Our Saturday open house event is returning next year, starting on January 7th. So if you can’t make it to our Wednesday night event, feel free to check us out on Saturdays.
Saturday open house starts at 2PM; hope to see you there!
Flying Robots At Hive
Yesterday we had the Philadelphia Robotics Group (PHROG) stop by for their monthly meeting. We demoed a few robots, talked other projects, and we also talked about the possibility of having classes and workshops in the future.
The coolest part of the night was when Glen Adukas demoed his flying quadrotor robot. It still needs a few tweaks here and there, but he was able to get it off the ground.
Our next meeting will be October the 13th. Feel free to join us!
Artemis and Star Trek DVD Watch this Saturday
Hey folks,
At this Saturday’s open house we’ll be playing Artemis Spaceship Bridge simulator, and then watching a few episodes of Star Trek (the original series) on behalf of the Philadelphia Star Trek Meetup Group. They’ve been having trouble finding a place to meet for their DVD nights, so we were happy to lend a hand. The schedule is Artemis from 2:30 PM to 5 PM and Star Trek from 5 PM until as long as unanimously decided.
So if you’ve got an itch that you just can’t scratch for both interactive and non-interactive Trek (sorta), then beam on down to Hive 76 this weekend.
Engage!
6/11/11 Open House Wrap-Up
First Officers Log, Stardate 64941.3…
Yesterday we ran a few games of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator at our new Saturday Open House event, and we had a ton of fun. This time we decided to try out the “Into the Breach: Starfleet” mod by a team called NegativeZone. Basically, it’s a Starfleet mod for the game. It changes the main ship (the Artemis) into the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), and also changes the enemies to the familiar: Romulan, Klingon, and Orion varieties. Personally, it was a great experience to be fighting Klingons and instead of the default game’s “Argonians” for a change. Since Artemis is not a Paramount/Universal intellectual property, this would not have been possible without a mod team like NegativeZone.
Of course we had the great Chris Thompson as our captain. We also had a few IRC regulars come in and play. Steve (aka Inspired Chaos) did a great job at helm, and Alex (aka Derpy) was awesome at his engineering duties. As fairly new players I have have to hand it to these guys, they’re quick learners and worked well under pressure. Lastly, I manned the science and communication stations simultaneously.
We played a few games at a very easy difficulty level to start off with. We swiftly won those games. Then, we moved up to level 5. It was alot harder, with enemy ships capable of warp speed, as well as enemies with cloaking capabilities; but we ended up actually winning!
This game is really great fun all around, and everyone is invited to play our next game on Saturday, June 25th. Be sure to bring your laptop or netbook.
Live long and prosper!
Week of 5/15/11 Saturday Open House Wrap-Up
Hey folks,
Yesterday we kicked off our new Saturday open house event, and it was awesome! We had some Hive regulars come by and get some work done on various projects, and we played a bunch of rounds of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator as well.
During out Artemis games, we linked up with 091 Labs who hail from the Republic of Ireland, and a fellow science fiction enthusiast in Pittsburgh who manned his own ship. There were many, many close calls and fun was had by all.
We’ll be holding another open house this Saturday, so watch out for it if you can’t make it this Wednesday night.
Hope to see you there!
Announcing New Saturday Open House!
Starting this Saturday we’re adding an additional open house to our event calendar. The event will start at 2 PM. Our hope is that people who couldn’t find the time to make our Wednesday event will be able to make this one.
This Saturday we’ll be kicking off our new open house with a gaming session of Artemis Spaceship Bridge simulator, and that’s something you don’t want to miss!
See you there!
Saturday Open House
Hive 76 (915 Spring Garden)
Saturdays, @ 2:00 PM
Hackerspace-Wide Gaming
Tuesday we played Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator internationally with another hackerspace, 091 Labs in Galway Ireland. Despite time zone differences, initial network trouble on our end, and the lack of a full crew, we still had quite a bit of fun.
First we played co-operatively. Trying our best to stay some what coordinated, we swooped in on enemy fleets and made quick work of them. Either of us would get in to trouble in battle, with the other ship warping in and turning the tide at the last moment.
Eventually we challenged each other to a battle, and I must say it was extremely intense.
For the next game (May 21st), there is talk of having a few other hackerspaces possibly joining in, so stay tuned!
Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, Tuesday!
Captain’s Log, May 8th, 2011…
It’s almost time again for our Artemis Spaceship Bridge simulator night, so get ready to beam up! Due to popular demand we’re doing it twice this month (May 10th, and May 21st).
If you’ve never played Artemis before, it’s a networked computer game that simulates the bridge of a spaceship, much like what you’d see on Star Trek®. The game allows for 5 bridge officers, plus a captain, and all you need is the software (which is provided) and a laptop to play.
Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator NightHive 76 (915 Spring Garden)
Tuesday, March 10th @ 7:00 PM.
Engage!
Week of 3/16/11 Open House Recap
Hello readers,
No recap last week because I wasn’t at open house then, but I was back for this week’s. The place was already busy by the time I got there at around 7:30 PM. It was great to see everybody, and to check out what they were doing, as it felt like I hadn’t been there in awhile. We saw some new faces tonight (new to me at least), and people I hadn’t seen in some time.
Sean McBeth showed off his latest project: a multiplayer tetris clone. As far as I know, it’s the first computer game that was developed at Hive, and also the first Hive 76 themed game. 100% original code, 100% original graphics, and with some interesting planned features. There’s ingenuity for you.
Jack Zylkin showed me a cool 3D model of a narwhal he did in Blender, and Chris Tompson showed me some gears he printed for a major ongoing project. I’m constantly amazed at the stuff Chris and Jordan Miller are printing these days.
I mentioned new faces earlier, and we had a guest come by from our IRC channel. Kate aka “inquiryqueue” stopped in and completed an awesome dual-output device for practicing morse code. She came up with some pretty amazing solutions to some of the problems she faced with the project.
As with most open houses now, we capped off the night with another great karaoke session. Some highlights were Brendan Schrader doing “Africa” by Toto, Kate doing “Walkin’ After Midnight” by Patsy Cline, PJ Santoro doing “Rainbow Connection” with a spot on (and I kid you not) Kermit the Frog impersonation, me (at least in my opinion) doing “Closer to the Heart” by Rush, Sean McBeth doing “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees, Chris Thompson doing “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, and last but not least, our very own Hive 76 group chorus version of “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie.
We’ll see ya at next week’s open house!
Wednesday, March 23rd @ 8:00 PM
March Philadelphia Robotics Group Meeting Wrap-Up
Hey guys,
Another great meeting of the Philadelphia Robotics Group has gone by and it was awesome! I must say that this has been one of our more populated meetings thus far (although not the most by a bit). In addition to regular Philly Robotics members and Hive 76 members, we had a few new people show up for the group, newish people coming back from the previous month, and even a returning member from long ago.
We talked about everything from Lady Ada and her beginner Arduino kits, the work being done on our own Web presence (phillyrobotics.org), to a project concerning a radio controlled Dalek (of Doctor Who fame).
All in all a great 3rd meeting for the year. See you all next month on the 14th!