The Arduboy is a

handheld game console A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the co ...

with

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

software, based on the

Arduino Arduino () is an open-source hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardware products are licensed under ...

hardware platform.

History

Development

The original version of the Arduboy was thick, with the height and width of a

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the ...

, and was initially designed by Kevin Bates, an american Arduino enthusiast, as an electronic

business card Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company or business af ...

. In preparation for a consumer version, the developer moved to

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern provi ...

, China to work on the Arduboy at the HAX accelerator. Later consumer versions replaced the first version's touch-sensitive panels by physical buttons, and include a protective plastic case, raising the thickness to . A non-production smaller formfactor "Arduboy Mini" was demonstrated in 2019. Another non-production system, the "Arduboy Nano" was demonstrated in 2021 with a smaller formfactor than the Arduboy Mini.

Consumer versions

A Kickstarter campaign was being planned in 2014. Development was funded through a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign in 2015. The launch price of the original Arduboy was either $29 or $39. In August 2020, Arduboy announced 'Arduboy FX', an upgraded version that includes a flash memory chip that stores over 250 games on the device itself. This version shipped around 2021 at a price of $54.

Tetris Microcard

As well as the open-source Arduboy itself, a single-game version featuring an officially licensed (non-open) version of

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...

is also available.

Hardware

The Arduboy is

. The compute platform of the Arduboy is based on that of the

. 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 128x64px 1-bit

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...

display. Audio is handled by

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

Piezoelectric speaker A piezoelectric speaker (also known as a piezo bender due to its mode of operation, and sometimes colloquially called a "piezo", buzzer, crystal loudspeaker or beep speaker) is a loudspeaker that uses the piezoelectric effect for generating s ...

s. The system is powered for about 5-8 hours on a

rechargeable A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or pri ...

thin film A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many ...

lithium polymer battery A lithium polymer battery, or more correctly lithium-ion polymer battery (abbreviated as LiPo, LIP, Li-poly, lithium-poly and others), is a rechargeable battery of lithium-ion technology using a polymer electrolyte instead of a liquid electrolyt ...

with a capacity of 180 mAh. The system has a

microUSB The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of t ...

connector. The console can also be used as a simple controller or input device for other systems. Casing is made from both

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

and

polycarbonate Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily work ...

References

External links

* {{Handheld game consoles Arduino Handheld game consoles Kickstarter-funded video game consoles Monochrome video game consoles Open hardware electronic devices