README

Simon Says for TI MSP430G2231 microcontroller
Markus Vuorio <markus.vuorio@jyu.fi>
Spring 2011 for JYU claoh 2010 course (TIES523)

About this game
===============
This is a minimal and glitchy game for MPS430G2231 microcontroller and
the Launch Pad development board. It was an excercise project for 
Tapani Tarvainen's C and embedded developemnt course at University of 
Jyväskylä. I hope that it can serve as a some kind of demonstration for
platform possibilities.

The gameplay of this game is very familiar: the program blinks lights in
certain rhytmic patterns, and the player must repeat those patterns to win.
At first, red lights is on and the green light flashes to tell that the
game is ready to be played. Then the player can click P1.3 to start the game.
Next, red light lights up to show the game is on, and the green light starts
to blink the rhythm the player should memorize. Once both lights go dark,
it's player's turn to repeat the rhythm. If she repeats it correctly, green
light lights up and the game returns to glowing red and blinking green to
signal that by clicking P1.3 player can continue to the next level. If she
didn't get it right, the red light lights up to show the error and the
game resets.

Files
=====
COPYING - GNU GPLv3 license
launchpadutils.c - My launch pad utilitity functions
launchpadutils.h - Header for including the aforementioned utilities
lnk_msp430g2231.cmd - Linker script for TI tools on Windows
Makefile - Makefile for mspgcc toolchain
MSP430G2231.ccxml - XML configuration file for TI tools
patterns.h - Light flashing patterns
simonsays.c - The main program file
README - This readme file

Compiling & Installing with TI CCS
==================================
Simon Says was developed with TI Code Composer Studio, which is a commercial
IDE for embedded development. It can be downloaded from the web[1], but
unfortunately it requires MyTI account. This project also users Eclipse CDT
build automation, which creates makefiles and handles the build automatically.

To compile the game, import it to CCS either by using archive file import or
by EGit version control plugin. Then you can use Debug-button from the toolbar
to compile and install the software on the microcontroller.

[1]: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Code_Composer_Studio_v4

Compiling & Installing with mspgcc
==================================
By following online instructions[1][2] you can install mspgcc toolkit that is
completely free software and can be used to compile Simon Says for MSP430
without using official TI tools. After installation of these tools, you can
use following commands in Simon Says source directory to compile and install
the software on your MSP430:
 make
 make program

[1]: http://www.sakoman.com/OMAP/how-to-develop-msp430-launchpad-code-on-linux.html
[2]: http://www.ruuvipenkki.fi/2010/10/23/launchpad-kehitysymparisto-linuxissa

About TI LaunchPad
==================
Texas Instruments LaunchPad is a simple and very affordable development kit
for TI MSP430 family of microcontrollers. It can be used through a USB port
of any computer and it requires no additional power supply. On the board,
there is red (LED1) and green (LED2) LEDs and two switches: S1 which acts
as a reset button and S2 that can be used to read user input.

More information online:
http://www.ti.com/launchpadwiki 

Background
==========
The aim of this project is to create "Simon Says" game for the MSP430 micro-
controller and the LaunchPad developer board surrounding it, so that the
device flashes LEDs in certain pattern, and after that, user is required
to repeat the pattern to win the game. Development is currently done with
TI Code Composer Studio IDE, which is Eclipse-based development environment.

This project will be released with GNU GPLv3 terms once it is fulfills
the course assignment requirements.