#SIMON SAYS MEMORY GAME HOW TO#

While there were plenty of approaches that could have taken to interfacing to the game, went with the obvious - and best, in our opinion - technique and simulated a human player’s finger presses with servo-controlled arms. It was surprisingly addictive, at least for the era.įor those who never quite got into the Simon groove, fear not - the classic game has now been fully automated. Players had to remember the specific sequence of lights and replay the pattern in order to advance to the next round. Simon - as in “Simon says…” - from the leading edge of electronic games in the 1970s, which used four buttons, colored lights, and simple tones as the basis for a memory game. Our students had learned how electronics work in the real world.Remember Simon? We sure do. “I didn’t have an opportunity like this during my undergraduate courses. “These fun projects show how such electronic circuits are actually implemented in the industry,” said Saha. When the design and prototype portions of the project were completed, teams moved on to creating the final product using the printed circuit boards. “I wanted to graduate from Brandeis with skills I could apply to my career.”

“As a physicist, it’s important to be able to work with electronics,” said Wang. After graduating, she will be working for the ATLAS experiment at CERN, a national nuclear physics experiment involving scientists across the world, and begin taking courses towards a PhD in physics at Harvard University. “We had to learn to work as a team while troubleshooting any issues that came up.”Ī double major in physics and computer science, took Vischi’s course because she wanted to gain experience in electronics. “The most helpful part of the course was going through the design process and learning about prototype implementation,” she said. Iria Wang ’22, a student in the course who created a ‘Simon Says’ board, enjoyed seeing the process of creating the game from start to finish. “They learned the need to manage their time and know their strengths and weaknesses,” said Vischi.

“A single mistake can easily make the whole project fall down,” said Vischi. Students learned the value of attention to detail when working with technology. These small construction pieces, only a couple of inches wide with small holes for inputting pieces, are used for creating electronic prototypes. Staring from scratch, the teams used electronic breadboards to begin their projects. “The biggest thing I hope they took away from the project was the power of collaboration.” “I was really impressed with their results, seeing them work together as a team,” said Vischi. Regardless of what students chose to create, the biggest thing Vischi emphasized was teamwork. Vischi had the help of teaching assistant and physics PhD candidate Rupam Saha in guiding the 15 students to create their projects, ranging from electronic games to light switches.Ĭhoosing from a list of ideas, students who chose to create games built a digital game die, a ‘Simon Says’ memory game where players repeat a sequence of colors, and ‘Billy Joule,’ an electronic piano with a name that plays on ‘joule, ’the term for a derivative unit of energy. “The actual result can range from a simple smile to sky-is-the-limit.” “Using PCBs in class is like teaching artists to use canvas, paint and a brush,” he said. Used as the industry standard in gaming systems, military equipment, medical technology and more, these pieces are fundamental in the world of technology.

Vischi explained the significance of learning to use printed circuit boards, referred to as PCBs. This year, however, was the first time students created projects using industry level printed circuit boards. The course incorporates a variety of electronic experiments throughout the semester. The course, offered every spring as an introduction to electronics in a lab setting, covers topics like analog, digital electronics and printed circuit board design.

#SIMON SAYS MEMORY GAME HOW TO#

So, he decided to teach them how to create their own electronic games - from scratch. ‘Simon Says’ is a memory game where players repeat a sequence of colors.įrancesco Vischi wanted students in his Electronics Laboratory course to apply what they learned in the classroom to real-world technology.

Simon says memory game