It's What's Inside that Counts!

 Numbers!  What would an arcade game be without a way to see your score?  Fortunately, while rummaging through our arcade workshop, I found two old mechanical displays under the bench.  These are about 5 inches high and have 4 numbers each which is plenty for my climbing game scores.  I'm not sure what previous game they came out of, but they are pretty interesting. The numbers 0-9 are displayed by turning on or off the standard 7 segments.  Each segment however is mechanically driven by a small solenoid.  A white bit of plastic flips 90 degrees and is either visible when horizontal or hidden down under the cover when vertical.  Each number is driven by decoder that translates a 4 bit binary number into commands for the seven individual segments. On the whole this is an awesome alternative to LED displays and quite in keeping with the machine's mechanical nature.  The best part is the very satisfying click-clack sound they make when they are counting.

Seen here are all the electronics we shall need to run the game!  The silver box to the left bottom is a 5V and 12V power supply.  The black box right is the Raspberry Pi computer.  Two stepper motors and two servos motors are below that.  The center tan board is a variety of interface logic and connectors. The only thing not pictured is a couple of speakers for the yodeling sounds and a bell to announce high score.  Also not pictured is about 200 lines of software (in "C") that is now written and tested to run the whole shebang.

Next step...installing it all in the case!

Move your Carcass!

During this long cold season when Old Man Winter chooses to trap us in our homes by piling multiple feet of snow at our doorsteps, I find that progress on my various projects is inevitable. Certainly, I have had plenty of free time recently to sit by a crackling fireplace and read Sherlock Homes stories to the Wackenhammer children, both of them rejoicing in their snow day freedom from classes. On a happy note, we discovered that snow ice cream is much better with chocolate sauce applied liberally.  Still, I have managed now and then to sneak away from this sleepy reverie down to my basement workshop and apply sharp cutting tools to the two large sheets of sandeply I procured for the Treadwall game case to slice them into back, side, top and bottom pieces.  This was followed by a flurry of assembly activity with glue and nails.  As shown here, basic carcass, as the case skeleton is called by cabinetry makers, is done.  A door will cover the lower portion, glass the top.  Do not be fooled by the perspective, this is a huge piece, 7 ft tall by 3 ft wide by 1 ft deep.  Mrs W. has chosen a nice Early American stain for the wood. Her sanding and finishing efforts have been well rewarded, the piece has a deep, rich, antique look to it.

Hmm...I'd best get together some interesting bits to put inside...
-Otto