/me puts thumb over hole for free gum. SCORE!

I played one of these marble games on an accelerometer enabled mobile device, and it was very nostalgic, the only thing it needed was vibration when the ball hit something.

I might have to submit it as a hack, but I basically made my own version of this game while sitting at a restaurant waiting for dinner; I tore off a piece of my straw wrapper and crumbled it into a ball, then rested it opposite the business end of a spoon and attempted to navigate. I would have beaten the game, but my friends were being dicks and blowing the ball off course.

Posted at 1:13 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Skitchin

this is not a hack in the slightest… these wooden mazes are literally hundreds of years old and all he did was add a couple of motors to it and used a motion sensor to control it

Posted at 1:20 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by krov

@Skitchin the labrynth game for android vibrates when you hit a wall, and it’s dynamic (harder vibration for faster hit)

Posted at 1:21 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Chaz

@ krov

seriously people like you who complain about EVERYTHING on hackaday just get so freaking annoying… do you really feel the need to leave a comment bitching about how its not a hack? does everything have to be a fucking hack? I come here daily to see what new device is on the home page that someone made. And I think this qualifies!

Posted at 1:31 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by tlavite

yeah, krov, screw you!

i like this project. bonus points for not using arduino (although he does use a boebot… which is almost as bad hahah). but for real i like this project. not something you see everyday.

Posted at 1:40 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by samurai

LOL at tlavite. Dude, don’t get so stressed out. krov’s comment was complete sarcasm.

Posted at 1:41 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by amishx64

It’d be cooler if the marble WAS the gumball and there were extra holes for it to fall through. Only if you made it to the end would you get the gum.

Posted at 1:57 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Chase

i also dislike krov

Posted at 2:05 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by joe

Krov and I are not in agreement. I find him quite unpleasant

Posted at 2:23 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Hackius

You know who IS a hack? krov, yeah I said it, that dude is a total hack.

Posted at 3:15 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Douchebag

Nice ! I used a similar wheel + accelerometer + PIC + gyro to create a gamepad controller for PC:

http://starlino.com/usb_gamepad.html
http://starlino.com/usb_gamepad_gyro.html

Posted at 3:52 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by starlino

while this project IS a hack… where are the holes in the board to make it difficult? right now it’s just drunken maze driving… and i was a wee bit disappointed in the finish when the gumball didn’t even spin around in a spiral like that base would have you believe it will do… other than that, very well executed.

Posted at 4:02 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by awesomepossum

krov, you fail. Oh yea and a Douchebag just called you a hack. I would have said tool but oh well. More importantly this is quite cool it is well made and more original than being a troll. Ignore krov. People like this thrive on people responding to them, your criticisms mean nothing to it (krov = it). It’s a cool gumball game, but some untalented goof will say it sucks cuz he/she (it) has no talent! It will post comments to tic you off and will not read yours, it doesn’t care it’s just messing with you. It is less useful than a tool, my bad.

Posted at 4:09 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Mic

I’d love to see it work like this: the gumball IS the ball in the maze. If you get it to the final hole, it comes out the side and you get it.

Plus, the top would be covered with plexi, so you can’t just reach out and get, or move, the ball.

Posted at 4:53 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by StramgeRover

…missed it. Looks like Chase had the same idea first.

Posted at 4:55 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by StramgeRover

BTW: those “pits” in a maze are called oubliettes.

Posted at 6:13 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Sp`ange

I just loved this post and bookmarked your blog!

Posted at 7:02 pm on Nov 19th, 2009 by Jamie

Good job!)

Posted at 4:21 am on Nov 20th, 2009 by kalista4

Thanks for the comments and suggestions!

I built this maze for demonstrations at events and tried to make it simple with no holes so younger kids could also win. I built the maze myself and it can be removed from the aluminum frame and replaced with another allowing you to change the layout and difficulty. Right now I only have the one layout though.

The gumball dispenser was sort of a last-minute addition and does not work as reliably as I like. You can see from the video occasionally the marble dosen’t even roll down the spiral ramps like it’s supposed to. Regardless the candy prize sure does get the kids excited ;-)

I considered having the gumball double as the marble but was a bit concerned about having it roll around on the dusty wood near glue and paint. If I eventually implement this design I’ll need to make sure the maze surface is sanitary and stays that way.

Posted at 6:48 am on Nov 20th, 2009 by Dan Toborowski

Absolutely charming project.

Posted at 6:58 am on Nov 20th, 2009 by strider_mt2k