ECE 476 Final Project

Cornell Hockey
ECE 476 Final Project

Rives Borland
Ryan John
Brian Tarricone

Software Design

Overview

The software layout is relatively simple. The main feature is the interrupt code for handling the NTSC drawing routines. The screen (a 128x100 raster) must be refreshed 60 times per second, leaving a small amount of dead time between frames for making calculations and changing the positions of drawn items on the screen.

The game itself consists of a state machine, plus a large amount of logic detailing how the puck, players, and goalies should move, as well as handling scoring and timing. The state machine handles what part of gameplay the players are currently experiencing. The largest state by far is the state detailing what happens when a hockey game is actually in session. Other states handle the welcome screen, end-of-period screen, team selection screen, etc.

Controls

START - Toggle through menus, Pause game during game mode.
A - Toggle through some menus, Switch control between Skater and Goalie
B- Speed Burst. Speed Burst is not infinite. Skater must rest after using Speed Burst before using speed burst again.
C - Shoot: The longer you hold the button, the harder the shot.
Up/Down/Left/Right - Move the Skater or Goalie. (Goalies can only move up or down)

Gameplay

Like in real hockey, each game consists of three twenty minute periods (the clock can be sped up). If at the end of 3 periods, the score remains tied, then sudden death overtimes are played until someone scores a goal.

A goal is scored when the puck is shot past the Goalie inside the Goal. The team with the most goals at the end of the game wins.

Before each game, each player can select from 1 of 4 teams. Once a team is selected, each player can choose 1 of the 3 players from that team to be their Skater. Each player has certain strengths and weakneses.

Finally, you can choose a period length. The options are 10, 5, 3, and 2 minute periods. Note that the game clock always counts down from 20.

Goalies

Each goalie has an associated speed and save percentage. The higher the goalie speed, the faster the goalie moves. When the goalie is in front of a puck it stops the puck some of the time based on the Goalies Save Percentage.

There is rudimentary AI that will position the Goalie in the best position to make saves. The user can also take control of the goalie.

Skaters

Each skater has several attributes associated with them. They are as follows

Speed- How fast the skater is
Speed Burst- The strength of the speed burst
Fatigue- Determines the length of the speed burst
Puck Skill- How good the skater is at handling the puck and winning battles for the puck
Max Shot Power- How fast they can shoot the puck
Shot Power Increase- Determines how long the shoot button must be pressed before maximum shot power is reached.

Skaters can move around the rink and shoot the puck. When a skater does not have the puck they can try to steal it from the other skater by running into them. The game then determines who will win the puck by looking at the Puck Skill of each player. A player with a higher Puck Skill has a better chance of winning the puck.

If the goalie is being controlled by the player, the skater will follow the basic AI that was developed. The skater will basically chase after either the puck, or the other teams player if they have the puck. Once the puck is stolen or the other team scores, control is given back to the skater automatically.

State Machine

The code is organized based on the TV signal. Whenever the TV signal is at line 231, we run a finite state machine to determine what should be done.

ST_WELCOME:
Displays the Welcome Message.
ST_TMSEL:
Allows both players to select between the 4 teams
ST_PLSEL:
Allows each player to select the Skater they want to play with. There are 3 skaters on each team. Each skater has unique characteristics that determine how well they play.
ST_LENSEL:
Allows the user to select the actual running time of each period.
ST_PAUSE:
Pauses the game during ST_PLAY
ST_GOAL:
This state updates the score, and displays and erases the Goal message.
ST_FACEOFF:
This state waits 3 seconds before "dropping" the puck to simulate a faceoff. The Face off state occurs at the beginning of every period and after each goal that is scored.
ST_PLAY:
This is the state where the actual game is played. The skaters, goalie and the puck are updated on each cycle to successfully simulate a hockey game. The code ensures that the players and puck stay within the rink at all times.
The puck obeys the laws of physics including deadened bounces off the walls and slowing due to the friction from the ice.
The running game clock is updated every cycle as are all other variables that pertain to the game.
ST_PEREND:
This displays the End of the Period screen.
ST_ENDGAME:
This state displays the end of the game message that tells you who won the game.

Sound

All of the songs that are included in the game were stored in Flash arrays. The frequency of the note along with the duration are stored. The sound is generated though PORTD.0.

We wanted our game to be as close to being in Lynah for a hockey game as possible so we added the following songs that you would hear at a Cornell Hockey Game.

Davy- Cornell's Fight Song- plays after every goal
Alma Mater- played at the end of the game (during real hockey games played between 2nd and 3rd period)
Gary Glitter- Played at the beginning of the 3rd period.

The following Cheers are also included:

#7
Hey Baby
Miller Time
Macho Man

The songs were added for the enjoyment of the player and to make it feel more like a real hockey game. Enjoy!