Episode 607 Reboot request

You may need to start by sharing some pictures of the version of the game that you are after creating, as they vary quite a bit.

Over here in my youth it was known as the 'Donkey Derby' but that I believe that was a copy of George Valentine Tonner's 'Kentucky Derby' game. Some had animatronic horses on a Scalextric type track whereas some were pulled along by ropes wrapped around pulleys more like Lorrainbow's design. Some were controlled by rolling balls into pockets, and others by tapping switches alternately. Horses have been replaced by camels and rabbits as well.

I recall that some were based on linear tracks like Lorrainbow's Strava version whereas some were based on oval tracks.

Size varied a lot as well from the large arcade versions like this Blackpool Pier Entertainment - Donkey Derby to small table top toys like this Desktop Horse Racing Derby .

The ball-rolling ones tended to be at the larger end of to scale so not clear as to how large a build your were thinking of ?

6 foot long. Big enough for a family get together. Even a smaller size would be great.  I could make a simple roller ball game. Drop a ball in and it hits a couple of pins on the way down to the points holes -like a pachinko machine.

The user interface probably the main size restriction if it is mechanical. A 6' long track would probably fit 2 people either side if you are rolling balls, or perhaps 3 either side if you are using some sort of pinball mechanism with less arm movement involved.

How many players and how deep a table were you thinking ? The roll a ball design usually requires that the pockets aren't  reachable at arms length to avoid cheating, but you could have some sort of a clear cover above the pockets to make sure the balls to have to be rolled in.

Mikeatencio said:

I could make a simple roller ball game. Drop a ball in and it hits a couple of pins on the way down to the points holes -like a pachinko machine.

Perhaps also take a look at Skee Ball type arcade game projects for ideas ?

Automatic Scoring for a Small Skee-Ball Game

Homemade Skeeball Game

Mikeatencio said:

6 foot long.

For 12 players then a 6' long track might be a bit on the short side. If you have 6 players either side then that only leaves 1' per player.

Might be worth considering trying to make the design modular in 2 (or 3) sections, so for 12 players the track can be twice as long as for 6 players.

Mikeatencio said:

I could make a simple roller ball game.

This Roll-A-Ball Game project looks like it could get you most of the way on the input side.

They have opted for IR Break Beam Sensors to detect the ball drops and added a small Audio FX Sound Board  

Yes, it does seem very close now thinking about it. I'm going to reexamine this.

That looks like fun for me, my wife and kids and grand kids. I think I'm going to make that for my daughter's wedding in September. Let everyone play and keep the kids busy competing against each other. It looks simple enough. I can get the wood pretty cheap and I have a lot of arduino parts around. If it's a hit, I can upgrade it. 

That looks like fun for me, my wife and kids and grand kids. I think I'm going to make that for my daughter's wedding in September. Let everyone play and keep the kids busy competing against each other. It looks simple enough. I can get the wood pretty cheap and I have a lot of arduino parts around. If it's a hit, I can upgrade it. 

If you keep the design modular, then you can reuse the ball roll part of it as an input for different games. Twelve of these connected up to your HO slot car track and you then have a Kentucky Derby game.

If you are making the scoreboard digits from pixel strips, then you may want to take a quick look at this Ninja Timer video from John Park first, as he has a rather nice demo of how to get the diffusion just right to avoid pixel hotspots.

It can be tricky to get it to look good as shown here: testing different diffusers and even more so if you are wanting to use it where daylight may be a factor.

I'm going to reply to both.  I'll have to read up on the break beams. Only one ball would be in play.

Maybe having chutes at the low end with beam sensors would work best. 3 on one chute,  1 on one, and 2 on a third.

The ball has to roll past them to go in the hole. Roll the ball down with dowels for it to bump against,  then the ball returns underneath.

I think I'll use the eight digit counters for scoring but I'll definitely check the video out, if just to learn from.  Thanks my friend. 

Mikeatencio said:

I'll have to read up on the break beams.

Diffused, through-beam and retroreflective sensors - what's the difference?

Mikeatencio said:

Roll the ball down with dowels for it to bump against

This is where you can add your own twist to the game play by borrowing features from other ball based games as well as introducing your own. If you stick a sensor on the dowel then it can trigger a sound effect or a light animation or affect the scoring anytime it gets bumped.

You may need to consider chance vs skill to keep people entertained with the game play. Also options to make it enjoyable by both young and old.

I was going to make colorful speed bumps instead of dowels.  Easy to light up.

If you are going for lots of discrete switches and LEDs, then you may want something like the Arduino Mega2560 which has quite a lot of GPIO connectivity.

I have an an ESP32 I was going to use.

Well that was a quick and easy decision...

You can get GPIO expanders if you run out or you can just add another microcontroller, like has been done here where 200 buttons are being used:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypBI0wJYfcQ

If you are using RGB pixel LEDs then that can greatly reduce the pin count.

Some sensors are available with I2C interfaces, however some have fixed addresses which may require extra work.

The sensor arrangement on the Elton Derby game can be seen here:

   https://rollaball.co.uk/product/score-tray-optical-sensor-v4/

in the spares section.

Looks like 3 pairs of optical break beam sensors with the chutes directing balls from certain pockets through the different sensors.

According to a comment here:

   https://forum.arduino.cc/t/roll-a-ball-horse-race-game/417850

apparently in 2017, the game cost £18,000.

I love the mouse on the bus game. The camel racing was great too. 18,000 must include everything.  I like the scoring system.  It would be easy to replicate. Thank you for the links. I'm guessing, but I imagine there's a chain driven system using NEMA 23 step motors. These are similar to this episode project.  It's exactly what I wanted,  just bigger.