This breadboard version of a Simon says game is a great way to try your skills on a new microcontroller platform. The eight-pin chip seen in the center of the board is an LPC810 microcontroller which [Hartmut Wendt] is just getting started with. It’s a rare example of a low-pin count DIP package for an ARM device (Cortext M0). The breadboard friendly footprint makes it easy to work with, but you could pull off the same build with a dev board like one of the STM discovery offerings or the Stellaris Launchpad boards.
Why is this a good way to learn? It involves input, output, and generating waveforms which we’d assume means timers (we didn’t dig through the source code which is available form the page linked above). Each colored button has a matching LED which blinks out the pattern which you must replicate to keep the game going; you know how Simon says works, right?. At the same time a different pitch is played by the speaker on the right.
Another good exercise would be to take [Hartmut’s] code and port it for a different chip, be it ARM or otherwise.