Thursday, May 10, 2012

Snout Games FTW (Part 4 of 4)

Last week, Mike Selinker's Wired article on "The 10 Greatest 'Games' Ever Played" mentioned 4 different Team Snout productions. Let me show you them.

Previous: Police Detectives!

8. FoBiK coffin

Here's the coffin being inspected on location, inside a self-storage space in Oakland, by GC member Jeff Allen. (Photo by Curtis C. Chen)



And here's a look at the electronics inside, built by GC member Cary Roberts. There was no actual power switch, so we had to take some reference photos to show which wires to connect to turn on the device. (Photo by Curtis C. Chen)



Two switches had to be closed to activate the audio playback: first, a spring-loaded sensor inside the coffin, requiring someone to rest their head inside the coffin (right on top of the speakers); and second, a contact in the hinge, so the lid actually had to be closed. By the time the last team went through, both switches had been broken and jammed into their "on" positions. That's okay--we heard that some teams refused to get in the coffin at all, but this way, they were still able to enjoy the puzzle.

The coffin itself was built by GC helper Todd Stansell, who took it home after The Game and used it as a coffee table until his wife got sick of it. It eventually ended up with our friend (and current GC member) Acorn Pooley, and periodically shows up as a prop in his annual Halloween haunted house.

For more information about FoBiK, check out our GC wrap-up site.

And that's it for this trip down memory lane! If you'd like to hear more about what happens behind the scenes at Game Control, tune into the SnoutCast every Tuesday morning.

Would you like to play The Game? You're in luck: Team Snout is planning another event for this August in Portland, Oregon. Go to WarTron.NET for more details!

Curtis

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