Retroball is, as its Kickstarter campaign says, “Retro Fun for up to Four Players.” What you might not know, is that it’s ancestor was featured here earlier last year. With a year and a half of development underway, the build looks spectacular, and the people in their promo video look like they’re having lots of fun (obviously).
The whole concept of the game is that it has up to four players that each manipulate a paddle as in the classic Pong game. The obvious difference is that there are four players, and everything is played on a 32 x 32 LED array.
Although it looks like fun in it’s stock form, readers of Hack a Day will most likely start thinking about how they could modify it for their own uses. Everything is open source, and they promise to release the documentation for this project. On the other hand, if you can’t wait, or would rather build something very similar, check out [Brad]’s original Instructable article!
Grammar Nazi: it’s alert ;-)
Hummm, IMHO it should be much bigger. ;-)
Agreed. Still though, that’s a decent sized LED array — don’t really care much for the crappy OSH electronic board driving it, but a decent sized LED matrix at a good price is hard to find — even harder if you want RGB (or even bi-color).
Here’s a southpaw with no love for the new case design. I understand the reasons for their design choice, though. And yes, I know I could probably flip the bezel and make an all left-handed version.
I’d be in for a DIY version (I’d make my own hand-agnostic case), but I don’t understand why the shipping is so much after all the large, heavy acrylic parts are removed. (And so far, there’s no “choose your own shipping” for DIY kits. Cheap and slow for me, please).
A choice of LED color would be nice, too.
Hi, it’s brad here (maker of the RetroBall system).
Beat707 – A dining table size version would be great!
kongorilla – Thanks for your suggestion. I have been in negotiations with the supplier and we can now get the parts for a bit cheaper. I have now added a new kickstarter reward for the DIY kit ($65) and you can choose your own shipping method at the close of the campaign.
Obviously it’s not looking too great as far as it being a successful campaign, however all details of how to make one for yourself will still be uploaded to my website. I will also ask the supplier if they don’t mind individuals contacting them to buy parts required in order to keep costs down for those building it themselves.
Thanks, Brad. You have my pledge for $65 + slow boat shipping cost.
This is a great project. Just wish I had the disposable income necessary to justify this fun toy.
It’d be cool if there was a “hacker” reward level that just included the bare bones stuff(board, code, etc) that people could use to make their own systems. One of those LED coffee table builds are just begging for something like this.
Thanks for your pledge kongorilla!
nikescar1 – All the schematics, pcb design, source code etc… will be freely available to all on my website after the campaign ends. You could even put the circuit together on a breadboard or veroboard with out too much hassle.
The more expensive parts are the LED displays, the wire wound pots (the cheaper carbon ones are terrible, they make the paddles jump around the screen) and the aluminium knobs.
I will also upload a video detailing how the project works and exactly how it all comes together.