Metal Race combines operation and calculator game

posted Oct 9th 2009 9:00am by
filed under: arduino hacks, classic hacks

metal_race

[Greg] was feeling nostalgic about the game RACE for to TI-83 graphing calculator. In the game, your car is stationary with controls to move the scrolling maze from side to side in order to avoid a crash. He set out to build a physical version of the game with a don’t-touch-the-side concept that reminds us of Operation.

The game board is a wire frame constructed from paperclips then attached to a motorized frame. The vehicle is also metal and is attached to the lens sled from a scrapped CD-ROM drive. The maze scrolls from left to right with up and down vehicle motion controlled by two arcade buttons. An Arduino controls the motors and monitors the button inputs. He has plans to add a buzzer that sounds when the metal car “crashes” in to the wire walls of the maze. We’ve embedded video of the working game after the break. For more build photos take a look at his flickr set.



7 Responses to Metal Race combines operation and calculator game

  • MrX says:

    The idea is cool but the implementation is kind of lame.

  • Jeremy C says:

    Looks like it needs a little work…

  • kstop says:

    it’d be nicer if it was a rotating circular course that sped up every revolution.

  • damntech says:

    Kinda like a non looping, simi-dynamic Tomy Digital Derby? Neat idea does any one remember the weird (electro)mechanical hand held games from the >70s?

  • strider_mt2k says:

    I do!

    Exactly what it reminded me of.

    Interesting!

  • Sam says:

    You youngins think it’s nostalgic to refer to a game for the TI-83?

    That game used to be called “Canyon Cruiser” back when it ran on the Commodore 64.

  • aztraph says:

    hey sam how about the game bruce lee for the atari, that was fun
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpfv7_m7hyQ

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