Gameduino 2 hits Kickstarter

Way back in 2011, the original Gameduino hit the streets, bringing vintage gaming to the Atmel-powered Arduino. Fast forward to 2013, and Gameduino is back with a second-gen model, courtesy of James Bowman and Kickstarter.

According to Bowman, the Gameduino 2 boasts touch control, a three-axis accelerometer, microSD storage for game assets, headphone audio output and all-new graphics on a bright 4.3 inch screen – all driven by an OpenGL-style command FT800 engine “vastly more capable” than its predecessor.

Indeed, the GPU runs the 4.3 inch 480×272 TFT touch panel screen at 60 Hz, helping to facilitate smooth animation and gameplay. Specifically, the GPU embedded video engine features:

• 32-bit internal color precision
• OpenGL-style command set
• Up to 2000 sprites – sprites can be 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

“It can load JPEGs, supports alpha transparency, and has a full 32-bit color pipeline,” said Bowman. “Gameduino 2 is designed, tested, documented and the prototype is built. The videos were all taken from the real hardware – everything you see is running on an Arduino with the prototype.”

Interested in learning more? Be sure to check out the official Gameduino 2 project page on Kickstarter.