Rokenbok Rumors

Hacking and Internals

• 6/10/2001: Jeff Newbill made the following fantastic discovery:
  

  Good news!
    
  My father and I hooked up a frequency analyzer to the Rokenbok, and found
  out the frequency which it transmits on.
    
  Then, we hooked up an oscilliscope to it, and determined how it transmits
  the signals to the vehicles.
    
  It's really quite interesting.
    
  Anyway, My dad says that for about $50 in parts from radio shack, he can
  build an interface for the PC to a "homemade" transmitter; bypassing the
  command deck all together.  The only drawback is that you would not be able
  to use control pads with this "black box."
    
  I'll keep you informed as to what I find out.
  
  I have some other exciting news about the Smart Port, but don't want to say
  anything until I know for certain what's going on.
  
  When are you going to update your web page?  Surely there must be some other
  information out there about Rokenbok stuff....
  
  Jeff
  

• 6/1/2001: Jeff Newbill elicited the following from 'Mr. Rokenbok':
  

  From: "Mr.Rokenbok" 
  To: "'Jeff Newbill'"
  Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 9:40 AM
  Subject: RE: Rokenbok developers kit
  
  Dear Mr. Newbill,
  
  Thank you for your letter and your support.  We did have a trial developers
  program, but found it did not produce any substantial results.  The cost of
  supporting even a few independent developers is just too high for our small
  company, and we no longer have a developers kit.  This program was concluded
  in 1999.
  
  The Command Deck will support up to four players.  We are looking into
  developing a wireless controller pad that would interface through the smart
  port.  With a little luck, we will get something to market late this year.
  This would allow more simultaneous players.  We are not sure yet what the
  maximum number of wireless controllers will be.
  
  I wish I had better news for you.  I hope you have a blast with your
  Rokenbok in any case.
  
  Happy New Year!
  
  Benjamin K. Rokenbok
  

New Parts and Vehicles

• 11/1/2001: Ben Bennett:
  

  From poking around the Rokenbok site and talking to the people at the
  Construction Site, the monorail crossover, switch and vehicle gate
  should be out soon.  They look pretty cool.
  
  I would be very interested in learning what the new products for 2001
  will be when they announce them at the toy show in February.
  

• 22/2/2000: Paul Gentile elicited the following from Jamie Joyce at Rokenbok Sales Support:
  

  Paul Gentile:
  I would like to know when there will be products/interface/software
  available for the port on the side of the control deck.  Will this be 
  (or is this) for a PC connection?
  
  Jamie Joyce:
  The 'smart port' connector has the potential to be used for a broad
  variety of future electronic accessories to the system. Currently, we
  use it to interface to PCs in production for product testing.
  
  Manipulating the RC Vehicles, as you suggest, through a PC interface is more
  difficult than it sounds. Because of the host of variables (i.e. variances
  in motor speed, diminishing power of batteries, floor surface vehicles will
  be running on, etc.), it is impossible to manipulate the RC Vehicles with
  any consistency.
  
  
  For competitive reasons, we are not able to tell you about our future plans
  in detail. What we can say is that you can expect significant new product
  additions each year. Because we are a very small company, the number of new
  products we can add each year is limited, but we will choose carefully and
  design everything with great care.
  

  
  
• 22/2/2000: William Gasper observed:
  

  A new photo just appeared this week on the initial
  http://www.rokenbok.com page that shows
  what looks like a monorail system and a train hauling balls.
  

  
  
• 16/2/1999: Crispin of The Construction Site in email titled "Info on the new items and Welcome to the Construction Site" said:
  

  In addition to a building set with a truck lift and a new bump and
  dump loader truck, there is a new building set attachment to the
  Action Factory which loads balls into the hopper and conveyer over a
  series of pistons.  We'll be getting new brochures with pictures of
  all soon and putting them on our website.
  

  
  
• 16/2/1999: Mike Caprio says in email with the subject "Re: Updates..." that more information (in German) and pictures can be seen at the German Rokenbok site. So that is hopeful.
  
• 10/2/1999: From email from Marc Haggerty of The Construction Site. The full email is in the mailing list archives with the title "[Fwd: Any Rokenbok news?]":
  

  Steve just came home from the toy fair in Germany and got to
  witness a few items in their prototype stage. There is a new truck
  that resembles the transgripper when it is carrying the yellow
  dumpbin. It has a big scoop that can gather up balls and lift them
  vertically, then dump them out. There is also a repair garage which
  contains an elevating device. When you drive into the garage, you keep
  your wheels spinning, and it lifts your truck up to the ceilling so
  that the repair men can work comfortably. Thats all i've been informed
  of, but everybody knows that there's got to be a use for that "smart
  port" on the command deck sometime soon, right?!
  

  
  

This site copyright 1999 Benjamin Bennett, Michael V. Caprio.

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