Ben's Blog

Introducing the μJoypad, the worlds smallest NES controller! Measuring in at 25.4×12.8×3.2mm (1.0×0.5×0.1in) this is, by my best research, the worlds smallest, fully functional NES compatible controller. A couple months ago I saw an article or video of the world’s largest game controller and thought to myself “I bet I could make the smallest” and so I did. The project is open hardware and available on GitHub. More pictures and a description of the design process after the jump.

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I got some PCBs in the mail yesterday! I designed these all with gEDA pcb and had them manufactured in the States by OSHPark. In the main picture, from top to bottom, I have an FFC breakout board for my Bluetooth Kinesis project, an ATtiny45 VUSB breakout board intended to be used as a NES controller to USB adapter, an EasyPoint breakout board also for my Kinesis mod, and my μJoypad. I’ve already found one problem with EasyPoint breakout (my own fault, even though I was warned about it). gEDA pcb outputs 2 drill files, one for each of plated and un-plated holes, but OSHPark expects those to be combined, so my unplated holes were not drilled. Hopefully this is an easy fix with a drill press, otherwise I will just be cutting off the stabilizer pegs from the EasyPoints.

Photo "borrowed" from Leif Norman (click image for source)

This past Saturday was Nuit Blanche here in Winnipeg. Some 30,000 people went around the city checking out various exhibits of art and culture. One of the exhibits at the art gallery was ARTcadia. A bunch of displays setup with indie games and hacks. I had the NES-chuck out again and it saw a lot of use. Click here for some more pictures from the WAG.

While similar to Re:Play, the core difference for this event was that the games were setup as displays rather than booths. Because of this, there wasn’t someone around to provide instructions on how to start the game (ie. how to access the start and select buttons). We had a sign up with some instructions, but few people showed any interest in reading the signs. I may have to re-evaluate how this thing works for any future public displays.

CBC was running a contest called “Culture Vulture” where you have to go to cultural events and text in the posted word for an entry. SkullSpace must be getting some attention because the keyword posted at the WAG was “hacker”.

NES-chuck Demo from Benjamin Bergman on Vimeo.

I finally got around to making a quick demonstration of my NES-chuck. Code for the NES-chuck can be found here. The future event I mention is ArtCadia, which is part of Nuit Blanche. I’m not yet sure if I (or the NES-chuck) can attend, but I will keep this updated.

After the break, there is a rough draft of my script for the video.

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