So, it would seem Google has been ghost commenting a number of my posts, including some posts to the EEVblog...
I'm removing the youtube video links from the YT post and see if that fixes it. You'll just have to search for the videos yourselves by their titles...
Or come here to the forum!
I don't even know if ANY of my Youtube comments are posting.
Google/Youtube, getting tired of your shenanigans!
There is a particular video game made for the Playstation 3 (and an updated sequel that'll be available for the Playstation 4 eventually) called "Little Big Planet". The game's create mode really sets it apart from most video games. ever since LBP 2, they added digital logic objects to the create mode. I have seen all manner of devices created in the game, including numerous calculators and even a rudimentary 8 bit computer with a hex keypad and display that executes machine language instructions!
LBP2: Da Vinci CPU v2 - Brief Explaination and Demo
It's OBVIOUSLY no Spice, but it IS cool that it teaches people the basics of digital logic in the disguise of a video game! I'm HOPING that LBP 3 (for PS4 later this year) adds "truer" flip-flops, memory "chips", and buses. Their current implementation of flip-flops is not very true to what's commonly available, though you can make them from scratch from regular logic, of course. I made a 256 bit ROM chip in the game (8 bit x 32, 5 bit addressed), to use for general purpose program storage in game. Also made a lovely "smart" hexadecimal LED dot matrix display with 4 bit latching inputs... basically a clone of the old TIL311 with a slightly prettier, slightly higher resolution dot pattern. Also made a nixie tube in the game that clones the general look okay... I'd like to redo it sometime, make the numeral filaments thinner.
I'm kinda waiting on the PS4 version myself, as I'm hoping they include some of the improvements I and others in the forums have suggested. They seem to have a good back and forth in their forums. The whole logic circuitry concepts were implemented in LBP 2, because they saw people use the pistons and the magnetic tags and sensors that were construction items in the first game to create digital logic. You put two pistons in line with one another, with a magnetic tag on the end, and a sensor at the end of the assembly, and you had an AND gate. Both pistons HAD to be extended for the tag to reach the sensor. A pair of Pistons side by side, with a tag sensor between operated as an OR gate. I don't recall the piston, tag, and sensor configuration for an XOR gate, but it also existed. All outputs of the tag sensors could be inverted as a setting, thus you had AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, XNOR, and you could have a NOT by having a piston, tag and sensor by itself, with the output inverted.
People made basic calculators in the original game, using these virtual electromechanical arrangements!
LittleBigPlanet : Little Big Computer
Media Molecule saw what people were doing by creating logic, so they just dumped digital logic into the next game int he form of "microchips" You placed a microchip into your created level, and then opened it. It provides a resizable working area to drop logic gates and other functional elements on, and then you wire them up. You can next multiple microchips within microchips, so it's real easy to create, lets say an SR Flip-Flop, a JK lip-Flop, a D Flip-Flop, a Half Adder, a Full Adder, etc... You created a common element and then reused it as needed inside other elements. You can even give away your created objects, chips included, as prizes for meeting certain goals in your created level, or simply just give them away.
As I said before, I and other forum users suggested many improvements that would make creation even easier. I suggested adding "memory" chips, because it would alleviate a good portion of circuit simulation in creating memory from individual elements of OR networks to simulate diode ROMS, or flip-flops to simulate RAM, by letting the system turn it into simple value tables, letting the simulation free resources for other creator content. Another area where performance could be gained in create mode, was the wire auto routing. The game autoroutes wires on the fly, but on large designs this can become a mess. I simply suggested the addition of busses with user dropped guide points. This would clean up the rats nest of wires, and alleviate some of the performance lost on rampant auto routing. My final suggestion was to simply add TRUE flip-flops, so we can stop relying on making them from scratch, and to teach people REAL logic device behavior!
Basically, it was a fun way to introduce people to digital logic, via video game!
I also learned that some of the less standard components have been being played with by some people to create "analog" circuits! There is one part that can be used in a fashion similar to that of an op amp. This guy is doing some amazing things with simulated analog parts! it also goes to show just how versatile the game's creation mode is! He's doing what amounts to an analog computer to add and subtract values. Sadly, the tools are less like real analog parts here,and it's full of bodges, but the creativity in this guy's work just oozes off the screen!
LBP2 - Analog Memory Cells & Other Useful Electronics?
If you ever manage to snag a PS3, try to find a copy of Little Big Planet 2, just so you can see what a few of the creative minds out there have done with it's virtual electronic components!
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