FUTURECHIMP

Movie of the Week: Motel Hell

2012-01-24T18:02:00.000-08:00

Still as fresh as when I first saw it with my dad at the drive-in during its theatrical run in Summer of 1980, this grand guignol horror comedy has everything you could ask for in quality exploitation.

Movie of the Week: Slugs

2012-01-16T17:59:00.000-08:00

The best of all killer slug movies is surely Slugs: The Movie, brought to you by Thee One and Only Juan Piquer Simón, Spanish director of the superb Pieces. We humbly present it here unedited and without commercial interruption:

Theranimals!

2012-01-12T06:49:00.001-08:00

The Hyperpin Cabinet Post: part two

2012-01-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

(for part one, see here)

My Top Three Favorite Visual Pinball Tables
(clicking on the table title will link you to the vpforum download page)

Eight Ball Deluxe (Bally, 1980)
A fun combination of challenges makes this table my most-played: there are the 14 billiards represented by seven drop targets to the right (with a third flipper positioned to knock them out), the eight ball drop-target up in the corner, the eight ball deluxe saucer behind that, drop-target multipliers up to 5x, and four lanes (two up top and one on each inlane) to complete for a bonus. I've gotten the "Eight Ball" award (clearing the table of billiards, then hitting the eight last) several times, but haven't yet experienced the elusive "Eight Ball Deluxe" (shooting into the eight ball alley a second time to sink into the saucer behind the dropped target). This is probably the fastest-moving table on my machine. Challenging, but not so much to make you give up trying.

Centaur (Bally, 1981)
Brilliant layout, striking playfield art and lots of different targets. Table physics are excellent; if your accelerometer is set correctly, you can english the ball at a crucial moment to edge it from the outlanes back over to the flippers. Well-placed drop targets and pop bumpers, "Queens Chamber" and "Power Orb" targets for multiball, cool digital effects and voices, and a pleasing duotone light show.

Fathom (Bally, 1980)
The real thing is probably the cabinet I'd second-most like to own (just after a 1972 Fireball table), and this emulator does not disappoint. It's extremely difficult to get multiball: there's a "lagoon trap" in the top right and a "cave trap" in the middle right. when you sink a ball in either one, it locks and three drop targets spring up in front of it. You have to hit all three of them in each trap with a single ball, which is near-impossible but very satisfying if you accomplish it. Beautiful backglass and playfield art, nice sound effects and great physics.

Five Favorite Emulations of 90's Tables:

Tales of the Arabian Nights (Williams, 1996)
My favorite 90's table has a great combination of physics, concept art, dot matrix display animation and lighting.

Twilight Zone (Midway, 1993)
the playfield is almost too complex, but this game has so many unexpected features that it never gets old.

Monster Bash (Williams, 1998)
six different ramps and target banks represent six different universal monsters. There's a little star wars-scale figure of each one on the playfield that animates when you hit the targets. The games are often short and disappointing since there's no ball save, and there should've been a plunger or skill shot, but it's still a very well-designed and fun game.

Medieval Madness (Williams, 1997)
One of the most perfect playfield designs. Destroying the scale model of the castle by sending your ball across the drawbridge isn't quite as satisfying as on the real pinball table, but the emulator is fast, and there's lots of kinetic features to play with.

Star Trek (Data East, 1991)
A simple yet frenetic layout, goals that are communicated easily on the playfield without having to know the rules first, and well-integrated video modes.

Another ten favorite tables:

Superman (Atari, 1979)

Strikes and Spares (Bally, 1978)

Cyclone (Williams, 1988)

Big Game (Stern, 1980)

Flight 2000 (Stern, 1980)

Future Spa (Bally, 1979)

Space Shuttle (Williams, 1984)

Grand Lizard (Williams, 1986)

Royal Flush (Gottlieb, 1976)

Genie (Gottlieb, 1979)

The Hyperpin Cabinet Post: part one

2012-01-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

I'm posting some info regarding the design and construction of my Hyperpin Cabinet. I plan to put it up on my website soon, but thanks to google searches, this blog gets a hundred times more visitors than my website does. And I plan on building another couple cabinets for the purpose of selling them, so if you either want to buy one from me or build your own, some of this might help you out.

My cabinet, called the Minipin because it's half the size of a standard pinball, uses a playfield from a 27" LCD television that I bought for way too much money in 2005 and had sitting in my garage for three years before I decided to repurpose it. These days you can get a new one for $250, or much less through the classifieds. I spent $200 on the computer, which I had custom-assembled out of old stuff by a repair shop / reseller. It's a dual 1.6 Ghz processor with 2 GB ram (the maximum possible for this model, I think) running Windows 7. The price also included a graphics card and a 17" monitor, which I'm using for the pinball cabinet's backglass. I now wish I'd spent a little more on something better; newer emulations of games run stuttery on it, and I can't use UVP animated backglasses. So this is the bare minimum of processing power needed. Get more if you can afford it.

The wood is 5/8" MDF, left over from my previous two arcade cabinets. Same for the black paint. The plexiglass covering the playfield was salvaged from an old framed poster I had; it just needed some buffing with novus polish to look new.

If I could do it again, I'd use standard chromed steel pinball legs, which cost $80 for a set. Instead I made my legs from aluminum corner stock, off the shelf at Home Depot at a cost of $120 or so. I don't have a welder at home, so I drilled and tapped screws to add a base plate to each leg, into which I could tap the adjustable feet. The rest of the corner stock was used to fasten the plexiglass to the playfield cabinet, and I added 5/8 flat stock around the backglass cabinet front. It has no purpose, it just looks boss.

The CPU is entirely stripped from its case to facilitate ventilation. I also added a fan to the floor of the cabinet which pushes air out, creating a vacuum to draw air in from the top of the playfield (just beneath the backglass). I soldered a wire to the computer's power switch and extended it to a pushbutton on the back of the cab.

There's also a "smart strip", which I recommend. Plug the computer's power cable into the strip's control outlet, and it switches anything plugged into the rest of the strip. This way the pushbutton sends or cuts electricity to the computer, as well as the two monitors and sound system and whatever else. Otherwise you'll need to add a toggle switch to cut all AC power to the whole assembly when you aren't using it, which is what I did with the other two cabinets I built so it's not a big deal.

Since I used a television for my playfield, I took advantage of its nice sound system. All I had to do was add extension wires to the two speakers, which I relocated up to the backglass, and put the TV's volume controls on the back wall of the cabinet, near the power switch. A 1/8" stereo audio cable runs from the CPU to the TV input. Easy and cheap.

The interface was an off-the-shelf kit for $140, including the plunger, accelerometer, wiring harness and usb cable. the only additional expense control-wise was buttons, about $1.50 each. I have six: two flipper buttons, a plunger button (some games use triggers instead of plungers to launch the ball), credit (in place of a coinbox), start and exit. Sometime later I might add a second pair of flipper buttons for the games that use magna-save inlanes. I labeled the controls with transfer letters, which are intended for custom-lettering scale model trains and buildings.

The frontend software is Hyperpin, and I chose to go with Visual Pinball 9 for the emulation software. Future Pinball looks nice, but there aren't nearly as many tables available as there are for VP, it's too processor-heavy for my computer, and too difficult to configure new games with.

There are many ways you can acquire tables, but the way I did it was to get a membership at vpforums. For a few dollars per year you can download a few files per day, and for a little more money you get unlimited downloads. I also used their forums to solve some problems with configuration, thanks to some patient and attentive co-members.If you're as ignorant of PC software as I am you'll probably have some problems and questions when configuring your own cabinet.

see part two

Theremin and Maestro

2012-01-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

My theremin (left) going through the Maestro Universal Synthesizer System (right), a rare and expensive 70's pedalboard I've had since 1986. Accompaniment is from the Frankensampler (hacked casio sk-1) with loop pedal.

Omega Race

2012-01-05T07:23:00.001-08:00

V-drums, minimoog bass, minimoog arp, modular moog lead, reason pads.

Work in Progress 1-2-12

2012-01-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

The Elderizer: a sculpt of one of H.P. Lovecraft's "Elder Things", to be cast and fitted up with the motion-activated air freshener in the foreground.

The air freshener itself could be the most unnecessary and irresponsible consumer item ever made. It only runs on batteries, doesn't have a power switch, and uses disposable aerosol cans, so you get to destroy the ozone layer and pollute the landfills with alkaline at the same time. I'm adding a toggle switch to disable the power, as well as a bright LED that flashes when you walk in front of it, just before it belches up a miasma of evil from the top of its eldritch head. The scent is "spring linen" according to the side of the can, but it smells more like a ten-dollar hooker. When the sculpt and mold is finished, I'll probably make an edition of three and put them up on etsy.

And a couple of new videos: I shot these weeks ago, but just got around to editing and uploading them. One is of an idea I should've come up with sooner; fitting up one of my glowworm sculptures, which I've been selling for a couple years, with a homemade pummer circuit to animate the lighting. The other is an improved and more comprehensive look at the "Diver Damned" diorama.

El Tren Fantasma

2012-01-02T07:06:00.000-08:00

from boingboing.net,

Chris Watson was a founder of the seminal 1970s experimental music/performance art group Cabaret Voltaire who has since become a highly-respected ambient sound recordist for television, film, and radio.
More than a decade ago, Watson spent a month on a train traveling across Mexico with a BBC TV crew documenting the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México's last continuous passenger service across the country from the Pacific to Atlantic coast. Watson has since gone back and cut his ambient audio archive of the trip into an acoustic journey, "evoking memories of a recent past, capturing the atmosphere, rhythms and sounds of human life, wildlife and the journey itself along the tracks of one of Mexico’s greatest engineering projects." The recording, titled "El Tren Fantasma," was broadcast on Radio BBC 4 last year. This month, the Touch. records label is releasing El Tren Fantasm on CD and a 12" vinyl of two remixes. Here's a sampler of the album:

chris watson - el tren fantasma (album preview) by experimedia

Buy it here.

New Year

2011-12-31T14:26:00.001-08:00

theremin, absynth, frankenmath. Recorded 12-31-11.

Movie of the Week: Humanoids from the Deep

2011-12-26T09:53:00.001-08:00

The Star Wars Holiday Special

2011-12-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

Two hours of pure TV Hell are available for your Holiday viewing enjoyment. You may want to claw your own eyes out, but it's at least a hundred times better than "Revenge of the Sith". Happy Life Day to all.

(a well-researched article from the archives of Vanity Fair can be read here, and unsurprisingly the Star Wars Holiday Special has its own website.)

Soundlab for Persephone, Moog and Rhythm Machine

2011-12-23T19:19:00.000-08:00

Just found a live-to-video improvisational recording in the archives. There's a Roland TR-33 rhythm machine (offscreen), Moog Source, Persephone and Franksynth modular (offscreen). At the time I thought it sounded too cluttered, but I like it more now, a few months after it's been forgotten.

The Adventures of Pondo Sinatra

2011-12-23T06:48:00.000-08:00

I just watched The Party Animal in its entirety (again) after waking up at 3 a.m.

Movie of the Week: Nocturna, Granddaughter of Dracula

2011-12-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

Haven't seen this one yet, but have been wanting to for awhile. It just turned up on youtube. Singer/dancer Nai Bonet stars in a film she produced herself, shot on location in New York city in 1978. Gloria Gaynor sings the disco theme song, there's the Munsters' own Yvonne DeCarlo as Jugulia Vein, poor old down-on-his-luck John Carradine as Dracula, and a substantial role by legendary nutcase Brother Theodore.

Truth be told, the only reason I'm selecting this as movie of the week is so I'll have a reason to embed this Nai Bonet Scopitone:

Movie of the Week: Deadly Friend

2011-12-18T10:46:00.000-08:00

I saw this for the first time a few days ago, and can't decide if it's great or terrible. Maybe you can help me figure it out.

It's worth a laugh, at least, but this was Wes Craven's followup to Nightmare on Elm Street, a movie that gets under your skin. It seems he's not even trying to suspend disbelief. For example, the Deadly Friend herself, a girl who's died and been re-animated with the brain of a robot, looks like my friends and I did when we acted out Shields and Yarnell at the playground in the third grade. How is this not supposed to not be absurd?

Everyone says, "skip the movie, just watch the 30-second basketball scene on youtube and be done with it". I'm not so sure. The ending is at least as ridiculous as the basketball, for one. To say that just the basketball makes the movie exceptional doesn't give it nearly enough credit; from beginning to end it's one of the dumbest films I've ever seen, but it has a certain appeal.

Last Chance for Etsy Savings...

2011-12-17T07:43:00.000-08:00

Hey look, MAN-TON (upper left) has shed his sportcoat to better display his finely tailored threads. The newly available MAN-TON 2 (upper right), anatomically identical to the original MAN-TON but with different clothing, is flaunting his dapper raincoat, while SPIDER-MAN-TON (bottom) relaxes before a long night of fighting crime.

The last 2011 shipment from the Etsy store to your home will be this coming Monday, December 19. Priority shipments will arrive on Wednesday the 21st, First-Class within a couple days after that. Despite the "allow seven days" disclaimer, everything available for purchase is currently ready to ship.

Once again, the coupon code is FREESHIP1. Enter that at the prompt and get free shipping on your order, a savings of up to $10 per item.

Shop Here

Taboo

2011-12-12T16:23:00.000-08:00

I started this as an accompaniment piece for theremin, but my abilities weren't up to the task. So I played it on the keys instead. I also shamelessly appropriated percussion sample loops and a downloaded midi file. Why not? I have no artistic integrity to lose.

Originally composed by Arthur Lyman. Instruments: minimoog (bass, e-piano, electronic percussion), absynth (choir), cs-80 (lead pad), sample loops (percussion).

The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield

2011-12-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

Under the working title "Jayne Mansfield Reports Europe", the actual footage following the famous sex symbol around Paris and Rome was shot in the spring and summer of 1964, with additional filming in New York City later the same year. Existing footage from two of Mansfield's previously shot films Loves of Hercules (1960) and Primitive Love (1964) were later inserted into this mondo-doc. Following Mansfield's death in a 1967 auto accident at the age of 34, portions of her narration for this film were recorded by a "sound alike."

Mod-o-Tron

2011-12-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

I've taken a Korg Monotron (which now costs $40 with a mail-in rebate) and added a 20" ribbon, same as my Frankenribbon synth. The audio output was moved to the bottom part of the body, and I added a rechargeable battery pack. There's also a toggle switch that inverts the ribbon's pitch, so you can choose to play it standard (on a tabletop, with the right hand) or like a guitar (with the left hand controlling the pitch instead). I personally always prefer playing standard, but the guitar mode allows for Ace Frehley-esque showmanship.

A disadvantage: the range is much too short for a ribbon of this length; only 16 semitones, same as the Monotron's default ribbon, and about the same as a one-stringed guitar. In comparison, the Frankenribbon covers 5 octaves (about four times the range). So to play most melodies, you have to ride the monotron's pitch knob, which covers several octaves, and have a quick ear to make up for the difference on the ribbon with the other hand. It takes some practice, but it works. I plan on making at least one more to sell, 'cause this thing is very versatile and very fun to play.

I still need to add a couple of bolts (for attaching a guitar strap) and put a volume knob in the very cramped, 5/8" deep body. In the meantime, here is an obnoxious video:

New for the Sears-Roebuck 2011 Holiday Wish Book

2011-12-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

(click image to enlarge)

Make all your Christmas dreams come true at my etsy store.

Movie of the Week: Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks

2011-12-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

This week's feature isn't embeddable, so click the above poster to open the youtube page. It's uninterrupted and presumably unedited (I own the DVD, so I haven't seen this version). This got a PG rating back in '75, but the nudity and necrophilia and general sleaziness make it not safe for work. Otherwise, lots of retarded monster fun. It's the Très Chic Freak of the Week!

High School Recordings: The 25-Year Anniversary

2011-11-30T13:53:00.000-08:00

Around the time of my 17th birthday (1986), I'd saved up enough money grilling hamburgers to buy my first E-lectric guitar. It was a beaut: a Black-and-White Zebra-Striped Strat copy, $100 new. Already had my casio keyboard with built-in drum machine that I'd earned waiting tables at the old folks' home the year before, so I was all ready to go. After a couple weeks of teaching myself some chords I started recording.

These recordings span Summer '86 to Summer '87, at which time I graduated high school and left for the army to put life on creative hold for two years. I used the aforementioned casio keyboard and guitar to begin with, then acquired a casio sk-1 and programmable Boss Dr. Rhythm drum machine, and borrowed a friend's casio cz-101 synth (retail price: $500) much of the time.

Not all of these are original melodies. Some are bits I lifted from my punk rock records, or sometimes jingles from TV commercials and saturday morning cartoons (many years of classical piano training helped my sense of perfect pitch). To do multitrack songs, I would record the first part (usually drum machine and bass) through a wired condenser mic onto my Montgomery Ward one-piece Hi-FI (cassette, radio, phonograph AND 8-track tape), then transfer that tape over to my little portable cassette recorder, which had a speaker of about 2" diameter. I'd set that up next to my guitar amp, put the mic in front of them, hit 'record' on the Hi-Fi with the mixdown cassette in it, then hit 'play' on the portable and play along to the backing track. So the sound is total dogshit. But it's ten songs clocking in at a merciful 12 minutes, and I think it's pretty funny. They're all instrumentals. I omitted the ones in which I'm singing in a hormone-addled imitation of Lux Interior, Joey Ramone or John Lydon. I know we're all friends, but I'm not willing to put that part of myself out there yet. Maybe some other time.

Soundlab 11-28-11

2011-11-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

awakening

frankensynth, persephone, chimera

auracle

theremin (with loop pedal), persephone, moog, frankensynth

loungitude

tr-33, frankensynth, moog, persephone

R.I.P. Ken Russell

2011-11-28T07:49:00.001-08:00