My hero of the day is Jeremy Kolosine. Not only does he have a name that sounds almost like consine, but he also sent me a package with a few goodies.

Originally he was supposed to send only a NES dance mat so I could do some musical fun with it. But instead I ended getting these things:

• The above mentioned dance mat
  
• Two greyboys
  
• A CD with Shakespace, a band Jeremy was/is a member of
  
• A 12" with Receptor's music
  
• A dual-end link cable
  
• A CGB wall-plug power adapter
  
• Bubble wrap (Wtf, you think... But see below)
  

First off, the dance mat: My plan was, and is, to write some sort of music software for Gameboy to interact with the dance mat interfacing the dance mat should be easy, The original NES and SNES used a clocked serial line with a strobe pulse to read out controller status. I've been able to read out a SNES pad from the Gameboy's serial port, so it shouldn't be too much trouble. The only real problem I can see is that the mat must use some special kind of format for transfering 12 positions in only 8 bits.

I'll figure that out. Now what I need is creative ideas on how to use a dance mat to control music software. I'd love to hear ideas from you other peeps.

Unfortunately I don't have a vinyl player easily available, but I've heard an mp3 of one of the songs, and I liked it!

As for the GB's: One of them has a few dirt lines on one side of the screen, the other one has a sticker on it that says AC only, which means that it can't be battery powered. These things are probably relatively easy fixesm once I get inside the boys. But using a Gameboy which is not as fucked up as my own was a real pleasure. As some people might know I tried to add a backlight to my GB, and failed, leaving the screen with almost no contrast. Apart from that, my GB had a very low sound output level, and the battery lid got stolen, probably because it had an akayism sticker on it.

So using a Gameboy with a battery lid, actual screen contrast, and a sound level which is not retarded low, is a real pleasure.

I think I ought to make a soung to celebrate this. Thank you very, very much for the things you sent me!

But now: a bit of sleep! My eyes hurt because of fatigue!