Credits

Concept and Hardware - Ethan O'Toole
Code (Lots of it!) - Matt Davis

Thanks

Dave @ Outer Banks Amusement (hookup on the hardware!)
Friends who helped move it around in VA (Sean, Richard)
Friends who helped move it around in DC (Long list! Much adventure!)
Sean for working on the box for tokens for Shmoo
Matt for helping get the code done in time for Shmoo
Sean for the webcams
Tim/JOAT for supplying plush toys to stock the machine for Shmoo
ShmooGroup for hosting it (Bruce & Heidi were the main points of contact)
Volunteers @ ShmooGroup for looking out for it while I wasn't around
Everyone who had fun with it @ Shmoocon. People were gentle, it was real beta and not much time was left to lock things down

Stuff

HRGeeks.com The Hampton Roads geek community forum
Ethan's Homepage Personal Homepage of Ethan

Stories

True story. I was actually after a single bay machine. But due to logistics and what not, a two bay machine ended up in North Carolina, instead of a single bay machine (The amusement company keeps the machines far away, but runs routes so was able to move it). No big deal, I thought. So Richard meets me down across the Virginia line in North Carolina to help load this thing into the back of the postal truck (yes, www.757truck.com postal truck). It goes in with a little might, and I was on my way.

Next day (or was it that night?) Sean and myself pull the thing out of the truck at 757Tech World Headquarters (A small office in Virginia Beach). We roll it to the front door. Ooops, it's too wide to fit thru. So we roll the thing all the way around the building, to the back door. Ooops, too tall. Yea. Tell me about it! The solution ends up being the entire machine has to go on it's side, sideways, thru the back door. To make it better, there is a cabinet that is the inverter portion of a large UPS system that is sort of in the way. But we managed. -- Ethan

True story. I had the idea for a long time, but never really looked for a hookup to score a skillcrane. Shmoocon was coming up, and I thought that some of the people there might enjoy it. I had already registered, knowing that it was likely to sell out. So I email the info@ email address for the Con, and Bruce emails me back saying "Yea, sounds good, we can put it in the hacker arcade." At this point, I'm thinking "I'm totally lost... did I miss something? What the hell is a hacker arcade?" So I go read the site that I never read (I saw a few speakers announced, knew it was in DC, and remembered having fun at the 1st Shmoocon). Sure enough there is this whole thing about a hacker arcade that uses digitally signed SSL certificates on USB keys instead of paper tickets to award credits for playing machines. It was all posted many months in advance. This now gave me the idea for putting the 2nd bay to use to allow people to play for pay, and rack up credits. Unfortunately I wired the USB cable wrong that went between the front and the PC inside. Ooops. Nothing like trying to do all this 3 days before the event. It would have worked with a little more time. That's okay, I've got some really sick ideas if they do the same event again. And this time it won't require the postal truck to move it. Totally different. -- Ethan

This site is © Copyright Ethan O'Toole / Matt Davis 2006, All Rights Reserved
Steve's free web templates