The Scrapyard Challenge: Classic Arcade Controller Redesign Workshop is an interactive, arcade controller design workshop run by Katherine Moriwaki and Jonah Brucker-Cohen where participants will build novel controllers for classic arcade games such as Street Fighter, Ms.PacMan, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Centipede, and more. Participants are split into groups and can choose a classic video game and design a novel controller (the crazier the better!) to control all aspects of the game such as 1, 2, 3 player controls, action buttons including jump, kick, punch, shoot, magic and controller directions such as up, down right, left. The goal is to make each game as interactive as possible with full-body control systems built from scrap materials and junk. The workshop uses USB encoder boards and RaspberryPi computers running RetroPie for game emulation.

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This workshop is an interactive, arcade controller design workshop where participants will build novel controllers for classic arcade games such as Street Fighter, Ms.PacMan, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario Bros, and more. Participants are split into 4 groups and can choose a classic video game and design a novel controller (the crazier the better!) to control all aspects of the game such as 1, 2, 3 player controls, action buttons including jump, kick, punch, shoot, magic and controller directions such as up, down right, left. The goal is to make each game as interactive as possible with full-body control systems built from scrap materials and junk. The workshop uses USB encoder boards and RaspberryPi computers running RetroPie for game emulation.

Image Gallery from workshop

This workshop was an interactive, arcade controller design workshop taught by Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Sebastian Bidegain where participants built novel controllers for 4 classic arcade games, Street Fighter, Ms.PacMan, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Crash Bandicoot, and more.

This version of the Scrapyard Challenge had participants building their own physical “Like” buttons for Facebook.

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop at Expo 2020 Youth Connect

Scrapyard Challenge workshop taught in the class “New Media” at Lehman College, March 25, 27, 2015

Scrapyard Challenge, Creative Activism in Climate Change, Central Park Zoo, New York, NY, USA.

Scrapyard Challenge, Parsons MFA Design and Technology, New York, NY, USA.

“Spaghetti and Beat Balls” – 2013

This workshop took place during the month of July 2013.

Scrapyard Challenge, Fourth Arts Block: LOAD OUT, NYC, USA

Scrapyard Challenge, Habits of Living Conference, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

Scrapyard Challenge, October 12, 2012, GE Garages, NYC, NY, USA.

gadgITERATION, USA Science and Engineering Festival 2012, Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

Redesigning Reality, Visions and Voices, University of Southern California, University Park Campus
USC School of Cinematic Arts Building (SCA), Los Angeles, CA.

Scrapyard Challenge, The Banff Centre, RIP Workshop, Banff, Alberta, Canada, July 8, 2011.

Scrapyard Challenge, Baruch College, New York, NY, USA.

Scrapyard Challenge, Eco-Arts Festival 2011, Cedar Rapids, IA, USA.

Scrapyard Challenge, Parsons, MFA, Design Technology, NY, NY, USA, October 3, 2010

Scrapyard Challenge, Techcrunch Disrupt!, New York, NY, May 22-23, 2010

Scrapyard Challenge Workshops @ Techcrunch Disrupt! from Jonah Brucker-Cohen on Vimeo.

Scrapyard Challenge, Commissioned by the Ammerman Center Award, Connecticut College, New London, CT, USA

Scrapyard Challenge, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Art And Code, Carnegie Mellon University, College of Fine Arts, November 6-8. 2009

Old American Can Factory, Sentient City, Brooklyn, NY, September 26, 2009

Scrapyard Challenge from Architectural League of New York on Vimeo.

Scrapyard Challenge, Parsons School of Design, MFA-Design & Technology, September 19, 2009

Scrapyard Challenge / EWaste Workshop, ISEA 2009, ReFunct Event, Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin, Ireland

Scrapyard Challenge, Ormeau Baths Gallery Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 15, 2009

Scrapyard Challenge @ Grounding Open Source Hardware (GOSH), The Banff Centre, July 10-18, 2009

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop, Maker Faire Bay Area, San Mateo Fairgrounds, San Mateo, CA, May 30-31, 2009

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France, April 23, 2009

Scrapyard Challenge,SangSangMaDang Gallery, Seoul, Korea, November 27-29, 2008

Scrapyard Challenge, London Science Museum, London, UK, October 30th, 2008

Scrapyard Challenge, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA, August 11-15, 2008

Hybrid World Scrapyard Challenge, IMAL, Brussels, Belgium, May 19-23, 2008

Scrapyard Challenge, BLIP!, Telefonica Foundation Gallery, Lima, Peru, November 5-9, 2007

Scrapyard Challenge, BBC Blast Bus, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, September 22, 2007

Scrapyard Challenge, Urban Learning Space, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, September 21st, 2007

Scrapyard Challenge, ZS Associates, Evanston, IL, August 10, 2007

Scrapyard Challenge, Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, NY, NY, USA, June 30, 2007

Scrapyard Challenge, Intermediae, Matadero, Madrid, Spain

Scrapyard Challenge, Six Cities Design Festival, The Tolbooth, Jail Wynd, Stirling, Scotland, UK

Scrapyard Challenge, GEL Conference, Spark Art Space, NYC, USA, April 19th, 2007

Viral:Culture Design Symposium, Columbia College, Chicago, IL, USA, April 7th, 2007

Scrapyard Challenge, Distance Lab, Forres, Scotland, UK, January 19, 2007

Scrapyard Challenge, Urban Learning Space, January 17th, 2007

Stetson University, Deland, Florida, USA, October 13, 2006

Scrapyard Challenge, OBORO, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

DIY Urban Challenge, ISEA 2006, San Jose, California, August 7-8, 2006

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop, Machine Project, 1200 N Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA 90026

STEIM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 21, 2006

DIY Wearable Challenge, Art Interactive, Boston, MA, USA, December 10, 2005

Scrapyard Challenge @ ANAT Media Lab, Melbourne, Australia, October 11, 2005

Scrapyard Challenge, MFA Design and Technology, Parsons, September 24. 2005

DIY Wearable Challenge, Siggraph, August 1, 2005

Scrapyard Challenge, ArtBots , Saints Michael and John Church, Dublin, Ireland Dublin, Ireland, July 15-17, 2005

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop
Aesthetics Technology Lab, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, May 27, 2005

DIY Wearable Challenge I, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallin, Estonia Photos

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop held during Outside IN Festival

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop held at Electrofringe, 2003.

This was the first workshop we held at the DATA:BASE event.

Scrapyard Challenge Workshop, Transmediale, Berlin, Germany, Feb 2, 2004.