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Logic Gate Board Game 04: LCD's Driving Me Crazy -- Episode 293

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element14's The Ben Heck Show

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Logic Gate Board Game
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In this week's episode the team considers a library from Microchip and how the game will work. Microchip has a library that allows you to drive an LCD glass with just a microcontroller, no need for an external controller or extra RAM.  They also discuss gamification, make some diagrams of how they want to space up the screen, what goes on the screen, where to put the plugs, and figure out how the puzzle is going to work on the screen. Have advice on how gamification will work?  Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

Ben attempts to use the PIC32 MZ starter kit as a mass storage device with a computer.  Acting as a mass storage device, more puzzles could be added just by dragging and dropping from a computer. There are multiple USB ports on the end; there’s one if it’s a device and one if it’s a host such as your computer.  Ben want’s the microcontroller to act as a device like a USB thumb drive.  There’s also a programming header and a UART with a USB converter.  The hope is that there will be a single USB port on the logic gate board game that can be used for charging as well as transferring data.

 

Ben goes over programming the microcontroller using MPLAB harmony, which includes a good number of examples in its library.  The problem is it doesn’t really tell you how to use them.  What they can do is set up an area of NVM non-volatile memory, the flash that holds the program, and set it up as a small file system.  This allows them to access it from within their program to get files. The USB could also use it as a file system so the user can put files there. Although, they may want to have separate file systems so there’s an area of memory that a person can’t destroy just plugging it into their computer. Getting examples to work isn’t that difficult, the real trick is combining them all.  This includes some kind of sound, LCD, USB, and file system.

 

After aligning the LCD screen he sets up another NOR gate using the MPLAB IDE. They need to do more work on the gamification and how the screen is going to be set up but if they can combine the schematic editor with a graphics driver and create a markup language that can store puzzles in as small space as possible, they’re at a good jumping off point.

 

Karen helps Ben with the gamification using Logic Gate pieces cut out to scale. The further they get away from the Hackmanjii concept, the more difficult it becomes to grasp the gamification.  They discuss giving the game the ability to drive real external devices. Karen slaps Ben with a reality check as things veer off course and they struggle to figure out a purpose for the game.

 

 

Disclaimer

  • game to shock/scare/wet/hit your opponents, but only if you can set it up the logic correctly and in time.

    can have rewards interchangeable with others. Need to have them be visually stimulating, see the inner workings of it.

    some ideas off the bat:

    hand shocker (ground wrist strap and finger strap deal), clear water squirt gun, balloon popper, party poppers actuators (end less servo to turn crank to pull string), spring loaded hand slap that is triggered by a solenoid.

     

     

    if I remember, I will also post on the site you said. could you please add those links in description in future videos? would be more helpful to those on mobile.

    loving the game idea of logic, but needs to be more rewarding on a fun level.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Those are neat! Gotta make sure I don't get sucked in for too long. I'm a sucker for puzzles.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Yeah, super find Dave!  And it's open source MIT license.

     

    Will the code work on the PIC32?

    Can you drag and drop with the touch screen?  We're not adding a mouse, right?

    Is there enough memory to run the program?

    Is the display big enough with enough resolution?

    May have to dumb the program down to work.

     

    It's educational, but it needs some help in the fun department.

  • in reply to tm14

    Perhaps sounds a little bit like the 1970's 'Mastermind' game with the coloured pegs

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game)

    However Mastermind is part guesswork, part logic so not ideal.

     

    The loading of different games sounds a bit like the Arduboy platform

    https://arduboy.com/

  • Another type of game that might be easer to implement would be to "guess the unknown gate".  The player would have a row of buttons to press individually or in any combination.  The game will show the outputs on the screen or with LEDs based on the current inputs.  They player enters a guess by selecting a gate on the touch screen.  For fun, throw in a fictional crazy gate that works like no real gate--maybe generate a list of random outputs.  This type of gate is a guess option along with the real gates.  This adds a frustrating element to the game.  Maybe also include tri-state gates somehow.

     

    We can't be too complicated--this is supposed to run on a PIC32.

     

    It would be nice if different games could be loaded, not just more add-ons or different gates added to the existing game.  Not sure if players would be allowed to plug in a USB and install different games.

  • - perhaps it may be worth taking a step back and thinking about what makes other popular logic puzzles fun / addictive.

     

    Take Sudoku for example - what do people here think makes that puzzle game so addictive/popular ?

     

    From what I can see it comes down to:

    • very simple rules to learn (but still challenging enough to create a puzzle)
    • relies primarily on logic and not on other knowledge/trivia (this doesn't appear to hinder crossword puzzles though)
    • filling in boxes (satisfying ? but so is 'joining the dots')
    • can be played almost anywhere (portable)
    • typically a short play time (5  to 30min. work break-filler ?)
    • scalable (size of grid / number of pre-filled squares )

     

    It may sound strange, but if the 'filling in boxes' thing is really what makes the likes of Sudoku and crossword puzzles so appealing to people, then perhaps somehow incorporating the likes of filling in truth tables and Karnaugh maps into the game play would increase game play appeal ?

  • - I would suggest that the 'free play' mode actually would fit in very well with the concept of a teaching tool.

     

    For example, imagine that you've just been watching Carrie Anne on the CrashCourse YouTube channel talking about the ALU for 10 minutes as part of your computer science homework:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I5ZMmrOfnA

    where you see logic representations of half adders and adder logic. As a youngster, my immediate reaction would have been to want to interact with that information in a more tactile sort of way. If I had access to a 'logic gate board game' with free play mode, I could see myself trying to recreate the logic shown in the video so as to be able to actually press the buttons and watch the LEDs light up.

     

    In a teaching tool mode then perhaps the unit could allow you to recall a half adder from a library of logic and allows you to step through the various states.

     

    In an educational game play mode then you could be asked to build a half adder against a clock / scoring system. At advanced level perhaps you start from a blank screen and have to pick the gates and do all the wiring yourself. At basic level perhaps the gates are already shown place and you only have to complete the wiring. However at the end of the game, if you failed to complete any of the puzzles, then  it takes you back into teaching tool mode so as you can review the logic and hopefully learn from it thus boosting the educational value.

  • I thought of the following, please see (and excuse) attached crude drawings.

     

    • In general, on the left hand side, there is a row of LEDs.
    • In the middle, there ist the LCD screen.
    • On the right hand side, there are pushbuttons
    • Or, alternatively display virtual LEDs and pusbuttons directly on the LCD (don't know, if kids hammering on an LCD screen is such a good idea, though)

     

    This allows for a few variatians where kids are slowly taught logic gates.

    In a first step, on the left side, one light blinks, a classical MAZE  (1) ist displayed in the middle and the user has to push the button on the right side to guess the correct exit for the provided entry.

    The user has 1-3 tries, depending on difficulty and a timer makes it more like a game with tension.

    If the user doesn't guess it right, the pawn wil not be moved forward.

     

    In higher difficulties, only one logic gate at a time is presented and the user has to select if there is and output (extra option for "no output).

    Then, more and more gates are added (2) and more and more inputs light up at the same time.

     

     

    image

     

     

     

    As a second game - in honor of the HECKS editor ;-)

    Make a hex-assisted hangman game (3):

    • On the upper row, the full ascii code of a word is displayed
    • On the lower row, only parts of the word are displayed
    • The input can be via virtual keyboard on the display or via the input buttons (part of the alphabet, or asking character by character)

    image