Life-Size Katamari Lives

[nazerine]

http://www.kellbot.com/2009/05/life-size-katamari-lives/

Sweet. Since discussed in http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=91948.0 thread I had thought about and wanted a Katamari cab..

Wife 100% supports building Katamari cabinet after seeing the video.   

This seems like a very good tinkering project to find something that will work well and give a good katamari feeling 

[Blanka]

I saw it too, and a Katamari-cab to follow the Retro Space is in the pen. I liked the idea about the giant ball, but it has a problem for the gameplay.
- The tank-stik operation only uses the analog part of the controller for the turning, not for the rolling speed. You should discard this input with a ball.
- A trackball does not work as it does not react to turning the ball at the same point. You need two mouse-balls following the same huge ball, and like the girl did, use a microcontroller to translate the input two tank-stick commands on a normal PS2 port.
- You need seperate buttons for fast rolling and 180 degree spinning. Maybe you can have the microcontroller translate fast normal rolling into the double tank-stik fast-roll command. The 180 degree turn is hard to add to the control. The fun about Katamari is that the controls are so simple. A seperate button for the spin would ruin the concept.
- If you make a huge trackball and have that one operate 2 mice, i doubt its ruggedness. Guess the tank-configuration is the most logic one for a cab. It even mimic the Cousin pushing the Katamari. Your two hands do the same as the cousin's.

[nazerine]

With using the arduino there are many programming possibilities. I was thinking about how the ps2 library could be used to detect 'trackball gestures'

[Bender]

couldn't you make a trackball for a PC out of almost any round object using just a optical mouse?

if so, this opens a bunch of alternate designs possibilities for trackballs

anyone know where to get the base rollers she used in that video?

[jasonbar]

anyone know where to get the base rollers she used in that video?

Look up "ball transfer" at mcmaster.com

-Jason

[FrizzleFried]

She has to hold the mouse to the ball...

>fail<

[Bender]

anyone know where to get the base rollers she used in that video?

Look up "ball transfer" at mcmaster.com

-Jason

thanks! just what I was looking for

She has to hold the mouse to the ball...

>fail<

couldn't you just mount the mouse in place upside-down?

[u_rebelscum]

couldn't you make a trackball for a PC out of almost any round object using just a optical mouse?

if so, this opens a bunch of alternate designs possibilities for trackballs

Any decent optical, and any material that optical can use (different brand/technology/generation can use different materials to different degrees), and as long as the curved surface doesn't mess with the optical (again depending on which optical tech/gen), and maybe it will track fast spins.

IOW, it's been tried before for cabs, to different degrees of success, and the hardest thing to get has been the super fast spin needed to play golf type games.