Dealing With Fallout

November 4, 2015 by Brian Benchoff 24 Comments

In just a few short days, Fallout 4 will be released and a substantial portion of the Hackaday staff will be taking the day off. As you would expect, a lot of people with 3D printers, soldering irons, and far too much time on their hands are getting pumped for the Fallout release. Here’s a few Fallout builds we’ve found over the past few weeks:

Pip-Boys

The most iconic thing you’ll find in a Fallout game is the Pip-Boy, the UI for the player and a neat wrist-mounted computer (that somehow has a CRT in it, I guess) for the player’s character. Hackaday’s own [Will Sweatman] built his own Pip-Boy 3000 that’s completely functional. The build uses a 4.3 inch touch display, a 10 position rotary switch, and a bunch of 3D printed parts.

Elsewhere on Hackaday.io, [Karl] is working on a functional Pip-Boy controller for Fallout, and [cody] built one with a Raspberry Pi. Of course, if you’re super special and have two thousand dollars to blow, Bethesda released a limited-edition Pip-Boy edition of Fallout 4 that’s compatible with most cell phones.

The Not Pip-Boys

There’s more to Fallout than just wrist-mounted computers, and for the true aficionados, there are gigantic gear-shaped doors. [TreyHill] has a partially finished basement with a gaming room tucked behind his very own vault door. The door itself is built out of plywood and rolls along a gear rack mounted to the floor. Will it hold up to a nuclear blast? Probably not. Is it up to code? It looks cool, at least.

[Lilykill] on Thingiverse is extremely capable with a copy of solidworks and produced a bunch of 3D models from the Fallout universe that includes power armor, ray guns, more Pip-Boys, plasma grenades, and a Nuka-Cola truck.

Fallout 4 for the Apple II

Fallout 4 will be available for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, leaving out a large contingent of retro gamers. Fear not, lovers of the 6502: there’s’ a version for the Apple II:

This tribute to both the Apple II and Fallout was made with the Outlaw Editor, an SDK for pseudo-3D game development on exceedingly old hardware. There’s actual ray casting happening in this tribute, and it works just the same as Wolfenstein 3D or the like.

The First PipBoy We’ll See This Year

June 20, 2015 by Brian Benchoff 27 Comments

You heard that we’re shutting down Hackaday on November 11, 2015, right? That’s the release of Fallout 4, and trust me: I’m not getting anything done that day. A new game in the Fallout series means more power armor cosplay builds, and hundreds of different wearable electronics from the friendly folks at Vault-Tec. I speak of the PipBoy, the wrist-mounted computer of the Fallout series, and [THEMCV] built the first one we’ll see this year. It won’t be the last.

The PipBoy [THEMCV] created is the 3000a model, the same one found in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. We’ve seen a few real-live versions of the PipBoy before; this one used the PipBoy prop that came with the Amazon exclusive special edition of Fallout 3. Things have changed in the years since the release of Fallout 3, and to build his PipBoy, [THEMCV] just bought one from Shapeways.

The electronics consist of a Raspberry Pi Model A, 3.5″ LCD, a battery pack, and a great piece of software to emulate the software of the PipBoy 3000. It looks great, but [THEMCV] still needs to find a few retrofuturistic buttons and dials to complete the PipBoy experience.

Video below.

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Yet Another Awesome Working Prototype Of A PipBoy 3000

December 2, 2014 by James Hobson 10 Comments

When we’re not busy writing up features on Hack a Day, some of the writers here have some pretty impressive projects on the go. One of our own, [Will Sweatman], just put the finishing touches on this amazing (and functional!) Pipboy 3000!

The funny thing is, [Will] here isn’t actually a very big gamer. In fact, he hasn’t even played Fallout. But when a friend queried his ability to build this so called “PipBoy 3000”, [Will] was intrigued.

His research lead him full circle, right back to here at Hack a Day. We’ve covered several PipBoy builds over the years, and [Will] fell in love with [Dragonator’s] 3D printed version — it was the perfect place to start. You see, [Dragonator] shared all the 3D models on his personal site!

Now this is where it starts to get cool. [Will] is using a 4D systems 4.3″ touch display, which doubles as the microprocessor — in fact, he didn’t even have to write a single line of code to program in it! The hardware can be programmed using the free Workshop 4 IDE, which allows him to use a visual editor to program the device. Watching a YouTube video on the Fallout 3 PipBoy, he was able to recreate all the menus with intricate detail to load onto the device. It even has GPIO which allow him to use buttons to navigate the menus (in addition to the touch screen stylus).

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A Wearable Pipboy 3000

November 14, 2012 by Mike Szczys 20 Comments

[Zachariah Perry] builds a lot of replica props, and judging from the first few offerings on his blog he’s quite good at it. We enjoyed looking in on the Captain America shield and Zelda treasure chest (complete with music, lights, and floating heart container). But his most recent offering is the wearable and (kind of) working Pipboy 3000 from the Fallout series.

From his description in the video after the break it sounds like the case itself came as a promotional item that was part of a special edition of the game. He’s done a lot to make it functional though. The first thing to notice is the screen. It’s domed like the surface of a CRT, but there’s obviously not enough room for that kind of thing. The dome is made from the lens taken out of a slide viewer. It sits atop the screen of a digital picture frame. [Zachariah] loaded still images from the game into the frame’s memory, routing its buttons to those on the Pipboy. He also added a 12 position rotary switch which toggles between the lights at the bottom of the screen.

A little over a year ago we saw a more or less fully functional Pipboy. But that included so many added parts it was no longer wearable.

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Nuka-Cola Prop Looks Deliciously Radioactive

April 28, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 12 Comments

Yet another Fallout post here on Hackaday. This time, instead of the PIP-Boy, someone has built a fantastic prop for the iconic Nuka-Cola. The circuit is super simple, really just an LED array to light up the beverage just right. The construction of the base is quite nice though. If you’re a fan of functional props, or at least semi-functional (we doubt it tastes very refreshing), you’ll enjoy the build.

In case you’re wondering just what is in that bottle, it is basically just tonic water. For those who are unaware, tonic glows under UV light. [Kfklown] did add a few drops of paint to get the perfect color though. You’ll note that there are red and blue LEDs in the base as well as UV for color as well.

PiP-Boy 2000 Build Goes For Function Over Form

April 24, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 14 Comments

[Daniel] wrote in to tell us about his PIP-Boy 2000 prototype. While most PIP-Boy remakes we’ve seen tend to be focusing more on the aesthetic side, like a prop, [Daniel] is attempting to make a functional one. He has included a GPS sensor, RFID reader, and radiation detector in his build but did choose to stick with the familiar PIP-Boy visual theme in the menus. He has a very long way to go if he wants it to do everything the PIP-Boy from Fallout did, but his list of semi-functional features is growing steadily.

Currently there are the basic functions of:

automapping and waypoint navigation
external PC interface
inventory status and item recognition (using RFID)
player experience (adds experience as you go to new locations)
ambient radiation
screensaver

Let us know when you get that sucker to stop time [Daniel]

Fallout Brought To Life With This Working PIP-Boy 3000

September 6, 2011 by Mike Nathan 39 Comments

working_pipboy_3000

[MyMagicPudding] wanted to try his hand at hobby electronics, so he decided to go all-in and build himself a PIP-Boy 3000. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the PIP-Boy 3000 is a wrist-mounted computer from the popular Fallout video game series.

The PIP-Boy is based around an HTC Desire HD mobile phone, which [MyMagicPudding] mounted inside case custom made for him by [Skruffy] from the Replica Prop Forum. He wanted to stay true to the game, so the wrist-mounted computer’s interface eschew’s the Desire’s touch screen and is instead controlled via a set of buttons and dials on its face. The external inputs all interface with the Desire via an Arduino Uno, which communicates with the phone using TCP over USB.

While he admits that his soldering skills are pretty dodgy, and that there’s no longer room behind the neat-looking facade to mount the PIP-Boy on his wrist, we think that it looks great. If this is an example of his first electronics project, we can’t wait to see what comes next.

Continue reading to see the PIP-Boy 3000 in action.

Continue reading “Fallout Brought To Life With This Working PIP-Boy 3000” →