[Bitluni]’s motto seems to be, “When you’re busy, get busier.” At least that would explain adding even more work to his plate in the run-up to the Hanover Maker Faire and coming up with a ten-player game console from scratch.
As for this being extra work, recall that [bitluni] had already committed to building a giant ping pong ball LED wall for the gathering. That consisted of prototyping a quarter-scale panel, building custom tooling to get him past the literal pain point of punching 1200 holes, and wiring, programming and testing the whole display. Building a game console that supports ten players at once seems almost tame by comparison. The console is built around an ESP32 module, either WROOM or WROVER thanks to a clever multifunctional pad layout on the slick-looking white PCBs. [bitluni] went with a composite video output using the fast R-2R ladder network DAC that he used for his ESP32 VGA project. The console supports ten Nintendo gamepads for a simple but engaging game something like the Tron light cycles. Unsurprisingly, players found it more fun to just crash into each other on purpose.
Sure, it could have been biting off more than he could chew, but [bitluni] delivered and we appreciate the results. There’s something to be said for adding a little pressure to the creative process.
Not to spoil the fun. But you can get knock-off USB SNES gamepads from aliexpress for a few dollars. Plug 10 in an USB hub and you sort of have the same setup. Your players won’t know the difference.
From a hackers aspect, it’s really nice still, and a very good writeup on the details.
Usually it’s the 555 timer suggestion, get with the program Daid
I’m pretty sure you could actually build this with some 555 timers, ram chips and shift registers :-)
“When you’re busy, get busier.”
If I did that, I’d have less time to read HackADay!
B^)
Definitely interested and I understand cost will be alot but I love this. Let me know
trouble is a game pad
is unusefull for tempest game. Who knows where I can but manipulator for tempest game?
10-player Bomberman, anybody?