Embedded Multiplayer Racer

A two-player racing game inspired by classic Mario Kart, written in bare-metal C on a TI microcontroller for ECE 319K:

Two boards, one per player, keep the same race in sync over UART
Power-ups like bananas and bombs, joystick input through the ADC and sound through the DAC, all running in a 30 Hz game loop
I wrote the physics and controls, including the movement and bouncing; my partner wrote the UART protocol, the interrupts for the power-ups and the illustrations
Voted Best Game in the class competition, Fall 2025

Collaborated with Prarthana BalajiECE 319K, UT AustinNov – Dec 2025Voted Best Game, Fall 2025

Spec

MCU: TI MSPM0G3507, Cortex-M0+
Language: C, bare metal
Display: ST7735 LCD over SPI
Input: Joystick via ADC
Audio: DAC + timer
Game loop: 30 Hz
Multiplayer: 2 boards, custom UART protocol
Physics: Velocity, collision detection

Two game boards mid-race, connected by UART wires — **Fig. 1**Both boards mid-race, joined by the UART wires across the top. A frame from our demo video.

Why we built it

We wanted to build a two-player racing game inspired by classic Mario Kart.

The hard part

Two-player mode was the hardest part. We knew it would be difficult, but it made the game far more fun. Both boards have to agree on a single race: each sends its car's position and angle over UART, along with events like a dropped banana, and the other board applies them within the same 30 Hz loop that reads the joystick and updates the screen.

Demo video Code on GitHub

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