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Typewriter Hacked To Play Zork
UgLyPuNk writes "Typewriters that can type by themselves are one thing. Typewriters that can type by themselves and play Zork are totally different — the stuff that dreams are made of (at least the dreams of little girls who spent hours in front of a Commodore 64 telling the machine to GO NORTH and such)."
...though we called it a "printer". Also, are there any pictures of the thing from the front? Not everyone has the ability to view videos. All I can see are some internals pictures on the project page.
Printers don't generally accept feedback. I know you can't view the video but what you see is a typewriter (with the keys moving) typing out the opening to Zork and then the user issuing it a few commands on the same typewriter keys that then come back to life and respond. This level of interaction is unique and I've never seen a "printer" with that sort of functionality. If you're interested in how it displays the output:
computer to Arduino (via USB); Arduino to shift registers; shift registers to MOSFETs; MOSFETs to solenoids; solenoids to keys.
And to acquire input flattened resistors are placed beneath each key and are converted into a serialized device signal to the computer via USB. Not exactly earth shattering work but for the hobbyist that likes to see clever hacks and remembers Zork, it's a grin achieving piece of work.
My work here is dung.