Comments on: Complete the maze, get a gumball

By: Dan Toborowski

Dan Toborowski — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:03:05 +0000

Version 2.0 of the Marble Maze!

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:58:25 +0000

Absolutely charming project.

By: Dan Toborowski

Dan Toborowski — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:48:33 +0000

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.

By: kalista4

kalista4 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:21:30 +0000

Good job!)

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:02:20 +0000

I just loved this post and bookmarked your blog!

By: Sp`ange

Sp`ange — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:13:37 +0000

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

By: StramgeRover

StramgeRover — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:55:16 +0000

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

By: StramgeRover

StramgeRover — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:53:08 +0000

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.

By: Mic

Mic — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:09:21 +0000

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.

By: awesomepossum

awesomepossum — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:02:14 +0000

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.

By: starlino

starlino — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:52:33 +0000

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

By: Douchebag

Douchebag — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:15:48 +0000

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

By: Hackius

Hackius — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:23:15 +0000

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

By: joe

joe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:05:07 +0000

i also dislike krov

By: Chase

Chase — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:57:33 +0000

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.