Fairly Simple Simon - the evolution of an Arduino game

Important notice: Final (i.e. relevant) version is at the last step of this instructable.
If you want to build a Simon, that is the recommended version.

The rest of the steps show how this evolved from a bare-bones game for LED 13 and Serial (i.e. zero components) until my mail order came through ;)
Each version has a show-off video, of course (making the video is part of the fun for me).

The result is something a noob can build and enjoy playing. If you're just starting, it can be your first project too.

Anyway - this was the first Fairly Simple Simon:

Here's the  "OMG, I've actually soldered something" story:
I've been following some Arduino instructables here, but I was never a hardware kinda guy. Last time I did anything that wasn't software, Bruce Lee was still alive. There's a reason for that: I'm as skillful as Steven Hawking when it comes to building stuff. Especially soldering. On top of all that, I live in Trat, Thailand. We don't have Radio Shack here. We have a Mom and Pop's electronics store where the wife speaks some English (and I speak some Thai). I also show them photos of stuff I need on my cellular. Not what you'd call an Arduino community.

When I was at Barcamp BKK, I bitched to the roboteer @bm_ about not being able to indulge in hardware, and he simply gave me a Freeduino and said "install the software, stick it into the USB, and you're there". He also gave me addresses of internet all-the Arduino-you-can-eat shops, and I'm still waiting for my breadboard (on account of xmas order-jams).

Simplest Simon: a zero-components Arduino game
So what do you do with a naked Arduino? The first ting I did was simplest simon: A binary version of Simon for pin 13 on-board LED and serial connection.
Got  an Arduino lying there and you're too lazy to connect stuff to it? Just upload it. Mighty good value-for-hassle ratio, I think ;)

Still - it didn't let me feel like a maker at the time.If  you play it via serial, then you need a computer. So you might as well play Tetris. I needed to make something really real.

Thus - Fairly Simple Simon was born.

Step 1 Build the board (breadboard version)

Note: if you want to build something - build the latest version.
Stuff below is kept for historical reasons.

You'll need:
1 x Arduino
4 x LED (different colors)
4 x normally-connected push-button switches
4 x 150 Ohm resistor (to regulate the LEDs)
4 x 10K Ohm resistor (pull-up resistors for the switches)
Some wire

If you have a breadboard (one day I'll have one too), you can build this quite easily. See the Fritzing diagram below. It is a simple board with 4 leds and 4 normally-closed switches (each led goes via a 150 Ohm resistor, and each switch has a 10K Ohm pull-up resistor connecting between the output and ground).