DEFCON GOG Download
Sacha Weakland
After watching the old but amazing film WarGames I decided to try and build one of the defcon signs featured in it. Two types of sign appear in the film, a large horizontal one which hangs in the main control room and a smaller vertical sign in an office. This vertical type also appears in at least one Stargate SG1 episode and is the one I decided to replicate.
To add an interesting twist I made use of the MI5 security threat level so it displays real data, although this means I am unlikely to ever get to see what the blue and green (or yellow) lights look like!
Using a vinyl cutter I cut out the numbers 1 to 5 in Helvetica (I think thats the right font) and stuck these to the acrylic. Its amazing how more complete something like this feels when the numbers go on.
The software uses the Particle API to query the MI5 RSS feed which contains the latest UK threat level. The software then translates the critical, severe, substantial, moderate, and low levels into 1 to 5 for the display.