This week’s selection is the Unbeatable Tic Tac Toe Machine by Printables contributor Alex Krasno.
For all the years we’ve been doing Design of the Week (now 14 years in), this item has to be the most complex 3D printable contraption I’ve even encountered.
It’s a tic-tac-toe game that you can actually play — but there are NO ELECTRONICS at all. The entire project is fully 3D printed, and the device works mechanically.
To play, you turn a knob to indicate your selection of a spot for your “X”. You then pull on the side, and somehow the machine selects a spot for its “O” that counters your “X”. The game proceeds step by step in the usual manner, and you will never win, no matter how many games you play.
How does the machine “know” how to respond to a given configuration of X’s and O’s? It uses a series of 65 pre-computed cards that have unique patterns to match every scenario.
But how do you get these patterns? That’s the magic part. Krasno used some complex mathematics to figure out the solution set, which was then transformed into these cards that sit behind the front panel. As each turn executes, a new card provides the solution.
And it works, incredibly. No electricity, no batteries, and, unfortunately, no winning.
Krasno posted the entire design for free download on Printables, and I am sure many readers will be busy printing control cards this week.
Via Printables
