There oughta be…

…a blog with awesome projects. A collection of overcomplicated devices nobody needs. A sanctum for all the things that did not get living room clearance, but oughta be seen by fellow nerds.

There oughta be a 37c3 talk and music

30 December 2023

Just a quick update on two things that happened recently without being a new projekt:

I gave a talk at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress about how the GB Interceptor can reconstruct the Game Boy’s screen content by listening in on the memory bus. The recording is available at media.ccc.de.

Screenshot from the talk recording, showing a slide and the speaker to the right. The slide shows a Game Boy along with a live image from a Game Boy. — Click the image to see the video on media.ccc.de.

Because some asked for the music from my recent video about the wooden Game Boy (some as in a handful, I am not under the delusion that the world was waiting for my video soundtrack) I have uploaded it as a pure mp3 as well as making it available on common streaming services. You can find more details on there.oughta.be/music.

There oughta be a wooden Game Boy.

03 November 2023

You made me create a wooden Game Boy shell. Yes, you made me do it. After I got myself a CNC machine a while back I just made a wooden Game Boy cartridge to get to know the machine, but social media wanted more. So, I made a Game Boy out of walnut wood.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: The center shows a Game Boy with a dark wooden shell, white buttons and a white screen bezel. Its display shows the title screen of Tetris. Left of the Game Boy is a dark wooden Game Boy cartridge with a carved label reading Pokemon Walnut Version. To the right there is a brighter wooden cartridge with a label reading Pokemon Oak Version. — Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

You can see the process in the video without much explanation. If you want to learn about the toolpaths, my reasoning behind a few things, lessons learned and what you should avoid if you try this yourself, read this blog post instead and check out my design files on GitHub.

There oughta be a bullet time video booth.

26 May 2023

For my cousin’s wedding I did not make a photo booth but a video booth. - With an array of DSLRs to create a bullet time effect.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: A cardboard cutout of a wedding couple is surrounded by a curved array of DSLRs. The title Bullet Time Video Booth is floating next to the cardboard couple in big letter. — Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

Since this is a very visual project, you should really watch the video. This blog post contains the same info with more details, but those details are probably only relevant if you really want to recreate this project, which is not an easy thing to do.

There oughta be a Q&A about the GB Interceptor.

21 February 2023

I collected your questions about the GB Interceptor and made a very long video taking my time to answer them.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: A photo of a Game Boy Color with a stack of cartridges that is several times longer than the Game Boy itsel. The stack consists of three different GB Interceptors plugged into each other and a Game Boy Camera plugged into the last one. — Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

And sorry if this pops up in your RSS feed several months later. I simply forgot to add a blog entry for this and backdated it.

There oughta be a Game Boy capture cartridge.

20 December 2022

I present to you: The GB Interceptor. It is an adapter that goes between an unmodified Game Boy and the cartridge and offers a video stream of the game via USB.

Thumbnail of the youtube video: A render image of a Game Boy showing a game of Tetris in progress. From its top protrudes the PCB of the GB Interceptor with a Tetris cartridge on top. To the right is a label saying USB and an arrow pointing towards a screenshot of OBS showing the same image as the Game Boy. — Click the image to see the video on youtube.com.

The video above should give you a good overview of what it does, how it works and what its limitations are. This article here goes more into the technical details of how it works. If you are interested in how to order and build your own GB Interceptor, check out github and the order and build video.