2023-10-21 04:15:02
Their association is called R3D2, a nod to the Star Wars robot. Mathieu and Charles, two teacher friends, collect old computers to create arcade machines. With them, recycling becomes a video game.
They are two friends, two colleagues, two mathematics and science teachers at the Coubertin high school in Calais. One is rather geeky, passionate regarding video games: it’s Mathieu. The other is more of a handyman, he gets that from his cabinetmaker father: he’s Charles.
Rémy Charles and Mathieu Malfoy, creators of recycled arcade machines • © Valérie Dermersédian/FTV
Last year, they offered their students a workshop to create arcade machines from recycled elements. Success is immediate. Mathieu and Rémy decide to extend the adventure and create the R3D2 association, a nod to the Star Wars robot. Behind this acronym we must understand: Re born, Re start, Re build. In French: rebirth, restart, rebuild. That’s for R3 and for D2, it’s sustainable development. Because with them, nothing is lost, everything is transformed.
For the moment, it is in Rémy Charles’ living room, in Recques-sur-Hem, that the two friends are manufacturing their arcade terminals.“We collect everything we can: scraps of wood, old computers, old speakers, screens. 90% of the materials are recycled.” explains Mathieu Malfoy. And while his friend solders an ignition button on a central unit, he overwrites the data on a hard drive and instead installs free software to have games from around twenty different consoles Atari, Game Boy, Sega etc.
Mathieu Malfoy and Rémy Charles build an arcade machine • © Valérie Dermersedian/FTV
This activity is “fun and educational” says Rémy Charles. “We organize workshops where parents and children work together. For parents, there is a “Madeleine de Proust” side: they find games that they played when they were younger. And for children, it is a discovery of retrogaming, with games with very simple graphics. In addition, we touch a bit of everything: we do technology, electricity, carpentry, welding, we do math with geometry calculations and we of course talks regarding sustainable development.
In Rémy Charle’s living room, there is a carpentry and IT workshop • © Valérie Dermersedian/FTV
“You should know that the carbon footprint of a new arcade machine is equivalent to a flight from Paris to New York, while that of a recycled machine is equivalent to a trip from Calais to Boulogne by car.”
The two friends have not yet found a permanent location to organize their workshops, so the next one will take place on December 2 in Boulogne-sur-Mer in the “Les Trolls de la Côte” boutique. For 375 euros per day, those interested will be able to build their arcade machine and leave with their creation and the pleasure of having made a video game with their own hands.
1697861985
#video #game #terminals #salvaged #material
