Halloween Project 2013: Pumpktris!
Pumpktris Complete! My Halloween project for 2013 is Pumpktris! Like Nathan Pryor of hahabird.com said “What do you get when you combine a pumpkin with the classic video game Tetris? Pumpktris! Fully playable, embedded in a pumpkin, and with the stem serving as a controller.” Here’s my attempt at creating Nathan’s award winning Pumpktris. The foam pumpkin doesn’t carve like a real pumpkin so it doesn’t quite “glow” like his. On the positive side it will be around for a few Halloween’s to come and who knows what features I can add in the future! I won’t take credit for any of the creative side of coming up with such a unique project but I will take credit for the 18+ hours of actually building it! I’m hoping my girlfriend can help me spruce up the outside before Halloween or else it will have to wait for next year to get a face lift. Last night I had the first chance to turn it on and my girlfriend’s nephew Ian couldn’t wait to be the first to play! Check it out. Why I Did This Like I mentioned on my previous post Halloween Project Coming Soon! I really just wanted to have some fun building something that most people (especially my friends and family) haven’t seen. I bumped into Pumpktris last Halloween on Instructables.com and immediatley had the desire to build my own! A year later I still had the desire so I decided to start working on it and have some fun. Unfortunately after my 4th hour of soldering, I definitely started wondering WHY I thought this would be fun! Now I’m super happy I pushed through and completed it on time (my self-imposed deadline 10/26) to bring it to our annual pumpkin carving gathering. I’ve learned that if I don’t set deadlines for myself I can be a professional procrastinator. After Ian started playing, it was tough to get him to share! He’s a great kid and eventually he let everyone have a turn…sorta of! I knew the project itself would be a ton of fun but I never really thought about how much people would really enjoy playing games on a pumpkin. This really inspires me to do more fun project like this every now and then so I can write about them here for everyone to enjoy. The Guts of It Here’s a slideshow of the entire process if you want to save yourself the grueling details: This slideshow requires JavaScript. THE LED MATRIX Here’s a quick list of what the LED screen is made of: 2 matrices – 64 LED’s...
Halloween Project
Coming Soon!
Coming Soon!
I wanted to have a little fun this halloween and try building something I saw around this time last year. It came in 2nd place on Instructables.com Halloween Challenge for 2012. Errr… no it’s not the copper chopper, I wouldn’t even know where to start! I’m really excited about recreating Pumpktris! Originally posted on hahabird.com and created by Nathan Pryor in 2012. Thanks Nathan! I’ve been waiting all year for Halloween to come around so I could start building it. I probably should have started wayyy earlier because I’ll be building it after work in my parents garage/workshop (I have no workspace in my tiny apartment). My goal is to have it completed by Oct 26! Features: Fake pumpkin! (no rotting) 128 LED Matrix Joystick Controller (possibly an android app if someone has a phone/tablet they can lend for a week) Ability to play other games like Pong, Shoot em Up, and custom images Challenges: Time – I have a week to go and just received most of the components I need, so it’s going to be close Remote App – I’ve written android apps before but I don’t have an android phone or tablet to test out the code Building two 64-LED matrices (easily 4-6 hours of soldiering) will test my patience Before I go here’s some of the progress I’ve made since Wednesday… This slideshow requires JavaScript. That’s it for now so keep an eye out between now and next Friday for updates and the final project post on the 26th! Thanks for reading, Tom PS – If you have any ideas for projects that you’d like me to work on, or even if you want some advice on your electronics/programming project, just leave me a comment...
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