Using the BS2 chip out side the parallax circuit.

Nate Wise

Hello my name is nate wise i am a student at the art institute of orange county studying web design and interactive media.

What i am trying to do is take the push button game with all its code and the same circuity that the parallax book gives you. and make a real game that is life size.

my thought is to make a wood frame that is battery powered. I would like to have the BS2 running the show from the push button to the LCD screen that displays the debug commands to tell the players what to do. As well as when someone wins a few LED's flicker on and off, like an arcade game. I know if i stick the whole board inside the wood frame it would work, but my main goal is take the chip off the board and implement it into a new circuit.

I am open to suggestions.
I would love to take a class that specializes in this field of micro controllers.

Mike Green

There are classes at some institutions on the use of technology, particularly micro controllers, in art (particularly interactive sculpture). The University of Minnesota has one such class for example. Ask around at the various universities in the Los Angeles / Orange County area that have both Engineering and Art Departments and you may find one that you can take for transfer credit.

Your idea of a real game is certainly doable. I assume you've got a Board of Education from your description. It's very handy for development of almost anything including a game. For a finished device, consider the Super Carrier Board which is almost the same thing without the breadboard area. It has the voltage regulator and the programming circuitry which you'd need anyway for final debugging and testing.

As usual with this sort of thing, start with existing examples and make step-wise changes, extensions, and improvements. For example, you might want to add some LEDs, but start with the existing behavior that you have in your program at that time. Figure out how to use something like a 74HC595 (read the Nuts and Volts Columns on I/O Expansion) to add the LEDs without using up the I/O pins. Experiment with different kinds of pushbutton switches to see which have the "right" appearance and feel for a game board. If you have a lot of switches, you may need to use an input expander like the 74HC165.

Nate Wise

Thank you for getting back so soon. Your information is very helpful, i plan to check out the local schools to see if there is a class i can take just like you mentioned.