I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date,
no time to say goodbye, hello,
I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!!!
-- the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland
I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date,
no time to say goodbye, hello,
I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!!!
-- the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland
Yes, time... if only we had more time... There are a number of things that we would have loved to have added if only we had a bit more. The first would be a sound system that corresponds with the paddle striking the ball. PONG derived its original name via this sound, and it is a well known part of the system. The main reason this was not implemented was that we ran out of ports to send information through. After setting up the STK200 to send information to two DACs and make use of the ADC, we were only left with 8 bits to display scoring and take in user button pushes. We may have been able to reconfigure the way this was handled to save a couple pins to send information to a speaker however. Ideas we have include a reset that occurs by hitting button 3 for extended time (instead of using button 4), and lights that look like they are constantly lit, or flash on and off to display different scores so that we may be able to save 1 pin from each of the scoring LEDs. Probably the most blatant waste of pins was made in our misunderstanding that PORT A couldn't be used for inputs if using the ADC. While pins zero and one can not be used, we now realize that we can set the others as we see fit and use them accordingly.
We would have also considered adding a feature that increases the speed of the ball every set number of hits. This would of course make the game dramatically more challenging to those who are more skilled. Although we feel this change would not be too difficult to implement, we would like more user input before adding the feature. Setting up the apparatus and finding numerous people in the lab to play and give input can be rather time consuming though, and difficult when the individuals are trying to complete their own projects at the same time as well.
Furthermore, we would love to implement a feature to put spin on the ball or change angles of shots depending on the speed the player is moving the paddle when striking the ball. This is an interesting fascet that could be both fun to implement, and fun to play on. We would have also enjoyed making a "smart" computer opponent against the user, but this would of course take significant extra effort. A wall ball option, along with an arkanoid type game also seem like plausible additions that can be added. All in all, there are numerous additions we would have like to make, but are quite happy with the game that we produced.