The Arcades Project
S07
Joe Holt
The 80s gave us The Empire Strikes Back and Pretty in Pink; the Eurythmics and LiveAid; Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. Coin-operated games occupied hallowed places inside pubs, restaurants, movie theaters, and video arcades. Kids (i.e., I) saved their quarters to spend hours in dimly lit arcades testing reflexes and wits against tiny CPU-powered gorillas, princesses, aliens, centipedes, and ghosts. These arcade machines were the marvelous technological precursors to today’s personal computer and were often designed by hobbyists and built from parts you could get at Radio Shack. This course is about learning how a microcomputer works by studying every inch of a classic arcade machine, Williams Electronics’ Robotron. We’ll study its real-time operating system, learn assembly language and document the game code, pore over schematics, and conduct experiments on its electronics.