Is there still interest in spaceship bridge sims?

I’m new to the DMS but I was running a fairly successful Empty Epsilon night at my job before changing positions. It doesn’t look like this SIG has had much activity in a while.

I have a modest 2 ship setup that uses HP T610s and a Raspberry PI4 to pxe boot the systems so I only have 1 image I need to update. The hardware except for the monitors has been standardized so it’s almost all the same to make maintenance and updates easier.

I’m curious if anyone is still holding events as I’d like to see what others have done with their setup.

3 Likes

I’ve not played but have interest from a completely different angle. I build movie sets and I am currently budgeting a small set for a scifi short film. Interested in the prospects of interactive displays on the cheap.

1 Like

I don’t know how good Empty Epsilon itself would look in a film, but 2 of my 10 stations do have touch screen interfaces. I imagine you could get one of the online LCARS interfaces if you wanted quick and dirty. I use the UT220HQL from acer that microcenter usually has on for about $200 a pop.

Paging @Dawsmart

Congrats @gwaland you’re the new SIG leader!

Kidding, but we honestly haven’t been active in years, and every time I run into @artg_dms we talk about disbanding this SIG. I blame burnout on my part.

There is definitely still interest in among Spacers; people ask me about doing another one from time to time. I ran a bunch of Artemis and then Empty Epsilon nights and we had anywhere from 5 to 17 people show up. It’s definitely fertile ground for some DMS projects, too.

I say put an event on the calendar, throw up some posters and see who shows up! My only word of advice is get some volunteers to help with setup and tear down or you’ll burn out like me. :wink:

4 Likes

I’ll have to look into what’s needed to reserve space etc. I’m not sure how that works here yet and not sure about rules for moving tables around, how to leave rooms when done, what resources such as power, screens/projectors are available, etc.

We had setup and tear down at about 30 minutes total for the group I was running previously. That didn’t include room setup for moving tables etc though.

1 Like

The rooms guide page is hardly exhaustive, but is a good place to start on what physically exists
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Rooms_Guide_page

You’ll want to reserve a room as an non-honorarium event. A walkthrough of adding events to the calendar can be found on the wiki as well:


This is geared toward ‘class’, but doing it for event is just choosing “Event” instead of “Class,” and NOT ticking the box to request honorarium.
I’m sure others here will have more advice, but that will hopefully get you started…

In case it’s not addressed elsewhere

as found is usually a good starting point.

1 Like

I’ve been to a couple events held at DMS and they were fun. Me and my son would be in for some sim time!

@gwaland

I am excited to hear you are interested in spaceship bridge simulators. I would love to see your setup! We used to hold events playing the Artemis bridge simulator, then we switched to Empty Epsilon. Let me know if you are interested in hosting a night, I would be interesting in attending.

1 Like

Add me to the email list - I’d like to check it out next time there’s an event.

1 Like