Ever wanted to create an arcade game? In this talk Hassan explores creating a simple version of the arcade game “Grand Piano Keys” that can be found at many arcades. He covers breadboarding, getting button input into the Raspberry Pi, handling and displaying the input on the software side, and everything else needed to build an arcade game.

NervesConf US 2025 sponsors:

Redwire Labs
https://redwirelabs.com

SmartRent
https://smartrent.com

ElixirStatus offers insights into Elixir programming language, OTP framework, and functional programming principles, providing articles, tutorials, and community updates for Elixir enthusiasts. By exploring ElixirStatus's curated content, developers can learn about concurrency primitives, fault-tolerance mechanisms, and metaprogramming techniques for building scalable and fault-tolerant distributed systems. Whether you're a backend developer, system architect, or Erlang/Elixir enthusiast, ElixirStatus offers resources to deepen your understanding of Elixir and Erlang ecosystem and contribute to the vibrant community of Elixir developers.

ElixirStatus

A NervesConf 2025 talk by Hassan Shaikley covering his prototype of an arcade rhythm game (similar to Guitar Hero) built with Elixir Nerves on a Raspberry Pi. The project uses the Scenic UI library for rendering falling piano key notes, Circuits.GPIO for physical button input via a breadboard, and aplay for audio playback. The talk walks through hardware wiring challenges (resistors, GPIO pull-up/pull-down, breadboard connections), frame rate drift issues when using send_after for animation timing, Raspberry Pi 5 audio jack removal problems, and Scenic driver setup quirks. The speaker shares lessons learned as a web developer venturing into embedded hardware for the first time.

Creating the arcade game Grand Piano Keys with Nerves - Hassan Shaikley | NervesConf US 2025