Carnival Games

I was recently at a Dave and Busters. It wasn't like I remembered. I was expecting video games and pinball machines. Neither of these were available. They did have the venerable Skee-Ball. There were half a dozen versions of Pop-A-Shot, including one that played Connect 4. There was a Hatchet Throwing game with foam hatchets. There was a baseball throwing speed and accuracy game. They did have the tickets with the redemption center offering spider rings for 5 tickets and a Play Station 5 for 50,000 tickets.

As I was walking through, I realized that these days they wouldn't have video games. With console games and smartphone games, people can play much better video games at home. The draw to a Dave and Busters is a physical game, which is something you can't do easily in the family room at home.

I'm hoping schools still have a spring carnival or seniors day. These are filled with booths that have things like a Wheel-of-Fortune or a dunk tank. Many of the booths are fundraisers for different clubs at the school. 

I propose that FRC Teams use their summer time or even the Fall Learning Season to design and build some of these carnival games. The FRC Team is best suited of all sports teams and student organizations to design and build these. They require automatic scoring sensors, flashing LED lights, and big scoreboards. It requires all the same skills that are needed to design and build an FRC robot.

Once the games are built they can be used in several other events. They can be part of a booth at the county fair, or a local Maker Faire. They can be setup for a local service club, like the Rotarians or the Elks Club. It would be a good way to support the service club and may result in a club donation or some donations from individual members.

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