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Gameduino 2 brings a bright 4.3 inch touchscreen to the Arduino. It features dazzling accelerated graphics from the FT800 GPU, headphone audio, 3-axis accelerometer and microSD slot. Everything you need to create compelling games -- right in your hand.

You can buy a Gameduino for $59 from our online store. Shipping is free. You can also buy from: adafruit, Seeed, Watterott, Cool Components, Play-Zone, Boxtec.

Contents

Resources

You can download the Gameduino 2 library and tools on this page.

The Gameduino 2 printed book is available from Amazon USA, UK, France and Germany.

The Gameduino 2 online book is available as a PDF download. A Chinese translation by YunFei Robotics Laboratory is also available for download.

The Gameduino 2 forum is at http://gameduino2.proboards.com/ -- see you there!

And finally there is a FAQ.

Example sketches

There are dozens of examples included with the Gameduino 2 library, and many more in the Gameduino 2 book. These samples here give an idea of what Gameduino 2 can do.

Gameduino 2 has a no-fuss approach to graphics. A few lines of code are enough to start creating. details

A full game for the Gameduino 2. Fast moving action with beautiful contemporary graphics. details

Gameduino 2 isn't just for games. Thanks to its onboard FT800 GPU it has a full library of ready-made interactive widgets, all touch-enabled. details

A conversion of the ancient classic to the Gameduino 2. Twenty levels of 8-bit jumping action. details

Abstract graphics demo using the transparent blending capabilities of the FT800. details

Animated sketching using the touch screen, using transparent circles. details

Tiny chess program running on the Arduino, with a very nice-looking board. details

3D graphics demo. A "virtual trackball" interface lets you rotate a spaceship model, with bitmapped backgrounds. details

Arcade classic converted for Arduino + Gameduino 2. details

Another arcade classic converted for Arduino + Gameduino 2. details

Animation demo. Multiple background planes, rotating foreground spites with spinning polygons. details

Parallax scrolling with touch-based map editing on the Arduino itself. details

Maximum sprite complexity. The Gameduino 1 could handle 256 sprites. For the Gameduino 2 the maximum is over 2000. details

Browse JPG files on the SDcard. details

About Gameduino 2

Gameduino 2 is a shield that adds a bright 4.3 inch touchscreen, an embedded GPU, headphone jack, accelerometer and microSD slot to your Arduino - or anything else with an SPI interface. Everything you need to create compelling games -- right in your hand.

  • video output is 480x272 pixels in 24-bit color
  • OpenGL-style command set
  • Up to 2000 sprites, any size
  • 256 Kbytes of video RAM
  • smooth sprite rotate and zoom with bilinear filtering
  • smooth circle and line drawing in hardware - 16x antialiased
  • JPEG loading in hardware
  • built-in rendering of gradients, text, dials and buttons

Sound output is via an amplified headphone jack. The system supports a selection of built-in samples and instruments, and can also play samples from video memory, at up to 48KHz.

The FT800 can handle media in several formats directly. These save CPU memory, and mean simpler code on the CPU.

  • decodes JPEGs directly
  • for lossless image loading, decompresses (zlib INFLATE) directly
  • audio samples can be 8-bit linear, ulaw or ADPCM

Built into the GPU's ROM are:

  • high-quality fonts in 6 sizes
  • samples of 8 musical instruments, playable by MIDI note
  • samples of 10 percussion sounds

and of course you can load your own fonts and audio samples into the 256KB RAM.

Hardware

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Gameduino 2 is much like the first Gameduino, an SPI peripheral. The sdcard is also on SPI. The accelerometer is analog, so there are three analog pins for X,Y,Z. Touch and audio functions are handled by the FT800, so take no extra pins. The full pinout (Arduino shield pin numbers) is

GND pwr Signal ground
5V pwr Main supply: 5-7V
11 in SPI MOSI
12 out SPI MISO
13 in SPI SCK
8 in GPU SEL
9 in SD SEL
2 out INTERRUPT
A2 out ACCEL_Z
A1 out ACCEL_Y
A0 out ACCEL_X

For power, the shield needs 5-7v at 200ma on the 5V input; it has on-board regulation.

It is a 3.3v device, but the inputs go through a level-shifter so are also 5v tolerant. The range of the analog outputs is 0-3.3v.

Gameduino 2 is open source hardware and software, released under BSD license. The PCB schematics and layout are here.