1 - Eidrog
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Help! I don't know how to do this.
Hello!I am building a haunted house activity, and I'm trying to replicate an effect I saw in another haunt that involved a typewriter! 
There was a typewriter, and no matter what key was pressed, the typewriter wrote out a spooky poem. For example, if you pressed the 'A' key, the typewriter typed 'L' - then if you pressed another key the type writer typed 'i' and so on until it wrote out an entire spooky poem, then it looped:
(your browser needs to support animated gif's to see the sample picture above)
Does anyone know how such a feat could be done? Would it require a programmable typewriter? I've been looking all over the internet trying to figure out how to do this, and so far haven't found anything. 
Any help would be greatly appreciated! 
- KatLondon
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
Hi Eidrog, that sounds really spooky! You would have to jhook that up to something or other, wouldn't you - a typewriter can only really type when someone is typing on it...
I recently sold a typewriter to a guy who runs adventure games - he wanted it for a sort of 'mad rofessor' treasure hunt, where it's going to type in code - he's going to achieve this by swapping the keys around - and people have to figure out the code. (I was fine with this because it was a fairly clapped-out machine that I'd worked my butt off just to get it operational. This was the top level of use it was going to be up to...)
You could try Typewriter USB - they sell devices (at a price) to hook your tyewriter up to a computer.
Let us know how you get on!
- Eidrog
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
KatLondon wrote:
You would have to hook that up to something or other, wouldn't you - a typewriter can only really type when someone is typing on it...
Right! Sorry, I didn't explain that very well.
The typewriter didn't type by itself, it still required someone to press the keys. It's just, rather than stamp the letter corresponding to the key that was pressed, it stamped the next letter in the poem.
For example:
User presses the A key
Type Writer writes: L
User presses the B key
Typewriter writes: Li
User presses the C key
Typewriter writes: Liz
User presses [any] key
Typewriter writes: Lizz
When it got to the end of the line. . .
Lizzie Borden took an axe
. . . and the user pressed [any] key, the typewriter scrolled down to the next line! Pressing [any] key again, made it start writing the next line.
Lizzie Borden took an axe
A
It was really neat to watch it work, I had no idea how it was doing it.
If a user typed too quickly it was prone to skipping letters, for example, if a user typed rapidly, the result would look something like:
Lizie orden took n axe
Ad gave her moher 40 whaks.
Wen she sa watshe had doe,
She ave her fthe 41.
And for what I want to do, that's fine. . . Still though, I can't figure it out. 
Thanks for the USB keyboard link! That gives me something to investigate! 
Last edited by Eidrog (01-6-2015 05:04:39)
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Thread Starter- TypewriterGuy
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
Thats going to be... fairly hard. I would try bringing t to someone, unless you are good at computers. Because it would take replacing typewriter parts with wires, and computery stuff, and programming.
Last edited by TypewriterGuy (01-6-2015 05:50:13)
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- Spazmelda
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
Was it a manual typewriter, or an electronic one? I can't see any way to do this with a manual, but thought I'd ask.
Last edited by Spazmelda (01-6-2015 05:34:32)
- Eidrog
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
Oh, good question. It was an electric typewriter, I remember it being plugged into a wall.
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Thread Starter- Eidrog
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
Thats going to be... fairly hard. I would try bringing t to someone, unless you are good at computers.
It's certainly been a challenge. I've been reaching out to lots of local typewriter repairmen, no luck so far. I could try to replicate this effect on a computer. (I know a little bit of programming) but it was fantastic seeing it work on a typewriter! 
Thanks for the replies!
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Thread Starter- Spazmelda
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
What you need is an 'old tech' geek. Hmm.
Eta: not in a derogatory way... Just someone who geeks out over old tech.
Last edited by Spazmelda (01-6-2015 06:11:37)
- KatLondon
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
I think those USB guys could be your friends... also it sounds as if you're going to need some programming work done, like an app or something.
- M. Höhne
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Re: Help! I don't know how to do this.
"Does anyone know how such a feat could be done? Would it require a programmable typewriter? I've been looking all over the internet trying to figure out how to do this, and so far haven't found anything." ---Eidrog
Well, you've probably come to the right place here....
You cannot accomplish this with a manual nor an electric typewriter either. Any typebar machine has a one-to-one connection between the key you press and the slug that prints the character, whereas the requirement is to print a specific character no matter which key is pressed.
Also not with any USB conversion that I know of. USB typewriters are one-way communication, sending the keystroke signals to the computer. But the computer cannot send signals to the typewriter and even if it did, it couldn't make the keys move mechanically (unless some really dedicated person installed several dozen small solenoids under the keys. And even then, how would you prevent the key that was pressed from moving its specific typebar so that a different one could be moved by the solenoid?)
Possibly with some electronic typewriters, if it can receive a computer signal and you could rig it to send one pre-programmed character for each keypress. Maybe you could jigger an electronic typewriter with document memory so that pressing any key simply sends a signal to the computer to print the next character of a stored document. Have fun!
Eidrog, it would really help if you had a picture of this installation you saw or if you could describe the thing as to what kind of typewriter it looked like---what era or style or even what color it was (probably black, eh?)
