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Win the Multi-System Retro Game Controller Built in Episode 260

 

element14 presents started as The Ben Heck Show and Ben was famous for his gaming mods.  In this episode he built the ultimate retro gaming controller using an ESP8266 WIFI Module, a transmitter controller, and a receiver on the game console. Universal support includes Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega, and Atari.

 

Yes, it's retro and wireless.

 

We're going to give this project away to the Community member who has the best story about wires.  Some community members may remember when there was only one phone in the house - and it had a short cord, hanging on the kitchen wall.  How did we survive that?  Some members may remember when all game controllers were wired to their consoles.  Were you able to sit a safe distance away from the television?  Did it matter?  Design engineers may have memories of creating prototypes where the wiring got. . . maybe a little confused?

 

If it's a story about wires, it goes in the chat.  The Community team will pick the best story and award that author this one of a kind build.

 

Episode 260:  Multi-System Retro Gaming Controller - watch now

 

This contest is closed

Anonymous
  • in reply to phumphries

    Glad it arrived safely!

  • I received the controller, this morning!  It really is heavy!

     

    Since the receiver still needs a case, I will get to do some "making," too.

     

    Thanks, Element 14!

  • in reply to dougw

    Thanks!  I am looking forward to trying it with my Atari console!

  • The best application of wires I know is electric fence for cattle.

    It can be assembled/disassembled/put anywhere if wire is long enough.

    It is basically just one naked wire doing all the job.

    High voltage impulse goes thru naked wire and there is a ground rod going just in the ground.

    So if a caw touches the fence - it's body will close the circuit and caw gets shocked and will not want to touch the fence anymore.

    I touched such a wire when I was a kid, out of curiosity. And it was really effective. I came home, told my grandfather all about it and this is how I got my first lesson on electricity from him.

    Very simple and very useful invention

     

  • I don't know whether I win or not. Am just commenting so that my dream will become true.

  • When I was younger 18-19, there was a neighbor I would help with odd jobs, yard work, painting etc.

    One time she asked if I could switch out a light fixture in her living room, easy enough.
    She told me it was an older house and the previous owner had done a lot of work himself, no problem.

    She told me the light was on a 3-way circuit, not a big deal for switching an overhead light, no problem.

    I proceed to find the right breaker, shut it off, light turns of no problem.

    Remove the fixture, still no problem.

    Now I’m standing at the top of a 6 foot ladder, reaching up with a screwdriver to remove the mounting plate. When above me a loud pop, and the brightest light I have ever seen, and sparks start raining down. When my vision clears, I look up too see a dark black scorch mark on the wires, a huge chunk of the screwdriver has turned to slag and is missing, tips barely hanging on by a thread of metal, my neighbor comes running into the room,

    ”what happened, do you need me to turn anything off?”

    “Oh, it’s off now, sorry about your screwdriver.”

     

    To this day I don’t understand it, but somehow someone managed to run opposing switches on the 3-way circuit to, two different breakers.

     

    moral of the story, there’s off, and there’s off, off.

  • Moving into a house where there was only 1 plug point in the lounge area, and multiplugs connecting the tv, dvd, music system, and a whole computer system with printer, speakers, etc...a complete rats nest, if i may say so. And one day the dog decides hes going to chew on some wires... lets just say he survived, hes bark was worse than his bite and the guy never chew cables again.... also a ton load of trunking was used thereafter to minimise and mishaps.

  • Wires wires everywhere!  I do remember when there was only one phone (land line not voip or cellular), we had it upstairs in the kitchen of course and my room was downstairs so I had to go and buy one of those incredibly long spiral cords that would let me stretch it out of the kitchen down the stairs to the basement so I could use it.  :-)  That was right around the time I had to go to Radioshack and pick up a coaxial splitter and some coax cable to run it also downstairs so my little tv could enjoy some channels.  But one of the oddest times I remember was a couple years later in the Marine Corps where we were still using Dumb terminals for access to our mainframe and getting a call from a user saying it just wouldn't work.  The specifics they gave heavily hinted to the coax cable being disconnected because there was a little icon showing the disconnect on the screen but they swore they looked behind and could see it connected.  So I had to hump over across base to eyeball the machine myself and sure enough the coax was disconnected.  Now these weren't easy to get to since it was behind the heavy ancient dumb terminal so I had no clue on how it would have came off without out someone doing it deliberately.  Plus the fact the user swore they had verified it was still connected.  But sure enough disconnect.  Maybe they just wanted to see my unsmiling face on a rainy day.

  • Once upon a time about $20 000 of wiring had to be replaced in a studio. A rodent had chewed through about all the wires and cables available during the holidays. The pesky pest ate each wires in multiples places to taste test different lengths into the copper and it resulted in green poop. The studio now has lots of short patch cables on hand.