Hello,
At the moment i am looking to start a project to make my own Stacker like seen in arcades ( Arcade Legacy Games, FEC & Amusement Games - laigames.com )
The aim of the game is stack the blocks up to the top, Each level the blocks get slightly faster etc. Luckily i have been able to see inside of this machine and it is designed to make people lose E.G one in every 10 people will win [1:9].
How the Machine Works :
The amount of blocks high can very on the machine but the width is always 7 The height i counted was 12 - 15 blocks high,
When starting you get 3 blocks to stack with, After it stacked up to the one before the minor prize is stacked it goes down to 2 and again after another 3 it goes down to 1. If you stack just one or two blocks on top of the 3 you then only have 3 etc ( More Information Can Be Found Here : http://laigames.com/The%20Stacker%20Family%20Dec%2009.pdf Pages 12 - 15 . )
My Version :
My version would be 7 blocks wide and 9 blocks high , I am skipping out the half way point as there will be no point in this.
The Programming : I am hoping to use the MAX7219 chip ( goo.gl/HkYJZ ) which is was used to power 8x8 matrix displays. I have over 64 lights although i would only require 63 ( 9*7) These are light bulbs that require 9 volts ( this is another reason why i think the max 7219 chip would be best. Otherwise all the programming should hopefully be simple to do ( I don’t know i’m still a noob at programming arduino)
The question is would this be possible to code.
Thanks - Ryan Walmsley
I have also made a google drawing here - https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1daJRsfs6-51O6kj-TUmNYneI7sF43pOYJ5mmnAs_T-E/edit?hl=en_GB
If you want to contact me about any questions that will be quicker than P.Ming me email me @ Click here to see my email
I posted some more info in my post below
ryanteck:
KE7GKP:
Sure you can code this on Arduino. The controller in the commercial game machine likely isn't significantly different than Arduino.By the looks of it , it was just a few chips with 4 buttons on it and a ticket dispenser.
KE7GKP:
The only tricky part may be the 9x7 array vs 8x8. You can certainly wire it to 63 lights, but you will have to "tweak" the code to cheat one row to look like a column. Certainly possible, but not exactly straightforward.This is what i was thinking, The matrix would be identical for the first 8 rows but only use 7 rows wide so then the last row would technically be at the top and turned sideways.
KE7GKP:
Remember that if you want to do more than one color, you will need multi-color lights and more than one MAX7219 chip.I have only got just plain lights, as I would be making the stacker myself I would look into buying some overlays or gels.
The hardest part i could think of is programming it to know to make the blocks "Fall" so then it shows it falling down.
I am also thinking to code the button to stop the blocks as a physical button and also listen to the serial port so i could hook a webcam up to it and be able to play it online.