Strangely enough, it was NOT a big success after launch. After a short 18 months, the game was complete and launched as 'Puck Man'. This odd sounding name (odd only because it's not English of course) is symbolic of the noise made when one opens and closes their mouth rapidly. Iwatani drew inspiration for his game via a famous Japanese phrase known as 'Paku-Paku Taberu'. Toru Iwatani designed the game over the short time of 18 months (yeah back then one guy could write a game on his own, imagine that today?). We use an Android Galaxy S5 smartphone, which has a 16-MP rear camera and a 1/2.6” sensor.The company Namco gets the credit for developing the most popular arcade game of all time. A low-cost school microscope (HomeScienceTools, MI-5000DHD) was used for the smartphone-attachment version of the LudusScope. We used a 10x microscope eyepiece lens (Cnscope, WF10x, 18-mm field of view, 23.2-mm mount), a 35-mm CCTV board lens (M12 Lenses, PT-3621), and a CCTV lens threaded seat (M12 Lenses, PT-LR001P). The electronic extension used an Arduino Uno board (DEV-11021), transistors (COM-00521), and BlueSMiRF Silver wireless serial cable (WRL-12577) ordered from Sparkfun. All of the electrical components were ordered from SparkFun. Microfluidic chips were made with a laser cutter (Epilog Helix, 45 W) on double-sided tape (3M, 300LSE), a 1.5 mm thick poly(methyl methacrylate) base and cover, and tubing (Tygon, AAQ04103), resulting in chamber dimensions of 6.5 mm x 6.5 mm x 170 μm. These let kids collect data on Euglena behavior, swimming speed and natural biological variability.Īccording to its paper: All structural components were designed in SolidWorks (Dassault Systemes, v2014) and 3D-printed with ABSplus plastic (Stratasys uPrint+). Other non-game applications provide microscope scale-bars, real-time displays of swimming speed or zoomed-in views of individual cells. Kids earn points by guiding the Euglena through the goal posts. Another game looks like a soccer stadium.

Kids can select one cell to track, then use the LED lights to control which direction the cell swims in an attempt to guide it around the maze and collect the dots. One resembles Pac-Man, with a maze containing small white dots. On the phone, kids can run a variety of software that overlay on top of the image of the cells. Once assembled, students can use the LuduScope in a number ways.

Playpacman