Hi there!

If you're looking to subscribe to AdaBox, click here!

If you're here, it's because you were given the gift of electronics with an AdaBox! Perhaps you are a beginner who is getting started with your AdaBox. Or maybe you just want to relive what it's like being a beginner at electronics again. But most of all, you want to learn to program, emulate, and play on a tiny computing platform that looks both to the past and the future!

And, you're in luck: there's never been a better time. Seriously. We're not just saying that. It's wild how great a time this is for you to build your own super miniature retro computing/gaming machine!

Gone are the days where you need thousands of dollars of equipment and a physics/math background. Nowadays, if you want to learn to work with electronics and code microcontrollers, you can jump right in for $100 or less and any sort of computer.

Who is this for?

Anyone who is interested in learning how to build their very own digital camera that can be programmed, customized, and even send images directly to the internet! All you need is a computer you can install some software onto, and with access to a modern web browser. That's pretty much the minimum. Remember, this guide is specifically for people who have purchased or received an AdaBox subscription!

You don't need to know a lot of physics or math, and just like an Art Degree isn't required for making art and being creative, you don't need to have a computer science or mechanical engineering degree. It helps if you're comfortable using computers but that's a skill most people pick up through life.

If you know how to program already - great! If not, don't worry, we'll teach you enough to be dangerous.

Who isn't this for?

While you can follow along without an AdaBox, it will not make as much sense unless you have all of the components and more which either came as a gift or purchased yourself - remember, the goal is helping beginners!

If you're an expert, please visit our thousands of other tutorials and jump right in at learn.adafruit.com

Who are you?

Great question. This is me:

I'm Ladyada, and I love to teach people how to build stuff and how they can be creative with technology.

So, are you ready?

Let's do this thing!

This ADABOX takes its inspiration from our childhood: spending weekends with computers like the Apple ][, 286 PC, ZX-Spectrum, C-64, Mac Plus and TRS-80. These machines plugged into a TV and blazed our eyes with 8-bit glory as we played games, typed programs from magazines, and patiently waited our turn as siblings and friends loaded the latest programs from cartridges and floppies. We didn't mind too much the constrained memory, simplistic graphics and bleepy tunes, it was amazing to have a self-contained electronic wonderland that could do almost anything.

We turned such wistfully recollections into a new design we call the Fruit Jam. Inspired by the IchigoJam DIY computer kit, this credit-card sized computer can drive an HDMI monitor and mini speaker, with USB keyboard and mouse for input. But instead of running Mac or Windows or Linux, it's directly programmable like a microcontroller. This makes it easy to write your own games or apps with powerful interpreted Python scripts that live on the built in 16 MB flash disk: no complex APIs or compilers required! Use Fruit Jam OS to launch downloadable apps, including a mini text editor for writing your own programs, and an IRC client for chatting with other #fruitjam fans.

As always, we thank DigiKey for their unending support - this year has been a rollercoaster with managing tariffs and inventory and DigiKey has been a rock solid in their support and sourcing capabilities.

Last but not least, we thank all our ADABOX subscribers - your patience is appreciated as we navigate the never-boring-times in manufacturing open source hardware. We're really excited to have you try all of the great projects we've designed for the Fruit Jam! Then, visit adafruit-playground.com to check out and join in on community-contributed projects and code.

-- ladyada, pt, kiddo and newborn

In the Box

The Fruit Jam that comes in Adabox 22 is ready for you to play DOOM right out of the box. Here's to to set it up and get going right away. (In case you need to re-install it, check out this guide for detailed instructions.)

First, assemble the Fruit Jam as shown on the previous page.

Then, grab your Fruit Jam, keyboard, mouse and these additional parts:

Controls

Plug in all devices (keyboard, mouse or USB gamepad) before booting. Hotpluging (plugging or unplugging USB devices while the Fruit Jam is powered on) is unreliable. Remapping keyboard controls is not supported.

Keyboard Movement 

• W – Move Forward
• A – Strafe Left
• S – Move Backwards
• D – Strafe Right
• Q – Turn Left
• E – Turn Right
• Shift + WASD – Run
• Spacebar – Open

Mouse Movement

• Y-axis – Forward/backward
• X-Axis – Left/Rigt Rotation 
• Left-Mouse-Button – Firing

USB Gamepad

• D-PAD: forward/backward, turn left/right
• Shoulder Buttons: strafe left/right
• X: fire
• A/Y: open/activate
• B: run
• select/start: cycle weapons

Fruit Jam on-board Buttons

When starting, hold down:

• Button 3 – Disable music
• Button 2 – Disable music & sound effects

Fruit Jam is great for emulating early personal computers! Check out the following guides to relive Mac, Apple //e, Commodore 64, and others.

A Note on Emulators:

The emulators noted are ports of existing open source projects to the Fruit Jam hardware. 

Sometimes emulators may not run a classic program well or refuse entirely. This may be due to the program using non-standard methods or the emulator author perhaps did not have their code emulate the platform 100%. It's a part of the emulator community to know that there could be issues with a particular emulator.

If you find an issue, consider submitting an issue or even a pull request to the emulator author.

It is hoped that as more Fruit Jam boards get out into the wild that authors can have "hardware in hand" and test their emulators for compatibility.

With support for DVI video out over HDMI, USB game controller hosting, SD card "cartridge" storage, and built-in speaker or external audio, Fruit Jam is a terrific little video game console emulation machine. Here are some guides to get you going with Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Boy, Sega Master System, Game Gear and others.

A Note on Emulators:

The emulators noted are ports of existing open source projects to the Fruit Jam hardware. 

Sometimes emulators may not run a classic game well or refuse entirely. This may be due to the program using non-standard methods or the emulator author perhaps did not have their code emulate the platform 100%. It's a part of the emulator community to know that there could be issues with a particular emulator or rom.

If you find an issue, consider submitting an issue or even a pull request to the emulator author.

It is hoped that as more Fruit Jam boards get out into the wild that authors can have "hardware in hand" and test their emulators for compatibility.

A number of games have been created directly for the Fruit Jam in CircuitPython -- no emulator necessary. Check out Snak, Minesweeper, Chip's Challenge, Larsio Paint Music, and others.

The beauty of running games directly on Fruit Jam

Unlike an emulator, which tries to "fool" a program or game made for another hardware platform to run on Fruit Jam, these games were written specifically to work on Fruit Jam directly.

Most of the games are written in CircuitPython and are open source. This means you can go into the source code and change things to suit your style. For breakout, there are variables for ball speed, points, and more you can change to make the game easier, harder, or more fun.

It's not all games (but still lots of fun) when we take a look at other kinds of software written for the Fruit Jam. An homage to Atari Video Music, a video overlay Chyron, even a fully functional IRC client await.

The beauty of running software directly on Fruit Jam

Unlike an emulator, which tries to "fool" a program or game made for another hardware platform to run on Fruit Jam, you can run programs which are written specifically to work on Fruit Jam directly.

Most of the programs are written in CircuitPython and are open source. This means you can go into the source code and change things to suit your style. Or write your own! In CircuitPython, you can have code running in just a few minutes with just a text editor. See the Welcome to CircuitPython guide to start.

Some of the amazing community members who've been making things for Fruit Jam have posted mini guides to the Adafruit Playground. Everything from a snake dating game to a MIDI synthesizer, from screen savers to game pad testers and more!