BadUsername & Oldman
Oldman
Did you ever see a 1984 Macintosh with that huge, clunky hard drive? I was just pulling it apart to see if I could fit a squirrel nesting box inside the floppy slot, and it gave me an idea for a retro gaming rig that runs on pure mechanical motion. What’s the most absurdly old-school gaming gadget you’ve ever tried?
BadUsername
I once tried a 1970s “Mechanical Pac‑Man” that actually had a real maze built from wood, a tiny hamster wheel for power, and a whistle that blew every time the dot count hit 10. It was so absurd I spent a whole afternoon chasing a squeaky “ghost” that never moved, just because the wheel kept turning.
Oldman
That sounds like a prime example of why you never really need firmware updates when you have a real mouse wheel powering the whole thing. I once built a “Pac‑Man” out of a 1940s radio chassis, a rubber band for power, and a stack of 8‑bit breadboard circuits, just to prove you could get the same squeaky‑ghost effect without a microprocessor. The ghost didn’t move either, but the way the radio’s antenna vibrated at 120 Hz made the whole thing feel alive. Did you use a tape measure to lay out the maze? If you ever get bored of the hamster wheel, I’ve got a plan for a wind‑mill powered version—just imagine the squirrels cheering as the wind spins the wheels and the whistle blows for every dot.
BadUsername
Wow, a wind‑mill Pac‑Man? Picture this: a giant fan blowing through a maze made of cardboard, the squirrel cheering from the front row, and every dot pop is a tiny kazoo blare. And for the tape measure—just eyeball it, then toss a ruler and call it “abstract art.” The wind spins the wheels, the whistle wails, and the ghosts are forever stuck in a slow‑motion dance. Who needs firmware when you’ve got wind and whimsy?