Wii robot bowls 300, feels no emotion with victory

24 Comments by Zack Stern Mar 30th 2007 6:45PM
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Nintendo Wii, Sports

The Lego hackers at BattleBricks have created a robot that throws Wii Bowling strikes every frame, dominating any human that dares face off against this plastic giant. The robot looks like a spastic uneven bars runner-up, but it does the trick; its controls move the bowler off-center, hold B for the swing, and release it at the perfect time. It even resets itself -- and its Mii -- after each frame.

And yes, of course the robot is supported on each side by Linux and C++ guides -- it just doesn't get any more perfectly geeky. See a video of the robot in action after the break.

[Via Engadget]

Tags: hack, lego, mod, robot, wii bowling, wii sports, WiiBowling, WiiSports

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Dansk: Mar 30th 2007; 6:56PM

Now thats an "A" project right there.

randomshagz: Mar 30th 2007; 6:59PM

Rob 2.o

lintsniffer: Mar 30th 2007; 7:04PM

At first, I thought this thing threw balls in a way mimicking your wii throw.

lukee: Mar 30th 2007; 7:06PM

Photoshop!

holyice7: Mar 30th 2007; 7:12PM

No GameShark required.

NeverSage: Mar 30th 2007; 7:35PM

Neato

Matt Wagner: Mar 30th 2007; 7:35PM

does this not completely defeat the purpose of gaming? am i the only one slight perturbed by this?

Eric: Mar 30th 2007; 7:35PM

That's mad cool. I'm jealous.

is: Mar 30th 2007; 8:01PM

This interestes me, as I was convinced that there was a random element to the physics of wii sports that disabled the formalation of a 'perfect strike' shot and would render this bot unusable.

MAn, I was wrong. I hate that.

Joshua: Mar 30th 2007; 8:04PM

Matt Wagner (#7), yes, it does completely defeat the purpose of gaming, but if you look at it out of the context of gaming, it's a very cool machine.

But I do have to feel sorry for that Wii Remote. I'd feel pretty disturbed if I had a machine manipulating me like that.

silkylove: Mar 30th 2007; 8:30PM

I could beat it:p

Anthony: Mar 30th 2007; 9:12PM

imperfection is what makes us humans better than robots

Paul Gale: Mar 30th 2007; 9:17PM

This robot bowling a perfect 300 in Wii Sports may be able to do something that I never have, in real life or on Nintendo's latest machine, but can it do the WORM or MC Hammer's sidestepping dance after bowling a strike or picking up a spare? I don't think so. Heh, still, really cool and impressive video.

Matt Wagner: Mar 30th 2007; 9:42PM

if you want to argue its coolness out of the context, it still doesn't measure up. out of context as a machine that does something perfect everytime, its hardly original. as a piece of engineering, maybe... but i think more impressive machines have been built with legos, so i still don't like it.

Joshua: Mar 30th 2007; 10:07PM

Ah, whatever. I find Bowling the hardest game in Wii Sports, so it impresses me to see a score of 300, even if it's by a robot. :P

reppy: Mar 30th 2007; 11:55PM

I'm mostly just surprised by the consistency of the Wiimote. Cool idea, though.

coletrain: Mar 31st 2007; 12:02AM

Just shows how dumbed-down Wii sports is.

Revo: Mar 31st 2007; 2:40AM

"17. Just shows how dumbed-down Wii sports is."

No, not really. If anything, it shows how dumbed down the sport of bowling is. I'm sure it would be quite feasible to build a machine that bowls strikes in real life bowling as well.

Rubang B: Mar 31st 2007; 2:54AM

As I said in that months-old post with the video of the Wii remote controlling that big robotic arm holding a tennis racket and a sword...

Oh crap, Nintendo was Skynet all along!

JRB: Mar 31st 2007; 7:28AM

In response to the assertion that the physics aren't random, watch the pin action. Something different happens every throw. I'm not sure if it's randomization in the physics or randomization due to the inability to recreate the throw with complete perfection, but it's something.

MikeG: Mar 31st 2007; 7:48AM

@17: "Just shows how dumbed-down Wii sports is."

Ever watched professional bowling? It's just one strike after another, after another, after another. Talk about robots.

ssuk: Mar 31st 2007; 8:59AM

Lego just owned your Wii Sports, don't let the muslims know!

Rubang B: Mar 31st 2007; 1:52PM

MikeG's right.

Oh crap, professional bowling was Skynet all along!

maxamillion92: Apr 3rd 2007; 12:08AM

Okay... it's been a few months since my g/f and I have played this but isn't each "Strike" after the third one in a row called a "Turkey"? And it displays "Turkey"? I know we've gotten several Strikes in a row and each one was a Turkey so why not on this one? Anyone else know what's going on?

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