The computer scientist, software developer, and hardware hacker @DrTomTilley has just recreated the aiming mechanism from the arcade version of Puzzle Bobble / Bust-A-Move, successfully transforming the video game object from a set of pixels on a screen into a real-life accessory that can sit alongside your TV and mirror your movements onscreen and change colour.
According to Tilley, the recreation was made from cardboard, bamboo skewers, rubber bands, a deodorant roller ball, 2 nails, and some 3D-printed pulleys, and works with the original 1994 title running in the open-source emulator MAME.
It uses an Arduino Uno microcontroller along with a custom LUA script to update a servo motor to move the mechanism left and right, based on your inputs in-game, and can even alter the color of the bubbles attached to the device in order to match those onscreen.
If you've been reading Time Extension for a while now, you will have probably seen us mention @DrTomTilley in the past.
He's previously been behind a bunch of clever video game-inspired projects that we've featured here on the site, including DIY controllers for Katamari Damacy and Puzzle Bobble, and a clever hack for a $5 Paw Patrol toy that allowed him to turn into a new experience to play Sega 'Super Scaler' racer Super Hang-On.
And that's only really scratching the surface of what he's been up to over the last couple of decades, with the inventor also listing the world's largest Game & Watch and an Asteroids Fish Tank among other projects he's created, over on his website.