THOTCON
The May 4-5, 2017 Chicago THOTCON edition whose official schedule documents badge pickup at check-in and whose public badge-hacking record preserves the 0x8 electronic tesserHack badge.
Chicago, Illinois · United States · 2017
The THOTCON 0x8 badge was a Chicago electronic conference badge built around an ATmega32u4, four RGB NeoPixel LEDs, three potentiometers, micro USB, two CR2032 coin-cell holders, and tesserHack stock firmware for an 8x8x8 maze game.
Lifecycle
Stock firmware challenged attendees to navigate an 8x8x8 maze using the three potentiometers for Z, X, and Y movement.
The four RGB LEDs represented open pathways, portals, keys, and wall/death states around the player's current maze position.
USB serial access at 9600 baud exposed tesserHack map and help views for playing the maze with clearer coordinate feedback.
Gigawatts documented burning an Arduino Leonardo bootloader over ICSP with a Bus Pirate so the badge could accept Arduino IDE sketches over USB.
The badge used an ATmega32u4 with four RGB NeoPixels, three potentiometers, micro USB, and two CR2032 holders.
Operational history
The catalogue records verified hardware, game behavior, and recovery workflow while leaving full firmware preservation and challenge reconstruction for a later pass.
The entry remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying article or project-gallery photography without a clear catalogue reuse basis.