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Space Base - A homebrew ICB/ZP
Le Chuck:
This forum is great because it is built on those ideas that just won't go away. Those infatuations and flights of fancy that after some elbow grease and too much time and money finally, usually, become reality. Man oh man, I got hit with a flight of fancy about a year ago and it just hasn't let go.
Enough waxing poetic.
Along with the help of IDS and EDS1275 I'm building an Ice Cold Beer homage I'm calling, "Space Base". We've been working on it off and on for over a year, in near secrecy. To be honest we thought we'd be done by now but life, thousands of collective miles between all of us, project hurdles to be overcome, and everything else tends to slow things down. We aren't done, but a lot of the hard work is done and we'll be moving forward on this. It is time to get it out into the light, get some feedback, and make this a true community project. In the beginning I had ideations of selling this as a kit but now I'll just be happy to get a complete parts list, art download, cut plans, and program/music downloads out into the community so anybody can make their own.
First off and most importantly: The starting crew <cue boats-n-hoes montage>.
Chuckles - fabrication, basic mechanics, art (big thanks to Jake Nealis for the Space Gal art)
IDS - electronics, software and hardware
eds1275 - music, sound effects, voice acting (big thanks to his actress)
possibly you! - we're looking for good ideas, feedback, and whatever else
So how far are we? Well, if I had to put a number on it I'd say we're at about 42. Art is going good, music and sound effects are going great, software and hardware are going good, cab construction will be underway soon once I finalize a few things on the inner workings of the playfield. The basics behind operation: Mag switches in target holes and the return hole provide feedback on ball location. Servos run the pulley system. A small processing unit runs the LEDs, sounds, and monitors everything against game logic that we distilled from ICB. But let's be honest, you're here to see stuff. On to the pics!!!
This is the bezel, all art is done in a mix of solid and half tones for all foreground images and the background starfield is still a wip. Well everything is a wip but this seems to be working out pretty well.
Now with the PF, note that there will be an inch gap to allow the bar movement between the two planes. Why yes, space gal is a different color, which do you prefer?
CPO, which will be a wrap around.
This is like PF v.II I think but it's starting to get there
Closer in all the ball return mech
Video showing the mag switches in action.
Mag switch activated
Mag switch proximity test. Mag switches allow us to forego a complicated ball return system of chutes and just use in-hole monitoring. More on all that later.
I'll let eds1275 and IDS jump in when they're ready with info on their parts of the build but I'll tell you, the music and sfx are out of this world and IDS has come up with some great game modes and is doing remarkable things with segment displays and LEDs. It's all pretty much amazeballs. It's not going fast, but it's going. Whatchya thing?
wp34:
Just when you think you have seen it all. What an original idea. I love that this is a team effort as well. :cheers:
thatpurplestuff:
Holy crap that is incredible! Ever since I saw Ice Cold Beer years ago I've wondered if it would even be possible to build one at home. I love the idea, I love the art, I just love it!
Would love it even more if you guys released info on how others can build one after you're done!
yotsuya:
Finally announced it, huh? Kudos! :cheers:
ids:
--- Quote from: yotsuya on August 03, 2014, 11:45:19 pm ---Finally announced it, huh? Kudos! :cheers:
--- End quote ---
I suspect it may have been announced earlier if not for my slacking on the software side. It was not for a lack of trying, however, I just got buried in the paying type of work, which has forced my to slow down on a number of priority projects such as this :(. This is also some challenging stuff; mapping a VERY large number of I/O pins onto a microcontroller, serious sound requirements, hi-score table, certain degree of configurability, whilst keeping costs reasonable, etc. I'll post more info about my contributions when there is something post-worthy (code does not make for great pics)
I've got to say though, thx Le Chuck, cuz this is a really cool project and I'm thrilled to be a part in it. And it seems we have the answer to life, the universe, and everything if:
--- Quote from: Le Chuck on August 03, 2014, 08:44:24 pm --- we're at about 42
--- End quote ---
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