[star wars] [PROP] Real life KOTOR datapad

[Turbo_Racer]

I am working on creating a real-life SW: KOTOR Prop!

 

The project is pretty simple, I have finished the documenting phase and managed to piece together a final concept for the device, based on in-game screenshots and artwork of the Versafunction88 Datapad model! With the help of these I also managed to figure a rough estimate of its size.

 

I've been dreaming about a real datapad since I noticed them in KOTOR, so after waiting for one to appear I said "Why not make one myself?!?"

 

I will be using an old tablet I had laying around, it is a Odys Loox Android tablet, its advantage is that the screen is of a square shape rather then a widescreen format, so it's a great fit! After researching how to do the actual Datapad frame to fit the tabled, I decided to cover the tablet in a surplus of Poxyline (it's a putty-like sunstance made of two components, and when they are mixed together you can model it any shape you want, and after about 10 minutes it hardens like a very strong but also compact concrete) and after it hardens trim off the excess and model it into the shape of the frame, then polish it and apply the finishing touches with the help of a friend who is a sculptor, and paint it afterwords.

One of the tricky parts will be installing an improvised start button mechanism as the original one will be covered by the frame, and also route the power and data ports to the exterior of the frame.

 

Status:

Research and documentation - 100%

Planning / blueprint - 100%

Materials acquired - 70%

 

Pictures:

- Design concept (gatheted images from the Internet):

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/9/97/Datapad_negwt.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20060804121723

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/4/4f/Versafunction88_Datapad.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100926215753

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/0/05/Companion2000-FF10.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100503171359

https://www.google.ro/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.star.etmortius.net%2Fequipement%2Foffice%2Fimages%2FStar%2520Wars%2520-%2520D6%2520-%2520Equipment%2520Stats%2520Netbook_img_222.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.star.etmortius.net%2Fequipement%2Foffice%2FInformation%2520Systems.html&docid=quzgLnZUt96KSM&tbnid=lyojDnIWzP0LzM%3A&w=513&h=302&ved=0ahUKEwjPqK-qsYfKAhXHAxoKHXkPCZIQxiAIBDAA&iact=c&ictx=1

- Props other people made (there are no functional ones, just LEGO or paper models):

http://www.mocpages.com/image_zoom.php?mocid=357488&id=/user_images/34901/1364656103m_DISPLAY.jpg

http://www.mocpages.com/image_zoom.php?mocid=357488&id=/user_images/34901/1364656116m

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SDQ-3NGa1sA/VA9_3SGb_DI/AAAAAAAAESc/RlKc2-TZuuo/s1600/Star-Wars-Versafunction88-Datapad-Papercraft.jpg

- The Odys Loox tablet (that will be used for this prop):

http://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/_migrated/pics/2012-11_19.jpg

[mattig89ch]

Nice, you going to write your own GUI? Or try to create your own OS?

 

Depending how detailed you want to go, I would suggest getting an Adrino, or a Rasberry PI. Either of those is just a basic circuit board, you have to add buttons/ports/screen(s) to them, and create a custom case for them as well.

[Turbo_Racer]

Nice, you going to write your own GUI? Or try to create your own OS?

 

Thank You! Unfortunately I have no programming experience, it would have been awesome to write my own GUI or at least a custom Android shell.

For the beggining I think I will just tweak the default Android UI theme to make it look as much as possible as the Kotor game menu (set the colour scheme and the text to the same shade of blue, etc). The Wookiepedia App will be present mandatory .

After researching I also found that it is possible to install and run light Linux versions with GUI on older tablets, so I will also give this a go, maybe find a way to tweak the Linux UI as well.

 

Another really cool thing would be to actually have the Android version of Kotor installed as well as Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (there is a Android port for it as well) and play them from the Datapad - tablet . I might need a more powerful tablet for this though (with a Mali-400 graphic chip and at least 1 GB of ram).

 

As I will become better at prop making and learn some Arduino coding as well I wish I will someday build a Datapad 2.0 with custom GUI and a GPS module that can display a working map, like this awesome fan-made Fallout Pip-Boy 2000+ replica: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-PIP-Boy/?ALLSTEPS .

 

Off-topic: So far I have also built this gizmo:

It's a working portable Windows gaming console! I grew tired of waiting for Aspyr to port Kotor II to IOS and Android, so I cobbled together this device to play it on the go! It is built from a Allview WI-7 Tablet PC (about 60$ on eBay), a wireless Smart TV keyboard with gamepad (about 20$) and a custom iron backplate I made in my garage to keep the tablet and controller together.

It has a 1,5 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, Intel HD graphic card with 256 MB of VRAM, 16 GB of SSD storage (that I expanded to a total of 144 GB by adding a 128 GB class 10 micro SD-card!) and it runs Windows 8.1. It runs older games perfectly (I played Deus Ex 1, Half-Life 1, Kotor, Starcraft on it and with a little tweaking it can run games like Far Cry 1, Mass Effect 1, Half-Life 2 and Starcraft 2) and the controller works smoothly (I remapped the Left mouse button to the Q key, and the Right mouse button to the R key for easier access needed especially in FPS games). I have also built a version that has a small gamepad controller instead of the keyboard + touchpad under the tablet, but I found the current controller smoother especially for Kotor and some FPS games. The tablet's touchscreen also works great with RTS gams like Starcraft!

 

I have also managed to remote control my PC with my iPad using a great app called Kinoni KinoConsole, and sucessfully played SWTOR from my iPad