Tetris Diorama

Not just a diorama, but another event. En fuego!

Sometimes a plan just comes together, but I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge it’s all about Riky Saracco keeping on top of my lazy ass. The Halloween bava.studio event was a blast and Riky did most of the work for that one, but it’s still overhead. As a result, I tend to shy away from events at bava.studio. That said, Riky lined up another banger, this one featuring Giovani (more details forthcoming) the world’s best(?) Tetris player for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). So the idea is to have an event where we have a competition wherein folks sign-up to take on the world champion—hopefully he goes easy on us.

Riky is working through the specifics of the actual event, and I get to create another diorama. What I came up with this morning was pretty simple: take one of the 27″ CRT TVs in the studio and hook-up a Raspberry Pi running Batocera that loads to the NES version of Tetris. When people walk by they’ll spy an old school TV with Tetris playing, dead simple. Put the TV on a small entertainment center with a VHS player and some other tid-bits and we’re all set. The console and controllers will be on a thick living room carpet (preferably orange) and the scene creates itself. The best part is I have most of the pieces already: the NES, controllers, CRT TV, VHS player, etc. I just need to find some old school carpet and an entertainment center.

Above is an image of a test run with the JVC TV (NTSC) and little throwback Classic Mini NES I picked up a few years back. The original NES I have is PAL, so I’ll need to run that through the PAL Sony CRT (media regions complicate my life). Keep in mind the throwback NES in the window above is just a prop, Tetris is being emulated through Batocera on a Raspberry Pi. One of the things I was playing with today—given the idea and setup came so easy—was how to get a remote game controller on the sidewalk so that a passerby can actually play Tetris. I got the proof-of-concept working with a wireless playstation 3 controller I had lying around, and a quick search online brings up cheap, NES knock-off controllers that should work wirelessly with the OG console (I grabbed one for $9).

So, in terms of the final shape of the diorama: swap the NTSC TV with the Sony PAL TV and have the original NES console in the window that folks can play with a cheap wireless controller outside the window. The thing I need to figure out now is how to mount the controller so that it’s both usable and secure. Losing a $10 controller is not the end of the world, but figuring out a way to secure it well would mean everyone could enjoy the fun and I don’t have to worry about it walking off.

Anyway, off to find an entertainment center, carpet, and some kind of way to secure a wireless NES-compatible controller. Life is good.