Gamebuino is a project to create a retro videogame console, like the old-fashioned 8-bit ones such as the Nintendo Game Boy, based on Arduino, an electronic platform with circuit diagrams that are distributed as free hardware with a software kit too free as well. The fundraiser with the crowdfunding method on the Indiegogo website, which started on March 12, 2014, is having a great success and will continue until April 28, 2014.
Aurélien Rodot, the creator of the project Gamebuino, has a background as a mechanical engineer but has the hobby of electronics and computer science and ended up working in the field of robotics. After building a mini-console, he’s been contacted by several people who asked him how to build one. Eventually, he decided to develop Gamebuino.
After polishing the design of the console Gamebuino, Aurélien Rodot opened the fundraiser to raise the money needed for its mass production. It wasn’t a large sum, 3,141 Euros, in fact at this moment the fundraiser has reached more or less four times that figure, 12,476 Euros. Passing 6,666 Euros will allow to provide buyers with a μSD card, on which they can store many games.
Put like that, one wonders why spend 35 Euros to book a console Gamebuino when an entry level smartphone costs a little more and allows the use of more sophisticated games as well as having many other functions. In fact, if you just want to play, there are other solutions.
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Gamebuino is an interesting project for those who want to create their own games and tinker with the console to create other programs as well. Let’s remember that Arduino is an electronic platform which is having great success to create devices of various types for very different needs at very low cost.
Gamebuino is an open source console with a software library that will help users to create new games or other programs. The project Gamebuino website also contains a wiki and a forum where you can find information and exchange ideas and opinions with other users.
If you want, you can book a console Gamebuino or even just make a small contribution. As always in these fundraisers, there are other possibilities of offers ranging from the Multiplayer pack, which means getting two Gamebuinos and a cable to connect them to have two people play together, to a hackathon, which is the right to have a play written especially for you within the limits of possibilities of this platform.
The consoles Gamebuino are scheduled to be shipped in July 2014. For those who love to tinker with this kind of hardware it can be an interesting choice.
Here’s a Gamebuino release trailer.
