[ProgrammingAce]

I have a couple of prototype boards from the development of Tony Hawk Ride/Shred. For those not aware, Ride and Shred were the last two entries in the Tony Hawk series. In order to play them, you need a custom motion tracking skateboard controller. I have 3 of the main prototypes used in production and one "special" controller that was custom made for Shred's [canceled] wrap party.

There were several prototype one-off boards that were made using hacked together motion sensing parts stuck to actual skateboards. Initial testing was done using these boards. Each one of these were custom made and only one of each exist. They are currently hanging up on the wall at Robomodo.

The first board I have here we'll call V1.0. It's labeled as such, but the version number doesn't mean much as the second, completely different board is also labeled 1.0.

This board is actually made of wood. They were machined out of a solid block of light weight wood (I'm not sure the type, it's light but much stronger then something like balsa). These were the first "mass produced" controller available to the development team. All of the internal circuits were hand soldered and made from off-the-shelf components. Early on in the development process, the boards were designed with sonic sensors on the nose, tail and two sides. In the production models, these were replaced with infra-red sensors due to cost. In order to replace the batteries, you have to remove the 8 screws holding the top panel. The buttons on the side only have an on-off switch, start and sync buttons.

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The next generation board was also labeled as V1.0, but I'll refer to it as 2.0 for sanity. The screw placement on the 1.0 boards left the skate deck subject to twisting, so the screws were more evenly placed out as opposed to the traditional skateboard placement. This board was made out of an extremely heavy, extremely expensive prototyping plastic. It weighs roughly 25 lbs and cost about $500 just in plastic. This board was the first to see the start of the required buttons that would be needed for certification. It has LEDs to signal which of the 4 controller ports the board is synced to, it has ABXY Start and Select buttons but it still has an on-off switch (which was removed from the final product and replaced by an inactivity timer built into the firmware). 4-6 of these boards were produced. It is dated 12/15/2008.

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The third board was at one point supposed to be the final design. It is the board most commonly seen in marketing for the game. Instead of having screws in the top, all of the screws are accessible from the bottom of the board (20 in total). The top of the board has 8 fake screws molded into the plastic in the traditional position you would find them on a real skateboard. There is a "plate" molded into the top of the board that's made to look removable, but actually isn't. I have no idea why it was added. This was the first board widely accessible to the development team with roughly 20 produced. It was the first board to use the IR sensors instead of the sonic sensors, and really the first time the development team was able to test the game against something resembling the final product. This was the last controller to use two batteries instead of the four in the final board. The button design on the sides is virtually identical to final as well, with just some minor color differences.


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There was originally going to be a wrap party upon the completion of Shred. This was put on indefinite hold at one point, and most likely canceled when Robomodo laid off 70% of their workforce. Before that, however, two custom controllers were made to be used at the event. They were made from standard Shred boards with custom artwork made from the company's logo and covered with actual clear skateboard grip tape. I have one, and the other is still at the company. Materials were purchased to construct a third, but the artwork itself was destroyed in it's creation.



I also have a Ride controller that was converted to a real skateboard, but that's not really a prototype so i didn't bother to post it. It's also insanely dangerous since the wheel base had to be moved closer to the center of the board.

You can see it in this youtube video... along with the least realistic fall i've ever seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NI5YYaJAHI

And since I personally think it's the best intro screen to gaming, here's the Robomodo brand ID from Shred:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT94cYmM9xg

[Evan]

Some nice souvenirs there, ProgAce.

[ICEknight]

That's some awesome stuff, thanks for posting it.