Pacman like Robot Game

I was happy to be invited to "Idefestivallen", Oslo university, Norway, to set up a small robot event for the visitors.

With less than a week to prepare, I made a simple Pacman like Robot Game:

5 robots on a maze.

3 of them carried a balloon, they where autonomous "Ghosts".

 2 of them was somewhat in control by 2 members of the audience - they where "Pacmen".

When a Pacman drove over one of the "power up's" on the maze, a very sharp huge needle got down (see video). It stayed down for a while, while "power up" was in effect.

Power ups was in fact areas with magnets under the track, and a sensor below the pacmen made it work.

On the video you can also see how a baloon pop was registered. Once a ghost registered a pop, it drove out tho the edge of the maze, to get a new balloon by me. And there was an overall timer on the game, after which all robots stopped. Winners got a Coke ;)

You can also see that on the Pacmen there are little 2 lights on top; Only one is lit; If it's the left one, next time the robot faces a wall, it will turn left. That was how they where controlled; Audience had to boxes, with 2 buttons and 3 LEDs. One LED was constantly lit, showing blue or red player. The other 2 where flashing, corrosponding to what side the robot was about to turn.

I was extremely busy doing this, and while the game was on, I had to change balloons all the time. Some boys where really, really good at the game :) So, unfortunately I did not get to shoot any video when it all peaked, and this write up sucks - but hey; I made a game, and I hope that might inspire someone out there :)

 

The Pacmen and Ghosts each had 2 Picaxe (one 8m to take inputs from remote, one 28x1 to do the rest).

The "main control unit" was a Picaxe 40, placed in one box with some knobs I could turn to adjust level, time of game, set pause etc. Then it had wires out to 2 other boxes, the audiences "joysticks".

As many parts as possible where pre-made (sensors on PCB's, chassis etc) - to save time.

:)

Simple robot game


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/pacman-like-robot-game

wow Fritz, what a great

wow Fritz, what a great idea!    and you did all that in a week.

well done sir!

Agreed

Very impressive, especially considering the amount of time you had to get it together.

Nicely done - I love the

Nicely done - I love the concept what a great Idea! How did the kids control the robots?

cool Frits-project

This project has Frits written all over it. And it is cool.

You deserve to stand tall on the table and look smug.

:smiley:

:smiley:

Very cool Frits.

And done very fast.  Only one week?!?!   Wow.  Good job. =)

Smug :slight_smile:

Like a father that is watching his kid’s potential come to fruition. Stand tall indeed. Well played, sir.

Frits is a cool idea

Frits is a cool idea generator.

wow

one word WOW

Love this

Just got to say I love this project. Retro Robot Computer Games! brilliant :slight_smile:

Awesome!
Don’t think I would have thought of the clothespin method. Incredible work, and awesome to see another robot based game out there!

WOWWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWO

WOWWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW

 

Outstanding!

Obviously, Pacman was a great idea as it is one of the favourite games, of every person back in childhood.

Happy to see robotics was still the trend game, back at that time.