Chapter 22 – Electronic Games

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a brief discussion of various electronic games, such as pinball machine, Simon-says games, and other electronic games. The pinball machine is probably the only survivor in the gaming arcade's evolution to electronics. To build a pinball machine, an incredible amount of parts are used: most of the parts are plain 2 x n bricks. The surface of the pinball is built with bricks turned on their side. This technique allows achieving a smooth surface without using tiles, and makes it easy to insert sensors, axle pegs, and anything else that needs a vertical mount over the surface. Programming a pinball is not very complicated. When the game starts, the score is reset to zero, and the ball counts to the initial number. Furthermore, the Simon says game is inspired by Milton Bradley's commercial product Simon, which has had great success among families. It is not an arcade game, but is still very challenging and devised for players to compete against themselves or others. The purpose of the game is to copy the sequence performed by the machine. It starts with just one light, then the sequence of lights becomes longer and longer as the game proceeds. Every time the user successfully reproduces the series, the machine plays it again, adding one more light to the end of the sequence.