Gamebuino forum

Hi, I've just seen on Arduino official website they published for a few months a new Arduino card named Arduino 101.
This card has very interesting technical specifications, such as 24 KB of RAM for user (80 KB total) and 196 KB of flash memory (384 KB total), and contains a build-in accelerometer, gyroscope and a Bluetooth module that would permit to make local multiplayers games !
The Arduino 101 is saled for only 30$, so isn't it a good idea to update the Gamebuino with this new component ?
This can permit to make better programs with better features and better sprites or musics, event though the expansion of flash memory is not really useful...
BUT, BIG NEW FEATURE : The processor's frequency is now at 32 MHz ! It would permit to make more complicated games with more effects and graphics !

And you ? Do you think an Arduino 101 will be a best idea than the Arduino Uno, even if the price of the console is 5-10$ higher ?

With all the extra power and ram, I think a Gamebuino Spectrum (higher resolution color screen) is now possible! Hopefully, with more buttons and a thumbstick.

I'm not sure that rodot will accept to make a screen-colored gamebuino because the price will increase a lot !
But 'just' changing the Arduino card may be an idea...

Well then, maybe monochrome oled with more pixels. I'm sure people would be willing to pay for that option. In fact, why not make a lineup of different tier gamebuinos, from the original to one with arduino 101 and color/Bluetooth options in between? All with reasonable cross-compatibility, of course. (obviously games that need more processing power couldn't run on the original) It seems like a great idea to me.

I think - if rodot accept the idea of creating a model with Arduino 101 - that will be a monochrome model. After all, the goal of the gamebuino is to create simply our old-like games easily. So if it's a 320x240 colored screen, it will be a problem, don't you think ? However, maybe rodot will be interested by creating a model with a larger (monochrome) screen - I think I'm not the only person who find this screen a little bit small -. Note that's only suggestions.
Personnally, I would be very interested by a colored model, or a larger monochrome screen in fact, because it would permit to create better games. The problem is the price will increase, and I don't know the production cost.

What I'm really hoping for is a screen like the one on Arduboy. It both eliminates the need for a backlight, and just makes persistence almost nonexistent. In fact, I almost decided to go with Arduboy instead of Gamebuino just because of that, plus they're super slim.

The Arduboy has no workable gray shade and the vertical refresh tearing is a lot more visible. It also doesn't have an SD card slot. Since the display resolution is bigger, you need to use a lot more RAM to drive it.

The Arduboy is a nice little gadget, but it is very restricted compared to the Gamebuino. With that said, I still plan to get an Arduboy eventually even if it ends up only being a nice collection piece... And I still wish Rodot and Kevin could strike a deal to bring the Arduboy manufacturing process to the Gamebuino.

The Arduboy has no workable gray shade

Well, neither does the Gamebuino, really. I mean, people have had gray by rapidly flashing, but the main thing is greyscale. And for that matter, Arduboy could do on/off gray the same way.

Since the display resolution is bigger, you need to use a lot more RAM to drive it.

But Arduino 101 has a lot more ram. That's why I was hoping for a larger resolution. My main gripe, however is the Nokia screen itself, not the resolution. It's hard to see in the light, and the best viewing quality is in the dark. Arduboy just seems far easier to see.

The Arduboy is a nice little gadget, but it is very restricted compared to the Gamebuino. With that said, I still plan to get an Arduboy eventually even if it ends up only being a nice collection piece... And I still wish Rodot and Kevin could strike a deal to bring the Arduboy manufacturing process to the Gamebuino.

My thoughts exactly!

I think that vertical refresh tear is just the way the camera sees it. It probably doesn't like the frequency of the light in the pixels. I may be wrong, but it seems like that is the case.

The Arduboy devs gave up on gray shades because of the flickering and very visible refresh banding. There's a whole thread dedicated to it on their forum. The screen refreshes way too fast, there's almost no ghosting, and there's no way to time it, just like we found out with the Gamebuino, except the Nokia screen has so much ghosting that we could work it out in the end. They couldn't.

And the Arduboy has the same processor the Gamebuino has, so yeah, a hypothetical console with an Arduino 101 would be great, but none exist yet.