The Arcade Machine Project: Introduction

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

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

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.