The Sun is in Your Hand

January 27, 2008 2:39 PM

Where can I buy a UV flashlight in downtown San Francisco?

I'm playing a Gameboy Advance game called "Boktai, the Sun is in Your Hand". Basically, it's a vampire game with a UV sensor built in, and you're supposed to play it under the sun.

San Francisco seems to be perpetually overcast or rainy these days, so I've decided to cheat by getting an artificial UV light source.

Where can I buy a UV flashlight in San Francisco? I've checked the websites of several major electronics retailers (Best Buy, etc), and they don't seem to stock them.

I live in Downtown San Francisco, any ideas?

posted by BeaverTerror to shopping (9 answers total)

Any full spectrum light would work.

Is this sensor an aftermarket add-on that plugs into the cartridge? I highly doubt the stock DS is capable of sensing *just* UV light. More likely the device just senses light, period.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:45 PM on January 27, 2008

No, the sensor is built into the game cartridge, and it's definitely a UV sensor. Regular artificial light does not work.

There's tonnes of information online about what you can do when you don't have real sun, and they all say you need a UV light source. Even a plasma ball will work :P
posted by BeaverTerror at 2:50 PM on January 27, 2008

Wikipedia indicates that a blacklight will work. If this is true, you're bound to be able to find a small blacklight for cheap somewhere in SF.
posted by zachlipton at 3:02 PM on January 27, 2008

Some kind of UV LED purpose-built thingamajiggy should do it, I think.

Head on down to your local Radio Shack (if you must source this locally), and ask for a couple of UV LEDS, and then wire 'em up and off you go.

If you can wait a few days, you could order something like this, prebuilt.
posted by SlyBevel at 4:01 PM on January 27, 2008

More choices.
posted by SlyBevel at 4:18 PM on January 27, 2008

Just go to a Spencer's and pick up a blacklight. Might as well get some Charlie's Angels posters, whoopee cushions, and fake puke and save yourself a trip for when you need those later.

Whoa Spencer's--it's early '80s junior high all over again.
posted by sevenless at 4:32 PM on January 27, 2008

Update from the original poster, for the unlikely event that someone will refer to this in the future:

I just spent 3 hours cycling around downtown, looking for either a UV LED flashlight, or a black light bulb. I found nothing. I went to Best Buy, Circuit City, Walgreens, Radio Shack, CompUSA, and another Radio Shack, in that order.

I ended up buying one on Ebay after I got home. Paid $1.5 for the flashlight, plus $4.5 shipping.
posted by BeaverTerror at 6:09 PM on January 27, 2008

Petsmart and other pet stores carry blacklights, for future reference (well, actually for finding urine stains).
posted by biscotti at 9:10 PM on January 27, 2008

Wikipedia indicates that a blacklight will work

...because a black light emits UV. However, I imagine those you can buy at Spencer's aren't portable. Maybe that doesn't matter with Gameboy but it does to people of the desert, who don't care for scorpions and know they fluoresce under ultraviolet. Nowadays, little UV-LED Maglites are available for detecting them.
posted by Rash at 3:29 PM on January 28, 2008