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In my initial flurry of posts, I managed to signal my new obsession to your community, and establish myself as a bit of a talker (not much of a "do-er"). Oh well. Somewhere within the posts I buried another interesting suggestion (the one that, at present, is practicable and within my skill level--perhaps slightly beneath my skill level).
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"Hey, one more question guys, but I will put it in a separate post, below this one (or above; or wherever the posting program places it!). Thanks a million. I will read more, and post less; and ultimately, I will solder more and post less, and test twice as much as both put together. That's the plan, at least!"
"So, if--hypothetically speaking--you were to make a board game, the purpose of which was to teach children and/or young adults and/or non-techies, the function of a 6502--or for that matter, any microprocessor--what would it look like? What features would you include? What would be the "essential" op-codes, without which the "board-game ALU" would not function. I picked about 20 Op-codes from the Zaks book (i.e. transfers, branches, clears, loads, ADC, SBC, JMP, shifts, etc) and will make cards, picked up like "community chest" or "chance" in a monopoly game, or maybe one with each roll, so that simple add, subtract, multiply and divide programs can be practiced by unsuspecting, bored, precocious children, and their over-achieving, helicopter parents. I might even make a board with some toggle switches and LEDs, and give each player their own stack--where they can push the numbers from a random number generator--for later use. Each player borrows the ALU for their turn and takes their data back to the stack, or RAM with them (I think Push and Pop instructions will be free to use, at any time during a player's turn, even without a card/machine code). It is a rough idea, and I have worked out much more, but what do you think? Maybe I should try to make an x86 version, too, but I think my first love is the 6502---even though I know bup-kiss about actually using or making anything with it! Have you guys ever heard of a game that was "monopoly-like" but teaches Assembly/machine code? How about video games like this? (You would think the latter would be obvious enough to some computer programmer, somewhere??!!!)."
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:19 pm
Posts: 11 "
I have worked on it a bit more (pun intended), enough to show a few digital pictures of the progress. I developed the simplest cheapest random byte generator I could think of. Not exactly a woodworking masterpiece, but it functions well.
So, rough outline of a turn will be (1) roll dice and move and purchase, if able (monopoly style; but purchase inventions, science, theories, and/or intellectual property), (2) Pick up "Op-code card", (3) roll the Random Byte generator and write the result into your "coder's notebook" (every player has their own notebook; i.e. any slip of paper will suffice). (4) Optional; done only when a player is ready with a program that works; Load program into RAM, by hand (I guess this means the player is both ROM and "coder"? oh well, analogy can't work perfectly!) and run it through the ALU. (5) turn end; pass dice to next player.
If I get more organized, or rich, I will use pole switch and LED to increment the program counter, and to indicate the register and flag values. It could be a neat little board game with lots of hands-on learning for kids, teens and adults.
Perhaps a simplified "just-monopoly" rules game, for the really little kids. Then, they graduate to the full game when they get older (age 10 for precocious; age 15 more realistically).
Some other features I have been thinking about are;
(1) not a personal stack (one for watch player), as I originally thought, but one stack for the system.
(2) free use of the PUSH and PULL instructions (I was even thinking a Staples "that was easy" button would be cool)
(3) Very little money to start the game; much money for writing and executing successful code
(4) each "property" on the board would actually be a "theme" or "historical and theoretical arc" of certain crucial technologies. In the beginning of the game, the good hardware and concepts are locked, and as more easy inventions (zero, morse code, Boolean algebra) are purchased, better hardware and programs can be developed. (No worries about cross licensing, as I don't want too much "cut-throat" tech-culture to slip into the game. It is supposed to be fun! For that reason, venture capital and corporation references are kept to a minimum.).
(5) other stuff too.
This is the overview. I am going to go and try to figure out the best way to post these photos here. more to come, later. Suggestions welcome; please keep in mind, the simplest possible game is what I am looking for; not to many assumptions that aren't like real life, but not so difficult as to present a barrier to understanding. All comments welcome.
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