Official Arduboy Upgrade Module Nears Competition

We’ve been big fans of the Arduboy since [Kevin Bates] showed off the first prototype back in 2014. It’s a fantastic platform for making and playing simple games, but there’s certainly room for improvement. One of the most obvious usability issues has always been that the hardware can only hold one game at a time. But thanks to the development of an official add-on, the Arduboy will soon have enough onboard storage to hold hundreds of games

Even the rear silkscreen was a community effort.

The upgrade takes the form of a small flexible PCB that gets soldered to existing test points on the Arduboy. Equipped with a W25Q128 flash chip, the retrofit board provides an additional 16 MB of flash storage to the handheld’s ATmega32u4 microcontroller; enough to hold essentially every game and program ever written for the platform at once.

Of course, wiring an SPI flash chip to the handheld’s MCU is only half the battle. The system also needs to have its bootloader replaced with one that’s aware of this expanded storage. To that end, the upgrade board also contains an ATtiny85 that’s there to handle this process without the need for an external programmer. While this is a luxury the average Hackaday reader could probably do without, it’s a smart move for an upgrade intended for a wider audience.

The upgrade board is currently available for pre-order, but those who know their way around a soldering iron and a USBasp can upgrade their own hardware right now by following along with the technical discussion between [Kevin] and the community in the “Project Falcon” forum.

via Official Arduboy Upgrade Module Nears Competition — Hackaday

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Scott Shawcroft Is Programming Game Boys With CircuitPython

Some people like to do things the hard way. Maybe they drive a manual transmission, or they bust out the wire wrap tool instead of a soldering iron, or they code in assembly to stay close to the machine. Doing things the hard way certainly has its merits, and we are not here to argue about that. Scott Shawcroft — project lead for CircuitPython — on the other hand, makes a great case for doing things the easy way in his talk at the 2019 Hackaday Superconference.

In fact, he proved how easy it is right off the bat. There he stood at the podium, presenting in front of a room full of people, poised at an unfamiliar laptop with only the stock text editor. Yet with a single keystroke and a file save operation, Scott was able make the LEDs on his Adafruit Edge Badge — one of the other pieces of hackable hardware in the Supercon swag bag — go from off to battery-draining bright.

via Scott Shawcroft Is Programming Game Boys With CircuitPython — Hackaday

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Flash Memory Adapter for Game Boy

J.Rodrigo created this adapter board make it easier to flash a Game Boy cartridge:

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Flash Memory Adapter for some Game Boy Cartridges

You only need to solder 3 or 4 wires and the adapter board to an old cartridge, PCB adapter boards are manufactured on OSH park to ensure the best quality of castellations.

Compatible Cartridges:

  • DMG-A02-01: MBC5 + ROM (256/512/1024 KB) + RAM (32KB) + Battery
  • DMG-A06-01: MBC5 + ROM (256/512/1024 KB) + RAM (8KB) + Battery
  • DMG-A07-01: MBC5 + ROM (256/512/1024 KB)

JRodrigo has shared the board on OSH Park:

Flash Memory Adapter for Game Boy

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Order from OSH Park

Flash Memory Adapter for Game Boy

Smaller version of GameBoy Zero

moosepr designed this small and simple GameBoy-style device using the Raspberry Pi Zero:

7352071488543051372.jpgGameBoy Zero, but smaller!

I’m not overly fond of ‘rats nest’ wires, and I have a bit of an obsession with making things as small as possible, so this is what I came up with.

Tis just an ILI9341 screen, a Pi Zero, 2 navi switches (5 way), and a battery (with charge/protect circuit)

petay has shared the board on OSH Park:

GBz

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Order from OSH Park

Here the board is in action:

 

Smaller version of GameBoy Zero

TCPoke and the Internet of Pokemon

Pepijn de Vos created this method to trade and battle Pokemon over the Internet:

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TCPoke

a collection of projects that allow you to connect your Game Boy to the internet and trade or battle with the first and second generation Pokemon games

KiCad design files of Teensy 2.0 shield for a Game Link Cable:

github-logotcpoke_shield

whitespace

Arduino sketch runs on Teensy 2.0 and talks to a Game Boy via raw HID mode:

github-logotcpoke_teensy

whitespace

TCPoke shield kit is sold on Tindie:
tcpoke-teensy.png

TCPoke and the Internet of Pokemon

Pokemon Go on the Gameboy Pocket

Hackaday reports on this mix of Pokemon Go and DIY electronics:Beware Of Tall Grass: Pokemon Go on the Gameboy Pocket

[Pepijn de Vos] was excited to interact with the world’s most popular augmented reality pedometer, Pokemon Go, and was extremely disappointed to find that his Blackberry couldn’t run it. Still, as far as he could tell from behind his wall of obsolete technology, Pokemon Go is all about walking distractedly, being suspicious, and occasionally catching […]

TCPoke shield kit on Tindie:

tcpoke

Pokemon Go on the Gameboy Pocket