“Father of video games” documentary
Motherboard has this wonderful look inside the world (and workshop) of Ralph Baer, creator of Pong, Simon, and other electronic/video game classics. Ralph Baer and His All-Purpose Boxes
Toys and Games
Intern’s Corner: Test-firing the HHO rocket
Every other week, MAKE’s awesome interns tell about the projects they’re building in the Make: Labs, the trouble they’ve gotten into, and what they’ll make next. By Steven Lemos, engineering intern Making the Hydrogen-Oxygen Bottle Rocket (that Adam Savage is posing with on the cover of the new MAKE, Volume 20) was a pretty basic […]
Millenium Falcon holochess table
I just discovered the Replica Prop Forum, and it has me on a bit of a Star Wars kick. This replica holochess table from Star Wars Episode IV was built by Philip Wise of Dallas, Texas:
How-To: Arduino-based laser tag
J44 outlines his steps for converting a basic gaming light gun into a custom Laser Tag-like system, including gun and head mounted ‘hit’ detectors (a la Photon) – I hope many of you will find this instructable useful and will go on to build your own duino taggers. There is much scope for improving and […]
History of curved origami
Interesting article from MacArthur fellow Erik Demaine covering the history of origami-style models that include curved folds. Shown above is “Concentric Circular Tower” by late UCSC Professor and noted computer scientist David A. Huffman (Wikipedia), whose curved-origami work was covered posthumously by the New York Times in 2004. The Flickr curved fold pool is chock-a-block with fascinating models of this type.
In the Maker Shed: Cabaret Mechanical Movement
The Cabaret Mechanical Movement book is packed with diagrams, information and useful tips on making your own automata. The book uses machines and automata from Cabaret Mechanical Theater to explain levers, shafts, cranks, cams, springs, linkages, ratchets, Drives and Gearing and even coin-op control, this is a great introduction for those inspired to go and make their own work.
Remote-controlled bowling ball
For just $1500 you can have your very own remote controlled bowling ball! Maybe this is worthy of a remake, not sure?
