Games Suggestions

A variation on Pong – another easy project idea. Being one of the first video games made, today’s technology clearly requires minimal programming on your part. Bounce the ball around, and possibly add a couple more if statements than in the previous title. Watch out for the keyboard input, that could be new.
Pacman – an icon of a video game, this programming project is going to be “choose your own adventure” style. The wall collision might be tricky at first, but there are plenty of approaches to try: reading colour information off screen, math, tile maps… You could totally get away with just letting the ghosts run around in random directions, smacking against the walls (because you got that collision detection working, right?), but if you are interested and have enough time – each ghost could have a unique AI, just like in the original game.
Tetris – you are the master of arrays, and know how to figure out if there’s enough space under a block to continue falling. That’s about it really. Your code ninja skills can further be sharpened with graphic effects, combo points schemes, and having your computer scream TETRIS! when that long stick comes at just the right time.…
Mario clone – meaning a platformer. Kind of like Bomberman, but you broke out of a confined box. More space = more possibilities. You get to attempt to catch that scrolling screen’s edge. You get to jump. You get to jump on your enemies’ heads! Well actually you could still keep all those bombs and powerups to mix the gameplay up a bit and make it unique.
Overhead beamer – technically another platformer programming project, but turned on its side and with more firepower. It could be beam-em-up, down, or sideways style. Mario has gotten a jet flyer, in futile hopes of taking a shortcut to another castle. Now it’s kind of like Tetris, but falling boxes have been replaced with moving tanks… or shiny polygons. Think Supersize! Think ridiculously overpowered upgrades with stunning graphical effects. Now that’s a project.