A (Better) Coleco Handheld, Wreck It Ralph Game

[meyer980]

I was really quite proud of how my Coleco style Fix It Felix turned out, (see signature for link to that project) but there was definitely room for improvement. It was my first time making a miniature cabinet, my first time coding a game, and my first time working with 3d printed materials. I’m ready to give Wreck It Ralph his time in the spotlight.

All of those areas I know I could do better a second time. Here are some issues I’d like to improve on;

Have holes pre-designed into the 3d shell. For my first build, I made all the 3d printed materials solid and then drilled the holes afterwards. This was because I didn’t know exactly how big to make each hole, I hadn’t yet bought buttons or controls. That’s sort of backwards for this type of build. So, I bought controls first this time and will have the holes precut. This means less chance for rough edges or cracks.

A Better coded game. My Fix it Felix game worked well, actually. But the graphics weren’t fantastic. You also couldn’t change any settings – things like difficulty and speed were locked in place. I now know how to allow users to customize their settings using an import file. I also have gotten slightly better at emulating the VFD style of graphics.

Fitting everything in place. My cords were too long, some of my solder joints were terrible, and in general, the first cabinet is somewhat fragile. I wouldn’t actually bring it with me on a trip. I’ve learned how to better secure pretty much everything and how much wiring I need to fit.

Let’s Get Started
My next build will be a similar theme – Wreck It Ralph! I’ll be coding another new game, designing new artwork, and making a new cabinet.

The Wreck It Ralph Game
The game will be made like last time, but will be from Ralph’s point of view. You’ll be trying to knock the Nicelanders off the building. As another new challenge, I’m using a spinner for controls. In the game, Ralph only moves left or right, so a spinner seemed quite natural too me. Plus, in my “alternate history fiction” Ralph had his own full-sized game which was controlled with a spinner. I’ve also built in settings! You can customize the speed of the enemy and your shots, the sensitivity of the spinner, and add extra audio effects if you want. This was pretty much essential to use a spinner. In my testing I found out every mouse/spinner will work slightly different so having a static speed/sensitivity set in the game would work really bad. Sure, I could set it to work great in my cabinet but what if I want to give the game to a friend?

I also created all the sound effects and music in the game. I wanted to play the Wreck It Ralph theme song in attract mode, so had to recreate it in 1-bit sound. See a preview of gameplay below.


Artwork
I’ve also got a great start on the artwork already. It will look pretty familiar to Fix It Felix fans, but my game will be red color themed. I was really trying to follow Donkey Kong’s lead on this one. Think of the similarities, even more so than Felix! The game is named after the villain and has red as a major color. Donkey Kong was named after the villain and was originally meant to go in a red cabinet.




Controls

You can see a simple mockup of the machine in the last photo, which also shows the rotary encoder I'll be using for the spinner.

[DrakeTungsten]

Looks good, but the placement of the woman character on the side art gives Ralph an uncanny resemblance to the scuzzlebutt.

[meyer980]

Hi DrakeTungsten, you make a good point but sadly I cannot draw and Ralph's foot isn't drawn in that illustration. I'm good with Illustrator, and can do some graphic design, but wouldn't do good adding a foot. So, have to hide it Oh well, I think it's OK.

I wired up my sound amp, and finished programming my game.Tthe sound amp I’m using is the same as my Fix It Felix build. It uses jumper pins to connect the audio in, power in, and speaker. I don’t have a crimper that can do those types of pins so I’m just cutting and soldering new ends onto them. I tested the amp afterward and it worked, yay!

The game is also finished being programmed. It runs with all the settings you’d expect AND spinner control. The settings allow you to disable.enable certain audio ques, adjust the difficulty, adjust lives, and adjust spinner sensitivity.

I purchased a cheap rotary encoder on amazon and got to wiring it to my minipac. This was actually really easy. The minipac already has spots to connect an actual arcade spinner and convert that to mouse movement. All I had to do was connect the appropriate wires to the encoder. I used the KY-040 encoder. It isn’t great, has very low resolution, but most importantly is the right size for my miniature build.

While it wouldn’t play many spinner games perfectly, it gets the job done. It’s more for show/fun anyway. The idea that such a small machine has a spinner in it. See a video of it in action here:

[meyer980]

This is complete. Plays and looks well, I'm happy to add another miniature to my collection. Read the full post at the link, some pics and a video of gameplay below: http://sergiostuff.com/2019/03/27/coleco-wreck-ralph-complete/

[nexusmtz]

Another fun build. Great creativity. Congrats!

[Mike A]

Very nice.

[adamcian]

This is great, awesome work man. Kudos on making your own game, much respect from fellow coder/designer. I’d love to give that a shot some day if I can find the time (damn kids and work). Also, do you happen to have the .stl files for the 3D print? I’d love to put one of my Pi’s and random LCD I have laying around to work in one of these.

[meyer980]

This is great, awesome work man. Kudos on making your own game, much respect from fellow coder/designer. I’d love to give that a shot some day if I can find the time (damn kids and work). Also, do you happen to have the .stl files for the 3D print? I’d love to put one of my Pi’s and random LCD I have laying around to work in one of these.

You can find the .stl files on YouMagine, made by the guys from Tested.com: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/pi-score-tabletop-mame-arcade-cabinet

I made some small modifications to them so my files are slightly different but the originals are a better place to start.