Mini Hoops - A mini basketball arcade style game.....sorta I guess

[RetroArcadePro]

I have just literally began this project, today was the first time I did any of the physical work and not much at that. But I figured if I make a thread it will push me to keep it going til I am finished and take some input as I go along.

Backstory- So recently my 5 year old son has been getting really into basketball. He loves to go to the gym my wife goes to and play with their basketballs. He has one of those little tike style plastic ones at home he is always playing with and we have a junior hoop that he will be getting for Xmas to go in the backyard. Building as I am always looking for things to build and didn't quite want to mess with a regular arcade build right now I though hmmmm what if I built him a mini game that is like the ones you find in the arcade. I came to the site and did a search and was surprised to find that no one has built one of any size.

I was planning on making it interface via an arduino and some 7 segment displays. However, when searching if anyone had done it before I came across thatpurplestuff's skeeball thread. Having seen it multiple times over the years I decided to check and out and see where he was at with it out of curiosity. I then saw the program he had made in the style of his skeeballs ones, Free Hoops. I instantly said to myself that is the route I will definitely have to take. So to start off I will be using his program with some media changes I made. I have been becoming interested in learning how to program so eventually I will get to the point where I will make my own, I plan to have different types of games on it like he has with his skeeball program. Here is a picture of the main page that I swapped out on his program.


I will make up a bill tally and see roughly how much I spend on this.


So, starting with dimensions I had to figure out how big I will make this roughly. Width is going to be limited by the 36-37" width of my front door so I can bring it into the house. I will stay just under this. Length I have gone with 6 ft, I sort of came to this by testing how far my son can shoot a basket somewhat normally. As for height I am not exactly sure yet overall how tall, but I plan to put the basket probably around 6" above my sons head. Will be small but for him it will work out well, once he starts to outgrow it I can always do a new one and then my daughter who is 2 should be able to take overt this smaller one  , ( gotta have reasons to build more stuff so the wife doesn't gripe).

So far I have decided to go with size 3 basketballs which are a little over 7" in diameter I believe. I have a 15" rim on the way but not sure if I will keep this or go down to 13", will have to see how easy it is for him to make shots I guess. But that is roughly it.


12/14/15

Today I began work on the frame. For this build I am using whitewood stud 2x4s. Only $2.50 each for an 8 footer.


 I decided since it is on the smaller size it should be plenty strong to make it out of half of the 2x4. So I started by ripping a couple in half.


Bottom frame member, 6'x3'. I glued and screwed it together.


After I did that I went ahead and cut two inner supports to beef up the rigidity. Those were also glued and screwed in.


I plan to put some casters on the bottom of this so that it is easier to move. So I went ahead and used 1 inch cube sections I had from shortening the smaller lengths after I decided to put them on the inside of the long ones. Right now I have only glued them in. Once I find a set of casters I want to use I will mark out where they will screw in and then use a screw on the cubes. I didn't want to screw them in just yet just incase the screws of the caster would happen to be in line wherever I happen to put the screw.


Well, that is all I have right now. Probably won't get to work on it again til this coming weekend. Next up will be the vertical pieces and then probably a similar upper frame. I need to make out a rough sketch or at least think a little more of the path I will be going down. Thanks for looking and feel free to leave any suggestions.

[PL1]

I came to the site and did a search and was surprised to find that no one has built one of any size.

Puffyeye was working on one here -- no word on whether he ever worked out the trigger system.   

I came across thatpurplestuff's skeeball thread. Having seen it multiple times over the years I decided to check and out and see where he was at with it out of curiosity. I then saw the program he had made in the style of his skeeballs ones, Free Hoops.

Based on TPS's post here, he decided to make Free Hoops based on Puffyeye's thread.   


Scott

[RetroArcadePro]

Yeah I saw his thread too bad nothing about being finished. Some of the arcade ones I have seen have a mirror on the hoop side closest to the player and uses an optical sensor that counts when the beam is broken. I may either try that route(wish I didn't get rid of my welder) or possibly go with a combo of different sensors to try. I have lots of arduinos laying around and some wireless modules so those will probably be what I go with. Either than or taking my old ipac I have an wiring that up. Not too sure yet, guess I have time to go before I get to that point.

[RetroArcadePro]

Here is the "enter" button I bought for it. Got it off ebay, listed as a pinball button. May order up some orange round or rectangle buttons for navigation in the program when that becomes a necessity.

[danny_galaga]

Are you Australian? Just that I couldn't help but notice your safety boots 

Good work so far 

[RetroArcadePro]

Are you Australian? Just that I couldn't help but notice your safety boots 

Good work so far 

Nope, just lived in some sunnier places here in the states for the past 12 years where shoes aren't a requirement. A nice 60 something winter day here in Arizona yesterday =) .

[yotsuya]

Are you Australian? Just that I couldn't help but notice your safety boots 

Good work so far 

Nope, just lived in some sunnier places here in the states for the past 12 years where shoes aren't a requirement. A nice 60 something winter day here in Arizona yesterday =) .

It's FREAKING COLD here. I took my daughter to a concert Sunday night at the Mesa Amphitheatre, and it was 46 degrees outside.

[RetroArcadePro]

Was nice up here in sun city where I am at, at least to me it was a shorts kind of day. 

[yotsuya]

Was nice up here in sun city where I am at, at least to me it was a shorts kind of day.

I take it you're probably originally from somewhere back East that routinely gets cold?

[RetroArcadePro]

Was nice up here in sun city where I am at, at least to me it was a shorts kind of day.

I take it you're probably originally from somewhere back East that routinely gets cold?

Originally Ohio.  Joined military and lived in SC, NY, GA, VA, CA and now came to AZ getting out.  So have been away from snow for awhile but winters in these places are pretty nice days to me most of the times. 

[RetroArcadePro]

Tomorrow starts the weekend, hopefully getting off work a little early. So should get some more physical build in at least one of these days.

Here is a preview so far of the program that will be used on the game. As you can see it is heavily influenced wise from thatpurplestuff's free hoops(sorry if you feel I ripped you off).

It is still in the beginning stages and needs some things reworked(such as the digits as you can tell). So far it has adjustable times in a separate txt file for main clock and the time that "3 point frenzy" activates at. Basketballs "flash" when a basket is made, music also has a mute key. It does retain scores which are put into a txt file.

Some plans I have so far besides tweaks it currently needs
-Make it multi player, where you can select at least 2 players to play one after the other.
-Make it so a user can either enter their name or initials and it retains hi score for that play and you can pull up a history of X amount of games.
-Have it display the current overall hi score that has been achieved on the game.
-Create some other game modes just as thatpurplestuff and others have done with their skeeball setups.

Let me know what you guys think and any suggestions.

[PL1]

Is there some other way than normally on forums to display youtube videos on here?

Change "https" in the youtube URL . . .

Code: [Select]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AADgMwUQsJ4
. . . to "http" . . .

Code: [Select]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AADgMwUQsJ4
. . . and it will embed the video like this -- no tags needed.   




Scott

[RetroArcadePro]

Is there some other way than normally on forums to display youtube videos on here?

Change "https" in the youtube URL . . .

Thanks

[RetroArcadePro]

Font sharpness solved. Also added 3rd digit to the score display. Will change countdown format tomorrow probably and maybe add a little hi score section on the screen.

[RetroArcadePro]

12/18/15

Good weather outside and got off work early afternoon. Made a run to Home Depot to grab a couple things and then got a couple hours in on working on it. As you can see I was able to complete the top and the "legs" to join the top and the bottom pieces. I put the top at a nice and easy 5 degree slant, tested it and it gives the ball a  slow,steady roll. I decided to forego the casters and I also decided to go a little bigger than I was initially planning. I figured it would be better to let my son start at a point where he will grow into it rather than a point where he would be growing out of it. Also, the 15" hoop I ordered I guess got lost in the mail so I got a refund on it. After some deliberation I decided to go down to a 13" rim, figuring it would make it not quite as easy and also aide in helping my son work on better aim which should help with playing on his 15" outside hoop.

Will probably work on the program for it more tonight and if I get a chance tomorrow to work on it some more I will add more bracing to it than you see currently. I also have to come up with how I will design and attach the upper surround part that is typically metal fencing style. I am thinking I will source out some netting and use that. Then figure out how I will frame it so it is sturdy and how the netting will attached. For the back I think I may attach upright 2x4's so that behind where the hoop is it will be more solid and sturdy for the ball to hit. Not much of a plans beforehand kind of guy so I just make it up as I go along.

[RetroArcadePro]

Made some changes to the game screen in the program. Made the digits more crisp, added the 3rd digit for the score, made the background digits look dimmer. For the timer I changed the format to match that you would most likely find if you were using a 7 segment time display that used minutes.

New edition is the Hi score area there in the top left. The program now saves the highest score achieved for a specific time and displays it until it is beaten. So for instance if you get a high score for 30 seconds and go into the config txt file and change time to 60 seconds it will no longer display the high score until one has been achieved for that time. If you switch it back to 30 secs(or any time that has a high score) it will once again display that.

Also, at the completion of the game your score will now flash a few times and I have set the music to stop when the horn blows.

I think I am almost there with the little tweaks and changes I want to do. Time to start thinking up some big features to add now.

[RetroArcadePro]

So, I am trying to implement 2 player into this. I want to make it have two different modes for 2 player, one where P1 goes and then is followed by P2(which I will use in this instance since I have only one hoop) but I also want another mode where they go simultaneously in case I build another or a larger one with 2 players later on. I am making the wording for the screen, I have 2-Player-Co-op but I can't for the life of me think of a good name to call the one after another mode. Anyone have any suggestions?

[PL1]

So, I am trying to implement 2 player into this. I want to make it have two different modes for 2 player, one where P1 goes and then is followed by P2(which I will use in this instance since I have only one hoop) but I also want another mode where they go simultaneously in case I build another or a larger one with 2 players later on. I am making the wording for the screen, I have 2-Player-Co-op but I can't for the life of me think of a good name to call the one after another mode. Anyone have any suggestions?

2-player Alternating (One hoop) -- P1 then P2, two scores
2-player Co-op (One hoop) -- both P1 + P2 at the same time, one score
2-player Co-op (Two hoops) -- both P1 + P2 at the same time, one score
2-player Simultaneous (Two hoops) --  both P1 + P2 at the same time, two scores


Scott

[RetroArcadePro]

Yeah I think I will just have to go with Alternating and Simultaneous. No idea why such a simple word was escaping my mind.

But anyways. Going to pick up some sheets of MDF tomorrow .

[RetroArcadePro]

Didn't have much time to do anything, spent most of the day out getting furniture and buying wood for various projects. I did get the sheets of mdf I need though. What little I did was just finish the last couple pieces for the frame, it is very sturdy now. Not sure if anything else will needed but as I go along I will see if it needs more bracing. Will get picture of completed frame up tomorrow probably. I think I may have gone a little bigger than I should have but oh well, looks like my son is gonna have to start bulking up to make those baskets lol.

I did however get some progression on the program. 2 player simultaneous mode has been added into the game. I also have redone the background for the game mode, need to redo the single player one still though.

Should have a 4 day weekend so hopefully I can work on it 1 or 2 days next weekend.

[RetroArcadePro]

12-24-15

Had a good amount of time today to work on it, got about a good 4 hours in on it, working slowly. Weather outside was beautiful again, so nice to be able to work outside like this in December. One of the reasons I will never move back to somewhere that it snows.

So yesterday after deliberating quite a while I told myself it was too big for a 5 year old to play on. So I had to shorten it up some so that he would actually enjoy it(I figure in the future I can easily just make an extension for the front if I want it to be longer). I went ahead last night and lopped off around 1.5 ft from the hoop side, this both shortened it length wise and max height for the frame. I took a jigsaw and cut it back to some of the vertical supports and then redid the horizontal pieces on the end. That brought me in to today where my goal was to get the MDF pieces done for the unit.

First thing to do was measure out the size of the top/"court" area and cut that guy out first. Here is it cut out slightly oversized and screwed in, we will go in with the router and flush trim it to the frame. Toughjob sawhorses from HD. These things are great, I used them to lay out the sheets and cut the, with the jigsaw and circular saw. Word of advice, perhaps always check to make sure when you are about to saw through the board you aren't over the sawhorse  . Way to mess up the nice $50 sawhorse there bud, oh well doesn't hurt its function




The thing I dislike about MDF... using a router on it, so much dust everywhere. To combat that I got a vacuum attachment kit for the router, no way was I going at it within this. First I attached the piece you use when doing edgework. Worked really well at containing the dust but it got in the way a lot and made the process slow.



So I went ahead and changed to the attachment that gets attached on the opposite side. While this did make it a lot easier and quicker it was not as efficient as the other one. Much better than nothing though.



Here is the top flush trimmed. Now we are getting somewhere. Next thing up was the front. Again this was rough cut and then flush trimmed. I didn't attach it to the frame. The front will attach with a hinge so that I can access the inside of the unit, so future reinforcement if needed and for a PC or whatever I put under there to drive the program.




With that done it was time to tackle the sides. Now remember I am not going off plans or anything, just making everything up as I go along. First thing I did was cut out a rectangular piece that I could place up to the side and figure out how I want it to be.



Made some marks on the board at what I thought would be good and cut out the front part of the side. These will end up having t molding on them so I rounded out the transition as well. One side down, one to go.



Overlayed the first one on top of the MDF and marked it up and then rough cut it out. Matched them up and sanded them to make them even. Then I went ahead and clamped them to each side to begin screwing them on. They will be taken off later on when it is ready for paint.



Here you can see where I clamped a piece of board from one screw to the other. This then let me know where the frame was located so I could drill the holes for the screws. Drill enough to mark where they would go and then took the board off and put the screws in.




At this point the sun was setting on the beautiful AZ desert. So it was time to start packing things up and head in the house for a nice shower to wash off all the mdf dust.



And here I leave you with a look at the unit as it currently sits.




Tomorrow I may work on the back part. I didn't have enough forethought to go to the store today to get the latches for the front so I guess that will be waiting until the weekend.

[RetroArcadePro]

Here is where I have gotten to so far.  The surround isn't the prettiest of design/looks but I just went with what was the simplest. Should look better when painted.  I think I will just velcro the front on instead of a hinge.

Rim doesn't get here til Tuesday. Waiting on that to figure out mounting position then I will start painting and get the netting put on. Game will just be open and let my son play with it til I figure out all the electronics then it will get a display on a panel towards the front on a piece that will act as the ball stop for balls bouncing back towards the user.

[RetroArcadePro]

Here she is all painted up and rim mounted. Daughter up on it playing a little defense while her brother shoots. Will be bringing it in the house tomorrow and putting on the enclosure portion.

[reptileink]

Great work here! Looking good!

[RetroArcadePro]

Thanks.

It now resides in the house with the netted enclosure so that balls don't go flying around. Besides the front this will probably be how it stays for a little while. I will work on an extension for the front that will add probably 1-1.5 ft in length to make difficulty harder. It is pretty easy right now but my son enjoys it a lot so that is all that counts.

[Xiaou2]

Very nice.

  You may want to consider putting the front portion on using an adjustable length,  using internal slide rails  (a couple of nestled vertically oriented 2x4's)

 This would help, so that smaller kids can adjust the game to be easier for their relative size / height...    and larger kids, adults, can move the foul-line part out... for greater difficulty.    Also, as the kids grow... the machine can grow with them.

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 If the length still isnt long enough at full extension,   you could instead make a Telescopic version.   Either with several sized of PVC (or steel) pipe.. or the use of a wooden mechanism that is similar.

 Place the front part on 4" or greater, diameter wheels.. for easier pull out / push in  action.

 Use of pipe can help hide/protect  any wires you may want to run to the front.


 Artwork is not bad.   But real displays like that typically tend to have a slight lighting glow to them.   Would make the look more authentic.
The Logo (hoops) with the two baskball graphics replacing the "oo"  ... you could change one of them into a netted hoop graphic.


 Edit:

 You could also make a slide-adjust for the Net as well..  so that you could increase the height of the hoop.   Not sure that its really necessary, just tossing out ideas.

 Furthermore,  to make a more challenging version... you could add a sliding motorized backboard, that pushes and pulls the hoop in and out.
A simple dual arm piston system would be fairly easy to set up...  and the backboard could possibly be put on high strength filecabinet drawer slides, or use of casters that slide on siderails.

 Edit2:

 The animation of the 3-point frenzy is quite annoying, mostly due to the size changes.  (also due to it not being set up as a typical display.. like the rest of the graphics)    I think it would be better to make a single version static graphic that is on the backboard as a light-up display... that will come on, possibly only flashing... if / when it is time.

 Use of pinball flasher bulbs under part of the upper hood (shining downwards, so that its not pointing into anyones eyes)  would be a possible cool option.

 A Possible motorized metronome-like blocking hand paddle,  might also be interesting... making you either have to shoot at angles around it, or wait for the hand to move.   (use some form of rubber / foam  shock absorbing material on it.. so that balls do not rebound too crazily.   Also make the pivot with rubber washers and or whatever else, to keep as much impact forces off the arm assembly.

[RetroArcadePro]

Lots of good ideas but a little more involved than I want it to be.

The extension will be simple just a piece of frame with sides that is like 1-2ft in length.  It will butt up against the current front and have clasps on the side that lock it in place.

The front is just a piece of mdf that is velcroed on.

I plan on having the display on a panel that will go across the part that angles upwards.  It will also act as the ball stop to keep it from flying forward

Still working on the program.  The frenzy is just a script which I will dial back to make it not so crazy and I plan on adding a glow to the numbers. 

[RetroArcadePro]