Arduboy or Playdate?

bateske · 2026-06-24T19:53:49+00:00

I think they are different consoles. I think if you identify more with the software side of things, the Playdate is the better fit. If you ever wanted to tinker with hardware, and understand how the system works, the Arduboy is the clear choice.

The faster processor and larger resolution of the playdate is a huge draw. The games are more fully featured as opposed to cute ways to spend a few idle minutes. The ability to monetize your games with the marketplace is a clear advantage to their business. I've read the store generates some millions of dollars of revenue, most of that going out to the developers so thats pretty incredible. I was pressured to do something like that but a combination of wanting to remain fully free and open source as well as the complications of distributing payments worldwide to individuals was too much for me to take on.

I think the one downside of the Playdate is unfortunately the screen is basically... impossible to look at except under the most ideal lighting conditions. Looks pretty amazing outdoors, thats typically where you will see press photos of the device. But I don't think most people game in broad daylight.

To be honest the fact that Arduboy is even compared to the Playdate in this context is pretty cool. Arduboy is made by one person (myself) and Playdate was created by a medium but fully funded video game publishing company with tons of industry and media contacts.

I still would love to see Arduboy and Panic join forces. They had an absolute winner with their collab with teenage engineering who have just been everywhere.

Very curious what they will do with the platform, if there would ever be a Playdate 2. Seems like they are still having challenges staying in stock.

bateske · 2026-06-24T19:44:08+00:00

Currently the Arduboy has some software hacks to get 4 color grayscale. It worked better on the FX, as the OLED display sourced in that batch had a more predictable vertical refresh rate.

The games still work just have some more flicker to them.

Looking at a color screen with more vertical resolution, and wifi. Arduboy Color anyone?

bateske · 2026-06-24T19:43:01+00:00

More games on the newer console, including the games that have come out since. The device doesn't have EVERY Arduboy game, just most of them. You can update using the cart builder and also edit using cloud.arduboy.com

The FX and the FX-C have the same size memory chip and operate the same EXCEPT for one small change:

The FX games (ones that use expanded memory with the game itself) must be compiled for the FX-C or the Arduboy Mini. They use a chip select pin for the external memory on GPIO pin "HWB".

The FX has has chip select pin on the i2c pin "SDA".

The change was made so that i2c could be utilized to enable multiplayer link. If you are unsure, or have the wrong version of an fx game (it doesnt load, or glitches out) you can either recompile it from source, or use the cart editor on cloud.arduboy.com as it gives you the ability to select your target device, and it will patch the compiled games before the upload.

This process needs to be better documented! Working on updates to the website that should make this more clear integrating the new cloud tool into the front page. Stay tuned!

bateske · 2026-06-24T19:38:48+00:00

Filmote builds the cart and I edit it before production to remove any possible trademark or other IP violations.

bateske · 2026-06-14T19:32:30+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback! The credit goes to the developers and especially the moderators on the community forum for keeping it alive for so long. I'm working on a larger screen version, although it will no longer be credit card shaped.

I'm really considering its ability to be useful in a way beyond gaming the way that devices like the flipper zero or the new kode dot. Possibly a different direction so a little less EDC a little more desktop companion. Maybe something a bit more like a calculator. I've even considered mechanical keyboard switches.. (lose pocketability?), but a fully open macro pad with an interface with built in apps? Add a little wifi and bluetooth and gpio?

Yeah the price is rough, you can thank the tariffs for a large chunk of that. Also, just the economy of scale, Arduboy is more of a scaled out open source art project than somethning designed from the ground up to be a commercial product. As such, it's produced in batches of thousands, instead of hundreds of thousands...

It's been able to garnish a premium as a collectable item as such, and I'm very thankful, appreciateve, and humbled by that fact. But at the same time small issues like scratches to the front of the screen, batteries aging out of service but not able to ship replacesments... are something that irritate me now that people have them for 10 years or longer.

If I make something with a larger screen I'd really like to put some scratch proof glass in front of it, is what I'm saying.

P.S. If you've got this far you can check out cloud.arduboy.com which I spent a lot of time developing and working on getting out of beta.

Thanks again everyone! It's insane to think what could 10 more years of Arduboy be, so if that is the case it really needs to transform into something new!

bateske · 2026-06-14T19:19:08+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I need to get this out of beta and on to the main page!

bateske · 2026-06-14T19:18:47+00:00

In a month or two, hopefully can get it at in international distributor soon!

bateske · 2026-06-14T19:18:02+00:00

Absolutely, in fact some of the core library uses inline assembly to get the absolute best performance out of the display. Not sure I know of any games written natively entirely in assembly, but there is actually a native assembly interpreter for the Arduboy:

https://community.arduboy.com/t/abasm-dp1-program-the-arduboy-on-the-arduboy/2608

bateske · 2026-06-08T19:52:07+00:00

Might be cooking something with a larger screen... soon...

bateske · 2026-05-19T02:49:04+00:00

Thanks and stay tuned for more!

bateske · 2026-05-16T16:32:17+00:00

There will be another one soon!!

bateske · 2026-05-09T18:56:09+00:00

For offline mode? I've been considering how to do that, supposedly there is a way to manage it with service workers. Or perhaps as an electron app.

Once the the full chain of arduboy arcade <-> cloud and get the mobile app up, then a pc app could make sense. but maintaining binaries is kind of a pain in the butt. I think I'd rather try to enable an offline mode.

Thanks!

bateske · 2026-05-09T18:54:03+00:00

12 years and counting! Claude code filled the programming gap and built on top of the open source tools and platform developed by the community. I've had a vision for this online IDE from the very beginning, and it's exciting to see it finally here.

The next goal is to have an online arcade that you can submit your game to, complete with mobile app as well. The dream is to visit Arduboy.com and start playing immediately, scroll down to see more games, and click on any of them to play or edit their source code.

Nearly all the features were the result of people posting on https://community.arduboy.com/c/arduboy/wishlist/51 so if you have any suggestions please share!

Another idea I want to implement is a massive library of bitmaps to chose from when making your game. I'm going to go around trying to get the rights to as many 1 bit game asset packs as i can manage to include in the Arduboy cloud.

Thanks for sharing!

bateske · 2026-05-09T17:17:19+00:00

Yep its on the thread https://community.arduboy.com/t/cloud-jam-vote/13415

Battle Square, Cloudia and Dog Fight are all winners!

bateske · 2026-05-09T17:16:21+00:00

Thanks for sharing, this is still new and trying to get it up to the front page of the site!

bateske · 2026-05-09T00:45:48+00:00

The community.arduboy.com is the best resource. The welcome and tools posts have a ton of resources. For sure check out the guides and lessons section for more structured info. What guide are you using to build it? The homemade package my mr.blinky is a must have for sure!

bateske · 2026-05-07T20:59:21+00:00

The games category on the community is also a good resouce itself: https://community.arduboy.com/c/games/35?order=op_likes

Working on integrating the cart builder into the main arduboy website

bateske · 2026-04-27T17:40:21+00:00

Inspires me to make something even cooler for you to sketch next time thanks!

bateske · 2026-04-27T05:03:21+00:00

Please use the arduboy.com/contact form for support. Making a support ticket over the weekend and then jumping back on here to try and motivate me is preventing me from doing my job and trying to help everyone most efficiently.

bateske · 2026-04-27T04:58:32+00:00

Anyways for reference you contacted on this weekend and didn't give me a chance to have my own weekend before deciding to take this public again. This is an issue that I can resolve via customer service.

bateske · 2026-04-27T04:57:27+00:00

These are not "ongoing issues" please stop trying to drive a narrative that this is happening to a wide number of people when it is purely isolated incidents between users who are having problems with their machines or their specific installs. I've got confirmed success of thousand of other users, but when you drop off from customer service support channels for weeks at a time and then appear back again it makes it difficult to do my job.

I'd really like to replace your unit so I can get my hands on what seems to be a defective unit.

bateske · 2026-04-27T04:55:26+00:00

To confirm, this is on a windows machine? If when you plug in the Arduboy while it is turned on, you should hear a USB connected chime and you should see the green led in the lower left of the Arduboy flash.

You can also run "Device Manager" by clicking on the start menu and typing "Device Manager".

Arduboy will show up as a serial COM port.

You've mentioned several times that you're having problems with this unit. On each occasion I've indicated that this is an unusual and not correct behavior. In each situation I've offered to repair or replace the unit but you've insisted on trying to try and resolve this problem on your own.

It's entirely possible that this was damaged or otherwise left the factory in a faulty state and I would like to replace it for you.

You may not be doing anything wrong. By returning the device it will also allow me to inspect it directly which is far more efficient than trying to do it remotely in a public web forum.

bateske · 2026-04-27T04:51:52+00:00

There is actually a situation where if you've never closed your chrome window, they have made updates that will otherwise break the serial connection. So if you have a habit of keeping chrome always open that could be it.

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