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Stanford students 3-D-print a working video game controller

Smash your video game controller in peace.

 

Fernando Alfonso III

Parsec

Posted on Apr 28, 2014   Updated on May 31, 2021, 9:57 am CDT

You’ve failed to navigate Luke Skywalker through icy Hoth in Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back once again. You hurl your Super Nintendo controller at the ground in anger, and watch it smash into a dozen pieces. Now, you’re really screwed.

Every gamer has faced this horror at one point or another. But thanks to a new 3D printer head, a late night trip to Toys R Us can be avoided.

Dubbed the Rabbit Proto, the unique 3D printer head was designed and developed by Stanford University students. And unlike standard 3D printer heads, it includes one feature that could speed up the DIY creation of all types of electronic devices: the Rabbit Proto allows people to create “complex conductive traces.” This cuts down on the prototype process.

“Our project enables 3D printers to deposit conductive material along with traditional plastic,” Alex Jais, one of students who worked on Rabbit Proto told Computerworld. “The conductive material can be embedded within the 3D model and printed in the same 3D printing process.”

Rabbit Proto demoed their printer head with the creation of a Super Nintendo-inspired controller.

Video game controllers now join gunsbullets, and meme figurines as objects that can be printed at home on a 3D printer. Hopefully, video game consoles are next.

H/T Kotaku | Photo via Rabbit Proto

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*First Published: Apr 28, 2014, 3:14 pm CDT