Hardware hacker, Raphael recently ported his old SNES mouse to his computer. Why? For kicks I guess. How? Well he shows you that on his site. While the mouse itself was nothing special (pretty crappy in fact) I do appreciate the irony - adapting a device on a computer that was designed to adapt computer functionality on a console is like a really bad joke that’s so bad, it’s funny again.
link - Raphnet.net [via TechEBlog]
Reader Utch was searching the web for mouse hacks and came upon this gem.
Neil Fraser modded an ordinary mouse into a fully 3-Dimensional computer interfacing device. With a little thread and some hot glue, he strung up a system of pulleys that would allow him to hold a point of string and move it about in any X, Y, or Z direction. This movement could then be translated into data that a computer could recognize.
Converting the mouse’s data into height-width-depth co-ordinates involves rather a lot of math. 3dmouse.py is a Python program which reads the data from the mouse, decodes it and computes the co-ordinates. This program can be used as the basis of more advanced applications such as the 3D Pong game pictured on the left. The 3D Mouse could also be used to manipulate objects in a CAD program, set up planets in an orbital simulator, or control a robotic arm.
Another sweet NES controller mod. This one actually has a dissected, yet functional, iPod Shuffle inside. The NES controller buttons are mapped to control the shuffle and there is still room for the audio out and USB connections. There isn’t a ‘howto’ yet, but there are plenty of Flickr images to satisfy.
Well I came back into town yesterday and found a swarm of visitors from Digg, Shoutwire, Engadget and the like. Thanks for all the links. However, I’m afraid that Engadget inadvertently stumbled upon my secret plan. Last week, I put together I free motion gun mouse for PC gaming. However, unless I tape the motion trigger on the gyro mouse, I can’t play any FPS games because my gun takes both hands. The proper hack-tastic solution? Hack an old NES power-pad to control the character motion (or W, A, S, D keys) with your feet. Brilliant, no? Except now that Engadget has planted the thought in thousands of minds, my surprise attack strategy has been ruined. Nevertheless, a home gaming rig hacked together with old NES peripherals that “fully immerses” the player is still an idea that needs to be realized. Maybe after it is complete I can get together with the plastk.net guys to see if they will let me play on their sweet setup.
So, now that my intentions are disclosed I might as well post on the project as it progresses (not my usual strategy but hey, why not). First, I will need to choose and acquire the components. I could go with the original NES Power-Pad:
The updated NES Power-Pad:
Or the much harder to find NES Roll N’ Rocker, which would be really easy for navigating but really difficult to add any extra functions. Plus, it says that it is only suitable for 100 pounds or less so it would need some reinforcement if any gamer above the age of 9 actually wanted to use it.
I’ll keep posting on any progress. If anyone has any brilliant suggestions let us know and feel free to join in.
