I'm looking for suggestions as to where to obtain/salvage/re-engineer
materials for the following project:
You've seen those backgammon sets that open and close like
a suitcase? I'd like a game case built like that, but with some
unique features:
1. First of all, I want the board to be an electromagnet that can
be manually turned on and off. Nice if it were both battery powered
and had an option to plug it into a wall socket.
2. As you've probably already guessed, the playing pieces will
have ferrous-metal bases. If you find the 'stickyness' of the magnetism
annoying during play, you can switch off the magnet...but it's there
as an option to "freeze" the game if you run out of time to finish
that day and want to preserve the game for another time. I'd like to use
rechargeable type batteries, so that has to be taken into consideration.
3. I'd like to incorporate a removable storage/sorting tray into the box/carrier.
Nice if at least a few of the compartments have removable dividers,
so the user/player can change where and how pieces are sorted.
It is essential that the compartment dividers come all the way up
and meet the lid, so that pieces cannot shift from one compartment
to another. Something like this:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/453815/?commentid=1069493#comment1069493
4. I'd like there to be a seperate compartment to store a pad of
scratch paper, a pair of pens, and a small (5.5" x 8.5", 30 pages)
rules booklet.
5. The carrying case should have some sort of wall-mounting hardware.
The idea is to be able to plug it in, hang it on the wall, and save the
game for later, play that way, or just admire the board.
6. Like a typical backgammon travel case, when closed this unit
should have a carrying handle, but I'd like it to be as unobtrusive as
possible when not in use. Perhaps it folds down into a depression
in the side it is mounted to. Great if the thing can fit onto a bookshelf
unobtrusively.
7. There are several games that have roughly similar-sized game
boards. Ideally, this case would accomodate removable boards.
8. An unnecessary, but fun addition would be an electronic
dice-roll generator. I'm sure there are stand-alone devices of
this type, so it's just a matter of finding space in the case to mount one.
I know that a simple solution is a sheet of ferrous metal, glue the
game board to that, glue the paper/cardboard counters to flexible
sheets of magnets, cut out the counters, and there you are. I'll probably
do at least one of those. This has various drawbacks, though.
Materials aren't all that important. I'm not looking for rosewood
or brushed stainless steel here. But it should be durable. This is
probably going to be a helluva lotta work to build, so it ought to stand
up to abuse.
