Seems as if programming simple games is very motivating for beginners, the only drawback is: I would like to have more nice gaming ideas that can be implemented without a complex code.

Two of my favourites are:
- "number guessing" (needs branches and conditional loops): Program chooses a random number between 0 and 1000, user guesses repeatedly and program tells him if guess is too high or too low (or correct).
- "reaction test" (needs conditional loops): Program waits for a random time interval between 5 and 10 seconds, then writes "Press key" and starts increasing a counter until user presses a key. Extension: Prevent the user from cheating by pressing the key BEFORE the program asks him to.

As soon as comes to graphics (even simple text based), gaming programs seem to become too complex for weaker students during the first months of the programming course.

Anyone having other suggestions for simple game programs ?