Pactuator: a mechanical, hand-cranked Pac-Man

JMG sez, "I made a working clockwork Pac-Man figure that I call 'The Pactuator,' along with its own frame and hand-crank. It's going to be part of a larger project: a playable, mechanical Pac-Man cabinet, called 'Pac Machina.'"

I call it the Pactuator. I kind of fell in love with the little guy, but it's going to be a (long) while before the game is ready. In the meantime I wanted a nice way to display and play with it (and keep myself inspired to finish the full project). To that end, I drew up a feeble pastiche of a Victorian frame with a Pac-Man motif, laser engraved it in some wood, and made a little display, complete with a hand-crank.

Pactuator

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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the_headless_rabbit

This thing is fantastic!

The elegance of the gears blows my mind.

PS: It’s pretty cool to have something that I’ve actually seen in person and held with my own hands appear on BoingBoing.
I can only imagine how it must feel to have something that you’ve done appear on BoingBoing.
Congrats!
MadRat

Now if you combined that with Pac Gentleman….
holtt

That’s some sweet clever gearwork and mechanical linkage there! I now know of the Scotch Yoke as well. Was fun to see the video of the laser etching the piece of wood – I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of those in action like that.

My only critique/suggestion is to stay away from pine – it looks like just cheap wood (which it is). Pine that’s been stained (or laser etched) looks like a low grade, cheap “antiquing” job. On the other hand, pine that’s sat in the sun and “tanned” and been covered with some low grade shellac and bees wax has a great golden glow to it not unlike real antique pine furniture.
- JMG
  
  Thanks for the kind words, holtt! As for the pine, well, this is the first time I’ve done anything like this and, to be fair, it IS a cheap and dirty antiquing job. If (when) I do it in the future, I’ll look into some of your suggestions.