Bigtrak
Encyclopedia
Electronic game
An electronic game is a game that employs electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. The most common form of electronic game today is the video game, and for this reason the terms are often mistakenly used synonymously. Other common forms of electronic game include...
created by Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley Company
The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...
in 1979.
It was a six-wheel
Wheel
A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...
ed tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
with a front-mounted blue photon beam headlamp, and a keypad on top. The toy could remember up to 16 commands which it then executed in sequence such as "go forward 5 lengths", "pause", "turn 15 minutes right (90 Degrees)", "fire phaser" and so on. There was a "repeat" instruction allowing simple loop
Control flow
In computer science, control flow refers to the order in which the individual statements, instructions, or function calls of an imperative or a declarative program are executed or evaluated....
to be performed, but the language was not Turing complete, lacking branching instructions; the Big Trak also lacked any sort of sensor input other than the wheel sensors.
There is now a small but dedicated Internet community who have reverse engineered
Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
the BIG TRAK and the Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
TMS1000 microcontroller
Microcontroller
A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of RAM...
inside it.
The US and GB/European versions were noticeably different. The US version was moulded in gray plastic and labelled "BIG TRAK" whereas the GB version was white and labelled "bigtrak" with a different keypad.
Bigtrak also included an optional trailer accessory. Once hooked to Bigtrak, this trailer could be programmed to dump its payload.
Soviet clone
In the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, a clone was made under "Elektronika
Elektronika
Electronika is the brand name used for many different electronic products such as calculators, electronic watches, portable games and radios in the Soviet Union and, nowadays, in Russia...
IM-11" designation. The early production version was named Lunokhod after the Lunokhod programme
Lunokhod programme
Lunokhod was a series of Soviet robotic lunar rovers designed to land on the Moon between 1969 and 1977. The 1969 Lunokhod 1A was destroyed during launch, the 1970 Lunokhod 1 and the 1973 Lunokhod 2 landed on the moon and the 1977 Lunokhod was never launched...
. It featured an obstruction sensor disguised as a plastic front bumper, which would stop the program when the toy got stuck. However, there was no provision for an accessory, and its motion sensor was based on a cheaper reed switch
Reed switch
The reed switch is an electrical switch operated by an applied magnetic field. It was invented at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1936 by W. B. Ellwood. It consists of a pair of contacts on ferrous metal reeds in a hermetically sealed glass envelope...
instead of an opto-isolator
Opto-isolator
In electronics, an opto-isolator, also called an optocoupler, photocoupler, or optical isolator, is "an electronic device designed to transfer electrical signals by utilizing light waves to provide coupling with electrical isolation between its input and output"...
. A later version, named "Planetokhod," additionally featured a shootable rotor blade as an accessory, LED head and rear lamps, and the on/off switch was relocated to the rear side.
A Soviet popular science
Popular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
journal Nauka i Zhizn
Nauka i Zhizn
Nauka i Zhizn is a science magazine first issued during the years 1890-1900 in Imperial Russia, and then since 1934 in the Soviet Union ....
published a detailed article on the IM-11.
Programmable keypad
- Forward/Backwards: Move forward or backwards in units of body length
- Left/Right: Turn left or right in units of roughly 1/60th of a full rotation
- HOLD: Pause in 1/10 of second time units (GB version; P: Pause)
- FIRE: Fire the light bulb "laser" (GB; Photon Symbol)
- CLR: Clear the program (GB; CM: Clear Memory)
- CLS: Clear Last Step (GB; CE; Clear last step)
- RPT: Repeat a number of steps (primitive loop) (GB; x2: Repeat key)
- TEST: Run short test program
- CK: Check last instruction (GB; Tick symbol)
- Out: Dump optional trailer accessory
- In: Reserved for future expansion (GB; missing. Disabled or not implemented on most if not all BigTraks)
Re-Release
In 2010 Zeon Ltd released a replica of the original toy. The colour and graphic scheme are based on the U.K. version and all stickers have been redrawn as a direct copy of the original artwork.A simple iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
app, bigtrak iCalc is available that emulates the original bigtrack sounds.
An updated digital-era remake is expected for 2012. Baptized as bigtrak XTR (from eXra Technology Rover), it is designed to be synced with dedicated iPhone, iPad and Android control apps. It will also carry two accessory ports, for a wireless camera and a combat weapon, such as a missile launcher or an infrared gun.
Bigtrak Jr
Dubreq Ltd under license from Zeon Ltd has released a desktop version of the Bigtrak toy called "Bigtrack Jr".Bigtrak Jr is 190mm long and runs on 3 AA batteries. It has an "active" accessory port and planned accessories include a rocket launcher and a digital camera.
See also
- RobosapienRoboSapienRoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by WowWee toys. The RoboSapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included with the toy, or by either a personal computer equipped with an infrared transmitter, and an...
- a remote-programmable humanoid robot - OmnibotOmnibotThe Omnibot is a toy robot originally manufactured by Tomy in the mid 1980s. The name then came to apply to the successful line of robots manufactured by the company. The initial Omnibot was announced with expectations of restoring popular interest in robots, at a time when it was becoming obvious...
- Trakr, by Spy Video - A fully programmable tracked vehicle that uses C language.