Spies and spec ops operatives need cool gadgets — I think that’s written into the Geneva Convention or something. And that’s especially true in video games, because players need things to interact with. In GoldenEye 007 on the N64, Bond had an iconic wristwatch with all kinds of functions. It could even shoot a laser! When Metal Gear Solid released a year later, you better believe that Solid Snake had his own gadget: the Codec. Now that exists in real-life, thanks to 3DSage’s recent build.
3DSage has a bit of an obsession with strapping custom gadgets to his wrist. Those include the Fallout Watch and Galaxy’s Edge Walkie Talkie set that we featured last year. This Metal Gear Solid Codec continues that tradition in style.
Variations of the Codec appear through the Metal Gear franchise. But in the original Metal Gear Solid, which was the inspiration for this project, players don’t ever see the device in its entirety — just the display they interact with. That gave 3DSage quite a bit of a creative freedom when designing his version of the Codec. As he did with the Galaxy’s Edge project, he made two Codec devices that communicate with each other like walkie talkies. He even constructed a separate jammer device that prevents that communication, like in the game.
The two devices are, essentially, walkie talkies made using the hardware from an inexpensive DIY walkie talkie kit. That alone would enable voice transmission, but to get the Codec style 3DSage added a display controlled by a Waveshare RP2040-Zero development board to each device. He also added a numerical keypad. That doesn’t allow for actual data transmission, but it is interactive with effects on the screen. And there is an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) to further enhance the on-screen content with a sort of tilt-based simulated tracker graphic. Those components all fit into the stylized 3D-printed enclosures.
The final piece of the puzzle was the jammer that disables communication between the two codec devices. That is a simple infrared transmitter, similar to a traditional TV remote control. When someone presses the jammer’s button, it starts blinking the infrared LED. Infrared receivers on the Codec devices, monitored by the RP2040, detect that blinking, which is modulated to prevent false-positives from other infrared light sources, such as the sun. When the RP2040 sees that blinking infrared light, it stops the user from being able to activate the transmission function on the Codec. And, of course, it switches to a “jamming” graphic on the display.
If 3DSage’s Codecs had been available on the selves of Toys “R” Us stores in the late ‘90s, kids would have gone nuts for them.