Today I'm working on a brief history of mechanical/electro-mechanical shooting games tracing back to 1890s penny arcades. Early machines used ball bearings (or shot inserted coins!), so they had to be small, enclosed, and typically only transparent on the top. An important innovation happened in 1935, when Charles Griffith patented what we'd today call a 'light gun.' The trigger closed a circuit that briefly illuminated a bulb, which was focused through a lens at a photo-sensitive target.

So @bokista (and @ibogost, I think) asked about what my "secret" to good slide design is, and I've been trying to think about this more systematically lately (so I can teach others), so here's a few thoughts and best practices, with examples. <thread> First: why? I'm an academic, and I now teach big classes, so I have to rely on lectures. And b/c I teach a visual medium (videogames), I need to use a visual medium (slides) to convey information.