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There are many wacky video game controllers out there, but it’s fair to say that Dr. Tom Tilley has designed an unprecedented way to play Super Monkey Ball. In a viral internet video, Tilley shows off a DIY controller that’s perfect for the game: a physical monkey in a ball that rotates like a trackball to handle the in-game simian.
Tilley showed off some aspects of the build in the video. It shares its basic design with a soccer-ball controller that the hacker built for use with Katamari Damacy. The sensor appears to be an upside-down ball mouse that’s held in place with plastic balls (seemingly from old deodorant sticks) and mounted on a cardboard rack. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the design is Tilley’s 3D-printed model of Super Monkey Ball’s cute mascot AiAI, who looks remarkably on-point.
Reached via email, Tilley explained the inspiration for the controller. “We lived in Thailand for about 10 years and while we were there I played an obscure Japanese arcade game called Armadillo Racing from 1992. The game cabinets have a trackball that you use to steer your armadillo and I thought it would be fun to try and recreate the experience.”
“When I put some video up online people suggested trying it with Katamari Damacy and Super Monkey Ball and it felt very intuitive playing these games. When I was editing a thumbnail to go up on YouTube with some video playing Super Monkey Ball I photoshopped AiAI in a ball in place of the actual soccer ball and I think that was the genesis of going, ‘Maybe I could use this with an actual monkey ball.'”
Tilley also explained some aspects of its creation: “The ball sits on top of an optical mouse to detect the mouse movement but there’s still some variation in height as you roll the ball so the mouse tracking would be intermittent. To compensate, another deodorant roller is glued onto the mouse and the ball sits on top of this roller. As the soccer ball moves it turns the deodorant ball underneath the ball and the mouse sees it moving just as if you were moving the mouse over a surface.”
In a follow-up post on social media, Tilley said some upgrades are planned: “The legs are hinged and I’ve added some mount points where AiAi’s knees should be,” Tilley clarified to GameSpot. “I’m hoping to add a trailing wheel with a crank that will push the legs backwards and forwards as the ball rolls to make it look like AiAI is running inside the ball.” We’ll keep an eye out to see if Tilley can pull it off. The latest entry in the Super Monkey Ball series, Banana Rumble, released on Switch earlier in June.
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