Plotty Bird: flappy bird on the HP7440A pen plotter

You could possibly get a very cheap 3D printer and rig it for 2D plotting fairly easily (using the printer itself to manufacture the missing parts even!)

JasuM• 7 years ago

My dad used a 3D printer with a Dremel attached to carve PCBs. The PCBs were those that you normally etch, i.e. they had a full copper coating.

iscrewyou• 7 years ago

The memories of the game and the subsequent rise and then the fall (if you want to call it that) of it. Does anybody have any updates on the developer and the game?

ducttape12• 7 years ago

Looks like Dong Nguyen's company has been making some games since: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DotGears

chx• 7 years ago

The most insane device in this vein IMO is the Panasonic Penwriter. It's a four color typewriter (!) and plotter. Yes. It was using pens to write whatever you typed. And this was in 1985! If it'd been more reliable (surprise: it wasn't) it would've taken the world by storm. (I think Brother had one too.)

Lately someone worked it out how to connect it to a modern PC. https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/a/7936/3722

jgrahamc• 7 years ago

PC Magazine review from 1985: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Dwvc24nC0IQC&pg=PA67&lpg...

TheAceOfHearts• 7 years ago

I'm sad to find there aren't any videos on YouTube of this Panasonic Penwriter printing something. If you or anyone you know has access to one of these device then please consider sharing a video!

Here's another review from an old electronics magazine, it's in page 49 of the PDF: https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Hands-On-Electr...

isoprophlex• 7 years ago

That hashtag (plottertwitter) is one of the few exciting, non-hateful things left on Twitter. Great stuff.

paulgb• 7 years ago

There’s a friendly in-person community too, in SF and NYC (next NYC meetup is in a few weeks: https://plotterpeople.github.io/nyc.html)

aidos• 7 years ago

I love this so much. Reminds me of that old Radiohead remix.

Actually, it’s Friday, let’s post it!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20123805

neilv3• 7 years ago

This is really neat. If you got a large-format X-Y pen plotter, you could get it to play D&D, exploring a large dungeon map, having skirmishes, etc. This would be even better with a flatbed plotter, rather than a rolling one.

I love these devices, though they're expensive to run. We used the large-format HP pen plotters for various large software analysis&design diagrams, and for keeping huge project management charts posted. On the side, I wrote an optimizer that would take an HP-GL file and optimize for pen travel (shorten time spent between pen-up and pen-down positions for various graphics operations) and for pen changes.

chrisseaton• 7 years ago

though they're expensive to run

The pens are expensive? Or they use some special paper? Or they wear through some component like belts? What's the expensive bit?

neilv3• 7 years ago

The TCO of the large X-Y pen plotters seemed subjectively expensive, for hobby purposes, which I suspect is most of the reason to still use a pen plotter. Large paper (maybe you can use the current inkjet ones), expensive pens that you go through quickly (I don't know whether they're made anymore, or whether there's a viable DIY way to keep them refilled and working, or to adapt current off-the-shelf non-plotter pens), and keeping the mechanics of old machines working (and perhaps stockpiling backup/parts units, when you can find them).

roland35• 7 years ago

Yet another fun reason to get a pen plotter!! It seems that there are plenty of examples on eBay, maybe even if it doesn't work a retrofit would be a fun project?

jrockway• 7 years ago

A pen plotter is just a 3D printer with a very short Z axis and a pen instead of a hotend. Should be pretty easy to build one cheaply.

The toolchanger in the video is very nifty, though. Not an essential feature in my opinion, and no doubt the most difficult and expensive part.

ibrault• 7 years ago

This, and everything else in the #plottertwitter hashtag, seems super cool. Are there any good resources for exploring this space and getting into it?

nxcho• 7 years ago

If you're interested in algorithmic drawing, https://turtletoy.net is a nice little toy to play around in and it uses the same primitive operations as most plotters (pen up and down, move to coordinate). One popular plotter is AxiDraw which can be controlled in a multitude of ways including an Inkscape plugin and a REST-API.

Plotty Bird: flappy bird on the HP7440A pen plotter

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