Steel Battalion controller mod
posted Jun 16th 2005 9:00am by Eliot Phillipsfiled under: xbox hacks
Steel Battalion is an odd beast. For those of you that haven’t run into it before: Steel Battalion was released in the fall of 2003. It is an Xbox game that aims to be a mech simulator (even deleting your save game if you failed to eject). To make the game more immersive it came with a specialized controller with around 40 buttons on it. That piece of hardware drove the cost of the game to $200. At that price you’d figure they could get the controllers to rumble. Well one mech jockey decided to hack in the missing feedback by scavenging the rumblers from another controller. The control for these comes off of the com lights which flash every time you’re hit. There are some additional tweaks on the site too. If I had spent $200 on one game I wouldn’t be getting anywhere near it with a soldering iron, but I do hope this project turns into a full fledge cockpit someday.
[thanks AlphA]
Oh man, this hack is amazing. he should definitely integrate this with a cockpit simulator.
Make a small room or cubby, perhaps refrigerator box sized. MDF would probably do the trick. put a good sized entry hatch on one side. Paint the inside flat black. maybe mount a small light inside to make it easier to find any and all lost pretzels
Put a widescreen hi-res monitor in it that matches the width of your box on the wall near the ceiling.
install a seat (perhaps from a once-sporty junkyard car so it has nice side bolsters and a good headrest). leave the sliding track functional so that your nerdy friends who are taller/shorter can try it. arrange it so that you are in a semi-reclined position when seated.
Place computer speakers in the appropriate 4 corner locations on the outside of your box and cut holes for the sound to get through. mount the center channel under the screen, angled at your mug. place the sub behind your seat.
make a multi-axis sort of rack that swings away that will hold the control panel (now with rumble). it’ll need to be pretty beefy because your arms will be weighing on it most of the time. be sure that it is easy to get in and out as the controller is purely massive.
make a wedge-shaped box that can support the foot pedals. drill a few good sized holes in the floor and put pegs that fit into them on the bottom of the wedge. this is an easy way to have adjustability in the length. need it longer, pick up the box and move it back a notch.
if your mom complains that you’re making too much noise in her basement and begins to threaten that she’ll kick you out unless you get a job, attach sound deadening foam to the outside.
decorate at will.
play until your legs cease to function.
P.S. the room might be good for pr0n connoisseurs as well
Posted at 11:05 am on Jun 16th, 2005 by billytheimpaler