When I saw this amazing 1D-Pong-Game at Hack-A-Day, I thought "What a great idea - I want to make one". In fact it is a good projects for using microcontrollers, but I also think it is a great project for using logic ICs. I am fascinated by the simplicity of these ICs, and I was wondering if I could make a 1D-Pong-Game without a µController.
Here it is: MonoPong involves a CMOS NAND Gate (4011), a 4510 up/down decade counter, 4028 BCD to decimal decoder chip and as an oscillator an NE555 in astable mode.
The Game
is a 1D-version of the famous PONG game. The "ball" moves from left to right. The player has to push the button at the right moment to strike it back. If he misses the "ball" the other player wins one point.
Here it is: MonoPong involves a CMOS NAND Gate (4011), a 4510 up/down decade counter, 4028 BCD to decimal decoder chip and as an oscillator an NE555 in astable mode.
The Game
is a 1D-version of the famous PONG game. The "ball" moves from left to right. The player has to push the button at the right moment to strike it back. If he misses the "ball" the other player wins one point.
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Signing UpStep 1: How it works
Instructables is not only about how to make something, but also about learning how something works. So, let me first explain how the circuit works.
IC2 in the schematic is a CMOS 4510 up/down counter. Driven by IC1 which is a NE555 in astable mode it counts from 0 to 9 in BCD code. Normally it counts from 0 to 9, but it can be switched to count in the opposite direction by b setting pin 10 to HIGH.The BCD code is converted into a decimal code by the CMOS 4028 (IC2). This one drives the display and gives out the counted number in form of one of 10 LEDs lighting up.
The last IC is a 4011 NAND gate. Two of the NAND gates are connected to work as a RS flip flop. The inputs of the other two NAND gates are connected to the buttons and LED1 or LED10. The outputs are connected to the RS flip flop. If you push the button at the right moment, which means for example when LED10 lights up, the output of the NAND gate sends a LOW signal to the flip flop which changes its output state (eg. from HIGH to LOW or vice versa). This signal goes to pin 10 of the 4510 to change the direction of the count. The "ball" bounces back.
IC2 in the schematic is a CMOS 4510 up/down counter. Driven by IC1 which is a NE555 in astable mode it counts from 0 to 9 in BCD code. Normally it counts from 0 to 9, but it can be switched to count in the opposite direction by b setting pin 10 to HIGH.The BCD code is converted into a decimal code by the CMOS 4028 (IC2). This one drives the display and gives out the counted number in form of one of 10 LEDs lighting up.
The last IC is a 4011 NAND gate. Two of the NAND gates are connected to work as a RS flip flop. The inputs of the other two NAND gates are connected to the buttons and LED1 or LED10. The outputs are connected to the RS flip flop. If you push the button at the right moment, which means for example when LED10 lights up, the output of the NAND gate sends a LOW signal to the flip flop which changes its output state (eg. from HIGH to LOW or vice versa). This signal goes to pin 10 of the 4510 to change the direction of the count. The "ball" bounces back.
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Thanks so much for this project. (BTW, what's the best place to get these old parts? Digikey?)
Connect the clock inputs to the push buttons and the D inputs to the decoder outputs (where the NAND gates' inputs are connected to in the original circuit) Then connect the outputs of the flip flops to the RS latch.
Still very grate and simple circuit! A+
Build_it_Bob
I love this, and the way you've implemented it in discrete logic. Maybe not a game you could play for hours on end, but a great novelty. Sometimes I think microcontrollers make things too easy!
It reminds me of a game I built out of TTL chips literally 3 decades ago where you had to turn off a sequencing string of LEDs by pressing a button as each lit LED passed a marker. Pressing at the wrong time would light an additional LED.
The wonderful Babani Books!
The first circuits I ever made were a metal detector and a 'burp box' (4 cross-connected astables) from '50 Electronic Novelty Circuits'. And then a matchbox radio using the ZN414 from 'Practical Electronics'. Those were the days. Kids today . . . Don't know they're born #;¬)
Not a Nascom (oh the luxury of those Z80 16 bit registers), but an Ohio Superboard - 6502 based. Came ready built (apart from case, PSU, modulator etc) and I built an extra RAM board and a speech synth for it. Then came the brilliant BBC computer.
I've just received a Raspberry Pi I ordered a few months back. Hopefully the Raspberry project should get a few more kids thinking about what actually goes on in that black box under the desk that they play games on.
I've sort of avoided the Pi though I totally agree that it is really needed to drag kids back from the X-Box way of thinking. Let's hope... Perhaps I should give it a whirl.
Well Done!
I was like "Whaaaaat?!?" and i think i will build such a thing just to see the fun if i get it out and show to someone... The expression on theyr faces will be worth it for sure :)