Finalists (261 teams) · Hack the North · Sep 2025

They turned a Nerf gun into a video game controller. Pulling the trigger shoots, pumping it reloads, and pointing it aims, so you play shooter games with a real toy gun in your hands.

Why it won: They mounted a joystick and extra buttons on the blaster itself, so moving, reloading, and switching weapons all happen without touching a keyboard. Half the team built hardware while the other half built the game connection, and they met in the middle. It is the thing every kid holding a Nerf gun has imagined; this team just refused to leave it imagined.