Project Overview

It’s election time again and your mission is to ascend from candidacy to elected office.  The road to political success is paved with difficulties.  Luckily, you know that in politics, as in most of life – Money Talks!

Your task is to target the voters in the four regions of the country.  The best candidate is the one who can win the most regions by pumping money into each one.  The Republicans have the deepest pockets, but their dollars don’t go as far.  The Greens aren’t quite as rich, but their monetary contributions are more effective.  Finally, the Democrats are the poorest of the candidates, and their change goes the farthest toward victory.  Remember, only the candidate with biggest investment can capture a region.

To win the election, you must first declare as a candidate of one of the parties by inserting your political affiliation card into the player 1 slot.  This will trigger the LED’s of the selected color to turn on.  Next, player 2 must insert a different color into the other card slot, which causes this color’s LED’s to turn on.  The computer will control the third color during game play.  Once you’ve made your first campaign deposit by inserting the stack of $100 bills, the campaign season begins and it’s time to strategically target the regions. 

At the start, each player receives a donation of $2,000.  At five second intervals, additional money is deposited into each bank account.  To make an investment, select the amount of money using the black lever and press the desired region button to complete the transaction.  Make sure to reset the lever to zero before attempting another investment.  Keep repeating this sequence to take control of the regions, but use your money wisely.  If you have insufficient funds for a particular investment, the money selection lever will vibrate and your transaction will not be processed.  Also, failure to reset the money selection lever causes another error and the lever handle is vibrated to alert the user.

The current standings in each region are displayed with LED’s in each region.  The first place color is solid, second place flashes quickly, third place flashes slowly, and if no money has been invested by a player, that color is off.  The LED’s and bank accounts update in real time to reflect each transaction.  After the 30 second game clock expires, the candidate who leads the most regions is declared the winner.  The winning color flashes in all regions and this player’s bank account fills up completely while the loser’s bank account goes to zero.  If both bank accounts go to zero, then the computer won. Better luck next time.

For details on implementation, check out the Mechanical, Electrical and Software design sections.