Steeplechase Game
Approx construction cost US$16
At first glance, this is a very simple game. There is a row of seven LEDs across the top edge of the circuit board, all of them red except for the one on the right, which is green. A timer drives a counter that turns on the LEDs one at a time, starting from the left, in order. The traveling display represents a horse approaching a jump, which is the green LED. If the player presses the white button at the exact moment when the green LED is lit, this counts as perfect timing and a "clear jump’’ is scored. There is an eighth LED close to the white button to indicate when this happens. However, there is no time to gloat over a successful jump because the horse is already pounding toward the next fence.
The traveling display repeats regularly, with only short pauses between. Now comes the catch! Although this is a digital game, which one might expect to run as regularly as clockwork (a digital clock, we suppose), there is an element of uncertainty that taxes the skill of the player. Like most horses, the steeplechaser may accelerate or hang back as it approaches and takes the jump. The player must take this into account if the horse is not to jump too soon or too late, and fall at the fence.
This game can be played by one person just for fun, but also makes a game for two or more opponents.
More details on this construction project can be found in the September 2000 issue of EPE Online, the world's first web-delivered electronics and computing hobbyist magazine.
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