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Take Part in the element14 Global Arcade

The Raspberry Pi 3 is currently flying off the shelves around the world, and we've had a terrific response to our unique PIK3A retro gaming table hack. It even made it onto the front page of Lifehacker!image

 

And now it's officially Pi Day, it's your turn. We want to spread the good word about retro gaming on the Raspberry Pi to the world of STEM, and we want all the teachers and educators out there to help us do it by joining in with the element14 Global Arcade.

 

The Global Arcade

The facts are these.

 

Just like video games, the element14 Global Arcade is intended to bring students together in the spirit of fun, electronics, and killing pixelated aliens. We're putting together 10 arcade kits that we'll send out to educators and their students with the best ideas for a retro gaming project. We might expand that number, depending on how good the project ideas are, but 10 kits will kick things off.

 

You don't have to recreate the PIK3A table, or build a traditional arcade cabinet. The Global Arcade kit will just provide the foundations for your classroom's project, but we don't want to dictate what to make or to cramp your imagination's style.

 

Go crazy. Reinterpret the arcades and games of yesteryear in any way you want. Maybe it'll be a GPS-driven game of Pac-Man that's played on the streets of your city, or an online game of Space Invaders with each of the 55 attacking aliens controlled by your school's Twitter followers. Maybe it'll be a perfect recreation of a Gauntlet cabinet hewn from solid granite. It's entirely up to you and your students.

 

A Shared Experience

 

Gaming didn't used to be a solitary activity, and there are massive educational benefits to joining in with a collaborative project like this. Arcades were busy, lively, communal places. So we want you to work in a team of like minded students, and that you're willing to share your gaming creation with the world in a Global Arcade STEM open day.

 

This will be a great way for schools, colleges, universities and educational groups to get some excellent promotion (which we'll be pushing out worldwide) and recruit new members, while also having a lot of fun.

 

image

To Take Part:

    • Find your team members.
    • Make sure each individual member of the team has registered here at element14.
    • Create a blog post (or posts) telling the world who your team is, what the team's called, and what you intend to make. Tag your blog post with Global Arcade so we can track it.
    • If you're one of the lucky 10, we'll send your team the Global Arcade kit.
    • Get to work on your project, blogging the build on here as you go.
    • Invite the gaming public to come an play your Global Arcade project on 1st May while all the other Global Arcade teams do the same.

 

We can create your teams in the Community gamification system, which we'll do once you're all registered. You can then add all your team mates to it, and win some group badges as you build your project.

 

But the element14 Global Arcade isn't about winning. It's about playing, and that includes putting your project together. We want to remind the world that hacking and making is fun, and that gaming can be a powerful, creative, educational drive.

 

We'll be announcing the teams that get the Global Arcade kits at the beginning of April, so you can start bringing your students together right away, and formulate your awesome retro gaming project ideas .

 

The Global Arcade Kit

The 10 teams will each receive the following if their team and project is chosen:

  • 26-4745.jpgThe Brains: A Raspberry Pi 3
  • The Controls: Two classic ball-top joysticks
  • The Buttons: Fifteen 28mm arcade buttons (that's six per player, player one start, player two start, and coin -- although that's not an obligatory setup).
  • The Interface: Two Arduino Leonardos
  • The Display: A 19" LCD monitor
  • The Sound: A set of 2.1 active computer speakers
  • The Bits and Pieces: A couple of USB cables, an SD card, wire kit

 

You don't have to use all these parts, or use them in the way they were originally intended, but we'd like the Raspberry Pi 3 to work as the brains of your game. And feel free to add anything else needed to make your retro gaming vision into a reality.

 

Let's play!

  • in reply to tonyboubady

    oh great! I remember you told me image

     

    so Do you think its possible replace for this one and then make the new joystick ?

     

    image

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    Yes of course, like I said above, just desolder it from the PCB and extend it... the button in the joystick can be extended too...

  • in reply to tonyboubady

    image

    image

     

    This is analog joystick for dual shock 4 PS4. Its possible adapt ?

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    2nd image PCB got the analog controller, just desolder it from the PCB, then extend the traces with wire(maybe bus cable) both left and right far enough u need...connect the joystick controller that you took from PCB on the other end of the wires, both left and right. you can extend all the buttons either way left or right. Find a case to put it all together or just go for wooden stick and glue the button on the stick for thumb button, trigger finger etc... DONE.

  • in reply to shabaz

    Yes it is a fighting stick (Venom ) for PS4. Im looking to adapt to play on PS4.

    I think controller PS3 is compatible with PS4 but im not sure.

     

    I don't have any idea how to do it. That the reason that im asking image

  • Just saw this device, apparently it emulates the analog controls too. Is that close to what you're looking for?

    Also, this link says that other controllers can work with the PS3, so the possibility exists to use a microcontroller as a USB device which would

    behave like the PS3 controller. The problem still exists on how to have analog control, but one approach would be to have just two settings,

    high and low, and an extra button which when held down in conjunction with a joystick move would switch into the high setting.

    This information is PS3 related however, not sure about PS4.

    I have a (dying) PS3 so happy to dissect a controller to examine the analog portion, but it might not be relevant to PS4 at all if things have changed.

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    No Luis, you did not do anything illegal.  :-)  This Document is about a planned event with STEM and 5 kits going out to groups that apply and are found to be appropriate/relevant to the direction Element 14 is looking for.  So there is some discussion what exactly is required to meet those requirements to possibly earn a kit and participate.

     

    Your question is very intriguing and perhaps was not meant to directly be applied as if you were desiring one of the kits, more along the lines that you have a question/project that could tie into Arcade building/playing?  I think that is why Spanner mentioned a previous Challenge where this could have raised some interesting input and participation.

     

    If I had access to a PS4 I would try and test some things.

  • Sorry guys im totally lost. I did some wrong or ilegal?

     

    In that case. My apologize.

     

    I want try to resolve my "problem".

     

    Your sincerely

  • in reply to mconners

    That makes sense.  I have been working with the public schools and some of the charter schools in expanding awareness of S.T.E.M. and the benefits it can have with children with A.S.D., it has been pretty quiet since Barnes & Noble did their Maker Faire so really looking forward to this being a great energy boost not only to my son's level but the entire area.  The first part was really more for Enrico since he had asked about just commenting here counting.  As I shared, this of course is purely my read on how it says things are going with the Dates/and requirements.  :-)  Not sure if you work with the local schools or your kids might be in any science groups, but the part on "educational groups" could be of interest, even if you are part of the local Maker community and working to educate others as such.  So much potential with STEM!  Although I think the STE@M movement could also be cool for Element 14!

  • in reply to jkutzsch

    I agree with your reading, that you have to create a blog post and properly tag it to enter. I was unclear as to whether it was open to anyone other than educators, given the statements

     

    "and we want all the teachers and educators out there to help us do it by joining in with the element14 Global Arcade."

     

    and

     

    "This will be a great way for schools, colleges, universities and educational groups"

     

    Which is why I have I have held off entering.

     

    Mike