Building your own gaming platform is pretty cool on its own, but when the game actually looks like fun to play, well that’s on a different level of cool. [Zippy314] designed an Arduino based game platform as a Christmas present to his son called the Das Blinken Bonken!
Like all highly addicting games, the gameplay is simple; the player throws a ball at the target board while aiming to hit a specific ‘pad’. As shown in the video after the break, there are many game possibilities with this platform, like trying to hit the illuminated target each time, or just trying to hit all of the pads on the board as fast as possible.
A pad is registered as a ‘hit’ with the help of home-made pressure sensors, which are each constructed in a ‘sandwich’ of pressure-sensitive conductive sheets. This is the same material used in these LED Sneakers. Since the resistance through the sheet lowers as pressure is applied, a simple voltage divider circuit is used to feed the analog inputs on the Arduino, thus making it very easy to detect a ‘hit’. An I2C 4-Digit 7 Segment display keeps score and displays the game title, while a strip of addressable RGB LEDs give player feedback and other vital gameplay information.
Very cool. I’d cover up that drywall in the back though. Tennis balls don’t weigh much but missing over time could do some damage.
Looks cool and it’s always fun to build games for kids. I thought this was a spinning one and that could make it more fun!
I know this is HaD but it’s just too nerdy (in a bad way). Regular darts are somewhat better to socialize at.
a person could make an intersting simon says using the knock pattern code and piezos and drumsticks… with similar hardware…
Cool project! Would probably be improved alot by using a bigger LCD screen supporting more characters being displayed, highscore and more..
A) Ruggedize this and sell it as a “pitchers tool”.
B) Run a kickstarter selling them for $50,000 each with only 10 available (for major league pitchers practice)
C) Retire early.
the kid did a really good job explaining the game modes
I was actually about to post exactly that. It’s pretty rare to see young kids be so concise and clear.