DIY (Do It Yourself) is all the rage right now. So is retro video games. Popular Science (the cool kids call it PopSci) reader Brian de Vitis decided to design and fabricate a retro video game station out of a old Star Wars R2-D2 cooler (kind of like the ones you see at the local food mart full of ice with drinks). Brian was able to hook up this R2-D2 unit with eight different console gaming systems (everything from Atari 7800, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo, Super Nintendo,Nintendo Game Cube, etc.), a sound system, and even a projector mounted to Artoo’s head. Whats even cooler is that you can plug all the game controllers right into R2-D2 front body panels. Artoo is one bad ass astrometic droid mofo.
Papercrafter Haywan may be the greatest papercraft artist of all time as he designed and constructed a life-size papercraft figure of Link from Zelda. Link was made of 831 different pieces that was printed on 197 sheets of paper.
Haywan was also kind enough to supply the plans for you to download if you wished to make one yourself. Along with the regular link, Haywan also provides plans to construct other variations of Link such as the Dark Link and Fierce Diety Link. Along, with the plans, Haywan also has videos of how he built it (it is a bit confusing, but brilliants none the less.
I can only wonder whether Haywan has plans to designing a papercraft Zelda to go along with Link. If I were ever able to successfully build one for myself (which is highly doubtful), I would strap the sucker onto the hood of my car and drive it around town. Of course, I would have to figure out how to protect it from rain and bird crap. Hit the jump for close up pictures of Haywan’s creation!
If you are like me, you don’t have the patience to finish video games. The constant deaths and failures make it very hard to actually invest time and effort to see a game through to the very end. I might have couple dozen games from various consoles at home and I MAY have finished only a hand full of them. If you suffer from the same problems as me, do not worry!
At a recent “Mario A.I. Competition”, artificial intelligence programmer, Robin Baumgarten has designed a computer script that can direct Mario through some of the most hazardous levels of ‘Super Mario World’. Of course, it isn’t 100% completed yet, but you can see some of the potential that the program has to offer. Maybe in a few years, with the advancement of technology, this A.I. gamer can be offered for the casual lazy gamer that just can’t get the job done.
However, isn’t this how it always starts? Sentinels, MCP, Skynet, HAL, etc? It is possible that human enslavement by machine all started with a computer program to play freaking Mario Bros.
