GamePal Proposal

Web Page: http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/ee552proj/proposal.html

Mark Fedorak, Vera Casteel, Ron Smith, Kris Pucci

INTRODUCTION:

Our development team proposes to design and build a device that will add a level of technology to many currently non-electronic games. The device will be called the GamePal and will be referred to by that name hereafter. It is important to note that the final GamePal will likely differ slightly from the definition outlined below.

PROJECT DEFINTION:

The GamePal will have a graphic LCD display. This display will have menus, which will be navigable with up-down arrows or by typing in a numeric that corresponds to a menu item. The user will enter all data on a combination numeric / function keypad. This keypad will include all ten digits (0-9), Up Arrow, Down Arrow, Main Menu, Enter, Repeat, and a Backspace.

Some of the possible features include:

  1. One to six, six sided dice can be rolled at once and a graphical display of the results will be displayed on the LCD. Where there is more than six dice or multi-sided dice the results will be displayed numerically. Example:
  2. Dice can be assigned a level, for example in RiskÔ or Axis and AlliesÔ there are multi-colored dice that each need to be rolled at once. Several dice of different levels can be rolled at once. The results can then be displayed in a dice by dice format or in a win / lose format.
  3. A clock that will display the current time in: HH:MM:SS AM/PM.
  4. A second level stopwatch timer that can be used for games where the amount of time it takes for the user to complete a move is important. There will be a one-button hotkey to restart the timer. This hotkey will restart the timer and display the previous time just below the currently elapsing time.
  5. A second level countdown timer that can be set to a maximum of one hour and will have hotkey type functionality much like the stopwatch timer. It may also have a beep or buzzer sound that will go off when the count down is completed, and possibly an auto-restart. Another possible feature may be to add the JeopardyÔ theme song as a predefined countdown.
  6. A spinner like that used in TwisterÔ .
  7. The user enters a numeric or alphanumeric list of up to 20 elements. The GamePal will then randomly display one of the list elements. This could be used to simulate games like The Wheel of FortuneÔ .
  8. A JeopardyÔ buzzer system where up to six players has buzzers and the GamePal decides who buzzed in first.
  9. A built in version of Tic Tac Toe, Chess, Checkers, or other such games. These games would be for two real-life players, the GamePal would only facilitate the game board.

As the project progresses the development team will think of other things that could be included. They may also discover that some of the above will be too time consuming or resource intensive to implement. Thus, it can be expected that the final GamePal will have slightly different features from those mentioned above. The last three items of the feature list are the first to be excluded if the aforementioned constraints start to apply.

RESOURCES AND PEOPLE:

A logical way to break the development team, of four, up is into two teams of two. One team will be responsible for designing the interface and the LCD screens. The other will be responsible for designing the algorithms and processor to implement the above features. A project schedule can be viewed in appendix A.

This project will require at least one reprogrammable FPGA. It will require a graphics based LCD display, as well as a controller for that display. Some research has been done into this and the SEIKO G242C with the SED 1330 or the HYANDAI HG24502 with the TOSHIBA T6963 will satisfy our requirements. Because we want a graphics based LCD it is necessary to have an 8-bit microprocessor. The SED 1330 can interface with either the Motorola 6800 or the Intel Z-80 Microprocessor, however the Toshiba T6963 can only interface with the Intel Z-80 Microprocessor. The GamePal will require an as yet undetermined amount of RAM and maybe a ROM. All of the above can not be finalized until the design process starts.

The main resource for this project will be the Internet as well as available materials in the library. The data sheets and information that accompanies the FPGA and Microprocessor will all be used to help increase our background knowledge.

Most development, testing and simulation will be done on the computer using Mentor Graphics and the FPGA design tools. The microprocessor programming will be done using Assembly and will be downloaded into RAM during testing of the GamePal. It is difficult to make any assumptions about how the development process will progress because of limited experience in this area.

CONCLUSION:

The GamePal will be a challenging project, however the experience gained will be invaluable. The design and implementation of this project will require knowledge from almost all the courses taken thus far in our careers as electrical engineering students as well as new information that has yet been uncovered. It is of appropriate difficulty for a 4 member development team and the team is confident in their ability to complete the project and have a working GamePal by the end of the semester.

If you wish to find out more information regarding this project and its development team members please visit the project homepage at:

http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~fedorak/ee552proj/.

There is a links page that may have more information on any part of this document. Including links to information on LCD's. There is also a detailed projected development schedule that is also included in appendix A.

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This page was last updated January 20, 1998: 00:30h