Dear Ben,
My old fraternity has what is rumored to be a home-made foosball table. It is one of the things we hold very dear to our hearts. It also gets repaired often as we do tend to be a fairly rowdy bunch.
I'm no longer a student and have been in the IT industry for the last 7 years. While I was in school, I always wanted to make this addition to the table but never had the know-how. I've been watching your podcasts since September and I'm hoping you can help. This is what I'm looking for.
Basic Idea:
I wanted an add-on system (obviously modifications to the table would have to be made) that would digitally/automatically keep score of the game, most likely with laser beams across the goal openings. Display this score, and depending on the particular round, and the outcome of the game, play a sound (possibly a very loud sound).
Now for the specifics:
House Rules:
We traditional play 4 player (2 per side), 3-ball. Scoring is whichever team gets 2 balls in gets 1 point, the 3rd ball is then considered the "Bonus Ball". Meaning if that team gets all 3 balls in, it's 2 points. The team that only gets 1 ball in (or no balls), get's no points for that round. If each team get's 1 ball in and the third is still on the table, the third ball is then called the "Money Ball" two whoever scores that one. Game goes to 10 points.
Here is where the audio comes in. First, it would be nice if we could have the table play audio like "Bonus Ball" or "Money Ball" after the first two balls have been scored. A visual display of this would be cool too, but not required.
Second, when any team loses 10 - 0, that is considered being "skunked" and the losing players must run down to the nearest sorority house, choosing ony to keep on either their boxers or their socks (you'd be surprised...). It would be great that if there is a 10-0 victory, very loud alarms would sound along with "WE'VE GOT RUNNERS!!!"
Tricky part:
Because multiple balls are on the table at once, many times, two balls will go into a goal at the same time. The easiest way to score a single ball game would be to put a single laser horizontally across the goal. However if two balls roll across the line at the same time, the laser would only see one.
My two thoughts about this are either the simple addition of a up/down button next to an electronic ball counter above each goal so that you can manually add a second ball. Or several vertical lasers in addition to the horizontal laser in each goal. But that would probably make this build pretty expensive. Other ideas would be some sort of RFID tagged ball, or a collection sensor further down the goal opening where balls are single file.
It's all in the details:
- A button that can only be triggered at the beginning of the game to disable the "Running" alarm. Often, the lady's get scared to play with that rule on the table so it can be waved, but only prior to starting the game.
- The ability to select the 3-ball game, or a more traditional 1-ball game.
- It would be fantastic if this could be battery powered (even if it was a small motorcyle battery or something), with the option to plug it in.
- the electronics should be "water" resistant... because we often keep "water" cups in the tables cup holders during play.
I know I've given you a lot of specifics, I've just put a lot of thought into this over the years, and I think this would be a really fun build.
