Chapter 9. Tinkering with the Wii Nunchuk • 162

With less than 200 lines of code, you’ve written a complete game for your new video game console. It’s definitely not a blockbuster, but it’s actually fun and a great opportunity to learn about the very basics of game programming.

Also, it should give you enough confidence to implement more advanced games. You can find a lot of classic games on the web that use nearly the same hardware we used in this chapter.3

What If It Doesn’t Work?

From a maker’s perspective, this chapter is an easy one. Still, things can go wrong, especially with the wiring. Make sure you’ve connected the right pins on the Arduino and on the Nunchuk. Also check that the wires tightly fit into the Nunchuk’s and the Arduino’s sockets. When in doubt, use wire with a larger diameter.

Also, check What If It Doesn’t Work?, on page 143, for all things that can go wrong when generating video signals with the Arduino.

Exercises

•Rewrite the game we implemented in Chapter 7, Writing a Game for the Motion-Sensing Game Controller, on page 111, so it supports the Nunchuk controller. It should support both the analog stick and the accelerometer. Perhaps you can switch between them using the Nunchuk buttons.

•Tinkering with Nintendo’s Wii Motion is more complicated.4 But it’s a nice and cheap way to sharpen your tinkering skills.

•The TVout library has basic audio support. Connect a piezo buzzer to digital pin 11 and use the tone and noTone functions to add sound capabilities to the video game console. Also, add some sound effects to Pragduino.

3.See http://nootropicdesign.com/hackvision/games.html.

4.http://randomhacksofboredom.blogspot.com/2009/07/motion-plus-and-nunchuck-together-on.html

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