Anyone have a Merlin - the toy from the 70s?

Off the wall here - I'm programming a duplicate of the classic Merlin toy from my childhood. No reason other than I have a piece of tech I want to play with and it gives me a chance to bump in to interesting things. I have the Magic Square game up and running at this point.

One of the things I want to do is design a case for my buttons (etc) that looks somewhat like the original. My Merlin is long gone (I assume, I suppose I should ask my mom) and I'm just looking for a few pictures of the unit from different angles like a straight side-on shot. Can anyone help?

This thing.

Does Janel shake her head and roll her eyes when she comes across you doing things like this? Curious minds want to know.

I do actually. Gimme like 30 minutes. 

Need any other shots let me know

I love this place. Thanks a bunch.

That's enough to start with!

NOT A TA said:

Does Janel shake her head and roll her eyes when she comes across you doing things like this? Curious minds want to know.

She operates on a "don't ask" basis. And I don't bring her into discussions of the difference between the Echo game and Simon and what that means from a psychological standpoint. It's a peaceful detente.

I present Magic Square!

Sweet baby Jesus. I just know that my parents likely still have it in the attic of their house. I haven't seen one in 40+ years. I can just see it now with how my kids are saying WTF, you guys were really dumb back then. 

In reply to Sine_Qua_Non :

I can tell you my little nephews still love Simon. The classics don't age. 

I thought some retro toy company re-released those things a few years back.

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to Sine_Qua_Non :

I can tell you my little nephews still love Simon. The classics don't age. 

My daughter bought me an original Simon for Christmas last year

This has been a fun project. Mostly it's been emulation of the different games which has been a series of tasty little bite-size programming problems - I set up a framework so each game is a separate object, makes it easy to add them in one at a time. If there's any interest, I can post the videos. One of the games is basically a music sequencer, and I'm so tempted to jack up the notes in the scale because these things always seem to have the intervals a little off. It would make me laugh, Janel has no idea why I find that idea so entertaining.

But here's the first run at the housing, thanks to RevRico's pictures!

My 3D model.

First two pieces. As usual, I assumed 0 tolerance for fit :) This still has the hairspray I use for bed adhesion on the top section, that just washes off.

Due to both bed size limitations and the challenges of printing a piece that is at a 10* angle to everything else, I had to print the upper section separately.

Final result!

There's a cable channel to let me plug the USB cable in through the top, but I'm going to need something like a fine pair of pliers to get the cable seated. Later.

I really should have put some indents in the top of the lowest section, but I might do something with stickers. Also, I'm tempted to reprint the keyboard surround in red now that I see it. But I'm pretty jazzed so far. It's not intended to be a perfect replica, it's an homage.

Because this little keyboard is basically...a keyboard...I can use it for other things. So Merlin can double as a macro launcher or specialized controller for my computer. Which is not something the original could do.

Cool project. 

I loved mine as a kid. 

I knew far more about blackjack than I should have thanks to one of these.

Keith Tanner said:

I knew far more about blackjack than I should have thanks to one of these.

Quoted for truth. 

Oddly enough, I never had a Merlin, but somehow I remember exactly what it feels like to hold the game in my hand and press the buttons. Someone I know must have had one. 

I love this place.  It makes me happy.

I seem to recall someone also working on a synthesizer.

There has to be a way to interface one with the other, even if it results in the rise of Skynet 

I never had one but my friend did.

I learned to hate the feel of a membrane keypad thanks to the Merlin and the Sinclair.

Karacticus said:

I seem to recall someone also working on a synthesizer.

There has to be a way to interface one with the other, even if it results in the rise of Skynet 

The operating system has MIDI capability, so yes :) Let's see, hook up the Merlin to the DX7 and the music sequencer gets a lot louder than a few bloops and beeps.

You know I'm going to have to do this now. Thanks a bunch.

ShawnG said:

I never had one but my friend did.

I learned to hate the feel of a membrane keypad thanks to the Merlin and the Sinclair.

Lol! I said that I remember it, but I never said that I liked it!

And my father bought an early Sinclair. Same deal...terrible keypad.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

I had a Commodore 64 but my best friend in school was a Kiwi and his parents brought their Sinclair with them.

Eventually he ended up with a TRaSh80

Holy karp you guys just flashed me back 4 decades....how do I get back now? 

It now needs retro modded like most of my electronics. 1200mah lipo, usb-c, wireless Qi, led backlighting, Nintendo switch speaker, etc. 

Keith Tanner said:

Karacticus said:

I seem to recall someone also working on a synthesizer.

There has to be a way to interface one with the other, even if it results in the rise of Skynet 

The operating system has MIDI capability, so yes :) Let's see, hook up the Merlin to the DX7 and the music sequencer gets a lot louder than a few bloops and beeps.

You know I'm going to have to do this now. Thanks a bunch.

Film at 11?