I set out with group member Aspyn Palatnick to create a fun-to-play, simple game that could run entirely off of an Arduino Uno. We brainstormed a number of ideas and settled on the well known arcade came that involves pressing a button when a certain light is lit.

​

While this project seemed very simple at its inception, we learned that one of the project's difficulties resulted from the limited number (14) of digital output pins of the Arduino (these pins are responsible for lighting the led's). I learned to use a 74HC164 shift register to control 8 of these LED's using only two Arduino outputs. I also learned to use two of these shift registers in a "cascading" fashion, allowing me to control the 16 LED's in the scoreboard using only 2 output pins. In total, this circuit uses only 4 digital inputs from the Arduino, allowing the Arduino to have additional functions if the user desires.

​

I breadboarded this entire circuit and used a laser cutter to make a custom MDF enclosure for the Arduino game. I helped my partner code the system to get the game up and running. The game is played as the 8 LED's each light up individually from left to right (visible through a slot in the MDF). The player covers the hole above the light sensor or presses the pushbutton (whichever they prefer) when the green light is lit to score a point. Every time the score has increased by 5, the speed of play increases, making the game progressively more difficult.