| Ed. Note: This is the 6th in our series of books we'd take with us on a deserted island if we could only pick ten. Today's list comes from Meghan Volchko, a librarian and Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive.
Note from Meghan: This was really hard. I regret everything. Can I just bring my iPad and some kind of solar charger and get OverDrive books from CCPL? A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway Hemingway is my favorite American author, and as a recovering English major, I need to have this book. Hemingway's own experiences in World War I lead to this beautiful story of love and pain and the horrors of war. I am in awe of his succinct writing style, so unlike my own. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo I have never read this book, but I figure what better time to read an epic novel then when you are abandoned on an island? Also, I think that it will answer lots of the burning questions I have from the musical (like whatever happened to Jean Valjean's sister after he was sent to prison for stealing bread for her), and give me a chance to belt out all of the songs with no one around to judge me. The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor If you have never read Flannery O'Connor, you are missing out on one of the most unique voices in American literature. She captures modern Southern gothic, and I challenge you not to enjoy these dark tales, honest and full of life. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides This book, and how it looks at gender, is almost more relevant today than it was when it came out in the mid-2000s. The story of a multi-generational family of Greek immigrants in Detroit, it shows the American dream and all of the skeletons in the closet that can come along with it. This is a book that stays with you long after you are finished. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Confession 1: I am a sucker for time travel romance (especially when it is a well written and researched as this book); Confession 2: I have read this book at least 6 times; Confession 3: I have read no other books in the series (but one of these days, I will, just not on a deserted island). Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm Who doesn't love a book of fairy tales? Princesses, frogs, fire-hot iron shoes that an evil queen must dance in until she dies, these are the original versions of the tales that we knew and loved as children, not knowing how dark and creepy they really were. While these would have frightened me as a child, as an adult, I find them fascinating (and still frightening). Bel Canto by Ann Patchett You can hear the music in this book. Patchett weaves song through this story of terrorism and survival, and it really is a masterpiece of a story. If you are a character-driven reader, which I am, you will love all of the stories of all of those involved in this story of a prolonged hostage situation in South America. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz This book… I barely even know where to start, but this story of an outcast Dominican American super nerd growing up in New Jersey and trying to fit in is one of my favorite books ever. The amount of "Easter eggs" of science fiction and fantasy are impossible to catch in one reading, and Oscar's family requires an additional visit as well. Plus there are footnotes! All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot My parents introduced me to James Herriot at a young age, both in book form and the amazing BBC series (which I used to binge-watch in the dark days of VHS). His stories of being a young veterinarian in Yorkshire, England in the 1940s are a must-read for any animal lover. This book is close to my heart, as will all of the quirky townsfolk and their furry family members be to you after just a few chapters. Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Department of the Army I like to eat. I also know that I would totally end up like Foxface from The Hunger Games if I was left alone to try to survive by foraging for my own food, so if I have the opportunity to have some survival tools, I'm going to take them.
Meghan Volchko is a librarians and a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
Monday, September 7, 2015
Meghan’s 10 deserted island books
Amazon to release a $50 Fire Tablet
| Amazon is gearing up to release a Fire Tablet this Fall that will carry a very economical price point of $50 US. This will be the first time that the Seattle company has ever devised a throwaway gadget that will likely appeal to people who want to use it in the kitchen or bring it out into the rigors of the world. Aside from the new six inch tablet, Amazon also has plans to release a new seven and ten inch tablet. This should round off their new portfolio of devices, but it remains to be seen if they will be accepted by customers. Outside of the US, the Fire line of tablets does not have the footprint that Amazon would like, because the market is too saturated. |
These are the Most Popular Books in US Libraries
| Public libraries in the United States are the destination of choice to checkout new books, without breaking the bank. Titles like Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman and Paula Hawkins' novel The Girl on the Train have huge waiting lists and this has prompted people to take a gander at new material. Today, lets look at the top books all over the US, mapped by city excluding the two above titles. The time period for the checkout lists varied by library, but all were each library's most recent figures. Most of this data comes from reports from July, others for August, and some spanned multiple recent months. |
10 Free Kindle eBooks for Labor Day
| Here’s a roundup of ten free highly-rated Kindle ebooks for Labor Day 2015, along with some Kindle book deals. Please note that the free Kindle ebooks are free as of September 7th, 2015. Most of these titles are free for a limited time only; most will expire in a few days or less before going […] |
DJ MistaJam and Sam Aaron compose using code
| Live coder, researcher, MagPi contributor and creator of the music live coding platform Sonic Pi, Sam Aaron has recently found the time to teach BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra DJ MistaJam how to code music. Sam and MistaJam look at Bizet’s Carmen before working their magic on updating it and creating a new arrangement through live coding. If you are based in the UK then you can watch their session on the BBC website here. Live coding masterclass for DJ MistaJam from Sam Aaron with Sonic Pi If you are unable to watch the video there is no need to feel left out, Sam has provided the code from the session for you to play in Sonic Pi and experiment with yourself. This session is part of the BBC’s Ten Pieces initiative for schools which aims to open up the world of classical music to children and inspire them to develop their own creative responses to the pieces through music, dance, digital art and performance poetry. It includes teaching resources for both primary and secondary and officially launches in October 2015 with free screenings of a brand new cinematic film featuring stunning footage of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performing a new selection of orchestral music, representing a wide range of styles and eras relevant to the Key Stage 3/3rd Level music curriculum. Benton Park Primary have featured on our blog for their Sonic Pi Orchestra and were in fact one of last year's Ten Pieces finalists! Sam is a regular at Picademy helping to train and inspire teachers Teaching music and teaching computer science have been at the heart of Sonic Pi development over the past few years. We have an entire Key Stage 3 Sonic Pi scheme of work containing lesson plans for computing in our free resources and as part of the Sonic Pi Live and Coding Project there is a scheme of work for teaching Key Stage 3 Music too. Sam often speaks about Sonic Pi in education as well as seeing programming as a performance like in his TEDxNewcastle talk: Outside of the curriculum, Sonic Pi is a fantastic way to unleash your creativity and learn how to code. We always include the latest version of Sonic Pi on our operating system Raspbian, and we have resources to get you started dropping your first beats. Sam is also a regular contributor to The MagPi, our official Raspberry Pi magazine. In issue 37 Sam introduces us to beat stretching, filtering and slicing with Sonic Pi v2.6 as he continues to push the boundaries of music creation with his free and open source software. So what are you waiting for? Why not use Sonic Pi to create your own creative responses to one of the Ten Pieces and let us know how you get on. The post DJ MistaJam and Sam Aaron compose using code appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Sunday, September 6, 2015
How Much Money do Libraries Spend on e-Books?
 Click to Enlarge A staggering 95% of all libraries in the United States have an e-book collection. Sometimes we take this granted and get irked that there is a long waiting list for a New York Times bestseller. Why can’t libraries simply have enough titles to meet the demand? The answer, is that libraries are gouged on the price for digital content from the publishers. This might surprise a fair amount of people, but the average library paid six times the consumer price for e-books on the USA Today bestseller list. This is not greed due to distributors such as 3M, Baker & Taylor or Overdrive, but the publishers. When a bookstore orders a hardcover or paperback book they normally get it for 45% less than the sticker price. This gives them the ability to make a small, but meaningful profit. Libraries on the other hand are paying $72 for Between The World And Me: Notes On The First 150 Years In America by Ta-nehisi Coates, whereas Amazon charges the reader $9.99. I talked to the American Library Association recently about their about their efforts to get more favorable e-book pricing and they told me that "the reason why publishers are so hostile to libraries is because the e-Books are loaned out to people who might otherwise be customers, the publishers need to compensate for those perceived losses." James Larue of the Douglas County Library system recently said “libraries and taxpayers who support libraries are being ripped off in ways that not only outrageously inflate the payment to publishers (surely their costs are not three times greater to provide the book to us than to the consumer), they also greatly reward distributors. The result? At a time when about half of our patrons use e-readers, we barely offer 10% of our collections to them in their preferred format. When does a vicious price become complicity between publisher and distributor, to the detriment of the public?” |
Today is National Read a Book Day
| There are few mainstream reading holidays in North America and Europe. The main one is April 3rd, World Book and Copyright Day where old copyrights expire. Today though, is the second biggest day of the year, National Read a Book Day. It is time to turn off the television and other electronics and enjoy the relaxation of reading. You may have young children or elderly in your home, if so, then you can spend quality time together by reading them a book or two. Do you intend on visiting a bookstore, library or have a literary themed date today? You can use the Twitter hashtag #NationalReadABookDay and keep the world informed your plans. |
Saturday, September 5, 2015
The National Federation of the Blinds War Against Amazon
| Amazon has been trying to make inroads in the educational market for the last six years and they have been consistently been stymied by the National Federation of the Blind. The organization has done everything from staging protests outside the Amazon Seattle headquarters and filing petitions to United States Departments of Education and Justice. Over the course of the month Amazon won a $30 million dollar bid to provide the The New York City Department of Education to create a single, massive e-book marketplace for the city's 1,800 public schools. The National Federation of the Blind has been sending the Educational Department over 10 different emails, trying to persuade them to cancel the deal and even threatened to stage a protest. The campaign worked and 24 hours before the final vote to approve the Amazon contract the Education Department officials issued their decision to postpone the initiative. The National Federation of the Blinds biggest concern with Amazon trying to break into the e-book market in New York is the lack of MathML. The Kindle format for e-readers and tablets does not support complex mathematical formats, but EPUB3 does. The NFB also has concerns that the Fire line of tablets does have audio capabilities to read text aloud, vision impaired people need assistance to set it up. The organization is trying to convince New York to employ Vitalsource technology because they use the evolving standard MathJax javascript framework to render MathML. MathJax fully supports accessibility including ChromeVox, Texthelp, JAWS, MathPlayer with more player support planned. Amazon and the National Federation of the Blind have been at war with each other since 2008. Amazon originally tried to enter the educational market in 2009 and the NFB immediately filed a lawsuit and filed complaints against several of these institutions. These claims prompted a June 29, 2010, Joint Dear Colleague Letter from the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice warning educational institutions not to purchase inaccessible technology. A follow-up FAQ from the Department of Education made it clear that the prohibition against the purchase of inaccessible technology also applied to libraries and K-12 schools. In a May 2013 letter, the Department of Education affirmed its position that a school would be in violation of federal law if it adopted technology that offers the features of Whispercast. Everyone needs an arch-nemesis. He-man has Skeletor, Tigra has Mumra, GI.Joe has Cobra and Amazon has the National Federation of the Blind. |
Yes Please Paperback is Cheaper than the e-book
| Yes Please by Amy Poehler has been a perennial New York Times Bestseller since it initially debuted October of 2014. The title just became available in paperback this week and it is retailing for $9.87 at Barnes and Noble and $9.53 at Amazon. The biggest concern about the paperback edition is that it is more affordable than the e-book. Barnes and Noble is selling the e-book edition of Yes Please for $11.99, Amazon $10.43, Kobo $11.99, iBooks $11.99 or directly from the publisher HaperCollins for $14.99. Every major online retailer is selling the digital edition for a higher price than the paperback. This has become a major trend over the last calendar year as all of the major publishers have signed new e-book contracts with the likes of Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo and Gooogle. The publishers now are chiefly responsible for dictating the digital price and the wholesale concept that Amazon pioneered is going the way of the Dodo Bird. Suffice to say, if you have yet to read Yes Please by Amy Poehler I recommend purchasing the paperback edition, as it is way cheaper than the e-book. |
Bamboo Spark Might be the Ultimate Note Taking Device
| Wacom has just developed a new product called the Bamboo Spark that might be the most economical note taking device. It also has app capabilities to send your drawings or annotations to your smartphone or tablet. The Bamboo Spark uses Wacom’s stylus input technology to allow the folio to capture the movement of the pen, allowing it to record images drawn by the user the pen and paper, effectively creating a digital copy of the drawing or other data as an image file for safe keeping or later editing. The folio contains an EMR (Electro-Magnetic Resonance) board that works with the supplied Bamboo Spark pen, which also functions as a traditional ink pen. Using an A5-sized pad of paper, the board sits behind the sheets, recording the movements of the special pen. The battery is said to last for up to eight hours of continuous use, while the ink refills for the Bamboo Spark pen will apparently last for up to three months of typical use. The Spark has a few mobile apps for iOS and Android and you can send data directly to your device via Bluetooth. It will be available for sale starting this October and will cost $160.
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Friday, September 4, 2015
Goodreads Comes to Kindles in the UK and Ireland
| Goodreads and Amazon have announced that Goodreads integration is coming to Kindle ebook readers and Fire tablets in the UK and Ireland. A software update will add the new Goodreads features to the Kindle Paperwhite (all models), the Kindle Voyage, and the current entry-level Kindle, as well as the confusing number of Fire HD and […] |
Publishers Earning Less Revenue From High e-book Prices
| Major publishers have all signed new deals with Amazon, giving them the power to set their own prices. This has dramatically increased the cost of the average bestselling title and customers are steadily buying less of them. Within the last calendar year Penguin/Random House, Simon and Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Macmillan have all signed long term contracts with Amazon. In the past, Amazon had the ability to sell e-books on a wholesale basis. Due to the rising popularity of the format, and the billion dollar digital book market, publishers wanted more control over the price. The end result is e-books costing significantly more money. This week there wasn't a single title priced at $9.99 among the top 20 titles on the company's Kindle best-seller list. Last summer, Amazon offered the digital edition of James Patterson's thriller "Invisible" for the bargain price of $8.99. Mr. Patterson's newest tale of suspense, "Alert," went on sale Aug. 3 on Amazon for $14.99, a price set by Hachette. The average e-book a year ago cost $9.99, and many customers found that was the ideal price for a digital title. It was cheaper than a paperback and dramatically more affordable than purchasing the hardcover edition. Now, things are almost reversed. Many new digital titles cost in excess of $17.99, which are driving away people looking for digital deals. Publisher e-book sales have been stagnating since 2013, when they fell 2.5%, according to Publishers Marketplace's analysis of AAP data. The Association of American Publishers has just released their annual data report a month ago and in the first three months of 2015 e-book sales have plummeted 7.5% from the same period last year. Meanwhile, Hachette is reporting that e-books fell to 24% of its U.S. net trade sales in the first half of 2015, from 29% a year earlier. Declining e-book sales contributed to a 7.8% drop in revenue in the period. The high e-book prices we pay now are directly attributed to publishers greed. They wanted to prevent Amazon from lowballing e-book prices and putting other digital bookstores out of business and they have now shot themselves in the foot. e-Book sales are falling all over North America because people don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for an e-book. |
GoBox: A Robotics Subscription Service
| Kit maker Dexter Industries pulled the wraps off their latest Kickstarter, GoBox, the first-ever robot subscription service. It’s aimed at kids age 7 and up along with the help of an adult. No prior knowledge of robotics is required and step-by-step guides and videos will be provided.
In the first month of service, kids will receive the popular GoPiGo kit to act as the core of their robot. This kit includes a Raspberry Pi, chassis, battery pack, motors, motor controller board, and wheels. Each subsequent month, they’ll receive a new component such as a sound sensor, servo, light sensor, and many more. Each month, they’ll also receive step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish a particular mission. See their Kickstarter page for details on the different backer rewards and a sample draft mission. Of course, we’re delighted that Dexter Industries uses Raspberry Pi in their robotics kits. Why do they like our computer? I’ll let John Cole, Dexter’s Founder & CEO, speak for himself:
Check out the GoBox Kickstarter for more details. The post GoBox: A Robotics Subscription Service appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Michael Bay Starting a Digital Comics Imprint
| Michael Bay is best known for blockbuster Hollywood movies like the Transformers and Bad Boys. He is going to be starting a new initiative soon, interactive digital comics. Bay’s 451 Media Group has set up an interactive publishing division which will create a series of graphic novels that will walk the line between traditional page turners and cutting edge digital media. Nothing has been created yet, but Bay is tapping into a number of screenwriters to generate some buzz. Currently announced are Con Air’s Scott Rosenberg, Swordfish’s Skip Woods, The Wire’s George Pelecanos, Black Mass’ Mark Mallouk, novelist Clay McLeod Chapman, and visual effects artists Peter and Paul Williams. 451 will partner with online video network Machinima to distribute the content, starting with sneak peeks this summer. The actual graphic novels are supposed to debut at around the time of New York Comic Con in October.
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B&N Announces Samsung Galaxy S2 Nook for $400
| Three days ago Good e-Reader broke the news that Barnes and Noble was extending their partnership with Samsung and going to release the Galaxy S2 for Nook. It looks like I was right and the Nations largest bookseller announced the news officially today. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 for Nook is available today for $400, which is a bit on the pricier side. The tablet features an 8 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels with 320 PPI. Underneath the hood is a Octacore processor featuring a Quad-core 1.9 GHz & quad-core 1.3 GHz. There will be 3G of RAM and an SD card that supports up to 128 GB of extra memory. It is unclear whether Barnes and Noble will support two different variants of memory, since Samsung has both 32/64 GB for internal storage. You will be able to take pictures via the rear facing 8 MP camera or employ the front-facing 2 MP camera for video conferencing. What is surprising about this new tablet is that it continues to maintain exclusive Samsung branding and does not even have the Nook logo anywhere on the hardware. If you were to put the stock Samsung Galaxy S2 8.0 from B&N and the Samsung branded one side by side, you wouldn’t notice any difference. Barnes and Noble is making this tablet their own, in the same way the did with the Samsung Galaxy Tab for Nook 7 and 10 inch models released last year. They have a number of customized apps on the home screen, such as a library, e-book reader and digital bookstore. This apps are entirely unique to this tablet and aren’t available on Google Play. This is the best tablet Barnes and Noble has ever released, in terms of overall specs and hardware performance. One of the advantages you will have purchasing this from the bookstore is that if you have any questions, concerns or warranty issues you can bring it right to the shop you purchased it from and get immediate support. The question is, will you buy this $400 tablet from Barnes and Noble? |
Get a Kindle Voyage for $169 – Certified Refurbished
| Last month Amazon started selling refurbished Kindle Voyages, but at the time they only had the 3G model for $219, which is $50 off the regular price of a new one. Now Amazon has also started selling the cheaper non-3G model as well. It costs $169, and is the refurbished Special Offers Kindle Voyage. Special […] |
B&N Releases New 8-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 Nook for $399
| Barnes and Noble has announced the latest addition to their line of Samsung branded Nook tablets with the release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 Nook. The Tab S2 Nook is an 8-inch tablet with high-end specs. It has a Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 (320 ppi)—perfect for ereading. It’s […] |
Jill’s 10 deserted island books
| Ed. Note: This is the 5th in our seris of books we’d take with us on a deserted island if we could only pick ten. Today’s list comes from Jill Grunenwald, a librarian and Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive.
Angels in America by Tony Kushner Have you ever read a book that digs down deep into your bones? The kind that leaves poignant lines lingering to such a degree that you can quote them decades later? For me, that is Tony Kushner's brilliant and heartbreaking play which won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Set in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the themes presented feel just as timely and the conversations just as necessary in 2015. Candyfreak by Steve Almond Self-proclaimed candyfreak Steve Almond takes on the delicious task of investigating the small, often regional, candy companies that are struggling to survive in a world where big name chocolate dominates the market. Granted, having this book might make me hungry while on an island but at least I won't have to worry about all the chocolate melting in the tropical sun. Daphne's Book by Mary Downing Hahn Narrator Jessica is a shy bookworm who struggles with losing friendships amid the perils of middle-school popularity and social hierarchy. To say I self-identified with her is an understatement. When Jessica is forced to work with outcast Daphne on a school writing project, both girls learn lessons that reach far outside the classroom. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling This Slytherin would be remiss if she didn't include at least one of the Harry Potter books on this list, although I admit that it's odd to include the penultimate title. But if I can only have one book from the series with me on a deserted island, it would be this one. Graceful and gorgeous, it's the perfect lead up to saying farewell to beloved characters. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski A haunted house story told through multiple narratives is probably the best, and least complicated, way of describing this dense opus that plays with form and page layout in a whole new way. Reading this is like attempting to navigate a labyrinth, which is probably not accidental since Danielewski's debut was partially inspired by the myth of the Minotaur. I Will Love You For the Rest of My Life: Breakup Stories by Michael Czyzniejewski I should preface this by saying that Mike was my thesis advisor when I got my BFA in Creative Writing and is still a good friend, but lest you think I'm biased, know that I'd have this on my list regardless. His stories are wild and weird and wonderful with the perfect balance of humor and heartache. "High Treason" is my personal favorite. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood There are no enough words in the English language to describe how much I love Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel set in a terrifyingly near future. (And by "terrifyingly near," I mean I would not be surprised to wake up a week from today and find myself in this world.) The first of a trilogy, it was followed by The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier I first discovered du Maurier's classic gothic romance through my mom, who utterly adores this book. My copy was purchased at my fifth grade book fair and I staunchly remember running out to the kitchen at certain key moments and her just nodding with a knowing smile. I was also completely blown away by the thought of reading a book where we never learn the first name of the narrator. The Secret History by Donna Tartt Set at an elite college in Vermont, Tartt's debut follows a socially isolated group of students and the lasting effects that come from a murder within the group. Mind you, this is not a spoiler. In fact, The Secret History is not a whodunit but a whydunit as the situation and circumstances leading up to the murder unfold through the eyes of our narrator. Fun Fact: a now grown-up Francis Abernathy makes a cameo appearance in Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winning The Goldfinch. Valley of the Dolls by Jacquelinne Susann. I feel like this one needs a #sorrynotsorry, but, really. Sorry, not sorry. This is one of a handful of books that I read on an annual basis going all the way back to high-school. It's trashy and tawdry and received horrible reviews when first published in 1966. If anything, though, its disreputable reputation is exactly what made it an overnight success. As I've gotten older, my understanding of Anne's motives has changed, making each reading a new experience.
Jill Grunenwald is a librarian and a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
Apple Signs up 50 Major News Publishers for Apple News
| This fall Apple will be launching a new app called Apple News and the company has been very busy trying to secure plenty of launch partners. They have now secured over 50 publishers to distribute their content through the platform. The list of publishers includes Conde Nast, Vox Media, Mashable , New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, BuzzFeed, Quartz, ESPN, and our very own publication Good e-Reader. The publishers participating with Apple News are said to be very happy about the revenue share system. Apple has verified that publishers will be able to sell their own display adds within the app and keep 100% of the revenue. Apple says it will also sell ads itself directly within the app with its advertising platform iAd, and partners who wish to benefit from Apple's salesmanship will keep 70% of the revenue. Apple has a tremendous amount of competition in the online news space and one has to wonder if it will ever replace Flipboard, Feedly, Newsify, Google News, Buzzfeed and Smart News. Facebook has also redoubled their efforts in the last year with positioning news within their social media experience on the PC. The exact launch date of Apple News will likely be known on September 9th, when Apple has a major event planned. It is thought they will be announcing the iPhone 6s, iPad Mini 4 and a new version of Apple TV. |
Barrel o’ Fun: Arcade machine barrel table
| What do you do if you are given a big old wine barrel? You could make it into a twee garden planter; go over Niagara Falls in it; or cut off the end and make a secret passage like in Scooby Doo. Or you could do the obvious thing and build a Raspberry Pi-powered arcade machine. Matt Shaw did just that. Arcade games, wine and Donkey Kong style barrels—three of our favourite things in one. The arcade machine in all it’s barelly glory The machine itself has the benefit of a sit-down cocktail cab (you can put your drinks on top) with the standup advantage of being able to jostle your opponent. It's a nice clean build—deliberately low tech—wired using crimps and block connectors with no soldering. The Raspberry Pi runs the excellent PiPlay, an OS for emulation and gaming. The other great thing about this project is its scrounginess. Reusing and repurposing makes us happy and this whole project does just that: an unloved 4:3 monitor, free table glass from online classifieds and an old barrel. The main costs were the buttons, joysticks and wiring and the whole build came in at around £90. The circuit tester is quite brilliant Although we've blogged about Pi-powered arcade machines before (we have two in Pi Towers, we like them, OK? :)) the point is that if you have a Pi lying around then you can make a games machine out of almost anything. For not much money. (And as someone who spent every Saturday feeding their pocket money into arcade machines in seedy arcades in Southport, that's an amazing thing.) The post Barrel o’ Fun: Arcade machine barrel table appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |