Gamebuino: A Handheld Arduino Gaming Console Ready For Prime Time

[Rodot] wrote in to tell us about the Gamebuino, a very nicely designed and easily reproducible version of his handheld Arduino gaming console. We originally featured [Rodot’s] Arduino based gaming console over a year ago.

With the Gamebuino, you too can build your own games and gaming hardware around the Arduino. While there is a lot of information currently missing from the site’s Wiki, such as the layout and game code, [Rodot] plans on making everything open source. The console includes a rechargeable lithium battery, a micro SD card, and I2C expansion connectors. This is one project to keep an eye (and two hands) on, especially since a full game library is going to be provided, letting you easily create your own games. See what the console can do in the demo video after the break.

It would be amazing so see some old Game Boy games ported to run on the Arduino, or maybe one of our readers can make an Game Boy emulator for the Arduino!

18 thoughts on “Gamebuino: A Handheld Arduino Gaming Console Ready For Prime Time

  1. “or maybe one of our readers can make an Game Boy emulator for the Arduino!”
    Lets see… The atmega328p in the gamebuino has 2k of sram. The gameboy has 8k of sram and 8k of video ram. The smallest cartridges size is 256k. I see a few problems…

  2. Looks like a pretty cool little project, if you don’t want to wait for the Kickstarter then you could breadboard a dev kit from the schematic with a regular Arduino …battery and power circuits can be dropped so you’d just need the LCD, 7 buttons, a buzzer and a handful of resisters to fool the sensor code. Only serious problem I can see with the design is no earphone jack and no hardware control for volume…for me that immediately rules out using it anywhere in public :(

      1. Ah, you’re “that guy” then :) Most of the games I play these days are during my 40 minute train commute to work and back, where even having headphones up too loud is likely to have people cast sideways glances at you in a very disapproving manner.

  3. The schematics are pretty simple so that would actually be easy to make a breadboard version, very good idea :) Don’t hesitate to post it on the forum if you do so !
    About the volume, you’re right, there is no hardware control. But there is software control ! Not only muting/unmuting, but real volume adjustment ! It’s done by the sound library who generate the 4 channels using PWM… you just have to call gamebuino.sound.volume() :D
    By the way, the library and a few example are now online, you’ll find that in Wiki/Software/Library ! https://github.com/Rodot/Gamebuino
    And you SHOULD use your Gamebuino in public to show how a retro/DIY/hacker guy you are :P

  4. This, sir, is called a Gamebuino Advance. A Gamebuino, which is a Gameboy clone should look like the original Gameboy, not a last-generation-fake-gameboy-for-noob.

    Really nice build however !

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