Main > Main Forum
How to make a paddle for an electromechanical breakout game?
kiwasabi:
So I've had the idea for a while of making an electromechanical version of Breakout. It would mostly use pinball components; drop targets for the bricks, and a ball bearing for the ball. What I can't figure out is how to do the paddle. With some engineer friends' suggestions I decided that an electronics-driven paddle wouldn't be the best bet since it's more complicated and thus more likely to break. So the idea of having the paddle being controlled by a spinner was out. It was decided then that a mechanism that rolls on a track, that the player physically moves back and forth would be best. My question is, how do we propel the ball back into the opposite direction? A pad that's spring-loaded would probably do the trick, but then how would tension be added back to the spring? By having the player do that with a switch? To me that seems sort of annoying and not fun. It could also be possibly to have some sort of handle or trigger the player pulls to cause the paddle to push forward...sort of like those toys where you squeeze the trigger and the boxing glove goes out. Any people who are mechanically inclined have any ideas?
Le Chuck:
Just put a solenoid driven pop bumper on a track that goes to a drive rod that the player uses to maneuver the position.
lilshawn:
if you look how a slingshot kicker on a pinball works, with a solenoid pulling a leaver out into the rubber to deflect the ball... just put 2 of the levers on either end and have them fire at the same time. same switches and everything to actuate it.
mount the whole works onto a sled that you can move left and right. the rubber coming out a slot in the playfield board.
how i would do it anyways.
kiwasabi:
--- Quote from: Le Chuck on August 03, 2014, 10:24:16 pm ---Just put a solenoid driven pop bumper on a track that goes to a drive rod that the player uses to maneuver the position.
--- End quote ---
So simple and ingenious. I guess the rounded design might actual be ideal since in Breakout/Pong it seems the roundness is actually sort of emulated... aka it doesn't hit it straight back in the same direction it was coming from. Thanks for the idea!
kiwasabi:
--- Quote from: lilshawn on August 03, 2014, 11:12:32 pm ---if you look how a slingshot kicker on a pinball works, with a solenoid pulling a leaver out into the rubber to deflect the ball... just put 2 of the levers on either end and have them fire at the same time. same switches and everything to actuate it.
mount the whole works onto a sled that you can move left and right. the rubber coming out a slot in the playfield board.
how i would do it anyways.
--- End quote ---
That's a good idea too! Do you think it would be better to have it be straight as you're suggesting, or rounded like on a pop bumper? As I said above, I'm pretty sure in Pong they basically emulated that the paddle was rounded to give you more control depending on where you hit the ball.