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Rik
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 08 Nov 2024
Posts: 1933
Location: California
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 Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:37 pm Post subject: My newest toy- Largest handheld ever??? |
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Got this in last night... It's a HUGE Mattel Soccer store display from Germany (but made in California!). They took a real Soccer game, and wired it up to the huge custom display in the giant game (kind of like the much smaller Football hack I did... and a lot nicer). It's about 4 feet tall, and you can see the smaller game on top (which is actually wired to the large one, whatever the display on the small one is showing, the large one is duplicating it). Each 'blip' on the display is actually made of 3 'normal sized' LEDs.
You play the real handheld, and just watch the big one (the buttons aren't real on the big display).
It's also interesting that the game is green... I guess the German release of Soccer really was always green. Since this display was made in California, they used a US version of the game (thus the brown game wired to the green display).
It plugs into AC power (which powers the display and the little game). Fortunately it was easy to re-wire it for 110 vs the 220 volt power of Germany. The large display also has a speaker and a volume control, so you can REALLY hear the game. 
I never even knew they made stuff like this, anyone remember seeing large displays like this in the stores when they were kids?
Pic of me behind it holding the real game... Better sense of scale:
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Eggie
Tiger Jawbreaker
Joined: 22 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 21 May 2018
Posts: 258
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:15 am Post subject: |
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| Wow that is a great item |
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DonsSword
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:04 am Post subject: |
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Jaw drops in disbelief.
I think if I had seen one of these when I was a kid my brain would have melted. I can't imagine anything cooler for marketing handhelds than this.
In actual use/installation, would it just sit as is? Can a customer play the smaller game? Or was someone hired to play the game so that it ran as a display unit to attract customers? |
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slydc
Entex Crazy Climber
Joined: 24 Sep 2011
Last Visit: 16 Oct 2012
Posts: 66
Location: QC, Canada
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| Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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WOOAAHHH!!! Tabarnak de Calisse!!
Sorry, just sweared in my native language but couldn't helped it when i
saw this super over-sized handheld!. 
At first glance, i thought it was your Mattel Football mod you wrote about
and made a real nice display but seeing the name "Soccer", then i
realized that wasn't your mod.
But i am very impressed by this store display. Would be fun to see the
guts of this big daddy...lol!! Also, would be fun to know how they wired
the small one to the big one because it just gave me an idea to do either
an over-sized Simon or Entex Space Invader or Entex Blast It for an
upcoming video game collectors reunion next month and also for
upcoming video game events.
Which one would be cool to do ? (think people will mostly say: Space
Invaders).
--- Sly DC --- |
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Rik
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 08 Nov 2024
Posts: 1933
Location: California
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| Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:22 am Post subject: |
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| DonsSword wrote: | | In actual use/installation, would it just sit as is? Can a customer play the smaller game? Or was someone hired to play the game so that it ran as a display unit to attract customers? |
I suspect it was mounted to a wall or on a stand of some kind, with the little game mounted on a pedestal in front that anyone could play. Then they player, and any onlookers, could see (and hear) the game in play easily...
Might have also been made for a trade show... If it was meant for the US, I'd almost say it could have been made for Toy Fair... Maybe a similar event in Germany?
| slydc wrote: | But i am very impressed by this store display. Would be fun to see the
guts of this big daddy...lol!! Also, would be fun to know how they wired
the small one to the big one |
Actually, I have pictures.  Had to open it up to re-wire the transformer for US current, so I documented it...
The game is wired up exactly the same way I wired the Football hack- just a lot of wires individually soldered into the points on the display circuit. Then wired to the huge display. The display has more circuitry in it, especially since it powers the game and everything (and also taps into the sound of the handheld), but it's basically a more techy version of what I did...
| slydc wrote: | over-sized Simon or Entex Space Invader or Entex Blast It for an
upcoming video game collectors reunion next month and also for
upcoming video game events. |
Simon would be really easy... 4 switches and 4 lights. It'd be fun to make one buttons you jump on, sort of like a DDR mat, so people have to jump up and down to follow the lights.
But Space Invaders would definitely have a larger 'cool factor' I'd think...
I've always wanted to do a Coleco arcade or some other VFD game using EL sheets cut in the same shape as the little sprites in the game... Something 4-6 feet tall that hangs on the wall. Obviously it can't be powered by the game, so it would have to be done like this display with extra power circuits and such...
I keep thinking about crazy stuff like that, and never seem to make it happen...
Another neat thing to invent would be a circuit that can convert the signals into something that can be plugged into a computer. The computer could read the signals, and then display the appropriate sprite on the screen. Basically making a 'display emulator' out of the computer monitor, but still using the actual game circuitry to the game play... No idea how to do that though...  |
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Haku
Kenner Red Line
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Last Visit: 13 May 2024
Posts: 40
Location: UK, South West
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:20 am Post subject: |
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That's crazy big!
Reading the signals from an LED (and I'm guessing a LCD) based game into a microcontroller which then sends data to a PC is something I can probably do (VFD may be harder to read because it uses AC to control the display), programming the PC to act as a virtual display is out of my league, but once done you could take it a step further and use a laptop with pico projector instead of a normal monitor to get a portable gaming system with a massive screen
I got a Microvision ShowWX laser based pico projector recently and it's very neat, would lend itself nicely to such a project.
This is the biggest handheld I have, even though it's not strictly a game I'm glad I own it:
  
It's 2 feet wide with D sized cells on the back powering it. |
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Panic Button
Entex Crazy Climber
Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Last Visit: 20 Feb 2018
Posts: 87
Location: London, England
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:44 am Post subject: |
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Sorry Rik but your oversize Mattel Soccer doesn't really qualify as a handheld now does it?  |
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blanka
Atari Cosmos
Joined: 14 Dec 2010
Last Visit: 13 Oct 2022
Posts: 561
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| Haku wrote: | That's crazy big!
VFD may be harder to read because it uses AC to control the display |
No it does not. There is only AC on the wires, and even that is block-AC (not wavy), just polarity switching from +2 to -2V.
The grid and elements just get a "crazy voltage" of 0V when they are active, so it might feel AC (AC measures 0V with a DC setting), but actually it is around +30V compared to the "ground" of the VFD circuit.
So a VFD has -30V on the inactive pins, and when high, they are pulled up towards the ground of the battey (0V).
With a resistor and the right ground (not the 0V line from the battery) you can drive an optocoupler or regular transistor to switch other stuff. |
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Rik
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 08 Nov 2024
Posts: 1933
Location: California
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Panic Button wrote: | | Sorry Rik but your oversize Mattel Soccer doesn't really qualify as a handheld now does it? |
Well, I can, technically, hold it in both of my hands... Actually, I can pick it up with one! (it's lighter than it looks).
I would still love to know where these costumes are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0byrd8gER1o
I would _LOVE_ to have those... I assume they've long since been trashed, but there's the chance they are stuff in a storage facility or basement somewhere...
(Although watching the video now makes me a little concerned about the location of the power switches...  ) |
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MADrigal
Tiger Jawbreaker
Joined: 20 Mar 2008
Last Visit: 07 Aug 2024
Posts: 206
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:23 am Post subject: |
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that's a superb find!
gonna simulate it. required monitor is a skycraper! 
_________________
http://www.madrigaldesign.it/ |
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slydc
Entex Crazy Climber
Joined: 24 Sep 2011
Last Visit: 16 Oct 2012
Posts: 66
Location: QC, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Rik wrote: | Actually, I have pictures. Had to open it up to re-wire the transformer for US current, so I documented it...
The game is wired up exactly the same way I wired the Football hack- just a lot of wires individually soldered into the points on the display circuit. Then wired to the huge display. The display has more circuitry in it, especially since it powers the game and everything (and also taps into the sound of the handheld), but it's basically a more techy version of what I did... |
Bring on the pics! I'm so curious when it comes to see the inside of an
handheld or game system. 
| Rik wrote: | Simon would be really easy... 4 switches and 4 lights. It'd be fun to make one buttons you jump on, sort of like a DDR mat, so people have to jump up and down to follow the lights.
But Space Invaders would definitely have a larger 'cool factor' I'd think...
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I agree that doing an over-sized Simon would be very easy to do. If i ever do one, i'll show it to Ralph Baer since me and some folks from our game collector club (C.C.J.V.Q.) will meet him to do an interview this year. Maybe he would sign it...
Hummm...for the Entex Space Invader, the only major problem is to make the over-size casing that would look as much as possible as the real thing. Maybe 4 to 6 feets high.
| Rik wrote: | | I've always wanted to do a Coleco arcade or some other VFD game using EL sheets cut in the same shape as the little sprites in the game... Something 4-6 feet tall that hangs on the wall. Obviously it can't be powered by the game, so it would have to be done like this display with extra power circuits and such... |
That is quite an idea but i think that it's almost impossible to do this this way. Any mechanical, lights or LED handhelds can be modded but when it comes to LCD and VFD, now it's completely another ball game. I don't say that it is impossible but would be such a pain-in-the-arse to do.
The easiest way would be to simulate a handheld (like all those awesome ones by MADrigal) that can be displayed on any monitor/tv. Imagine playing a simulator on a 52 inches TV...Oh yeah!! (Err...that can already be done with a PC video card that can either output composite video, s-video or DVI).
| Rik wrote: | | I keep thinking about crazy stuff like that, and never seem to make it happen... |
Welcome to the club!!! LOL!!!! I know the feeling! |
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