Ramrod
Team members:
- Brian Arment
- Ryan Hunter
- Aaron Shoaf
In the spirit of nostalgia, our capstone group will be taking a 1965 classic electro-mechanical pinball machine, gutting it, and replacing it with both parts and a new theme of our own design. Performing this task will consist of several steps. First, we must analyze the working mechanical parts on the playfield that we will be able to salvage (coils, contact switches, lights, etc.). Second, we will modify the existing playfield and add more complex elements that will make the game more interesting to play. Third, we must then design a microprocessor-based logical brain in order to take in sensory input from the playfield, and translate it into things like sound, lights, scoring, and display. Fourth, we'll need a separate driver board to step up the logic level outputs from the processor board to a voltage that can power things like coils and lights. Fifth, we will design and build a custom display decoder that takes input from the processor board and translates that into score display with custom graphics using a dot matrix LED display. Finally, we will design a soundboard that takes input from the processor board and plays corresponding digital sound bites as well as a full musical soundtrack. This will require several different sound decoders and memory cells to store these clips. The goal is to have CD quality sound from our device. Due to the complexity of this project, several things can easily be scaled down if there is not adequate time or resources to do so.