It’s always a little strange to get back into regular writing after even a short period of doing something else. There’s some very specific brain muscles that get developed when you write on a daily basis, and I think they tend to atrophy shockingly quickly. But it’s still healthy to take an occasional break and do something else, even if just for a few days, and I’m pretty sure I did just that. I’m going to tell you a bit about what I did, even though it doesn’t really involve cars. So don’t tell David.
There’s a public art festival around where I live called Uproar, where artwork is made by selected artists and then distributed around the area in public places. I’m a big fan of public art and think events like this are ideal for reminding people just how much better life is when you throw a bunch of art at it.
Anyway, this year, about a day before the deadline, I decided to enter a proposal, despite being way too busy and not really certain I’d be actually able to pull it off. Still, I assumed that my chances of getting chosen were fairly low, so what could it hurt?
Well, the selection committee must have had a moment of pity or a mild, collective stroke, because they accepted my idea, which was great save for the fact that I had to actually, you know, do it. The idea I came up with was one based around a favorite medium: repurposed arcade video game cabinets.
The concept was to take an arcade machine and make it a medium for something that was about as far from a video game as possible: live plants. Here was my initial sketch:
So, basically, the plan was to replace the screen of an arcade machine with a terrarium full of plants, but keep the interactive nature of an arcade game by providing controls for watering and giving the plants sunlight. I changed the joystick-operated sun-mirror-whatever to a far more manageable button for some grow lights, and retained a button that operated a pump to spray/drip water onto the plants.
Here’s it in action:
View this post on Instagram
I think I managed to stay pretty close to my initial vision, I’m happy to say. The whole thing runs on a car battery, so there’s a car tie-in, and this was a big impetus for me finally getting the flywheel fixed in my ’89 F-150, since I’m finally sick of starting the damn thing with a wrench.
I had the clutch replaced, too, and now it shifts smoothly and starts without having to roll under the car! Just like a Bugatti Veyron! It’s no different, except the F-150 can carry a whole arcade machine and a Bugatti can’t.
The cabinet started life as an Atari Tempest cabinet, and was then converted to be a Golden Axe cabinet at some point, complete with this deeply hilarious marquee art:
What is that dude riding? Is that some kind of griffin? A hawk-bear? And that dragon looks like he should have a piano keyboard under those claw-hands.
I replaced all the art and controls, and now there’s just HYDRATE! and PHOTOSYNTHESIZE! buttons, though you can also breathe your own CO2 onto the plants for a bonus.
I know next to nothing about plants, but I think the terrarium plants look pretty good! There’s even an orchid in there!
How long do we think that car battery will last? How many times a week will I need to refill that gallon-sized water tank? I have no idea right now. I just hope people like it and have some fun with it. If you’re around Hillsborough, NC, then please feel free to take a little walk to the Thomas Stevens Gallery, and try it out. Give it light and water! Experience hardcore vegetative action! You don’t even need a quarter!
I’ll get back to car-focused content, of course, but I was just excited that I actually managed to get this thing done in time, and I wanted to show all of you. Thanks for indulging me!
It’s charming Jason! 😀
Awesome project! I’ve ended up with loads of plants in my office; I also tend to keep poinsettias long after Christmas, and set them outside once it’s warm enough. I guess I didn’t move my current collection far enough away when the house was pressure washed last week; only one of them still has nice green leaves.
With a water button and kids, that orchid is probably toast. If it lives, you should let it retire to a window in your house because it clearly wants to live
I hope there’s a moisture sensor to disable the water button so you don’t drown those poor plants? Or are they growing in coir and you’re using a flood/drain setup? (no, don’t ask me how I know about those)
Amazing! Sadly I‘d have to cross an ocean to „play“ it. So I just wish everyone who can make it a great time.
I love it. The graphic design is genius.
I want that cabinet to grow my medicinal herb, now that it’s legal in my state.
I’d keep the grow lights on all the time, and change the button to add a little more light.
Mighty impressive! Especially considering that you all got it done in only a couple of days. Kudos to you all.
It’ll be interesting to see how well the plants thrive after such indiscriminate watering and such wanton photosynthesizing. For all too many people plants will just up and die because they were overwatered, underwatered, overlit, underlit, or a *combination* of all of the above. If my cats didn’t get to them first my plants always just gave up the ghost no matter what I did (or didn’t.)
For actual car-related content, in the 1970s and early 80s a local pizza parlor here in a suburb of an East TN college town had this rather over-the-top pinball machine with a drag-racing theme. One of the race cars featured in the main art had its engine exploding through the hood with pistons, piston rods, valves, and springs flying everywhere. Pretty ludicrous. And hilarious. Very slightly reminiscent of Rat Fink/Kustom Kulture art of the 50s & 60s but the aesthetics were more like air-brushed carnival art (some of which would’ve been seen on the sides of conversion vans) and indeed in line with other pinball machines of the 70s & 80s.
Over the years I’ve sporadically searched online to find information but so far to no avail. This is similar, the 1978 Bally Nitro Ground Shaker https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/630f7e3a17d08a21ae05d20a/6506035cedcdaf3d6b8f2900_20230916T0713-e532b2e5-a2e1-4f56-b69f-878627a6accb.avif but nary an exploding engine to be seen anywhere.
It didn’t seem to have been an one-off and it’s extremely unlikely that it was, uh, home-made in light of the complexity of 70s pinball machines. Someday I’ll find more information but as of today, including some admittedly not overly intensive internet searching, so far no luck.
Here’s an idea for a sequel: Same thing but filled with local carnivorous plants. Add a tiny claw to pick up and drop bugs into their gaping maws.
I was starting to think Torch got suspended from Cold Start for making too many late submissions. This is so much better and very cool.
Simply incredible. Huzzah!
Also YOU get bonus points for fixing that dumb flywheel.
This is extremely enjoyable stuff.
The styling and execution are PERFECT. When I saw the hed image I thought it was an actual late-80s video game. I imagine some folks are gonna just keep mashing HYDRATE until they get bored so I hope there’s good drainage and maybe a limiter.
This project is very much in line with the art projects at burning man, though I haven’t seen any plant based yet.
There are regionals in your area you could show it in.
On the glass theme, a friend had a leaky aquarium, so made hanging fish to display inside.
Much more effective than you’d imagine.
You and Murilee Martin and definitely cut from very similar cloths.
I’m here for Plantopian!
Oh man I love it! It really is fun to see your design sense outside of cars – this thing looks great. The colors you’ve got going are terrific and those layers!!
I’m old enough to have reverse painted animation cells for my dad (child labor!), and initial thought was WOW. Still very impressive how professional the graphics are, even though the dang kids are spoiled rotten, what with new- fangled tech sorcery.
Love it. Slaps!
That’s so awesome!
It’s totally Awesome! And totally car related. It’s grounded to the ground!
Really cool concept and nice execution. My wife studied horticulture and botany and has more plants in our house that I could dream of keeping alive myself so I am now considering future projects inspired by this.
Hopefully the cabinet was gutted because there’s people that would go nuts for having access to those parts to restore their cabinet. Not a criticism at all, I love the concept and I hope those extras were recycled to other gamers. :-p
It didn’t have the original color vector monitor, so it’s not a huge tragedy or anything. I think Torch is smart enough to not have tossed the parts to a working Tempest, but a Tempest converted into a Golden Axe likely didn’t have anything too exciting left in the cabinet. It’s possible that original side art still hides under that black paint though!
I can’t wait to check it out!
Wow, that’s really cool. Thanks for sharing.