There’s no denying that Mario Kart was a classic game for the SNES platform, and it has inspired many maker projects in the past. Some have even experimented with using actual go-karts, but none have approached the thoroughness of this build by Waterloo Labs.

They have outfitted four go-karts with microcontrollers, servo-controlled throttle control, RFID readers, pneumatic steering control, and a pneumatic-powered item launcher.

As the drivers race, they can pick up item boxes hanging from a rope above them. Each item is embedded with an RFID tag. When an item is used, the onboard electronics respond accordingly. For example, a mushroom disengages the throttle governor, allowing the driver to go faster, or if a driver is unfortunate enough to hit a banana the pneumatic steering kicks in and sets him/her topsy turvy all over the track.

If you want more info on this project, check out more details on Waterloo Labs’ site.

[via The Creators Project]