Ian McCarthy
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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Hello folks. I found a Scattergories game at Value Village today and was amazed to find that the timer is perfect for Space Hulk. It ticks loudly enough to add stress, but not loudly enough to be irritating. Also, it increases in tempo for the last 15 seconds or so. If that wasn't enough, it has three settings, labeled 1, 2, and 3. I thought that it would be for 1, 2 or 3 minutes, but it turns out that it can be set for 2, 2.5 or 3 minutes, pretty much perfect for 1st Edition Space Hulk.
Here is a photo of the edition I got for 2 dollars. You can see the red disc. That is the timer. It's two weaknesses seems to be that there is no pause function and that the button is very sensitive. You couldn't leave the batteries in while you store the game, not that you'd want to, usually anyway.
Is this old news? Maybe I missed a thread from years back that mentioned this. But anyway, I've been looking for a cheap electronic timer to add to my Hulk for several years, so I'm pretty pleased to have finally found it.
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Colorcrayons
United States
Maplewood
Minnesota
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Excellent suggestion! Thanks Ken.
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Ian McCarthy
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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LordHellfury wrote: Excellent suggestion! Thanks Ken.
Sweet! Hey, if you haven't heard of this yet, I bet some others haven't either. 
A nice thing about finding it in the thrift store was that it came with batteries already installed and I don't have to worry about sending money to THE MAN. You know the one.
Anywho, I plan to stick a more space Hulkey sticker on there to complete the package and then I'll post a photo.
I just wish that there was an easier way to open the battery compartment than with a small screwdriver. I guess that could be added to my short list of complaints.
On the flip side, I forgot to mention that it has a cool countdown end sound, kind of reminiscent of the awesome Space Hulk timer that Thibault Bloch made some time back.
You should have seen me there kneeling in Value Village while employees chatted nearby and other shoppers browsed the kids' book section, just listening to my newfound Space Hulk timer and waiting with bated breath to see if the timer would signal the imminent end of its countdown and my smile spreading over my face when it intensified and did that cool finishing sound.
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Colorcrayons
United States
Maplewood
Minnesota
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+++ THRIFT TARGET ACQUIRED +++
IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE HALLS OF GOODWILL, THERE IS ONLY THRIFTING
THE EMPEROR PROTECTS
+++ END TRANSMISSION +++
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Stephen Crouch
United States
Chapin
South Carolina
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Awesome! Makes me wish the local thrifting scene didn't stink!
Very cool find. Thinking outside the box by thinking inside another box, that's the ticket! Have some GG!
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Ian McCarthy
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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Thanks for the tip, Stephen. Maybe one day we'll get to play Tigris and Euphrates or Space Hulk together, maybe bicker over yellow in some other game.
Okay, so here are the pics.
If you end up doing this, the skull image located in my gallery can be printed on a label sheet at original size.
So, I fixed the battery compartment issue by permanently removing the bottom and stabilizing it with the adhesive felt circles you can see on the underside in the later pics.
Currently, my issues with the timer are that it lacks a digital display, is imprecise and cannot be paused. Otherwise, it is convenient, cheap, portable, thematic, and extremely simple to operate.
I believe we will play that the Marine player stops the timer, but that immediately ends the Marine player's turn. The Genestealer player starts the timer as soon as the Marine player draws command points. We will not award extra time for having a Captain on the team, as that guy gives enough other advantages to the Marine player.
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Thomas White
United States
Marina
California
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That is massively cool! I might have to scrounge a copy myself.
The only issue I've witnessed on copies of the belonging to other people is that the time can have a tendancy to go off by itself while in the box depending on how it's packed. It's a bit unnerving to be in a room working on something completely unrelated and hear the timer go off, or a dying battery version of the timer event.
So it's just a matter of how you store it to avoid that one.
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Ian McCarthy
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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Yeah, I noticed that it was so sensitive that it would go off in the box when the lid squeezed down on it a bit. That's the main reason why I permanently removed the battery cover, so that I could easily remove and replace the batteries for storage or play.
Glad folks are liking this. It still astounds me how good the timer sounds for Space Hulk and that it has settings for no sergeant, one sergeant and two sergeants.
Hopefully I'll give it a whirl in an actual game soon.
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The ipod touch/iphone has aspace hulk app for a counter time down, its not the best designed but it would do the job. You can also use the standard alarm countdown on the phone which would work just as well.
I remember back in the early 90's me and my mate converted a stop watch and stuck it on a plynth, ah those were the days
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Posted Wed Jun 15, 2011 7:37 am
