Project: Blitter Bike

[junglesmacks]

The first 12 seconds are golden. That semi-bleary eyed, tousled, mad scientist look.


I love it.



You're the man, B.

[catinthefunnyhat]

It's beautiful! I have so much admiration for all the thought and hard work that went into it. Congratulations!
I hope to see it in person!
WOW...

And in terms of .gifs, I wonder if any of these (see slide show at bottom of article) would be useful for you? They're that kind of "wiggle" animation that people use for a 3D effect. Since the bike will be in motion, I doubt the effect would work, but the monsters are just so darn cute.

[waxpraxis]

Thanks folks!

Still work to do, but at this point it mostly has to do with the joystick and the tachometer.

catinthefunnyhat - those GIFs are gorgeous, but unfortunately when I scale them down the the resolution I need (32 x 32) they've almost entirely lost their magic.

[catinthefunnyhat]

Ah, I was worried that might be the case. All those fine lines...

[waxpraxis]

Squee! The text crawl generating code is now working! Here's some samples:

[waxpraxis]

[vimeo][/vimeo]

[BBadger]

That shit is awesome! I love how you've gotten it down with the speed of the vehicle.

Promise me that when you're setting up Sonic the Hedgehog that you include the full acceleration animations as well as the "fast braking" animations when the bike stops suddenly. It'll provide such a high level of detail.

[waxpraxis]

Thanks!

For Sonic I do, in fact, currently have four states - tapping his foot, jogging, running, and spinning. I'd love to do the skid stop, and if I have time I'll try. One thing I discovered last night was that stopping a 120lb trailer really isn't something you can do that quickly anyways!

[MyDearFriend]

awesome awesome awesome

[Onion]

Most impressive

[waxpraxis]

BBadger - I just got the Sonic animations working night before last (just in time, my regional burn starts tomorrow!) and it looks SO FREAKING SICK!

If you, or anyone else, comes across or remembers any other video game sprites with defined standing, walking, running, etc cycles (or you want to make one!) please let me know. The effect is really incredible.

[Theres Always One]

http://www.videogamesprites.net/

I think Link from Legend of Zelda would be a great one.

http://www.videogamesprites.net/Zelda1/Link/

ANd CHRONO TRIGGER! Possibly one of my most favorite games ever.

http://www.videogamesprites.net/ChronoTrigger/Party/

[Theres Always One]

[vimeo][/vimeo]

SIMPLY AMAZING. I hope to see you on the playa.

[waxpraxis]

Two weeks ago now the BlitterBike made it's public debut at Playa Del Fuego and it was a smashing success!

I had a little bit of trouble with some of the connections coming loose while biking, but those have all be tightend up now and I'm currently readying the piece for Freeform this weekend and Lakes of Fire next weekend!

In case you're interested, BlitterBike now has a Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/blitterbike, shoot me a Like if you feel so inclined!

Also, all of the most recent code is now fully open sourced and available on GitHub (python + shell scripts) https://www.github.com/brandenhall/blitterbike

[sajitaki]

Looks great! You have put a lot of work into it. Can't wait to see it in person at LoF!

[Zhust]

That's too much awesome! I hope I get to see it!

[BBadger]

BBadger - I just got the Sonic animations working night before last (just in time, my regional burn starts tomorrow!) and it looks SO FREAKING SICK!

This is going to be damn awesome!

If you, or anyone else, comes across or remembers any other video game sprites with defined standing, walking, running, etc cycles (or you want to make one!) please let me know. The effect is really incredible.

Kind of low-fi, but I have fond memories of River City Ransom.

Maybe you could make the guy sing like in this old flash video?

[waxpraxis]

Hey guys! Long time no update! Here's the BlitterBike in action at Lakes of Fire in June:

[youtube][/youtube]

I'm in the process right now of packing everything up and shipping it to the playa. It goes on the truck this weekend!

I'm going to be camped at 9:15 and C with Baa Baa Blackrock, though I'll also be at 3:15 and C a bunch with my buddies at S'moregasm. So... if you see random video game characters running across the playa run up, say hi, and take a spin on the joystick - it's very, very fun!

[CrispyDave]

Thanks folks!

Still work to do, but at this point it mostly has to do with the joystick and the tachometer.

catinthefunnyhat - those GIFs are gorgeous, but unfortunately when I scale them down the the resolution I need (32 x 32) they've almost entirely lost their magic.

You should load Junglesmacks gif....

[CrispyDave]

BBadger - I just got the Sonic animations working night before last (just in time, my regional burn starts tomorrow!) and it looks SO FREAKING SICK!

If you, or anyone else, comes across or remembers any other video game sprites with defined standing, walking, running, etc cycles (or you want to make one!) please let me know. The effect is really incredible.

Animate PacMan chasing the Burning man or Man with a torch chasing Burning Man

[daft]

granted I am sort of lame, but could you use one or two off the shelf led monitors and feed the video from a laptop?
Wonder how long you could run on a six volt or 12 volt deep cycle converting to ac? Heavy I imagine but you have a great idea however it works out.

[trilobyte]

That lakes of fire vid is awesome, waxpraxis! Congrats on the progress, and good luck getting things finished up/loaded up this weekend!

[waxpraxis]

daft - the microcontroller running the BlitterBike is actually a very small ARM-based linux computer.

The big reason I couldn't use an off-the-shelf solution like what you suggest is because of the power draw (as you indicate) and the fact that I'd actually need TWO of them to make it dual sided.

Trilo - thanks! Got everything fully packed and on the DC container yesterday!



(the trailer and electronics are in the big "Raiders of the Lost Ark" crate and the screen is in the square flat box behind it)

[BBadger]

I love this! This is going to be so cool!

[Zhust]

Trilo - thanks! Got everything fully packed and on the DC container yesterday!

So excited to see this! If everyone packed their shit as nice as you did, I might consider organizing a container from here. But alas, people show up with a pile of crap and think it's all good. Argh. Maybe the silver lining is it would be easy for me to get my stuff onto a container — likewise it should be easier to get a ride from Reno with all my stuff all packed and tidy.

[waxpraxis]

Well... as neat and tidy as that crate looks, it's a giant heavy asshole.

It's got in it a bike trailer, the wood superstructure, the electronics, my kodiak tent, two metal cots, a swamp cooler, etc, etc.

It's easily 300lbs and fits fine... in the back of a full sized pickup, minimum.

[waxpraxis]

Soooo....

Anyone see or interact with the BlitterBike out there? I took it it out every night except for one when I was too... um, disoriented to do so safely.

[AbundantChoice]

I saw you! It was either Saturday or Sunday night after one of the burns... I had been looking for it all week, and the suddenly I saw a strolling Mario coming at me. I actually came over and was all "Oh god! I've been looking for the Blitter Bike all week!"

It looks so much cooler in person than in the videos, by the way. Especially when you get away from other light sources, all you see is the pixel art. It's totally surreal.

[BoyScoutGirl]

I saw the Blitter Bike early in the week, on playa! You let me play with the controls, which was a lot of fun. Definitely liked the "puppy licking screen" gif. Really impressive set-up in person. Would love to see more art like this out there.

[junglesmacks]

The girl and I wandered the playa every single night.. in front of the man.. in back of the man.. 2 to 10.. 10 to 2.. and sadly did not see it ONE SINGLE TIME no matter how hard we looked!!

Will there be a next year?