Katamari Damacy hacker creates steel ball controller

One of the most unique games back in 2004 for the PS2 was Katamari Damacy. Its strange story about a Prince that needs to collect materials by rolling over them with a collector ball, called a “Katamari” made for entertaining gameplay and a popular title. One game and project hacker named Kellbot, however, decided that controlling the Katamari with the PS2 Analog Sticks was awkward and that the game screamed to be played with a track ball of some kind for a more natural feel.

Thus Kellbot set forth and created what she calls a life-size Katamari controller. The controller itself is large steel ball that glides along a set of mounted bearings and is handled like a standard trackball. The movement of the steel ball is read by an optical mouse which feeds its signals into a Arduino which then feeds the signal into a PS2 controller via a digital potentiometer. And even though the project looks unfinished, as the video shows the project seems to control the game rather well. Just in time for when Katamari Forever comes out later this year.