Arduboy

[erico]

Have you guy seen this?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/90 ... zed-gaming

Similar to Gamebuino but with a few different specs and form factor.
The kickstarter page carries a few of this community´s games like Rodot´s Ufo Race or Myndale´s 3d demo.

Even the rotating prototype is familiar.
Anyways, it seems Rodot´s indiegogo campaign inspired a lot of people.

[jonnection]

I think the Arduboy is actually older than th Gamebuino. I remember seeing the youtube video when it came. Two important differences: it is based on the atmega32u and then the really crappy thing: it has no sd card. So it is one game only at a time.

[Skyrunner65]

Did they steal these games?
If so, Myndale and Rodot will be SO mad when they see this.
(Although I do love the aesthetics and price of it)
Anyways, it's nice that Rodot's Indiegogo campaign inspired someone.
(Gosh, anyone like that screen? It's pretty cool)

EDIT: I wonder how easy it is to port games over to it...

[Sorunome]

Did they steal these games?
If so, Myndale and Rodot will be SO mad when they see this.
(Although I do love the aesthetics and price of it)
Anyways, it's nice that Rodot's Indiegogo campaign inspired someone.
(Gosh, anyone like that screen? It's pretty cool)

EDIT: I wonder how easy it is to port games over to it...

Just my thoughts, too. Also, that kickstarter lists Ufo-Race with a screenshot that looks waaaay to similar to the gamebuino ufo race.

[Skyrunner65]

I E-Mailed them about it, and I will edit this post/ reply when they respond.

@Sorunome: I know, right?
(It's like they ported it or something!)

EDIT: Their Reply...

Code: Select all

Our graphic designer just grabbed some of the images we suggested for possible games but forgot to add the attributions, we are working on an update to the page today!

The use of the images is to just show how big the arduino gaming community already is and we definitely want to support that! They aren't fully up and running and we want to reach out to as many developers as we can to make games for the Arduboy.

Well, they are honest.

[erico]

I think the software that is coming up on our repo is open source/use right?
So I would not think they ´stole´it.

Would be nice to see a mention since it is a campaign, like it is ok to say you are using arduino so you get a vacuo with the community but it dosen´t seem likely that they would credit software made for an already sucessful campaingned ´rival´ hardware.

So this last point is a bit grey to me. Open source game images(screenshots) developed for another platform are used on a campaign to pull money for this one uncredited. I know the games are open source, but ethically dosen´t look fare.

For gamebuino, it seems to me that Rodot made a few games and examples with his library to showcase it on campaign, here on arduboy, it seems they are less focused on software and more on the hardware, so they take existing stuff to fill in the gap? These are just my considerations, I´m not judging anyone and I also don´t know the truth. So just speculations and seriously, I would not bother about it.

edit: read their reply, not too professional on my books when it comes to using material from other people (again, if the legal descriptions on your software allows it, there is no problem). So I open a kick campaign and use some mickey mouse images cause my gfx artist things they are possible ports for my system without giving a shit for who actually did the images.... yeah right.

edit2: I now see a thanks for the Gamebuino and other systems on the page, I didn´t see it before. That is a good credit start.

[erico]

I think the Arduboy is actually older than th Gamebuino. I remember seeing the youtube video when it came. Two important differences: it is based on the atmega32u and then the really crappy thing: it has no sd card. So it is one game only at a time.

oh heck, no SD? So I take you plug the usb and flash the game you wanna play?
Yep, it is step back for me since I do go about flashing my gamebuino a lot to show and play different games. Not to count the expansion ability in games reading from SD can provide.

The form factor for me is also bad this size. It could work for a kid but my orango tango monkey hands are just too big to comfortably hold and play it.

[jonnection]

Kevin Bates 1st Arduboy video 27.2.2014
Rodot's 1st Gamebuino video 25.2.2014

So I guess both got the idea at the same time.

Some things about porting games and what I think of the Arduboy

I have built a kind of Arduboy (arduino micro + 1.3" oled). You can program the atmega32u4 with the Arduino IDE just as you program the atmega328 of the Gamebuino. The atmega32u4 has in-built USB functionality, so no other chip is required to connect it to the PC.

BUT, the bootloader takes 4kB of memory, precisely because of the USB connectivity. You can't get things for free in this world. So 32 kB - 4kB = 28 kB remaining for the game.

Porting the games would be easy (same code with no changes), but porting the Gamebuino library would require some effort:

1) the SPI communication pins are different + OLED is initialized and programmed differently from the Nokia LCD. Also, timers of the atmega32u4 are different. In order to make sound work, the sound interrupt would have to be re-programmed for the atmega32u4.
2) program has to fit into 28kB of memory
3) OLED resolution is 128x64

But even so, can be done within a weekend. But this does not include the bootloader, which is a different matter altogether.

Then the biggest issue for me is that with no SD card, all this stuff that we are now making would be impossible. No loading games on the go, no streaming music...

I read on the Arduboy page that the author has given up his day job to build the Arduboy. I think he has perhaps overestimated the business potential. Or I might be wrong. Rodot, are you planning to give up your degree in engineering and become a full time Gamebuinoist ?

[Drakker]

Another thing is that he's already loudly talking about the Arduboy 2, which should be better with tons of memory and etc... so why buy the Arduboy now when we know the Arduboy 2 will be soooo much better?

But... if somehow in a perfect world Rodot and this guy could work together to make a slim Gamebuino using the Arduboy's manufacturing process... ... ...

[erico]

...
But... if somehow in a perfect world Rodot and this guy could work together to make a slim Gamebuino using the Arduboy's manufacturing process... ... ...

Agreed, I bet they both could benefit.
We are also going to be able to check a bit of the difference from using kickstarter and indiegogo since the product is similar.

As for original idea, I don´t care much, everyone can have similar ideas.
But I see on Rodot´s portfolio that gamebuino is quite an old idea of him.
There is a video dating Aug 17, 2012 of prototype and many related projects before that.

The arduboy´s buttons also look like better to handle fast action games, but here we would have to give a try to test.