The Arduboy is an adorable & super thin gaming board that features an Arduino-compatible ATmega32u4, 128x64 monochrome OLED screen, buzzer, and 6 buttons.  It's an amazing platform for writing small games, within the limits of the 8-bit microcontroller it uses!

Since Arcada boards, like the PyGamer and PyBadge's are also Arduino compatible, its easy to compile any Arduboy games for these boards. The PyGamer/PyBadge have much faster processors with more memory and a larger screen, but we will not be 'emulating' the Arduboy games - we really will just re-compile them.

Since it has a higher resolution screen, we'll mimic the OLED by having the 128x64 display in the center of the TFT with white LEDs on black. The buttons work the same, and the buzzer will be replicated by the built-in buzzer or speaker/headphones. For the EEPROM emulation, we create a 1KB file on the Flash storage built into Arcada boards. And that's it!

The chip on the Arduboy (ATmega32u4) and Arcada boards are totally incompatible so we cannot use the 'bootloader' distribution system for Arduboy. Each game must be compiled a-new. However, once it is compiled, you can share the UF2 for your particular board

What can I use?

We use the Arcada Arduino library to interface with the hardware, and can run on:

Angled shot of Adafruit PyGamer for MakeCode Arcade, CircuitPython or Arduino.
What fits in your pocket, is fully Open Source, and can run CircuitPython, MakeCode Arcade or Arduino games you write yourself? That's right, it's the Adafruit...
Out of Stock
Angled shot of a Adafruit PyBadge for MakeCode Arcade, CircuitPython, or Arduino.
What's the size of a credit card and can run CircuitPython, MakeCode Arcade or Arduino? That's right, its the Adafruit PyBadge! We wanted to see how much we...
$34.95
In Stock
Angled Shot of Adafruit PyBadge - Low Cost.
What's the size of a credit card and can run CircuitPython, MakeCode Arcade or Arduino even when you're on a budget? That's right, it's the Adafruit...
Out of Stock
USB Cable with Type A and Micro B ends
This is your standard USB A-Plug to Micro-USB cable. It's 2 meters long so you'll have plenty of cord to work with for those longer extensions.
$4.95
In Stock

This guide was first published on May 27, 2019. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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