games

Musical Go boards

Some years ago, a conversation with my old friend Billy Baque turned to the subject of adapting board games for sightless play. When it came round to Go, Billy mentioned having read of an antique Korean board, hollow inside and strung with wires along the lines of the grid, the wires being tuned such that each intersection produced a unique musical interval when a stone was placed upon it. Whether this was simply an aesthetic embellishment or a means to make the game more accessible to sightless players, he did not know.

Continue Reading October 23rd, 2009 Sean Michael Ragan10

Wargame terrain how-to site and video series

Years ago, I got really into Warhammer 40,000, the tabletop miniature sci-fi wargame. I quickly found myself more into painting and converting the miniatures and building the terrain than in playing the game itself. I even ran a website for modeling and conversion for a few years. I’m starting to feel the itch again and […]

Continue Reading October 14th, 2009 Gareth Branwyn

Future death machine nose art

I’m pretty sure this TrueType font designed in 1998 by the now-apparently-defunct “Dragon’s Den Type Foundry” was intended for players of Games Workshop’s Warhammer: 40K tabletop wargame. But c’mon, seriously: what project wouldn’t be improved by a little faux-fascist heraldry? Perhaps a flying skull transfixed by a dagger and with lightning shooting from its eyes? […]

Continue Reading June 27th, 2009 Sean Michael Ragan

Building the boat pond at Maker Faire

Rob Wood, of Western Warship Combat Club (WWCC), sent us this series of pics of the boat pond going up at Maker Faire. Thanks, Rob! Robotic Warship Combat

Continue Reading May 25th, 2009 Gareth Branwyn10

Car Wars IRL

I knew it was only a matter of time before Car Wars, Mad Max, and dozens of video games featuring weaponized vehicles, came to television. On May 11th, the producers of Mythbusters will be bringing Weaponizers, a three-part series, to the little screen. Two teams will design, build, and send into remotely-controlled combat, lethally-outfitted vehicles. […]

Continue Reading April 30th, 2009 Gareth Branwyn6

Getting Meggies to talk to each other

For today’s EMS Labs project, Windell shows you how to connect two Meggy, JR RGB game units to one another, using a hacked CD-ROM-to-Mobo cable. The cable can also be used to provide a serial connection between any two Arduino-compatible devices normally programmed through a FTDI USB-TTL cable. A tale of two Meggies

Continue Reading January 21st, 2009 Gareth Branwyn

Electrified Monopoly board

Not to be outdone by her sister Kris, Carly DeGraeve sent us this link to her latest electrified Monopoly board. It lights up the four props in the center of the board when you land on the appropriate squares. She used reed switches and magnets to complete the circuit. Electrified Monopoly – Steampunk Inspired More: […]

Continue Reading January 8th, 2009 Gareth Branwyn8