This Arduboy FX Got a Game Boy Advance SP Upgrade
FacelessTech built a custom Arduboy FX with a larger screen in a Game Boy Advance SP shell.
The Arduboy is a completely open source handheld video game console inspired by the classic Nintendo Game Boy. It is Arduino-compatible, which makes it easy for users to modify and to program new games. While there are similar devices on the market, the Arduboy community is thriving and there are tons of free games to choose from. The original Arduboy only had enough storage to hold one game at a time, but the new Arduboy FX has room for more than 200 games. Still, there is room for improvement. That’s why FacelessTech gave their Arduboy FX a Game Boy Advance SP upgrade.
The Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP was released a couple after the Game Boy Advance and the two shared very similar specifications. The primary differences were an upgraded screen with a much-needed backlight and a completely new form factor. The GBA SP had a compact clamshell design and bottom-loading cartridge slot. While the Game Boy Advance family was replaced by the Nintendo DS, the GBA SP is still an enthusiast favorite. As it turns out, it is also perfect for custom Arduboy builds if you’re willing to put in the work. The primary advantage over a standard Arduboy is that you can use a much larger screen. You also get room for a larger battery, which means more time for gaming!
The official Arduboy PCB will not fit in a GBA SP shell at all, so FacelessTech had to design their own from scratch. It has all of the same components as the Arduboy FX (based on the Arduino Pro Micro), but is sized to fit in the GBA SP shell without any modifications. This lets you use a 2.42” OLED screen based on the SSD1309 driver chip, which is much larger than the standard Arduboy screen. In the GBA SP’s volume slider location, FacelessTech placed a mute switch. That comes in handy since some Arduboy games do not give you the ability to turn off the sound in software. There was enough space inside of the GBA SP shell for FacelessTech to fit a relatively large 650mAh LiPo battery that is good for hours of gameplay.
While most of the hardware is the same as an Arduboy FX, the larger screen does introduce some compatibility issues with Arduboy games. Fortunately, MrBlinky has already made a handy Python script to fix exactly this problem. The script automatically modifies the code for whichever Arduboy games you want to make them work with the larger screen. With that, FacelessTech’s modifications work perfectly. They have even been kind enough to upload the PCB design files to GitHub so that you can make your own.
