I had three goes at this before I got it to work: making a game controller from a sheet of paper with pencil drawings on. Pencil lead is made of graphite, which conducts electricity, so the Makey Makey allows you to draw buttons with pencil. It’s like designing and making your own printed circuit board, only with rather cheap, disposable tools.
First up I tried an HB pencil (I guess this equates to a No. 2 pencil in the US). No luck. Then a rather cool solid graphite pencil of my daughter’s. This almost worked, but wasn’t reliable. Then eldest son lent me his 6B Koh-I-Noor art pencil. This was The Business. Our new pencil and paper gamepad works a treat. (Don’t ask me what a 6B pencil is in US currency, but it’s soft, baby, darn soft.)
I tweaked the Scaredy Squirrel Scratch game code so the game is started by a spacebar rather than clicking the green flag, so I could add a start button too. Awesome!
And speaking of pencil grades… I just found this splendid poem by Spike Milligan:
Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I’ll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?
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