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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.
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
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.