Battle on the High Seas

This Halloween, trick-or-treaters were conscripted into service on a pirate ship.  Their mission, which they would avoid at their peril, was to send their enemy's ships to Davey Jones' Locker.  Two kids would compete against each other and try to sink each other's ships.

I created a game in C#.net that would allow the kids to play against each other on two different screens and shoot each other's ships.  As they fired their cannons on-screen, "real" cannons that we made out of wood and canvas, would recoil.  The cannons had 1/2 horsepower electric motors in them that we would send charges to make them bounce back, as if being fired.

The computers on which the game was run would communicate via wireless network and would send scoring and other information to each other.  Attached to each computer were circuitboards from Phidgets, to which we connected joysticks, pressure sensors, and 120v circuits. 

The kids had fun playing the game (as you can see in the video) and we had a blast creating the game.  Hope you enjoy it too!