The Ouija board is a very popular parlor game, and despite its controversy, continues to sell millions of units every year. The Ouija board was first introduced to the American public in 1890, and has been going strong ever since. The board has two rows of letters, and the words ’yes,’ ’no,’ ’good-bye’ and ’maybe’ on either side. A planchette (a slidable 3-legged device) is manipulated by those playing the game. The players ask the board a question and together they move the pointer until a letter is "selected." Hopefully, by the time the game is over, something coherent will have been spelled out.

We all like to play with the Ouija, but we rarely get anything worth writing home about after the game is over. Usually the game ends in an argument over who kept trying to control the planchette. So in this How2, we’re going to spice up the game just a little bit. That’s right, we’re going to show you how to make the game just a little bit livelier by hooking up ActiveHome for a game of Ouija that your friends won’t soon be forgetting.

So the first thing you’re going to want to do is set up your board on a table. From there, you may want to think of some questions that you plan to ask. A popular question is to ask whatever "spirit" is in the room to identify itself. We’ll go through a few of those questions, with some options.

You’re going to need the ActiveHome Remote, ActiveHome Lamp and Appliance Modules, and XCam2.

To start this game, you’re first going to want to dim the lights to create the "atmosphere." You should do this manually. After all, you don’t want to tip your hand here by letting anyone know you’ve got remote stuff going on.

Take a small lamp and put it near the table. Put a red or blue light in it. Plug that lamp into an ActiveHome Lamp Module. Then when you ask the question, "Please identify yourself," you can hit the remote, and bring up the light.

How about some noise? Sound effects are great when it comes to "calling on the spirits." One good effect would be to take a CD of people talking; just general noises, and turn it down so that it’s barely audible.

Take your CD and plug it into an ActiveHome Appliance Module, and set to A1.

While the board is "answering" one of the questions, ask a question like "Are you alone?" You could move the planchette to the "No" side of the board, and click on the CD player. At which point, while the noise isn’t loud, it’s audible enough to maybe send chills down the spine of an unsuspecting player.

Nothing beats that scary laugh. If you want, you can set up another CD to another Appliance Module, and set that to A2.

Now if you ask a rather ridiculous question, you can hit the A2 button on your remote, and the spirit is laughing at you.

How about a sudden flash of light? You could easily pick up a small strobe light from someplace like Radio Shack, and set it to a very slow flash. Hook it up to another Appliance Module, and set it to A3.

Now if you ask a question, and get an ambiguous answer, you can simply say, "I don’t understand." Flash! At that point you can decide not to anger the spirit any more by pursuing that line of questioning.

At some point, you may decide to have the TV come on, and project an image of you playing the game. To do that, simply plug your TV into an Appliance Module and set that to A4. As most VCRs have a plug in the back, you can plug the TV into that, and then turn on the VCR.

You will have discretely placed an XCam2 WideEye in the corner of the room where it could get the best view. From there, you would have set up the Wireless Video Receiver to the VCR, so everything was ready to go.

When you hit the A4 button on your ActiveHome Remote, the TV comes on and there you are, playing Ouija.

It’s highly likely at this point though, that you’re going to have to come clean. It’s not going to take your guests long to figure out that you’ve set them up. So you might want to save that for the grand finale.

There’s plenty more ideas, these are just a few. You can build as many as you want, and make your game of Ouija more fun than it ever has been in the past.

That’s it for today’s How2. If you have anything you would like to see done, let us know, and we’ll use your ideas for our next How2.

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