“Authors:
Kelly Bodeman - kbodeman4@gmail.com
Jack Whelan - whelanjack11@gmail.com
(For more questions contact us at our emails above)
Here is a link of a youtube video of our project: Connect Four Video
AcknowledgmentsCalifornia Maritime Academy (Marine Engineering Technology)
Professor Chang-Siu (ET370 Electronics)
The Idea:
Connect Four is a two-player game typically consisting of a 7 x 6 board where players physically drop their chips into their desired slot. The goal of the game is to get four of your color in a row whether it be vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Instead of physically dropping the chips into slots there are buttons that correspond to their nearest row. When the button is pressed the board will play an animation of a ball dropping. The color/player changes from blue and red every time a ball is dropped. The most challenging part of this project is detecting a win. The solution to this was to scan for a win every time a ball is placed, and at the location, it is placed. From that location, it scans in every possible direction (horizontal, vertical, and both diagonal directions). To keep things simple it only scans the nearest line, which also makes the win scan a little faster. Another thing to detect would be a tie, to detect a tie we could set a counter for how many plays there have been, and when that limit is reached it displays a tie.
Supplies:
Below is the list of materials used for this project:
Neo Pixel LEDs
Arcade Buttons
ping pong balls
Arduino Uno
Power Supply (Arduino) (9V 2.5A)
Wires
circuit boards
breadboard
PLC 3D Printing Material
Acrylic Sheets
Various screws
Aluminum bar for stand”