Remotely controlled projects include RC cars, Nintendo Switch games, vintage pinball machines, and robots. You can set up remote controls to allow anyone, anywhere in the world, to play your game via the internet.
How to Create a Game on Surrogate.tv
There are several different options available to you if you want to build a game and host it on Surrogate.tv. In each example, you will need either a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino for controlling your setup. Beyond this, what kind of game you build, or control, is up to you.
To help give you a better understanding of the process, here is a brief overview of the steps you will need to take to build a game on Surrogate.tv.
Choose, or construct, what game you want to host on Surrogate. tv. See our projects listed here for inspiration. Hook your Raspberry Pi or Arduino up to your game. To do this, start by searching Surrogate. tv’s YouTube channel to see if there is a guide already available for the type of setup you are after. Install the SurroRTG SDK from the Surrogate. tv website onto your Raspberry Pi. Set up a web camera to watch over the play area, then head to the Surrogate. tv platform to get it up and running on the site. This YouTube guide will detail the exact steps you need to take.
With these details in mind, let’s dig into some of the cooler games that have been built so far.
1. Prize Bot Remote RC Game
In Prize Bot, you get to remote-control toy trucks in a very addictive (yet surprisingly difficult) game of loading balls onto a conveyor belt. It’s incredibly satisfying to play and even more fun knowing that it’s all happening in real-time.
The goal is to pick up balls and load them onto the conveyor belt by maneuvering a toy bulldozer truck. These balls are then transported to a shelf where a prize package sits. By gathering enough balls, you might just be able to push the prize package onto the play area. It then becomes a race to put the package in the depot to win.
Related Link: Ways You Can Make Your Own Robot
To build a game like Prize Bot, you will need to construct the play area with Rokenbok parts and a Raspberry Pi 4. On the software end, the game creator has based their code on Jordan Woyak’s research on GitHub. Once you have your game operating at your end, grab a USB camera and follow Surrogate TV’s guide to creating a game to make it live on the internet.
2. Nintendo Switch Pokémon (or Any Other Game)
For anyone who doesn’t own a Nintendo Switch, the next best thing to do is to play a friend’s. With Surrogate.tv, it’s a little like sharing with your friend. Using a Raspberry Pi and a few other components, you can hook a Switch up to the internet so that anyone in the world can play a game by controlling your physical device.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond is currently available as a playing experience under the series titled We Play. The mission? To see how long it takes for the internet to complete the game. Players take 60 second turns to play the game and are encouraged to use the Surrogate.tv chat function or Discord to strategize and coordinate.
If you want to give your device over to be controlled by the internet, you’ll be pleased to know it’s not that difficult to achieve. The main components needed to create this setup are a Nintendo Switch (not the Lite version), capture card, Trinket M0, SD card, and Raspberry Pi 4. The tutorial for this game setup is available on YouTube in a quick 10-minute video.
3. Vintage Batman Pinball
The old way of playing games meant visiting an arcade and getting your hands on a pinball machine. The latter would be made of metal and full of mechanical features like flippers and bumpers—something that can’t truly be experienced with software.
Luckily, there is an answer: use a Raspberry Pi to hook a real-life pinball machine up to the internet.
This project shows you how a rare vintage Batman pinball machine was made playable to anyone online. A Raspberry Pi computer is connected to a four-relay board which allows you to assign computer keys to button presses on the machine. After that, you just need to set up a GoPro or web camera to stream the game, making it visible to online players.
It’s an experience that you can’t get unless you know of a retro arcade hall near you. If you have the pleasure of owning an old pinball machine like this, why not make it free to play on the internet? No doubt, someone out there will be thanking you for the experience.
4. Real-Time Robot Battle Royale
Remote-controlled robots have always been cool, and we reckon they always will be. At some point, we’ve all seen them on TV and wished that we could control one ourselves, and maybe even battle it out in a robot royale. Well, now you can.
The makers of Surrogate.tv hosted an epic robot battle in 2019, a perfect example of what you could build too. They constructed a brilliant movable battleground and let loose a handful of near-indestructible robots. All of which could be individually controlled by players on the internet.
Related Link: DIY Retro Tech Builds for Raspberry Pi and Arduino
Because this all happens live, it makes the game super-exciting to build, host, or play. If you want to make something similar, the creators used JSumo robots, which are extremely strong and durable. They then wired the robots with an Arduino and a motor shield, with an additional lithium battery to power them. From there, you can assign your controllers to computer keys following Surrogate.TV’s steps for building a game.
The final step is to install a camera to watch over your robots, then let the internet start battling it out.
Get Creative With Raspberry Pi Projects for Surrogate.tv
DIY electronics is more satisfying when you get to share it with your friends. The same can be said of gaming too. That’s why using a Raspberry Pi to build games and share them on Surrogate.tv is so much fun.
Imagine sitting in your living room while watching people on the internet control your robot cars in a battle royale. Or perhaps sitting back as you and the online community control your Nintendo Switch to complete a game together.
These projects are some of the best out there at the moment, but there’s so much more that could be done—and we want to see it happen!
