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Arduboy – A game system the size of a credit card
- hoodoof 10y agoThis is what the BBC microbit should have been.
- jdietrich 10y agoStrongly disagree. People learned to program on the ZX81 because it was cool but essentially useless. It booted directly into a BASIC prompt and came with a fairly good introductory programming manual. The Spectrum was essentially a games console that a handful of nerds learned to program on. Micro:bit is designed like the ZX81, using lessons learned from the Raspberry Pi. It's a useless toy, but it's a useless toy that is fantastically easy to program. Hook it up to a computer via USB, go to a URL and it Just Works. Type some code or drag some visual programming blocks, click "compile" and the program is running on your micro:bit. If you want to hook up a buzzer or a switch, you can do it with crocodile clips and one line of code. It's an incredibly slick onboarding process that is perfectly suited to education. http://microbit.org/start/ http://microbit.org/start/ With a device like the Arduboy, it's too tempting to just play games. To program it you need to download the Arduino IDE, then install a bunch of libraries, then fiddle about with settings, then start reading through a bunch of documentation. With micro:bit you can go from unboxing to hello world in about five minutes, even if you've never written a line of code in your life.
- hoodoof 10y agoThe ZX81 had a display. It makes all the difference.
- mavhc 10y agoNo it didn't, it had a video out socket. Micro:bit has a display, 2 buttons, tilt and magnet sensors, and a battery socket for power. Surely it's like the Acorn BBC, loads of I/O, well designed software, and people complain it's more expensive than existing systems.
- dleslie 10y agoWhy this over the CHIP, or even an actual GameBoy with a flash cart?
- nobodyshere 10y agoYou wouldn't be able to sell simply a modified GameBoy with modified hw/sw parts. Nintendo would sue you into oblivion.
- dleslie 10y agoYou can get a Gameboy from just about any old game store; and flash carts are easy to come by. I have two of these: https://www.amazon.com/SMART-x30B2-x30FC-x30E0-x30DC-x30A4/dp/B008B8QO0I https://www.amazon.com/SMART-x30B2-x30FC-x30E0-x30DC-x30A4/d...
- derefr 10y agoThe parent means, this company can't just sell "a Gameboy plus a flash cart" as their own commercial product. Which is why they created a custom product instead. You, as an end user, certainly can "just" use a gameboy + a flash cart, or an iOS or Android device, or even (and I would suggest this) code games using an old console emulator as your runtime and don't worry so much about hardware. (Emulators for those same consoles also exist for iOS/Android, after all.) But this company has other priorities, and so made this.
- dleslie 10y agoI ask as a user because I am not a member of that company.
- ClassyJacket 10y agoI think you actually can since the software runs on the bare metal (there's no OS or anything) and it uses standard ish chips. There have been plenty of Gameboy and NES clones in the past that ran retail games.
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- smnplk 10y agoDear Santa...
- smnplk 10y agoDear Santa...
- brink 10y agoIf only this had bluetooth / WiFi in it. I think it would have made a wonderful IoT controller. Oh well... missed opportunity.
- Gracana 10y agoMissed opportunity? More like disaster averted. There are a million little linux widgets out there, and most people just run existing software on them, because working with embedded linux is complex and tool-heavy. Instead, they have a cheap and simple little microcontroller that you can program with the Arduino IDE. Way more approachable.
- illicium 10y agoBluetooth/WiFi doesn't require embedded Linux. The venerable ESP8266 can be easily programmed through the Arduino IDE.
- eltoozero 10y ago"Venerable" implies some worthiness. ESP8266 is a hacker friendly wifi gadget, for $2, but otherwise garbage. You get what you pay for. Also it's wifi only, not bluetooth.
- jdietrich 10y agoGood luck to them. My cigarette-packet maths says that the BoM cost is about $12 at Shenzhen prices. If they gain any traction, they're going to get killed by the Chinese clone merchants. They don't appear to have much in the way of defensible IP, so the healthy margins on that $49 retail price are going to get squeezed hard.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- RickS 10y agoif it tripped anybody else up, BoM = bill of materials
- tyingq 10y agoWhich is just the pile of unassembled parts, thousands of miles from where they eventually need to be :) Meaning BOM != cost
- sampullman 10y agoNot really, a decent BOM will include assembly fees, logistics, factory profit, and freight for parts (which is negligible with quantities over a few thousand). Of course if the product is successful, they could be undercut by Chinese OEMs. However, if they get to that point I'd bet they would have enough branding momentum and community that it wouldn't be a major problem.
- tyingq 10y agoIn the PCB world, a BOM is just the parts. Doesn't include, for example, the PCB itself, plastic cases, etc...nor freight, assembly.
- paulddraper 10y agoI thought it was byte order mark.
- felideon 10y agoReminds me of https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip which runs PICO-8.
- desireco42 10y agoCHIP is also $50.
- serf 10y agoCHIP, the single board computer, is 9 dollars. PocketCHIP, which is a CHIP with a screen, case, keyboard, battery, and breakout is 49 dollars.
- enthdegree 10y agopocketchip has orders of magnitude more processing power and more wireless connectivity than arduboy. although i guess no one's buying these things for performance...
- Retr0spectrum 10y agoThanks for reminding me. Their "Cyber Monday" sale ends in just a few hours.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- makapuf 10y agoWell this has no os. See also :my own diy console with a microcontroller (http://bitboxconsole.blogspot.com http://bitboxconsole.blogspot.com)
- FreedomToCreate 10y agoThe funny this I noticed is that Chip and Arduboy are funded by the same accelerator. https://hax.co/companies/next-thing-co/ https://hax.co/companies/next-thing-co/ https://hax.co/companies/arduboy/ https://hax.co/companies/arduboy/
- desireco42 10y agoThis is device in search of application. Shame, I would totally buy one if they could show me good use-case. Obviously, I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong.
- revelation 10y agoSuch a shame it contains an actual ATmega.. I agree with others that you probably don't want another embedded Linux, but a M0 or M3 would have been nice.
- simcop2387 10y agoYea I think an ATmega is actually a bad choice because it can't dynamically load code from somewhere else. It'd be neat to be able to have something like an SD card or some other form of swapable storage store the code for a game.
- cr0sh 10y agoI'm not sure if you are referring to this, but: https://github.com/thseiler/embedded/tree/master/avr/2boots https://github.com/thseiler/embedded/tree/master/avr/2boots Basically - there are bootloaders available that can flash from an SD card...
- kbumsik 10y agoHe might be referring running program directly from an SD card, without need for flashing. Most of Cortex M MCUs can run program on RAM, which is more flexible and fast
- tonmoy 10y ago$49 seems very expensive. I could get an android device and start learning "programming" by making android games instead for the same cost.
- khedoros1 10y agoAndroid has the major barrier of extra complexity. It's refreshing to see a simple computer with a beginner-friendly development environment. It reminds me of drawing things pixel-by-pixel in QBasic when I was starting out. It's that kind of thing that really attracted me to programming in the first place.
- cestith 10y agoFor $49 you could get the much more capable PocketCHIP and for ease of use use PICO-8 until you're ready to use something else. You'd get color, a key pad, wireless connectivity, and a Debian-like userspace. Of course, it's ARM and not Arduino and it isn't the size of a credit card.
- khedoros1 10y agoI'd also be getting something with an Allwinner chip in it. I try not to reward companies that violate copyright law. If they'd built it around another company's SOC, I might have bought one already...but maybe not, because the inputs look like they'd be a pain to actually use.
- cestith 10y agoI haven't followed the GPL concerns closely but I've been aware of them. I've not done the digging to confirm it for myself, but I keep hearing they're improving. Here's some articles and forum posts about Allwinner and lemaker and their efforts to fix their violations.: https://lwn.net/Articles/644976/ https://lwn.net/Articles/644976/ http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.netbook.arm.sunxi/16956 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.hardware.netbook.arm.s... http://raspi.tv/2014/banana-pi-review-first-impressions#comment-43818 http://raspi.tv/2014/banana-pi-review-first-impressions#comm... Here's the Github account for them, showing several source releases since the original debacle.: https://github.com/allwinner-zh https://github.com/allwinner-zh I'm not running out to buy all the Allwinner kit I can afford, but I do collect small computers. I have a Pine64 and will probably buy the 11" Pinetop. I have a CHIP and a PocketCHIP (including the CHIP that came in that). I also have an Onion2 on the way. These things go nicely with my HP LX95, LX100, LX200, Omnigo 100 ; Atari Portfolio ; Psion Series 2, Series 3, Series 3a, Series 5, Series 5MX; Casio Cassiopeia; Toshiba Libretto; Dialog Flybook; etc. I was under the impression I was helping the Kickstarter for Next Thing Co. much more than rewarding Allwinner for what appeared to be past violations of the GPL that they seem to be addressing. Do you have some information for me about fresh violations or ongoing reticence about the older ones?
- oftenwrong 10y agoBetter headline: "Arduboy, the game system the size of a credit card"
- sctb 10y agoThanks, we've updated the title from just “Arduboy”.
- 83457 10y agoReminds me of the Dreamcast VMU. If some cool little games I'd get it for a lower price.
- keanutah 10y agoI own one of these, and have written a game for it. Definitely a good bit of fun, and the hardware quality is pretty solid.
- developer12 10y agoHave one of these and love it. Game creating community is big and only getting bigger. Its very small but its fun watching what people create within its limitations. Recently had a friend order one with a free shipping coupon NOVEMBER2016.
- TylerE 10y agoYou didn't do a very good job hiding your astroturf. Real people don't create an account just to post a coupon code.
- snissn 10y agoHi! Could you please make an iPhone case with arduboy in it? Like this but playable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OMB5C6A/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OMB5C6A/
- dalbasal 10y agoI would love to see that become a category. Smart cases.
- samstave 10y agoGive them their own battery though....
- JimmyAustin 10y agoI'd love a case where the buttons connect to the actual iPhone. I dont really need to see the buttons to press them, but the ability to not have tactility and not crowd out the screen like most external controllers would be great.
- anotheryou 10y agothis is just that! https://i.imgur.com/IVz9vYO.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/IVz9vYO.mp4
- anotheryou 10y agoSounds possible to do it like a flip cover with a window for the "screen" and buttons that actually just press the on the covered part of the touch screen. Edit: or simply this: https://youtu.be/ZcXdDiRuJzI?t=60 https://youtu.be/ZcXdDiRuJzI?t=60 I gonna try taping just a little bump for orientation on the D-pad, should help a lot! Edit 2: yay, a little cross from electronic tape as already a great help
- brilliantcode 10y agoI was a bit taken back by it's pricing of $49 USD. That's almost 70 Canadian dollars. I was expecting something around $19 USD. In all it's shape or form, this is a great idea, credit card sized handheld gaming, can be put forgotten until you realize your phone is out of battery, and you suddenly have nothing to do. Also, I just love the small screen with it's tiny controllers, I can see myself playing Pokemon Blue on it.
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago$49 is pretty steep compared to a gameboy, which goes for $20, has a massive catalogue, affordable flashcarts, and several decent toolchains (I personally reccomend WLA-DX). And it also doubles as an excellent music production platform (provided you like chiptunes) thanks to LSDJ. The GBA goes for similar prices, and has similar benfits (and yes, it's got a solid toolchain). Plus, it plays all the old gameboy games, so all of the above applies (although LSDJ is a royal pain to use on the original GBA, as it assumes a standard GB button layout. Nanoloop has a version explicitly for the GBA, which takes advantage of the new sound hardware, but Nanoloop carts are very expensive).
- rtpg 10y agoPersonally I've had a hard time finding any flashcarts for GB/GBA recently. DS ones, on the other hand....
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoBennVenn's flashcarts are quite excellent. He's recently released a very cheap SD cart (for the value of cheap: it's way cheaper than an everdrive, though), and his cart readers/flashers, as well as his more traditional carts, are very good. Unfortunately, he's in Austrailia, so shipments take forever. Even more unfortunately, he's usually out of stock, so you have to wait for things to come back into stock, and then race to grab them. And it's not the cheapest stuff in the world, either. His store is http://bennvenn.myshopify.com http://bennvenn.myshopify.com. You'll have to buy reader/writer for the GBA flashcarts, or the non-sd GB flashcarts. There's nothing external needed for the SD carts, though: they even come with an SD.
- b3b0p 10y agoHave you ever heard of Everdrive? https://krikzz.com/store/ https://krikzz.com/store/
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoEverdrive is great. Expensive, though.
- cr0sh 10y agoI wish this thing wasn't the size of a credit card; I mean - I understand cuteness and marketability and everything... ...but with buttons that small and close together, for me it would be painful to play for any long period. Heck, I didn't play my gameboy color for long because it's smaller size caused my thumbs to ache after a while. Maybe my hands are just too big.
- sturmeh 10y agoDon't worry, there isn't much "endless" playing to be had with this thing.
- anotheryou 10y agoI owned an EEE-PC and it was fine :) Even this seems sorta playable: http://hackaday.com/2016/11/28/tiniest-game-boy-hides-in-your-pocket/ http://hackaday.com/2016/11/28/tiniest-game-boy-hides-in-you...
- malkia 10y agoSo much fun, similar other projects: PocketCHIP - http://getchip.com http://getchip.com LameStation - http://www.lamestation.com http://www.lamestation.com Gamebuino - http://gamebuino.com http://gamebuino.com Meggy Jr RGB Soldering Kit - http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/100-meggyjr http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/10... I bought for my son, the piper (minecraft+scratch) - http://playpiper.com http://playpiper.com and there is also Kano - http://kano.me http://kano.me
- Paul_S 10y agoI'm sorry for OT, but the kano.me link does a strange thing I notice lots of websites started doing recently. The moment you move your mouse to close the window it creates a popup. Why, and how? I feel really naive asking this but do websites now track the pointer position?
- lethargic_meat 10y agoThat's the dreadful "call to action" popups every SEO "guru" recommends you to add to your Wordpress site: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2015/09/16/10-popup-calls-to-action-readers-wont-able-resist/ http://www.jeffbullas.com/2015/09/16/10-popup-calls-to-actio... I do hate and actively block them.
- kennethko 10y agoIt's likely a "mouseout" event to detect when the mouse has left the window. Though I haven't checked the source to verify, so take with a grain of salt.
- madhato 10y agoI have never implemented this but I think they just add a 1 pixel div element at the top of the window and detect a mouseover event.
- paulddraper 10y agohttps://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/mousemove https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/mousemov...
- rtpg 10y agoI tried out this (and WifiBoy ) at Maker Faire Tokyo a couple months back. It's pretty neat tech, but a bit limiting. Ive found PICO-8 to be just limiting enough to still offer excellent games, but this seems a bit more gadgety. Tbh the killer features with any of these retro consoles would be to have a good button feel. The buttons used on these are usually pretty weak. I would be much more excited with a system with a GBA d-pad and buttons. That and maybe something a bit more powerful than an Arduino. The magic of PICO-8 with Lua is that your first lines of code are about the game, not memory book keeping.
- maweki 10y agoPico-8 seems limited by design (as a programming language / virtual machine) while the other examples are limited by hardware. This brings the pico-8 experience "on par" with programming games like tis-100 or shenzen IO
- pryelluw 10y agoSite is offline. Any relevant links?
- sturmeh 10y agoIt's pretty awesome (have 2 from Kickstarter) but I don't see the appeal for anybody but a developer.
- randommmeme 10y agowhy would they make it so small? its never going to be more than a curiosity if your hands are all cramped while you play it. it might make some sense if it were a little cheaper... it would be so much better if they made it much larger and gave it a larger screen and better buttons. that would be awesome.
- BHSPitMonkey 10y agoI've had one of these for a few weeks now, it's a lot of fun to play with! I really enjoy programming for such a simple nostalgic platform. My main side project for it [0] has been porting a little homebrew tunnel game I originally wrote for the Wii several years back. Other devs have been putting out much more impressive software [1] and coming up with some great hardware hacks [2] as well. It's indeed targeted at hobbyists more than consumers (like the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc) though I feel it has a greater potential for inspiring folks of all ages to tinker with programming. There's no ugly/scary hardware to deal with, and the form factor seems to attract adoration from everyone I show it to. [0] https://github.com/BHSPitMonkey/Helii-Arduboy/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/BHSPitMonkey/Helii-Arduboy/blob/master/RE... [1] http://www.team-arg.com/games.html http://www.team-arg.com/games.html [2] https://youtu.be/bGMHTI9e55Y https://youtu.be/bGMHTI9e55Y
- bateske 10y agoHello from Arduboy! I'm the creator and I love reading comments like this! I went ahead and made a blog post responding to some of the feedback here. http://blog.arduboy.com/arduboy-featured-hacker-news/ http://blog.arduboy.com/arduboy-featured-hacker-news/
- anotheryou 10y agoI really miss some pins. Not as sexy, but maybe more useful for some hardware hacks that could use a screen and arrow keys: http://gamebuino.com/ http://gamebuino.com/