5 ms·

How we built a Super Nintendo out of a wireless keyboard (2012)

90 points by lelf 8y ago

pinewurst 8y ago
(2012) - Still cool though!
Sidnicious 8y ago
I’ve been really into the nRF52832 lately, a newer chip from the same company as the nRF24LE1 mentioned in the article. It has BLE, and you can find dev boards with all of the IO pins exposed for $5 (sometimes $2.50 on sale) on AliExpress, or impossibly tiny ones with chip antennas (six fit on a dime!) for closer to $15. I just realized that the ones I have sitting around have roughly 64x the RAM, 32x the storage, and are (VERY roughly, I had trouble finding compatible numbers) 2,000 times as powerful processors. There’s so much more they could be doing!
- snaky 8y ago
  That's funny to know every SD card have a MCU with performance of about 100 MHz on board.
  - pietroglyph 8y ago
    It's amazing where you can find relatively powerful general purpose processors, and all the vulnerabilities that come with that reality. I like this article on the subject: https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3554 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3554
- xigency 8y ago
  If you are interested in that then you should also check out the Espressif ESP32.
robotbikes 8y ago
It looks like the company sifteo was aquihired and the cubes software wad opensourced but the actual hardware is now scarce. Just reading this article makes me fascinated with the project and as I have a young daughter who would probably benefit from a tactile gaming system like this I wonder how feasible it would be to resume production of the cubes or even hand craft them from components. I didn't see open CAD files on the GitHub repo but I did notice a UK professor has compiled all of the software and games and modded it to work without their central server. I doubt I have the time to mess with this anytime soon but it seems like it would be a awesome project to restart as a maker/hobbyist initiative.
- tiles 8y ago
  I actually have some Sifteo hardware and some development docs—been wondering if anyone would benefit from having them to do independent Sifteo dev on.
- janekm 8y ago
  Thanks for the heads-up. That actually makes me wonder whether it'd be worth resurrecting the hardware in some form, by building something compatible.
bjt2n3904 8y ago
The author of that article, Scanlime, is scary talented. They have a lot of videos up on YouTube that are a treat to watch.
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  Yep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tQ-I_qFE0c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tQ-I_qFE0c is a good one, but you should also search for Coastermelt if you've never seen it before.
kayamon 8y ago
It wasn't a Super Nintendo, and it wasn't built out of a wireless keyboard. Quality title.

90 points by lelf 8y ago

(2012) - Still cool though!

I’ve been really into the nRF52832 lately, a newer chip from the same company as the nRF24LE1 mentioned in the article. It has BLE, and you can find dev boards with all of the IO pins exposed for $5 (sometimes $2.50 on sale) on AliExpress, or impossibly tiny ones with chip antennas (six fit on a dime!) for closer to $15. I just realized that the ones I have sitting around have roughly 64x the RAM, 32x the storage, and are (VERY roughly, I had trouble finding compatible numbers) 2,000 times as powerful processors. There’s so much more they could be doing!

snaky 8y ago
That's funny to know every SD card have a MCU with performance of about 100 MHz on board.
- pietroglyph 8y ago
  It's amazing where you can find relatively powerful general purpose processors, and all the vulnerabilities that come with that reality. I like this article on the subject: https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3554 https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3554
xigency 8y ago
If you are interested in that then you should also check out the Espressif ESP32.

robotbikes 8y ago

It looks like the company sifteo was aquihired and the cubes software wad opensourced but the actual hardware is now scarce. Just reading this article makes me fascinated with the project and as I have a young daughter who would probably benefit from a tactile gaming system like this I wonder how feasible it would be to resume production of the cubes or even hand craft them from components. I didn't see open CAD files on the GitHub repo but I did notice a UK professor has compiled all of the software and games and modded it to work without their central server. I doubt I have the time to mess with this anytime soon but it seems like it would be a awesome project to restart as a maker/hobbyist initiative.

tiles 8y ago
I actually have some Sifteo hardware and some development docs—been wondering if anyone would benefit from having them to do independent Sifteo dev on.
janekm 8y ago
Thanks for the heads-up. That actually makes me wonder whether it'd be worth resurrecting the hardware in some form, by building something compatible.

bjt2n3904 8y ago

The author of that article, Scanlime, is scary talented. They have a lot of videos up on YouTube that are a treat to watch.

voltagex_ 8y ago
Yep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tQ-I_qFE0c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tQ-I_qFE0c is a good one, but you should also search for Coastermelt if you've never seen it before.

kayamon 8y ago

It wasn't a Super Nintendo, and it wasn't built out of a wireless keyboard. Quality title.