fo' drizzle.
Mai Bui, Ben Cohen, Yuto Watanabe, David Zhang
ME218A, Fall '15
Background
Snoop Dogg, a man of many names and many talents, has found a new calling – a political calling. Naturally, his first step is to run for President, with a campaign based upon a unique method to abate the horrific drought currently looming over the western parts of the United States. Snoop discovered this unique method whilst embarking on one of his many spiritual journeys—on this particular journey, Snoop connected with the powerful (and spiteful) god of rain, who showed Snoop a dance the people of the earth could perform to bring about rainfall. In addition, the rain god told Snoop that his fellow, more technologically-inclined humans were capable of seeding the clouds with more water to enhance the yield of each rainfall. Sparing no time, Snoop ended that journey to make ‘Fo’ Drizzle,’ Snoop’s very own Drought Abatement Mechanism, to promote his run for President, inspire civic pride in the citizens of The United States, and save us from the drought all at once! |
The DAM
Snoop’s DAM, ‘Fo’ Drizzle,’ takes two players to save us from the drought. One player performs the sacred rain dance, waving his hands over whichever two indicating LEDs are flashing. The second player uses a joystick to move a rain barrel under whichever cloud is currently activated to catch the rain. Once during every attempt, the “Cloud Seeding” button will begin to flash, notifying the non-dancing player that the window of opportunity to seed the clouds has arrived. If the cloud seeding is activated at the right time, the rainfall will come down twice as fast. If it is not activated, it continues to fall at the same rate. During the game, a clock mounted at the top of the DAM allows the players to see how many days remain until their deadline, when the unspeakable consequences of the drought become irreversible. The players can also gauge their progress, by looking at the LEDs on the water barrel to see how much water they have collected. |
The end of the task is indicated with the ringing of bells, at which point the win/loss indicator next to the seeding button either shows Snoop’s glorious face in front of an American flag, or a haunting picture of dry dirt—and a persisting drought. Win or lose, ‘Fo’ Drizzle’ inspires pride in our country and its next president, Mr. Dogg.