Check out this homebrew accelerometer controlled USB gamepad using a PIC18F2550 from Starlino. You'll find code and schematics on their site.

The code for the firmware was written in PicBasic Pro and it implements a HID USB device with 2 axes and 4 buttons (only 2 buttons connected in the prototype). The device is detected by Windows XP/Vista as a standard USB gamepad and can be used with many games and applications.

I am using a 2 Axes Buffered ±2g Accelerometer from DIMENSION ENGINEERING, it has a built in voltage regulator that allows powering the accelerometer directly from the USB bus (5V)

Motherboard has this wonderful look inside the world (and workshop) of Ralph Baer, creator of Pong, Simon, and other electronic/video game classics.

Ralph Baer and His All-Purpose Boxes

Hundreds of Xboxs have appeared on online marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist in the wake of the mass Xbox live bans. Over the past week Microsoft has banned nearly one million users from the online gaming service after finding that they had modified their consoles to play pirated games. Since the ban is connected to the console rather than a gamer's online account, many modified Xboxs have appeared online being sold by banned users. eBay has issued a warning to users on its website to be wary of buying consoles in the wake of Microsoft's move. In a post on the website's guide section, it said: 'If you are looking to buy an Xbox 360 on eBay in the near future, ask the seller if it has been banned from Xbox Live and be sure to pay by PayPal in case they lie. If you do get a banned console, start a PayPal claim.'

Microsoft has said that all bans are permanent to the console and no affected units will be permitted back onto Xbox Live on any account.

You can get a banned console for $40 now. I know that a lot of Microsoft folks read MAKE so please Microsoft folks, figure out something else besides permanently crippling millions of devices. Sure they can be used to play offline, but I doubt the owners will keep them, so it's one stop to trashville. They'll end up in a landfill, at least offer a way to re-active them or something, anything.

Like Tetris, but tired of playing it alone in the dark on your Game Boy? Well, now you can rejoice, for Luyza Pereira and Bettina Hiel have brought Tetris into the era of physical computing with their installation Tetris meets Arduino. The result is about what one would expect, and with the addition of a tilt sensor to turn the blocks, looks like a pretty fun game. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any details of the build available, however it should be pretty straightforward to re-make. [via dudecraft]

A demo on how to create an 11-piece MIDI drum kit using Rock Band and Guitar Hero drum sets together. It includes velocity-sensitive triggers and a high-hat open/close pedal.

Create a full MIDI Drumset with Guitar Hero and Rock Band Drums

We're using a hazer to make the laser beams visible, which works surprisingly well in this semi-open space. To increase the spectacle we installed a few extra lasers that are not being sensed for tripwires, but just look cool. The heisters won't know which these are, however, so it adds to the challenge without increasing complexity.

In this side view you can see what happens when you break too many beams: lots of lights come on, including a blinding, red LED array. For this Tod used an Arduino-controlled AC optical relay. I'm hoping Tod will write up the whole project for a MAKE article, because he has all kinds of neat tricks like this throughout.

The event is shaping up to be truly wonderful, and affords the attendee a rare chance to hang out in Mister Jalopy's secret underground lair. I'm totally shameless, so if you ask I'll eat some laser for you. There are still a few tickets available, hope to see you there!

Related:
Laser tripwires for Machine Project art heist
Machine Project Benefit 2009

Turning the front of a building (via projections) into a pinball machine.

UrbanScreen

Halloween wouldn't be complete without a Katamari costume or two. Donovan and Ashly show off their Katamaris in preparation for the ensuing festivities. [Thanks, Donovan!]

I'm in the June [polka dot] outfit. Ashly is the Prince [in green]. I made the heads and my outfit. Ashly was in charge of her own dress. The primary materials are foam, posterboard and foamies, these 2mm thick colored foam sheets. That's what I used for the dots and the coverings on the heads. I liked the dimensional quality it gave rather than just using paint or paper.

More:

• Homemade King & Queen of All Cosmos Katamari Damacy costumes


• Life-size Katamari controller


• Katamari Damacy Queen of All Cosmos earmuffs


• Crochet Katamari Prince


• Katamari Wedding Cake

My friend Joe Bowers writes:

Rock Band has been released on the iPhone, and even though its a lot of fun, I would rather have something play it for me. Preferably a robot! The light sensor sends data to an Arduino, which is waiting for a spike in the data. The Arduino runs the sensor data through some averaging filters, and sets a threshold for on and off. The iPhone touch screen isn't like most PDAs. It uses a capacitive touch screen. I had some conductive foam laying around, its usually used for shipping sensitive electronics. If I used something non conductive, like a plastic pen, the foam would do nothing to the screen. My solution to this was to put thin copper wires into the foam (I also used these wires to attach the foam to the servos)... Add all of the above together into a modified Pelican case, with a lot of hot glue (non glittery) and you have a robot that will gladly beat all your difficult songs, sit back and sip some fine tea.

OhBowz blog

Phil Clandillon and Steve Milbourne have another maker-friendly music project.

Football Hero is basically an experiment to create a Guitar Hero type game played by footballers. The game was constructed in a warehouse in West London, and a talented young team of freestyle footballers were drafted in to participate. We created the game to promote the Kasabian single Underdog.

The game was powered by the open source GH clone Frets On Fire, and we used two enormous projectors to create a three story high image on the side of the warehouse wall. The coloured buttons on the typical guitar controller were replaced by five huge pressure sensitive pads which were carefully positioned on the wall in order to line up with the game's descending notes. The idea being that the footballers would try to hit the pads in time with the music in order to play the Kasabian track Underdog. Each of the pads contained a piezoelectric vibration sensor, and these were wired back to an Arduino, which in turn was connected to the MacBook Pro we used to run the software.

Phil's projects have a habit of bringing together some very talented people, and these footballers are no exception.

Paul Wood (Woody - the guy in red) was one of five guys that in 2006/7 travelled to New York with the aim of making it all the way to Buenos Aires to meet their hero, Diego Maradona. The five lads bought their flights to NY by busking around the UK. They arrived penniless in the states and raised all the money they needed by performing street football & freestyle all over the USA, Central and South America. Their trip was filmed and released as the documentary In The Hands Of Gods. Paul has since set up a freestyle academy and a junior soccer school here in the UK.

Inspired by Lenore Edman's awesome D12 and D20 dice bags, Jessica Winter decided to make this D6 felted dice bag.

Dice Bag Project

More:
Knit a pirate dice bag
How-To: D12 and D20 Dice Purses
How-To: Make a handbag of holding

Gordan Savicic and Gottfried Haider of DSbrut fame have tipped us off that they've just released their DS Bluetooth adapter for the Nintendo DS.

Almost two years in the making, we're happy to finally release our DS Bluetooth adapter. The tiny Slot-1 cartridge allows you to hook up the Nintendo DS wirelessly with other devices such as GPS-receivers, robots and so forth. Today we're making all materials of the project openly available, including the schematics and a GPL-licensed software library for the Nintendo DS, because we believe in open hardware design and want to encourage collaboration in the hardware hacking community.

If you've got a homebrew Nintendo DS project that we should know about leave a link in the comments.

The Engadget Show takes a trip out to Madison, WI to visit the workbench of console-modder extraordinaire (and Make contributor) Mr. Ben Heck. Can't wait to see the finished Paxton pinball!

Years ago, I got really into Warhammer 40,000, the tabletop miniature sci-fi wargame. I quickly found myself more into painting and converting the miniatures and building the terrain than in playing the game itself. I even ran a website for modeling and conversion for a few years. I'm starting to feel the itch again and so have been checking out lots of modeling and terrain sites and videos. YouTube didn't exist when I was in the hobby the first time, so it's great to see all of the modeling and terrain-building how-tos now. One guy's site and videos I'm really liking is Steve Delaney's. He's this very laid back Canadian who says "Eh?" a lot and sort of mumbles his way through his numerous funky, but informative, how-to videos. He's really good at buildings and terrain modeling and has tons of great tips and techniques. Definitely worth bookmarking if you're into tabletop gaming.

RPG War Game Terrain, Obstacles and Scenery

I recently had the pleasure of playing a family game of ladderball (aka bolo toss, ladder golf) using some basic homebrew hardware, and can say firsthand - it's good times!

For those unfamiliar with the backyard sport: players throw golfball/nylon-rope bolos in attempt to hang them on a simple PVC ladder structure. It's a surprisingly enjoyable "Ooh! So close!" type game in the vein of horsehoes/etc, and looks to be a straightforward build.

Check out the related instructable for steps on making your own. [Thanks Cara!]

To build this, we're pulling apart a bunch of laser pointers, mounting them at carefully measured intervals (in Mister Jalopy's museum behind Coco's Variety), and pointing them at photosensors. Tod attached these to small acrylic discs to allow some slack in the system. We'll provide more build details as we go.

Machine Project Benefit 2009

It would seem that Adobe has squeezed Flash onto the iPhone. It is not in its usual guise as a browser plugin, but rather as a method to build full-fledged apps downloadable from the iPhone App Store. This should come as good news to folks familiar with the popular content creation software. In one fell swoop Adobe has lowered the barrier of entry to developing for the iPhone.

Circuit-bending/music machine-building maestro Gijs Gieskes has posted the details of his latest creation, a synth that uses the SEGA video RAM as an audio source (after it's been slowed down via a binary counter).

Check out his use of magnetic patch bays to switch up the sounds. His tutorial on how to make the patch cords can be found here.

Video Ram Synth 1

More:
Make: Online's coverage of Gijs Gieskes' instruments

Console hacker extraordinaire Benjamin J. Heckendorn (aka Ben Heck) built this one-off PS3 Slim laptop for portable gaming without compromise. Along with the PS3 Slim, Ben incorporated a Gateway 1775W widescreen LCD display and had a little extra room left over for cable storage.

Related:
Interview with Ben Heck
HOW TO - Design a 2D robo-hand & Atari 800 laptop
HOW TO - Make a Wii laptop
Archive: Benjamin J. Heckendorn

[thanks, Thomas!]

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.

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.

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?

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

In the Maker Shed:


In the Maker Shed: XGS AVR 8-Bit Development System

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

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

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!

See also: Roomba Pool
via waxy

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]

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.

Related:

8-bit Post-It art

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.

Related:

Modified circuit bent NES