Mechanical Donkey Kong


What if you could bring Donkey Kong into the real world? No, not a giant ape destroying your city by throwing barrels and stealing the women- we’re talking more about making a 3D mechanical version. That’s what MS Raynsford did using a laser cutter and an arduino controller (ok, maybe a few more parts than just those two). While the original plan was to have a pretty close to fully working game, due to time constraints what was made is a simplified game. But still cool.

As you can see in the video, all poor Mario does is jump over the barrels (actually steel balls) that Donkey Kong is rolling down the ramps, but the essence (and certainly the look) of the game is there. Pieces of clear plastic keep the balls from rolling off the ends of each girder. What’s interesting though is that the game is being played through the NES and NES control pad. Sure it’s not doing too much but this is only V1, he expects version 2 to be fully controllable. Can’t wait to see that, then it will be on like Donkey Kong. (via hacked gadgets)