Simon was a popular toy, launching at the very end of the 1970s, and cribbed from earlier work by Atari with their game Touch Me. The gameplay is simple, and while we suspect it won’t last quite as long as the several thousand years we’ve so far had chess, it’s still around today. [DIY Machines] decided to bust out the 3D printer and whip up their own version.
Simon has long served as a great test project to get to grips with various maker skills, and this build is no exception. An Arduino Nano runs the show, and gets an OLED display to display the current level. Large glowing arcade buttons serve as the control, with their lights flashed as per the original game. Sound is courtesy of a simple buzzer.
It’s a build that doesn’t do anything wild, but presents very well. This is down to the smoothly finished and nicely designed case, as well as the choice of quality human interface components. Everyone loves mashing arcade buttons, and that’s what they’re built for – so they’re always a safe choice.
We’ve seen a lot of straight-down-the-lines Simon projects, but this DDR-ified version is a fun twist on the standard form. Video after the break.
I mean this is cool and all, but this isn’t a hack. There’s no clever engineering, no unintended use of something, etc, its a very plain toy.
this is your first time here I guess?
Sure you have a point, but what you are saying applies to many projects here. It would also mean that if you would to build a time machine (from parts that are available at the hardware store and then use them the way they are intended) should not count as a hack (no matter how impressive that time travel project might be)? Hmm…
The word “hack” has lost it’s power over the last decade, it now longer means what it did… that’s the sliding scale of language. A thing we must be able to accept in order to evolve. If we didn’t we’d still be grumbling like cavemen.
Though, this language thing, is a big problem for when using a time machine, because if you would travel from the 1900’s (cal that present) to 2019 (we call that the future) then people would stare at you with a strange look when you say that time travel made you “gay”, while all you meant was that it made you “happy”.
Well, it’s the same with hacking, being a hacker used to mean that you were a person who could break into someone else’s computer, change stuff, read documents, do things and get away with it. Nowadays, being a hacker means nothing more then being able to hold a screwdriver or hot-glue-gun and has nothing to do with things now considered to be being illegal.
So regarding this project, is it a hack? Depends how you look on it. And regarding the looks, this thing is build like a tank and is also a fun and colorful project of which I’m sure is able to inspire many youngsters. And perhaps some of them will actually be building a time machine some day, we’ll just never know.
It’s well thought out and put together – that’s clever engineering. So many of my projects (that most certainly are hacks or mods) lack the aesthetic. So seeing stuff like this encourages me to up my game and make things neater.
Simon is timeless.
It will always be with us