nyc resistor had one of their craft nights last evening, where they invite folks to come in to work on just about anything “so you don’t have to make stuff by yourself.” i had been missing my community fix now that ITP is on winter break, so heading over there to assemble my new meggy jr rgb kit from evil mad scientist seemed like the things to do.
the space is a pretty comfortable workshop in a loft building in downtown brooklyn. it reminded me a lot of my old studio in philly…i was getting nostalgic. the folks there were nice…it was generally pleasant to work quietly and listen to the various conversation topics being discussed. people would look over your shoulder and ask what you were working on. fun times had by all.
the meggy jr rgb is a kit from evil mad science laboratories…kind of a handheld smaller sibling of their peggy kit. it’s driven by an atmel atmega168 and they’ve released an arduino-based library for programming the 8×8 rgb led matrix…super simple drawPx(3,4, Red); how can you beat that? the included (paper) instructions were very clear, with lots of photos…super for a hobbyist (like me). after getting settled, and despite taking pauses to chat with folks i had the kit built in about 2 hours.
the game provided on the microcontroller is a defender-like side scrolling shooter dubbed “attack of the cherry tomatoes”, which i’d assume is named for the killer red leds which continually advance across the screen. it’s surprisingly engaging and everyone who tried it thought the same. the display is also very vivid…lots of fun.
i’m considering using the 4-in-4 event to write four games for it. although i just had a thought that maybe i’ll write four programs for four platforms, now that i have my iphone developer certificate…hmm. 1. meggy, 2. iphone, 3. desktop… ??? 4. profit! (i hope the joke is well received) :)
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