Go to any arcade and it ought to rapidly turn out to be apparent that air hockey is among the hottest video games out there. One thing in regards to the fast-paced, knuckle-bruising gameplay is irresistible to adults and youngsters alike. And since air hockey tables are large and heavy, few individuals have the means to maintain them at house. That’s why Downing constructed a miniature air hockey desk to play together with his children. However he didn’t cease there, as a result of his DIY mini air hockey desk additionally runs Doom.
This air hockey desk is pretty small at about three toes lengthy and two toes huge. But it surely doesn’t lack options and contains the whole lot you’d count on to see on an actual air hockey desk — and extra.
Crucial function of an air hockey desk to is the air cushion that helps the pucks skim together with little or no friction. This works a bit like a hovercraft in reverse. Pumps contained in the desk push air by means of many holes within the desk’s floor and that steady move lifts the puck. On this case, Downing used a pair of laptop-style blowers which can be able to offering a mixed 80 CFM of air move. Energy comes from a PC ATX energy provide.
Downing works at a print store and was ready to make use of their CNC router to manufacture the desk. That has an underlying composite aluminum assist floor, an acrylic spacer for the LED lighting, a translucent acrylic high floor, and outer partitions made from a skim-foam composite materials known as KömaCel. The scoreboard enclosure, its helps, and the targets had been all 3D-printed.
This desk incorporates each a Raspberry Pi 2 Mannequin B single-board pc (SBC) and a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller growth board. The Pico controls the LEDs, whereas the SBC feeds composite video to the 2 scoreboard screens. It additionally screens infrared break beam sensors within the targets to detect the puck.
As a result of Downing included a Raspberry Pi SBC, he can run emulators to play video games like Doom. That may have been fascinating sufficient if it simply displayed the graphics on the scoreboard screens. However Downing took it a step additional and fed the composite video to the Pico so it might show these graphics on the desk floor utilizing the 600 embedded LEDs. The decision is extremely low, however it’s fascinating to see bitmap sprites scaled right down to just some RGB LEDs.
We haven’t checked with Guinness, however we’re pleased to imagine that that is the primary miniature air hockey desk to run Doom.