We’ve seen a proliferation of real-life video game builds lately, but this one is a jaw-dropper! [Tomer Daniel] and his crew of twelve hackers, welders, and coders built a Space Invaders game for GeekCon 2016.

[Tomer] et al spent more time on the project than the writeup, so you’re going to have to content yourselves with the video, embedded below, and a raft of photos that they sent us. ([Tomer] wrote in and wanted to thank each of you, and his sponsors, by name, but that would be a couple paragraphs on its own. Condider yourselves all thanked!)



The Team (Credit: Tal Durek) Drone at Rest (Credit: Saron Paz) Making Invaders (Credit: Yariv Geller) Coders coding (Credit: Yariv Geller) Assembling (Credit: Yariv Geller) RGB coding (Credit: Yariv Geller) A Toast to Invaders (Credit: Saron Paz) Testing Gunnery (Credit: Avi Ostfeld)

[Tomer]’s company makes software for coordinating UAV fleets, so it’s not a coincidence that he would have eight DJI Phantom’s onhand and the ability drive them. The team put together RGB LED matrices, laser sensors, and outfitted each Invader with its own Arduino.

The welders built up a track and cart so that the player would slide back and forth over a twenty meter set of rails. The video shows off the gun in action. (The barrel effect is reminiscent of this hack by Seb Lee-Delisle] that we just covered.) Of course, the turret doesn’t let you just spam the laser, but turns it off after a short delay to force you to actually take aim.

After a hit is registered, the quadcopter turns its lights off and returns to the ground. How cool is that? Enjoy the video.

Now that you’re done reading this blogpost, go check out the rest of the projects at GeekCon. Some of them are nearly equally amazing.