I find software boring.

This might seem a bit odd, coming from a guy who’s been writing software since 1984, and who has spent a good deal of his career coding. Perhaps it’s because software is just so intangible. Here today, gone tomorrow, like so many modern gadgets.

And this isn’t Grumpy Old Ron speaking. As I look back, the things I’ve built I’m most proud of have all been physical things. Go-carts. Work benches. And our growing collection of Home Brew gizmos, like the Time Travel Radio. Those tangible things are so much more rewarding to me than writing a couple thousand lines of code.

These thoughts were prompted when I saw this recently on one of the gadget blogs:

It’s a Sega game. But not a video game, but a mechanical one. Seeing it brought back memories of childhood, where my parents would take us to a place that was packed with player pianos, mechnical games, and early video games. I can’t dig up the name–something like “Savotas”? The place was like a Steam Punk version of Dave & Busters. At the time, video games were cool, so the mechanical stuff was mostly ignored. Too bad. With hindsight, I should have spent more time looking at the mechanical stuff. Even then (25+ years ago) the place seemed to be on the downward spiral, and I’m sure it’s long gone.

I’m really glad that this device popped up, because it would make an outstanding project for young Makers and Inventors. I love it because it can combine electronics with software with electromechanical with art with construction. These sort of cross-dicipline projects are exactly what we are missing in our traditional education (see my previous rants on how most software developers have no idea how the hardware components, which run their code, work).

If you are looking for an idea for a next-project, consider an electromechanical game, upgraded to use 2009 technology, but keeping the mechanical aspects. Maybe a gunfight game, except the guys use lasers? And maybe a fog/mist machine in there, so the laser beams can be seen? There are all sorts of possibilities.

If you want to read more about this particular machine, check out this site: Sega Gun Fight

And if you are around Detroit, this looks to be a very interesting museum: Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum