On Thu, 17 Oct 2002, Mark Graybill wrote:
> it occurred to me to wonder whether anyone's used the 2600 as a robot
> controller yet. The image of a 2600 console with a pair of arms emanating
> from a cart popped into my head. Sheesh, I better get to sleep before I
> start drawing a schematic or something...
Yes, I did this a few years ago. I wanted to make a Star Wars fan film,
sort of a documentary about the forced seperation of Gonk the power droid
and his childhood friend the little wheeled maintenance droid on the Deathstar.
It would have been narrated by Gonk himself, and would have been a very sad
story, full of hardship and suffering. Afterall....we all know what happened
to the Deathstar....and Gonk's best friend.
(For those of you who don't know who Gonk is, do a Google search for "gonk".)
So I actually built the powerdroid from a VCS and let it wander around the
halls of MIT.
Two independent drive wheels with two smaller rear wheels. You could use a
joystick to drive it around, or you could plug one of 2 sensor boards in and
give it some (pretty limited) AI. It was great. It kept falling down stairs,
but it was a heavy sixer. I think it could have survived a real Deathstar
blast! Don't remember what happened to it though...it's been 6 or 7 years.
(And for those of you who do know who Gonk is....well....he really is
a deity and the movies are really just about his adventures. ;)
-Chris
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