The world of portable consoles has been in its golden age for a few years now, for two reasons. For starters, open systems like Android allow developers to focus on specific parts of games, leaving the rest to the system. But we also can’t ignore advancements in hardware, with the Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
[Esto no es una Game Boy, sino una consola que cuesta menos de 50 dollars]
The Arduboy is a portable console based on the latter. It is clearly inspired by Nintendo’s Game Boy, to the point that its games are in 8 bits and run on a monochrome screen. Now his little brother is coming.
the smallest console
The Arduboy Mini is, as the name suggests, an even smaller version of the Arduboy. How small? We can carry it in our wallet, with our cards; or we can put it in the small pocket for coins that some pants have. It’s absurdly small, but it’s also functional.
And it is that, despite its size, the Arduboy Mini is compatible with more than 300 games developed for the original Arduboy, so it has both the power and the screen necessary to run them. Yes, a screen, which is monochrome OLED technology with a resolution of only 128 x 64 pixels, which is not much, but enough to display games; some games that work thanks to the ATmega32u4 processor despite the fact that it only reaches 16 Mhz. It’s not a mistake.
We are dealing with a console so small that the USB-C port occupies almost the entire bottom of the device. So there’s not a lot of room for controls; Although there are six buttons, four are actually dedicated to creating a sort of control pad.
With all this, we can not expect very advanced games. Arduboy’s catalog is full of titles inspired by classic puzzle and platform games, although you might be surprised to learn that there are also first-person shooters and role-playing games. There are even games that mimic three-dimensional graphics, such as golf.
The biggest downside to the Arduboy Mini isn’t necessarily the size, but rather the sacrifices that come with it. For example, does not have a built-in battery because there is no place to put it, so technically it is not a portable console: you will have to take an external battery with you or connect it with an adapter with the USB-C connection. It also doesn’t have a speaker, so you’ll be playing quietly. At least the plate has the necessary contacts to connect the two elements if we decide to do it ourselves.
The Arduboy Mini has already reached its Kickstarter campaign goal, so it will be successfully funded within six days. We’re still in time to get one with a $29 price tag.
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