I’m looking for someone who can make printed boxes. These would be the same size as a cardboard VHS cassette tape. I am making a homebrew ActionMax game and I want it to be as authentic as possible, so that would mean getting some boxes made up. I don’t know how many, not very much, because hardly anyone still has an ActionMax console any more. If you don’t know what an ActionMax is, it’s a console you hook up to your VCR and the games come on VHS tapes. It’s kinda neat, and I would like there to be more games for it, so I’ve decided I am going to make one. Let me know if you’re interested.

If you want it to be professional …talk to the tusks…

VirtualChris wrote:
If you don’t know what an ActionMax is, it’s a console you hook up to your VCR and the games come on VHS tapes.

…

Let me know if you’re interested.

Sounds interesting. If I only had a VCR…

:'(

Sent you a PM. Would love to help you.

I PM’ed you back.

Since it doesn’t have to be played from VHS, why not go with DVDs and just use an inkjet/Kinko’s to print DVD case inserts? Although, there are probably more people with functioning VCRs than there are with Action Max consoles, so I guess it’s kinda academic at this point…

From the description on Wikipedia, it doesn’t sound too difficult to reproduce the functionality of the machine with a cheap microcontroller and a couple of phototransistors. With a slightly more powerful MCU and some kind of storage, you could even generate the video signal itself and make it completely self-contained (maybe enclosed in an old Zapper or other cheap light-gun).

I’m toying with the idea of buying cheap blank empty VHS boxes and then having Mr. Tusk print out fancy liners for them.
As for the self-contained unit thing, that wouldn’t really be an ActionMax console, though. I want to make a homebrew for the existing console, not make a new one.

Well, I figured out how to make the ActionMax console register a hit with my video editing software instead of a standard ActionMax tape. So now what I need to do is insert enemies in my forest footage. Here’s a quick YouTube video I made about my ActionMax demo disc. By the way, there was a Hello World! demo done by someone else, but this will be the first full-fledged ActionMax homebrew actual game. I hope to have it finished by May 2014 to celebrate the ActionMax’s 27th anniversary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TLtH7N5Cl0

that is really, really cool. any chance you would write up a guide or explain in depth what editing software you are using, how you accomplished this, etc? this has me really interested in picking up an action max. what a great project it would be to remaster and convert all the vhs games to dvd.

I’m using Pinnacle Studio 16, just some video editing software I got at Best Buy. First, I made two dots in MS Paint, one black and one white. Then, I made the corner dots for the sensor, again, one white and one black. Then I went into Pinnacle and inserted the dots about 2 dozen times or so. Since Pinnacle’s default time for displaying things is 3 seconds, I had to move it down to where it blinked really fast. This is where the hard part was. As it turns out, the magic number is 00:00:00:01 (or, 1 frame’s worth of video.) First, a white dot displays for one frame, then a black dot displays for one frame, then repeat a few dozen times until you get about one second’s worth of video. Then I burned a DVD and played it on my PS2. And I was happy that I finally got it working. And if I ever decide in the future to make a dot you shouldn’t shoot, the dots have to be different colors in each frame, but for right now, the dots are the same color every frame.

OK, this is a kind of weird question, but is there someone who can transfer a DVD disc to a VHS tape? I want to have this game be on a VHS tape. I guess I can go to the store and get some blank ones so I’ll supply the VHS tapes. It’s just that I’ve been working on the box art and I think it would be really cool if this were to be on a VHS tape as opposed to a DVD. Here is the front box art. I like the silliness of the kid not aiming the light gun directly at the target. I spent like 15 minutes converting the LIVE ACTION – STEREO SOUND letters to be crisp by tracing over them and then erasing excess stuff.

Attachments:

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OK, I guess I will be able to put this on VHS after all, maybe. What I plan to do is use my X-Box 360 to play the DVD on my VHS, then press record on the VHS while the DVD is playing. The question will be, will the VCR capture the flickering lights in a way that the ActionMax can register hits with it? I plan to do more testing once I finish the video file.

1. Burn a DVD of the movie (game)

2. Insert DVD into X-Box 360

3. Play DVD on X-Box 360 while hooked up to the VCR

4. Press record on VHS player while DVD is playing on X-Box 360.

I tested this method and it appears to work OK. I got a 3-second test clip of a DVD onto a VHS tape.

I’m aiming for a Q2 2014 release on this game.