This article was taken from the May 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Who hasn't dreamed of burning rubber with the world's most famous plumber? A team of engineers in Texas has modified four go-karts to respond to turtle shells and mushrooms in the same way as the Nintendo game. Hunter Smith, Tim Lynch and Chris Culver from Waterloo Labs tell Wired how it's done. [Evil voice] "I'm-a Wario, I'm-a gonna win!"
Add pneumatic cylinders
Strip the go-kart right down to the frame. The Mario World items can affect steering, acceleration and braking in the game, so overrides need to be in place to control these systems. For the steering, add a pneumatic cylinder to each side of the kart. Use duct tape or zip ties -- whatever works -- to connect the cylinders between the steering column and each front wheel.
You'll need another pneumatic cylinder to force the brakes: fix one end to the back of the brake pedal, and tie the other to the front bumper. Hook all cylinders up to a high-pressure paintball tank (which you can fix behind the bumper) via electronic valves.
Engage the turbo boost
To enable a high-speed spurt for mushroom or star pick-ups, add a servomotor to the throttle, which will boost its power. Using a small length of wire, attach the throttle cable to the gear of the servomotor so that when you trigger it, the throttle will open up completely. In order to control the kart's modified actuators, fix a CompactRIO controller securely alongside the driver's seat and plug the servomotor and all of the electronic valves on the -pneumatic cylinders into it. Don't know how to program? Download the LabVIEW code that the engineers made for their CompactRIOs from waterloolabs.com.
Cook up some magic mushrooms To set up your items, place a card with an RFID chip into Super Mario stuffed toys of mushrooms, turtle shells and stars, hanging them in boxes over the track. You can use plastic fruit for the banana skins, substitute a Pikachu toy for the lightning bolt, and make a "Chain Chomp" by getting creative with an exercise ball and lots of black duct tape. The RFID tags identify the separate items so the appropriate rewards and punishments can be given for each. Plug an RFID serial reader into the CompactRIO of each kart; when you collect an item, hold it close to the reader for a few seconds. You use items such as mushrooms by throwing them out of your kart.
Tune in to your base station
All the karts and items have to share a network, so set up a wireless router in the pit lane, adding a wireless access-point to each kart's CompactRIO. The base station LabVIEW code is included on the website and has to run on a PC.
This keeps track of all the items, whether they've been deployed, and who should be affected. For instance, a star will accelerate your kart, but will also mess up the steering of anyone who gets too close. For extra authenticity, you can distinguish between red and green turtle shells by building a potato gun: green shells must be fired from there; red shells can be thrown directly, mimicking the accuracy of the missiles' heat-seeking capabilities.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
