High-Tech Foosball Mod Project

JakeBullet writes: "Project: Take a standard foosball table and make it a little bit smarter. 1. The table should be aware of who's playing, the score and the status of the game. 2. Take the data from the game and use it to create a stats engine and player ranking system. 3. Project all relevant information about gameplay onto a flat screen. 4. Spend under $50.

Comments

What?

[MoThugz]

From the article: In my opinion, the most interesting part of the project is the database that ties everything together. When the user swipes his or her NYU card, Director takes this information and sends it to a ASP script (running on an Windows 2000 box that is tied to an Access database). This ASP script runs a MySQL query through Access and spits back XML that contains information on the player (wins, loss, average points per game, number of games played, etc) . This XML is passed back into Director via getNetText and put into global variables which are then fed to the screen at the appropriate time.

ASP script on a Win2k box, tied to an Access DB, which runs MySQL queries, spitting out XML which is parsed in Director. Does this guy actually realizes what he has written?

Cheaper option.

[vilms]

Spend a tenner on a ball. Get some people together. Find some green space. Use jumpers as goalposts. Play football. Ask one player to keep score.
Afterwards, in the bar, assess each other's footballing ability in a haze of lager and spittle.
rinse and repeat.

Re:Spinning

[Gudlyf]

"Well, can you imagine a real life football (soccer, whatever) player spin 2 or 3 times ? I can't ..."

Yeah, and while we're at it, I don't recall ever seeing the forwards connected together with a metal rod, restricting them to left-right movement. Same for the defensemen, too. Therefore, I vote against the foosball players being tethered together like that, because it's not like real life.

Not every table game has to be like real life. You play by the mechanics and rules given to you. What matters is that everyone has fun and nobody else's expense.

Re:Proprietary technologies

[tps12]

Uh oh. The guys in my frat (don't ask) used to play a form of foosball where if you were shut out then you put your name on the wall of shame, and played with your pants down until you scored a goal.