Play Bridge Officer With “Future Crew”

NYC Resistor debuted Future Crew, an interactive game of pressing buttons, jacking plugs, and twisting knobs, at their recent interactive party.

Even better, it has a science fiction bent to it — as the project description reads, Flip switches! Push buttons! Use a variety of retro-futuristic consoles to manipulate the timestream and save the universe! Sounds pretty good to me.

The basic idea is that the players work together like a frantic bridge crew, shouting commands and punching buttons. Only instead of computer panels, the consoles are pieces of repurposed junk; there are a toy piano, a rotary phone, an old patch console, and a teletype, among others. In the case of the piano, a player might have to play “Row Row Row Your Boat” in order to complete the mission. Each console is unique, converted from obsolete electronics with the addition of a Raspberry Pi boards and Teensys.

The hackerspace will be bringing the game to World Maker Faire later on this month, so swing by to give it a try! They’ll also have additional NYCR projects like a new iteration of Chris Fenton’s electromechanical computer.

If you can’t make it, Future Crew is an open-source project and they have set up a code repository. Make your own! [photo credit: William Ward]