a list, the user scrolls through the alphabet and presses down on a potentiometer to select the letter. Then enclosure is made from the side of an old computer and some scrap wood I had laying around the shop.

Schematics and code available over at NerdyByNature.

August 31, 2009

Upcoming Rock Band Network let's you author tracks …

An in-house fave here @ Make: Online, Rock Band 2 for Xbox360 will soon be opening up to independent developers à la iPhone's App Sore. Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music gives an in-depth look at the what it will take to make your own music playable on the upcoming Rock Band Network. The process will require a licensed copy of Reaper audio software ($60, easily worth it on its own), a membership in Microsoft's XNA Creators’ Club ($100), plus of course an Xbox360 & copy of Rock Band 2. The Network is currently in closed beta, with a launch planned for October. More details over at CDM.

August 26, 2009

DIY NES arcade machine

While technically quite similar to a tabletop MAME cabinet, Russ' NES arcade console really nails that classic Nintendo look in all its boxy glory -

Inside is an old PC and a 17" LCD monitor. The back of the cabinet has two USB ports and two NES controller ports. You can connect regular, un-modded NES controllers and play with those or use the joystick and buttons on the control panel.

The front end is a simple VB program that auto loads when the PC boots. You never need to connect a mouse or keyboard to load your games. The VB program gives a list of games installed. Using the joystick, you can select the game you want to play.

Full build instructions available here.

August 25, 2009

Tennis for Two from the ground up

Inspired by EMSL's classic oscilloscope gaming project, Romain Christophe's put his own spin on the project. A Dedicated CRT + customized drive circuitry dress up right nicely in the wood & acrylic enclosure - and the controllers he built exude a fine blend retro-class.

Check out more pics + his mods to the original project schematics over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

More:
Remaking a video game from 1958

August 21, 2009

Chainmail chess set

David Austin built this chess set entirely from chainmail in about a year's time -

One of the first important decisions I made was what wire size to use. I decided that in order to fully articulate the style of traditional chess pieces I was going to have to use thin wire and small rings. So I decided to use .035" wire. This is about the smallest wire size I felt comfortable using for extended periods of time at the time in which I started this project. For metals, I already knew that I would use stainless steel and bronze. These are the two metals I used for the squares on the chess board. Also, both metals have roughly the same amount of springback, which I knew would be vital in ensuring sculptural consistency.

More photos and info on the build process here. [via Geekologie]

August 20, 2009

Dice reader version 1

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Steve Hoefer shares this photo showing the first iteration of his dice reader project -

Working on a robot that plays dice. Since the "robot" part is easy i started with the dice reader which can read the number of pips on the dice that's placed face down on it.

Version 1 just uses 4 photo resistors with white LEDs behind them. It only works right about 70% of the time and is incredibly sensitive to ambient light, but it's pretty good for about $0.99 worth of parts and a first try. V2 will add more, smaller, sensors with greater sensitivity.

Judging from the ongoing conversation on his blog, it sounds like the next version will incorporate IR sensors. Have a closer look at his setup on Flickr.

… and for a larger scale, software-intensive approach to the problem, check out GamesByEmail's Dice-O-Matic.

August 19, 2009

How games are (not) really made …

BB Offworld posted this awesome set of images from the Tetris, Sonic, and Mario game 'factories'. Originally published in Amusement mag's Made of Myth feature, you can check out the hi-res gallery here.

August 14, 2009

How-To: DIY air hockey

Craving some frantic air hockey fun, oldschoolstructure built an eight-foot air bearing table using chipboard, a leaf blower and plenty of elbow grease. Check the step-by-step in the project's instructable

More:

HOW TO - Make a table hockey table... with real ice!

The best TI-83 RPGs ever

The best TI-83 RPGs ever... Carolyn writes -

For some, nothing was more exhilarating in high school than playing a cool calculator game right in front of the teacher’s face while she thinks you’re graphing some crazy parabolic curve. Every kid who’s privy to the beat on the street knows that the first thing to do after persuading your parents to buy you a $100 Texas Instruments graphing calculator is to grab a link cable and get some Space Invaders and Final Fantasy on that sleek machine.

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