Buffalo Lab

The Arcade Machine Project: Introduction

2009-11-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Some decades ago, an arcade game called Defender no longer met it's owners expectations. The case was painted over and rebuilt to become another game: Ghosts and Goblins.

That case now sits in the Buffalo Hackerspace, gutted and broken. It waits to again be reborn as something far more powerful.

Recursive Koch curves in python

2009-11-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have an ongoing project to teach programming to children. I recently discovered the python turtle module, so I'm learning python. So far it is an order of magnitude easier to deal with than Squeak or Berkeley Logo.

I was able to do simple rotating iterated shapes while still getting used to the python syntax. After maybe three hours total of learning, I was also able to implement my first recursive fractal, the Koch Snowflake.

def kochline(forward,num=1):
 if num == 0:
  turtle.forward(forward)
 else:
  newforward=forward/3
  newnum=num-1
  kochline(newforward,newnum)
  turtle.left(60)
  kochline(newforward,newnum)
  turtle.right(120)
  kochline(newforward,newnum)
  turtle.left(60)
  kochline(newforward,newnum)
 return

def kflake(size=100,depth=2):
 for i in range(0,3):
  kochline(size,depth)
  turtle.right(120)
 return

The function kochline recursively draws a line to the requested depth, this has a depth of 5 or 6:

kflake just calls kochline 3 times and rotates appropriately.

Icosahedron in cardboard and labels

2009-11-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

I made this late one night after one of our regular meetings. I cut out the cardboard triangles while watching Connections 3. It's not quite properly shaped, So using it as a 20 sided die would give non-random results. Still, I expect to paint it and number it for use in some casual game.

Each triangle has an 8 inch edge.