README.org

Blockgame is a demonstration of using a NerdKit for simple games. It is an implementation of the classic “clear rows of three matching pieces” game.

More information, including a demo, is available at http://blog.beerriot.com/2011/02/14/nerdkit-gaming/

Basic Play

Play begins with a board of random tiles:

abcdefg cabfgde gbacedf

The player makes a move by choosing two adjacent tiles to swap, such that a line of three matching tiles are made. For example, swapping the ‘a’ and ‘b’ in the second row of the example above creates a line of ‘b’:

abcdefg cbafgde gbacedf

The ‘b’ tiles are then removed from the board, and new random tiles added to the right side:

acdefga cafgded gacedfb

Play continues until it is not possible to make a match with just one swap.

This version differs from other common versions, in that matches and swaps may “wrap” around any side.

Nerdkit Play

At startup, the player is presented with choices of what size of playing field to use, and how many unique tile types to play with (the “variety”).

The player chooses tiles to swap by clicking left/down/up/right buttons until the cursor is over one of the pieces to be swapped. The player then presses the select button, then moves to the other tile to swap, and presses the select button again. A selected tile is noted by a capital letter (all other tiles are lower-case).

When no moves remain, a “game over” screen is shown for a few seconds. The user is then returned to the start menu to begin a new game.

Nerdkit schematic

The schematic for the NerdKit while running the game is:

                  |---|
               ^__|1  |_
                 _|   |__/ o--| (select)
                 _| A |__/ o--| (right)
lcd14_____________| T |__/ o--| (up)
lcd13_____________| m |__/ o--| (down)
lcd12_____________| e |__/ o--| (left)
    ^_____________| g |_______|
      |  _________| a |__^   gnd
0.1uF =  |    ____| 1 |__|
  gnd_|__|   |_X__| 6 |_    (14.7Mhz xtal)
lcd11_____________| 8 |_
lcd6______________|   |_
lcd4______________|   |_
                 _|   |_
lcd2-^            |---|
lcd5--------|
lcd1--------|
lcd3--vvvv--|
       1k  gnd

For programming, connect the yellow programmer wire to ATmega168 pin 2, and the green programmer wire to pin 3, then tie pin 14 to ground.

Nerdkit Building

To compile and program the NerdKit, connect the programmer, and type ‘make’ at the commandline (the top of Makefile will give you an idea of where the NerdKit libraries should be located).

To compile without programming, use ‘make blockgame.hex’.