A Brain for the Game

In this post, we contemplate the important issue of brains.  Certainly a great many of us believe in our hearts that we have brains (isn't that odd?).   Of course, for some there is a question.  When we say "he has no brains at all," the statement is most likely untrue.  He breathes, he exhibits coordinated muscular control, he responds to stimuli.  In point of fact, there is fairly good empirical evidence that he does have a brain, regardless of the imbecilic quality of his mutterings.

The arcade game we are building will require a "brain" of sorts also.  This brain will keep track of and move the player through the various "states" of game play: not started, coin deposited, number of players selected, game started /  timer started, [challenge presented (pop up target, return ball, etc.), event occurred (ball in hole, target hit, etc.), score incremented], time ended, game ended, tickets dispensed. The states between the [ ] are usually done many times in a loop until some trigger occurs: the time is up or a score is reached or a predetermined number of "shots" has been taken.

There has been quite an evolution over the past 50 years in arcade game brains.  We have a few early (1940-ish) games that are purely mechanical.  These rely on analog clock-like mechanisms that advance over time through the states of game play.  These are usually absolutely immutable.  One cannot add or change anything about how they work without physically grinding new gears or mechanical cams.  Later games (1960s-70s) used simple electronic elements: switches pushed by circular motorized cams and connected to dozens of relays to implement game state.  Just like the mechanical games, the game play of these "switch logic" games was built into the game at manufacture, determined by what wires were connected to what relays and is nearly impossible to alter.  Later games (1980s on) were made with primitive computer brains. These were usually implemented by custom, special-purpose electronic Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs).  They often had an early microprocessor, programmed by game companies via the Read Only Memory (ROM) chips present on the board.  The advantage here is that by changing the programming in the ROM, a company could change easily the rules of the game (how one moves from state to state).  Many of these games were built on a standard wiring harness so that simply by changing the main PCB, one could even have an entirely different game.  Arcade games are still made this way.  Game companies have their own proprietary board sets, so repairs and upgrades need to be done through the manufacturer. Unfortunately, their products still do me no good in the present endeavor as they are made for their own specific games and they do not allow users like me to re-program them.

Instead, I am taking what might be termed as a Maker approach to this game brain.  The do-it-yourself (DIY) community over the past decade has been kind enough to make modern, powerful, general-purpose, computing accessible to anybody with a modicum of curiosity and a hundred spare dollars.  This began with the advent of the Arduino microprocessor board, which has been a gigantic boon to the simple gadget builder.  More recently however, an even more powerful class of full-up, network-capable, single-board computers such as the Raspberry PI and BeagleBone has made it possible to build highly sophisticated, even web-connected devices.  I have used a few of these now in some of my inventions and have settled on the R-Pi (shown in the photo) as my present favorite for its ease of set-up and programming.  If you are looking to dabble in any of these, I highly recommend getting one of the starter kits from the nice people at Adafruit.  The units by themselves are typically under $50 but for double that, the kits gives you everything you need to build up your first gadget (power supplies, cables, starter components, etc.).

For our application, the most important consideration is input/output or I/O.  Our game will need inputs to its brain from the coin mechanism to tell it the patron has paid for example.  It will need outputs from the brain to run the motors that make the two men climb their rods.  Scores must be displayed, bells must be rung and light must flash.  All of these things will require the brain computer to interface to the outside world by one or more of its I/O pins. The latest model (B+) of the R-Pi has 40 pin General Purpose I/O pins which I believe will be enough to do everything I need for this particular game.  I also purchased a nice extender cable (called a cobbler, lower part of the photo) that will let me connect the R-Pi GPIO pins to a board of my own design where I will have more room to put various connectors and other necessary interface electronics.

Now then, if I can only recall where I left my soldering iron....

-Otto

Climbing Game Concept

As some of you may know, Mrs. Wackenhammer is quite handy with a pencil and as often as not she is the mighty engine of design behind many of the Steampunk creations and thematic decorations at our arcade.  My own humble talents are generally confined to the mere execution of her wondrous concepts.  Yes, I have on occasion needed to interject certain modifications at the detail design stage in order to comply with the harsh realities of the physical world in which we all reside, but for the most part an improved division of labor and talent would be difficult to imagine.

Her preliminary sketch here shows our thoughts about how the climbing game might function. A majestic case like this would stand next to the Treadwall. This case would be nearly as tall as the device it serves and is likely made of richly stained wood and glass with a number of Victorian accents.

The user would insert several arcade tokens to activate the machine and push a button to indicate whether one or two players would like to attempt the challenge.  The game would commence when a player begins climbing and the analog clock on the game top would begin to count down from a specified amount, perhaps 90 or 120 seconds.  Mrs. W has been working on a new logo for us, consisting of a man in a top hat mounted on a large "W" as if riding.  As a player climbs, one of these men "climbs" also up a rod on the game display, proportional to the total amount the player has climbed so far.  Once time runs out, the man would cease his progress and the players final achievement would be indicated by a pointer to the milestones written alongside of the rod, which might be the names of mountains or tall buildings of some notoriety.

If a second player is also climbing, the Player 1 "man" would remain where he is and the Player 2 "man" would begin climbing when the second player begins his/her climb.  In this way, at the end of Player 2's climb, the height of the higher man will dictate the winner.  At this point, a bell would ring and a light would light over the winner's little man both to congratulate the successful player and to notify the other occupants of the arcade that an important contest has been decided with one of the contenders having emerged victorious!

The machine will be able to keep track of all climbing statistics including: total number of climbs, average climb height and highest climb.  If a single player wants to play, the machine will race him against the average score to date.  Again, the player wins if he can beat the average climb, as indicated by a flashing light and ringing bell.  Beating the highest climb would elicit an even more exuberant response from the game.

The game is expected to project audible feedback, perhaps shouting at a climber that they are "ahead, keep going" or "behind, better hurry up."  Also a certain amount of yodeling will likely be appropriate.

Now then, how to build it...

-Otto

Ascending The Heights

If you visited us at Wackenhammer's Clockwork Arcade and Cape Cod Carousel in Hyannis, MA. last summer (Thank you!), you might have seen the interesting device pictured here.  It is called a Treadwall and usually it is sold as a piece of exercise equipment for the rock climbing enthusiasts. While only 10 feet tall, it nicely simulates a much taller rock wall by cycling continuously a belt of plates with hand holds.  They appear at the top of the device, cycle down the front and disappear at the bottom, ad infinitum, essentially a vertical treadmill (hence the name).  The device is nice in that it has no motors whatsoever; your body weight pulls the handholds down as you climb.  There is a convenient lever which adjusts a braking system, so you can adjust the speed of your climb. On the whole, quite a wonderful contraption!

When I first saw one, I thought this would be a great addition to the arcade and fully in-line with our Steampunk mechanical philosophy.  However, over the course of the 3 summer months that make up our operating season, we only got about 520 riders out of the approximately 70,000 patrons who crossed our threshold. Of those, very few who tried it actually stayed on for the full paid duration.  People would try it briefly and get off.  Sometimes a family or group of friends would each try it for half a minute.  Sadly, most of our customers just glanced at it momentarily and kept walking.  Why is that?  It looks like fun.  It mimics rock climbing, which people like and will normally go out of their way to do.  It is perhaps even safer than rock climbing since you are ever only a few feet off the ground.  It is good exercise.  It is a unique experience.  I could go on...

Was it too expensive at $3 for 3 minutes of use?   Almost nobody rode it when we offered 5 min for $5, so we reduced the investment.  Do people who come to arcades in the summer not want to exercise?  Was it too challenging to use? Was it boring?  Was it daunting to look at?  Eventually, I decided that unlike most of activities in our arcade, this one did not have an apparent goal. In essence, there was no game. It does measure your climb height/time on a quite small display, but it does not really tell you if you are doing well or more importantly if you beat your friend (unless you keep your own careful notes).  Worst of all, you could not WIN!  In the end, I decided that if this device was going to make people want to play with it, it needed to be transformed into a competitive climbing game!  So that is precisely the result I intend to pursue...

Stay tuned to this forum over the coming months.  I will attempt to elaborate in some detail the design philosophy, materials, processes and methods used to evolve this simple aerobic apparatus into an extra-ordinary arcade challenge!  Wish me luck!

-Otto