Post by thread:A game for graphical LCD [OT]

I am designing an instrument which should provide the user with an option "to play game" (of course in the spare time). The instrument is equipped with graphical LCD 128 pixels wide, 64 pixels in height, several keys (probably membrane keypad in final version). The display ON and OFF time is about 250msec, so it does not allow any fast actions. The question is what game would fit the display size and speed and use small number of keys (say four). It should be game for one player. To stay slightly on topic, there are at least two PICs inside each instrument. TIA for any suggestions. Josef ====================================================================== Electronical devices for chemical laboratory, custom electonics design ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Snail Instruments Josef Hanzal Vojanova 615 phone/fax: +420-311-24433 266 01 Beroun e-mail: spam_OUTeuroclassTakeThisOuTpha.pvtnet.cz Czech Republic URL: http://www.vitrum.cz/snail/ ======================================================================

Josef, Try to keep the game simple. Something like the old "PONG" ping pong game would be easy to implement. "BREAKOUT" is another old game that lends itself to fairly simple programming. Look at some of the really EARLY video games for inspiration. For those who may not know, PONG was the very first video game. You have two paddles on the screen that are just short vertical bars that can be slid up and down. A ball consisting of one or four pixels is launched by the program, and the player tries to return it. You can handicap the computer side by giving it different values of delay. That allows the game to be played on different levels. As you get better, the computer gets faster. Paddle size also sets difficulty level. Resources required are pretty low. An xy value defines the current ball location. Only a y location is needed for each paddle, as they are fixed in the x direction. If you keep track of average paddle velocity you can use that info to give "spin" or "english" to the ball. The ball has a direction and a velocity as well as xy position, but these can be bit encoded into a single byte. When the ball's xy matches the x of the paddle, check the y value to see if it is within the y range occupied by the paddle. If so, the ball gets returned based on velocity/direction/spin, etc. And you can keep track of number of user returns, if desired. Same goes for computer paddle. Whenever ball's next calculated position is off the screen or behind the paddle, then that is scored against the paddle. There is really little difference between the handling of the user paddle and the computer's paddle. Thus the same code can do double duty. Scoring info can be "on top" of the playing field, or relegated to an edge of the screen. For the world's simplest scoring indicator, use two rows of pixels that grow with increasing score. Simple, and you can see at a glance who is winning. Another simple game is the WORM. There are pixels on the screen that you try to get without hitting the edges of the screen or certain simple barriers. Everytime you "get" one of the pixels your worm grows one pixel longer. You can only gather pixels by hitting them head-on. As your worm gets longer it eventually gets in the way and it ends up hitting itself. Speed sets level of difficulty. Hope this helps. Fr. Tom McGahee ---------- {Quote hidden}> From: Josef Hanzal <.....euroclassKILLspam@spam@PHA.PVTNET.CZ> > To: PICLISTKILLspamMITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: A game for graphical LCD [OT] > Date: Sunday, May 31, 1998 3:50 AM > > I am designing an instrument which should provide the user with an option > "to play game" (of course in the spare time). The instrument is equipped > with graphical LCD 128 pixels wide, 64 pixels in height, several keys > (probably membrane keypad in final version). The display ON and OFF time is > about 250msec, so it does not allow any fast actions. > > The question is what game would fit the display size and speed and use small > number of keys (say four). It should be game for one player. To stay > slightly on topic, there are at least two PICs inside each instrument. TIA > for any suggestions. > > Josef > > ====================================================================== > Electronical devices for chemical laboratory, custom electonics design > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Snail Instruments Josef Hanzal > Vojanova 615 phone/fax: +420-311-24433 > 266 01 Beroun e-mail: .....euroclassKILLspam.....pha.pvtnet.cz > Czech Republic URL: http://www.vitrum.cz/snail/ > ======================================================================

>For those who may not know, >PONG was the very first video game. BZZZT.. The first commercial video game was "space war". It didn't catch on. It had a sculpted fibreglass shell The game was two "spaceships" shooting at each other, and the sun could have gravity set to normal, none, and reverse. Pong was #2

At 01:41 PM 31/05/98 -0500, you wrote: >>For those who may not know, >>PONG was the very first video game. > > >BZZZT.. > >The first commercial video game was "space war". >It didn't catch on. It had a sculpted fibreglass shell >The game was two "spaceships" shooting at each >other, and the sun could have gravity set to normal, >none, and reverse. > >Pong was #2 > > Hummm, I thought that it was actualy "Space Invader" after it was dicovered that the pilots got addicted to the game. As for PONG, I think that the answer is correct, it was the first video game, for "Home use" -=====================================================================- Dennis Plunkett: Embedded Hardware, Software design NEC Australia DRMASS Line Interface cards TRX software ISDN interface card ph 03 9264-3867 -=====================================================================-

>Hummm, >I thought that it was actualy "Space Invader" after it was dicovered that >the pilots got addicted to the game. Arcade video: Space war, Pong, Pong doubles.. After that it gets fuzzy. I was a game repairman then. >As for PONG, I think that the answer is correct, it was the first video >game, for "Home use" That I'll buy. Remember how amazing it was? :)

Thomas McGahee <EraseMEtom_mcgaheespam_OUTTakeThisOuTSIGMAIS.COM> >For those who may not know, >PONG was the very first video game. David VanHorn <dvanhornspam_OUTCEDAR.NET> wrote: > BZZZT.. > The first commercial video game was "space war". > It didn't catch on. It had a sculpted fibreglass shell > The game was two "spaceships" shooting at each > other, and the sun could have gravity set to normal, > none, and reverse. BZZZT.. The first commercial video game was "Computer Space". It had the sculpted fiberglass shell. It did not have adjustable gravity. The commercial "Space Wars" (based on the earlier PDP-1 game by Steve "Slug" Russell) was introduced many years later (1978?) by Cinematronics. It had adjustable gravity and various other interesting game options. It was implemented using a processor made from SSI and MSI TTL. The PIC16C66/67/76/77 is roughly comparable. Pong was considered the first >successful< commercial video game.

Was the original PONG digital? My brother built a version from plans in popular electronics that was done mostly in analog... BillW

How about space invaders, its a lot more interesting and addictive than some modern games! Speed is not to important and only 3 keys are required! (left, right and fire) Let me know how you get on. Chris ***************************************************************** * Chris Snell * Undergraduate Technologist * * U/G Electronic Engineering * GKN-Westland Helicopters Ltd * * University of Sussex * Yeovil, Somerset. * * Falmer, Brighton. * @spam@chrisKILLspammobius.force9.co.uk * * KILLspamtluj2KILLspamcentral.sussex.ac.uk * http://www.mobius.force9.co.uk * * tel/fax 01273 542434 * tel/fax 01935 474870 * ***************************************************************** {Original Message removed}

Thomas McGahee wrote: > PONG was the very first video game. You have two > paddles on the screen that are just short vertical > bars that can be slid up and down. > If you keep track of average paddle velocity you can use that info to > give "spin" or "english" to the ball. I thought the usual method was simpler - if the ball hits the centre half of the paddle, it rebounds with the same Y-velocity component, but if it hits the upper or lower quarter of the paddle, the Y-velocity is altered in the corresponding direction. This models a paddle with chamfered edges. Cheers, Paul B.

David VanHorn wrote: > The first commercial video game was "space war". > The game was two "spaceships" shooting at each other, and the sun > could have gravity set to normal, none, and reverse. Are you referring to an "asteroids" precursor using vector graphics? I have yet to get my hands on one of the little "home" versions of that (latter) in decent condition. Cheers, Paul B.

William Chops Westfield <RemoveMEbillwTakeThisOuTCISCO.COM> asks: > Was the original PONG digital? My brother built a version from plans > in popular electronics that was done mostly in analog... It was a mixture. IIRC, it was mostly digital, but the player controls (potentiometers) were part of the RC time constant for one-shots that determined paddle vertical position. The vertical sync pulse would trigger the one-shot, and when it timed out the paddle started and a second one-shot with a fixed time constant was triggered to time the paddle height. The paddle vertical position was anded with a digitally-derived horizontal position to generate the actual paddle video. The sounds were simply gated bits from the vertical counter.

Martin Green <spamBeGoneMartin_GreenspamBeGoneCONSUMERSGAS.COM> wrote: > Consider this a vote for Pong as the first video game. It's not something that needs to be voted on. Computer Space was the first commercial coin-operated video arcade game. It was manufactured and sold by Nutting Associates in 1972. Pong was introduced in 1973, and was the first >successful< coin-op video game. The coin-op Space Wars was introduced by Cinematronics in 1978. Both Computer Space and Space Wars were based on what may have been the first non-commercial computer video game: "Spacewar!", written in 1962 by Steve "Slug" Russell for the DEC PDP-1 computer. ars-http://www.uchicago/~eric/lore/spacewar/spacewar.html There's a PDP-1 simulator in Java that runs Spacewar!: lcs.http://www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/