Arduboy is a handheld console based on the open source Arduino chip. Its hardware and most of the games developed by the community are open.
Arduboy History
It was first announced in 2014 through a Kickstarter campaing by Kevin Bates (@bateskecom on X).
Arduboy Specifications
The official Arduino product do not contain any Arduino microchip, but their specs would be similar to an Arduino Leonardo where a OLED screen and two buttons have been added.
Both the Arduboy and the Arduboy FX use an 8-bit ATMega32U4 microcontroller as the primary processor, RAM, and storage device of the system. The system ships with 2.5 kilobytes of RAM.
The Arduboy has 32 kilobytes of flash storage, as well as 1 kilobyte of EEPROM. The Arduboy FX features additional storage through the use of an official modchip, installed either from the factory or aftermarket.
The system uses an 1.3 inches (33 mm) 128x64px 1-bit OLED display.
Audio is handled by stereo Piezoelectric speakers.
The system is powered for about 5-8 hours on a rechargeable thin film lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 180 mAh. The system has a microUSB connector. The console can also be used as a simple controller or input device for other systems.
Casing is made from both aluminum and polycarbonate.
Programming on Arduboy
Arduboy software is programmed in C. There are FOSS libraries to develop games for it.
Arduboy2 is one of the most popular, and the one traditionally used.
ArduboyG is an alternative library was developed in 2023 that includes compatibility with gray-scale.
The video game Dark & Under II uses this library.
Versions
Consumer versions:
- Arduboy Mini
- Arduboy Nano
- Arduboy FX
- Arduboy FX Special Edition
Arduboy original was the original one. It had tactile buttons instead of physical buttons.
Arduboy Mini was smaller version or Arduboy original.
Arduboy Nano was even smaller than Arduboy Mini.
Arduboy FX is a version that was announced in August 2020 and released in 2021, and comes with 200 FOSS games pre-installed.
Arduboy FX Special Edition is a version released in November 2023 that has over 300 FOSS games pre-installed.
Arduboy FX Special Edition website
Emulation
Arduboy emulators:
- Arduous
- Sim-arduboy
- ProjectABE
- ArbyEmulator
Arduous
Arduous is an Arduboy emulator written in C and C++.
Sim-arduboy
Sim-arduboy is an Arduboy emulator is based on the Arduino emulator simavr.
The emulator has mainly designed and tested for the Clockwork PI OS, the OS for the handheld console GameShell or GameSH> by Clockwork PI.
It is written in C.
It is FOSS, using a GPLv3 license, the same as simavr.
ProjectABE
ProjectABE is an Arduboy emulator for HTML5, written mostly in JavaScript. It is developed by Brazilian developer Felipe Manga.
It is FOSS under an MIT license.
ArbyEmulator
ArbyEmulator is an Arduboy emulator for Android. It is developed by Japanese developer obono.
It is FOSS under a GPL-v3 license.
Ports
Arduboy to PlayDate
Arduboy games could be played on PlayDate with x1 (128 x 64), x2 (256 x 128) or x3 (384 x 192) resolution, which all fit within PlayDate’s screen resolution of 400 x 240.
There are some libraries for PlayDate that helps to port Arduboy games.
Arduboy Playdate Ports official website
Arduboy Playdate Ports code repository
Game Catalog
Erwin’s Arduboy Collection
Erwin collects Arduboy games.
Arduboy Collection Code repository
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External references
- Blogging a Dead Horse; “Arduboy Wiki“; Blogging a Dead Horse