Bunker Project Log

Mrs. G and I tried to watch Renaissance?tonight, but we only got 20 minutes in before Version 2.0 (the gigantic 4 month-old boy super-smiley blob-thingy)?decided it was screamy time. Wifey took one for the team, and I decided to get back to the guitar.

I’ve been trying to come up with a good Whammy mechanism, and what I’m settling on (but still haven’t quite figured out how to do) is some kind of motion sensing thingy.?Since this is the goal, my first priority?is to disable the motion-activated Star Power switch. Since?Star Power is also activated by one of the buttons on the guitar face, I can retain the functionality by?moving that switch somewhere easily activated by the fret hand.

In the old days, “going out” meant getting dinner at some?snotty Sushi bar “downtown”, seeing a movie, maybe a play, maybe even going to an art gallery. The second after buying a house, “going out” means chain restaurants, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Target. The microsecond after having kids, “going out” means anything that happens after getting in your car, with at least one of them crying. Always. This “going out” is for a little variety,?a slight break from “being at home”,?where at least one of them is crying. Always.

After putting the rodents to bed, Mrs. G, Pottse, the Berserker and I all sat down to watch Hot Fuzz, in HD no less, on the 360’s HD add-on. I could whine about how M$ had?screwed?me for months with?the crappy Dynamic Range Control?bug (fix here)?and how I really want Blu-Ray to fail because it is associated with the PS3, and how I bought 300 on Blu-Ray anyway, because it was cheaper, but I won’t.

Lately, when I come home from work, I’ve been going down to the Bunker with my 3-year old. She loves dancing and singing, and we have been doing a lot of Singstarring together. (She seriously knows the words to half the songs on Singstar Pop.) ?

However, this week I?contracted the?T-Virus and?my chords haven’t been up to the task. So, in order to keep the music thing going, I busted out Parappa the Rappa 2 and ran it on the PS3. This was fine, but for anyone who has played the original, and loved Fleaswallow and Moosilini, you know that it?isn’t good enough.

The recently acquired MAME Cabinet was sort of the dream fulfilled, but before that fell in my lap, I had decided to settle on converting my Make Trax Cocktail machine into a MAME cabinet. This was brought out to me by my Pa?a few moons ago. I hadn’t really had a chance of messing with it, because it was buried under? massive piles of junk (that now solely inhabit the Bunker Workroom.)

My previous plan was to make replicas of the wooden control panel base. These are basically a piece of longer than wide plywood, on which I can place the standard stick and 6 button combo.

As I mentioned in Episode I of the Bunker MAME project, there was some serious stickyage going on with?Player?1’s button set.?I felt that before I could continue on?with the project, this had to be rectified.

?Luckily, my 3 year old ensures an adequate supply of?disposable plastic cups, so?I loaded?one up with buttons.

Then I filled it with rubbing alcohol, taped on a second matching cup and made like a Martini and shook. (This is practically an ad for Olive Garden Kid’s Meals.)

This weekend, I convinced the wife (but no one else, dammit)?to play “Arkham Horror” with me. The general populace at Boardgamegeek regards it highly, and she had read good things about it, so we were good to go.

?I, having learned of her mercurial, fruit-fly-like attention span, made sure to read the rules. Twice. I also did all the setup, which was like planning a wedding. This game is big, and there are zillions of chits, lots of dice, and… seriously, more than 15 different decks of cards… tiny, unshuffleable cards.

?The Spread (notice?the baggies of chits all over the place.):

I have been talking a good game about getting a Bunker MAME cabinet going for a while now. I’ve spent enough time with the software to?think it was eezy cheezy, but the?hardware has been a little daunting. First, I don’t really have the tools,?and second, I hate being reminded of all the dumb mistakes. In this case, we are talking about a piece of furniture that has to look?good.

I had my first real roadblock today. Pottse was reading a Musician’s Friend? catalog, and I was reminded of the pedal that came with my crappy Midi keyboard. (Of course, I could have used that if it weren’t buried with all the rest of the crap in the storeroom… do you see a trend here?)

?Anyway, I dug through the catalog and found the keyboard?sustain pedals. I’m not the most music equipment savvy guy, but I am pretty sure they are just a switch with a 1/4″ plug. This serves?my purpose well, and they are anywhere from $13-20 for the cheap ones. Right within my threshold of pain.