"Play & Plug" - Counterintuitive game controllers.

"Play & Plug" - Counterintuitive game controllers.

You've seen Pi-upgraded consoles. You've seen plug-n-play controllers with a pi or arduino built in, and games preloaded.

What is "Counterintuitive Retrogaming?"

How do you follow up an all-scrap upcycled 8-bit game controller?

Tune in and find out!

This is the latest in many years of retro-game projects and demonstrations Elijah has presented at Faire locations and in MakeZine, starting in 2016 with his first Maker Faire appearance and his Altoids Box Retro-Pi build.

Starting as a street-advertising volunteer, Elijah has worked as a panelist, demonstrated projects on stage, mentored in seminars, and interacted with the public at booths and tables both for himself and while representing companies.

While not at work, he's been known to help stir up "creative mischief" on Faire grounds from Rochester to San Mateo including googley-eye "guerrilla art" and improvised pyrotechnics . He HAD the fire marshal's permission. Really.

You may have seen his High Altitude Balloon story on local news in the greater Wilkes-Barre region, or seen him with his Maker Faire friend & MythBusters Jr Co-star Allie Weber or their rag-tag group of "Problem Kids" in MakeZine or on Twitter.

What inspired you to make this project?:
Recently, Elijah was asked to improvise an up-cycled arts and crafts project from his trash and recycle bin.

A trail of prototypes, and a 2020 Virtual Miami Maker Faire later, Elijah presented the "Birchbox Nintendo Controller."

He presented it elsewhere too, but it may or may not turn up on video. An NDA was signed, but only for THAT video, not the controller idea.

Made of a monthly makeup subscription box, twelve paper clips, a foot of ethernet cable, and some window foam, it was a fully functioning, Raspberry-pi based Nintendo controller.

What are some of the challenges you have encountered and how did you address them?:
Art.

What do you do, when faced with an improvised arts and crafts challenge as a maker?

Elijah always tries to add art to a degree to any project, but has only done a few art based projects before, most notably his signature "Not A Bomb NOT EXPLODING Clock." Questionable in taste, it was not improvised. It was also never either accepted or displayed by the school principal it was made for. NOTE: MOMA and Spy Museum, it's still available.

Last time, it was Elijah's challenge to take scrap and turn it into a working controller that also looked arts-and-crafts kitch.

This time the challenge is new. Take it all up one notch. One generation. One step better tech. One step WORSE idea.

Awkwardly cringe and wince along with Elijah as he reaches into the 4th Generation of video game history, and across national borders for the build that really never needed to happen.

Project Website