Steve Etter
Lifetime Supporting Member + Moderator
I am a member of a non-profit organization and I want to build a football based arcade-type game. Since all the cost will come out of my own pocket, keeping those costs as low as possible is of primary importance. What I’m asking for from you guys are ideas for low-cost components of all types. For example, I will need at least eleven (11) large 7-segment displays. I am not adverse to building anything I need, if that’s the most cost effective solution, so that’s always on the table.
The basic idea is to create a game where players throw as many footballs (American footballs, not soccer balls
) as they can through holes in a target board within 60 seconds. The game will allows two people to compete head-to-head or allow a single player to simply try for a high of score.
I envision the design to have two large target boards (probably 8' tall x 4' wide each). Each target board will have five (5) holes with a sensor behind each that trips when a ball goes through. Four of the five holes are for standard scoring and are of different sizes. The smaller the hole, the greater the value of getting a ball through it. The fifth hole, however, is for your opponent. If a ball goes in this hole, it resets your score to zero. I think this will make head-to-head competition a little more fun!
The 7-segment displays will be grouped in three groups of 3 for “Today’s High Score”, “Player A Score”, and “Player B Score”. Because the competition will be timed (60 seconds) and the four scoring holes will be worth 1, 2, 3, and 6 points, the score totals should never exceed 3-digits. The last two 7-segment displays will be grouped together to create the timer clock. If I can find or make these inexpensively enough, I may even group three more 7-segment displays to create a “All Time High Score”.
So in addition to the 7-segment displays, some of the components I need will be a processor, switches behind the holes, a “Start” pushbutton (I don’t want to use a hole switch activation to start it for head-to-head competitions), a “Reset” pushbutton.
Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
Steve
The basic idea is to create a game where players throw as many footballs (American footballs, not soccer balls
) as they can through holes in a target board within 60 seconds. The game will allows two people to compete head-to-head or allow a single player to simply try for a high of score.I envision the design to have two large target boards (probably 8' tall x 4' wide each). Each target board will have five (5) holes with a sensor behind each that trips when a ball goes through. Four of the five holes are for standard scoring and are of different sizes. The smaller the hole, the greater the value of getting a ball through it. The fifth hole, however, is for your opponent. If a ball goes in this hole, it resets your score to zero. I think this will make head-to-head competition a little more fun!
The 7-segment displays will be grouped in three groups of 3 for “Today’s High Score”, “Player A Score”, and “Player B Score”. Because the competition will be timed (60 seconds) and the four scoring holes will be worth 1, 2, 3, and 6 points, the score totals should never exceed 3-digits. The last two 7-segment displays will be grouped together to create the timer clock. If I can find or make these inexpensively enough, I may even group three more 7-segment displays to create a “All Time High Score”.
So in addition to the 7-segment displays, some of the components I need will be a processor, switches behind the holes, a “Start” pushbutton (I don’t want to use a hole switch activation to start it for head-to-head competitions), a “Reset” pushbutton.
Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
Steve
