Tennis for Two
From Makers Local 256
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Creator: |
Overview
A copy of a replica of a predecessor to Pong called "Tennis for Two". The original was built in 1958 by William Higinbotham while working at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The game had two controllers and used an oscilloscope for the display. Players could "hit" the ball with a button and control the trajectory with a knob.
The original was built with all analog circuits, BUT the replica was pretty easily done with an AVR micro-controller.
I especially wanted to have this for Retro Gaming & Computing Night
Development
- 1.0 - (7/11/09*)
- Completed Project as per instructions (with personal touches)
- Found and fixed a couple of my own errors
- 1.2 - (7/18/09*)
- Added power switch
- Added BNC connectors for output to oscilloscope
- Added "single player mode" switch inside right side controller. "Player 2" simply returns the ball immediately.
- future improvements
- Add connectors for controllers
- Possibly mount magnets to each controller and the main case to hold main portion to the oscilloscope while playing and hold all parts together while not playing.
- if magnets prove to interfere too much, then something else to hold everything together while not in use.
- Possibly a way for AVR to keep score and display it on the screen. or maybe even on the main case
Contributors
- CrashCart - Followed directions, Soldered, Assembled, and Generally put-together
- Ratmandu - Supplied and Programed the AVR (an ATmega8L)
References
- http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/tennis - the project
- http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp - the original
