You will design a machine that will coach the novice gambler to play with the best strategy against the "house" in a traditional card game: single-deck Blackjack
Many different Blackjack strategies exist, but for the purposes of this project, you will implement the strategy where the "Dealer stands on soft 17".
You can search and find a variety of webpages that purport to give "single-deck" Blackjack strategy and instruction. Feel free to read and learn more. However, this project will implement the strategy given in the chart above.
Your Blackjack Coach has ten (10) buttons (inputs):
There are two sets of "card switches". One for you, the player, and one for the dealer's up card. A set of "card switches" is composed of four (4) switches. (You may use the "input" or the "DIP switch" in Digital for the card switches.)
switches card
0 none (ignore)
1 ace
2-9 number cards 2-9
10 number card 10 or face-card
11-15 none (ignore)
The Blackjack Coach has a "STORE" momentary button. (Use the "button" component in Digital for the "STORE" button.) Upon pressing the "STORE" button, the Blackjack Coach will store the "new" card value(s), determine the appropriate action, and display that action on the LEDs.
The Blackjack Coach as a "RESET" momentary button. (Use the "button" component in Digital for the "RESET" button.) Upon pressing the "RESET" button, the Blackjack Coach will revert back to the "no cards played" state, and will be ready for the next hand.
The game console has five action LEDs, one indicator LED, and two seven-segment displays (outputs):
There is an action indicator LED for each of the following actions:
LED recommended action
H hit
S stand
D double
P split
R surrender
The action indicator LED will guide the player as to the recommended strategic action for the game at the current state. More than one LED may be illuminated at a time, e.g. the D and H LEDs may illuminate for the desired action of "Double if allowed, otherwise hit"
The Blackjack Coach has an indicator LED (LED1) that illuminates when the player is under "soft totals". LED1 is not illuminated if the player has a "hard total".
The two seven-segment LEDs display the total (hard or soft) of the player's hand. At the start of the hand, the seven-segment display is blank.
Implement the BlackJack Coach for single-deck "hard" and "soft" totals. Your design must used only combinational logic and flip-flops. Your design must work for any combination of cards played, and reset properly. If a split is recommended, only one hand of the split is coached. Your design will ignore the other split hand. The final state remains displayed on the outputs until the "RESET" button is pressed.
Bonus Project Specifications
When your design team completes the specification above, you may choose to complete one of the following "bonus" designs. If your team does so, you must have a separate documentation document for the bonus design. This document must adhere to the same requirements as outlined above. Your bonus documentation should detail your testing methods and clearly showcase the pertinent features of your bonus design.
Basic Blackjack Coach design above, but add another input (DIP switch) that selects the Dealer's behavior (HIT or STAND) on "soft 17". Be sure to document your approach and what additional hardware is required. Bonus: up to 10 pts
If you pursue this bonus design, place all of the bonus-related files in a folder bonus1 in your submission archive.
Basic Blackjack Coach design above, but add the ability to coach through both "split" hands per the table. Be sure to document your approach, how the user interacts with the design with splits, and what additional hardware is required. Bonus: up to 20 pts
If you pursue this bonus design, place all of the bonus-related files in a folder bonus2 in your submission archive.
Super Blackjack Coach that implements the hand-dependent rules from Boss Media for 2,3 and 4 cards. Inputs and output indicators are as in the Basic Blackjack Coach. However, your design for this bonus option may use a EEPROM "memory" component in Digital. In your documentation, identify a real EEPROM memory component to use in a physical design. Describe how use of the real memory differs from the virtual one in Digital. Also, explain how your approach can be expanded to the 5 and 6 card hands. Determine the cost of these designs. You do not have to implement the 5-card and 6-card hand designs. Bonus: up to 20 pts