Arduboy2ESP

ESP8266 port of the Arduboy2 library

This port of the Arduboy2 library compiles for the ESP8266, existing Arduboy2-compatible games like CastleBoy by TeamARG can use it as a drop-in replacement for the original Arduboy2 library, other games such as Squario or Virus LQP-79 run with slight modifications, but hopefully they will run natively in future releases.

Usage

Simply replace the Arduboy2 library in your Arduino Studio libraries folder with this version.

Hardware

The library was tested on a NodeMCU module with a ESP-12N (yes, N) microcontroller. It requires an SSD1306 based OLED module, the pinout of the OLED module should match the pictures if you want to place it on the breadboard right beside the ESP8266.

Bill of Materials

As stated earlier, the goal is to get to USD $5 per unit, shipped. If you order the parts from Amazon, the bill comes to around $30, but you can get enough parts for 4 consoles from AliExpress for $20, not including the battery circuitry, but a triple AA holder connected to the pins Vin and GND will do the trick for a few more cents on the same site.

The following file contains a sample of the items you need to buy, I did NOT buy from them, they are not endorsing me, nor do I warranty that the parts will work together or at all.

https://github.com/edgarborja/Arduboy2ESP/blob/master/AliExpressBillOfMateriasl.pdf

Motivation

I wanted to build the simplest (and cheapest) portable and programmable game console, so that new tinkerers can have an accessible experience of putting it together, and experience the thrill that I felt when I started editing gorilla.bas and nibbles.bas in DOS in the early 90's.

After looking around, I found the awesome Arduboy project, and the community it generated, which inspired me to join that effort and contribute if possible.

Credits and Documentation

99% of the work on the library was done by the contributors to the following repositories:

https://github.com/Arduboy/Arduboy

https://github.com/MLXXXp/Arduboy2

https://github.com/harbaum/Arduboy2

https://github.com/hartmann1301/Arduboy2 hartmann1301 migrated the library to the ESP8266 platform, from there just a few tweaks were needed.

Please do read through the extensive documentation included there.

Contributions and Disclaimer

Contributions to the documentation, code or electronics are welcome, English is not my first language, I am not pretending to be an expert in C or in electrical engineering (nor in using Github); use the library and the circuits presented above at your own risk.