Week 7 Lab – Multiple Serial Outputs

Building game controllers and turret systems with Arduino and Processing

October 23, 2009

Physical ComputingArduinoProcessingGame DevelopmentITP

Here is a simple double joystick game controller similar to that used by Playstation.

Double Joystick / Arduino Serial data format (Arduino sketch)

Double Joystick / Processing data reading (Processing sketch)

Game controller — Double joystick game controller prototype

Game controller (detail) — Detailed view of the game controller components

For the media controller group project, I wrote the following code, which uses a potentiometer and a force-sensing resistor to recreate a turret gun in the style of a classic arcade game:

Potentiometer/FSR Serial Data Formatting (Arduino sketch)

Potentiometer/FSR Turret (Processing sketch)

I am now working on a hot-swappable version, which allows up to 6 players to plug their controller into the game at any time. The turrets will be interfaced with a game and generative audio environment, which are currently being developed by my teammates Nien and Don. Having never worked for a large software company, I've been somewhat mystified by the logistics of team development. This group project has been a great learning experience for me. I'm very pleased with our collaborative efforts.