Vol.

3
Apr 2017
Contents:

PLAY
New games out this month!
The story behind the 1010 game
Mr Arduboy: Kevin Bates
Community Polls: What makes an Arduboy game great?

LEARN
Tips & Tricks with Team a.r.g (Vol 3)
Squeezing Bits to maximise your code with JO3RI (Vol 2)
Arduboy graphics with Gaveno112
Game design with crait
Using tunes and tones with Cronck
Notes from a new user - Scribbled Notes

EXPLORE
10 Questions with Game Developer Mike McRoberts
Pixel Page with Davit Masia
Cover page game index

Page 2 of 40
 A welcome note:

Well, with the introduction of 3 new contributers, now

is the best time to have a flick through this magazine.
Welcome to volume 3!

This volume we have new articles, a new feature, and

another awesome front page! Thank you for reading
this magazine, and if you have any issues, appraisals or
anything at all, give us a shout.

-@widehaslet

Do you wish to contribute?

Have an interesting article you wish to share with the Arduboy
community? A cool project you did, your experience on
working on it? A funny joke? We want to hear it!
Send arduboymag a message through the Arduboy
community page or a DM on Twitter!

Page 3 of 40
Thank you to this month’s contributors!
@crait: Creator of various Arduboy games such as Circuit
Dude and Train Dodge, crait has written tutorials on how to
get started with creating your own game, and developed
Arduboy Manager; an easy way to upload games to your
Arduboy without using the Arduino IDE. http://www.crait.net/

@Cronck: He works in the field of networking, but enjoys

learning and teaching. Open source is another passion of
his, and because of this he has shared his new found info for
sound in the Arduboy. He also created this months cover art,
created in Inkscape, an open source program free for all.

@Davitmasia: an independent game developer and

artist. Owns indie development studio called Kronbits using
Construct 2 for developing games that you can find on Itch.
https://www.patreon.com/davitmasia

@Dmian: This talented graphic & web Designer from

Madrid, Spain created the Magazine’s Logo and various
icons. https://damianvila.com/

@gaveno112: Gavin Atkin, a member of TEAM a.r.g., creator

of the Arduboy game “Trolly Fish” and the featured game
“Mystic Balloon”.

@JO3RI: Better known as TEAM a.r.g, some of Arduboy’s

community favorite games are written by them, as well as
their own Arduboy Game Loader, where you can easily
upload your favorite Team a.r.g games without using the
Arduino IDE. http://www.team-arg.com/

@mwm: Mike Meyer is and independent contractor who has

been programming for 4 decades, and says writing the 1010
game for the Arduboy reminded him of writing games for v6
Unix on the PDP-11. His community icon is from the Great Seal
of the Chickasaw Nation, of which he is a citizen.

@TheArduinoGuy: Author of the ArduBoy games - Jet Pac &

Arcodia.. Author of ‘Beginning Arduino’. Medway Makers.
Maidstone Hackspace. http://thearduinoguy.org/

Page 4 of 40
Arduboy Company news:
What’s happening at headquarters?
@Celinebins
The Arduboy Blog is up! Updates on
what’s been happening on social
media and the community pages.

Also, the Tetris ® Microcard is ready

to ship! If you ordered one be sure
to check your inbox/spam for email
notifications.
More about
the Microcard
in the next
issue. ;-)

Where to buy one?

In order to better deliver the Arduboy to you, a distribution
model for sales has been currently implemented.
You can now purchase the Arduboy from a variety of different
retailers from around the world!

New!

New!

New!

Talk to us! Page 5 of 40

 ES
AM
by @Celinebins
PLAY:
G
So many new games
E W were released this
month! If you missed
N
them on the community
pages, here they are.
H
ES

That will
get you
hooked
FR

ARD DRIVIN
@remz & @LouisP

A driving game rendered in 3 colors -

Black, White and Grey! It’s new release has
gotten the community in a frenzy over its
graphics and use of greyscale.

Boris goes
Skiing
@sones
Made at the Arduboy Workshop in
We’re digging the custom tee! Medway, guide Boris down the slopes
So highest score wins one? :p through the flags to score points, and
avoid the trees!

kemono_patrol
@metalidol

This listing was taken from Twitter. You

guide a battle bus over ditches, shoot
away debris and enemies while your
Japanese speaking assistant gives you tips.

Not just a hat

rack
@Hundstrasse
All hats just want to end up safe and
secure at the hat rack, right? So guide
Karlville (the hat) through all 40 levels in the
fastest time. Read the blog here.
Want us to feature your game? Write in to us
with your game, how you made it, and any-
thing else you want the community to know! Page 6 of 40
 Creating this
month’s Featu re
This month we take a closer look at one of the games - 1010, written as a
Christmas gift for his mother in 2016.
Mike Meyer (@mwm) gave his mother
an Arduboy for Christmas 2016. As well
as the Arduboy, he wrote a game for it
specifically for her.
1010 - described
as “2-dimensional
Tetris” - was one
of her favorite games during the months
leading up to Christmas, so seemed like a
perfect game to have on the Arduboy for
her. It took a couple of weeks to write and
get working properly.
The features unique to the Arduboy are
using the right arrow key to shift from piece
selection to piece placement, and the
green and red LED’s to show whether or
not the piece fits in it’s current position.
You can find the general version in the
various Arduboy game repositories, and
the source (including customized version
for his family) are available in the fossil
repository here.
So, what does his mother think about
her gift? She still plays 1010 on Arduboy,
prefering the placement methods better
than the desktop and mobile versions.
More accurately, she thinks the arduboy
is “really neat”, not only because she can
fit it in her pocket, but especially that it
survived her putting it through the washer.
Game 1010
d
by mwm
How to play:
Moving mode
Once you’ve selected a shape, the arrow
keys will move it around on the board. The
A button will drop it in that position and
switch back to selection mode.
The LED color indicates if the shape will fit
where it is: green for yes or go ahead and
place, red for no.
Selection mode
You start the game in selection mode,
choosing from up to three shapes. The
current shape is show on the left side
of the screen. Each available shape is
indicated by a - to the left of the displayed
shape, with the current shape being a
+. Once a shape is placed, it’s symbol is
gone.
The left arrow places the current shape
in the upper right corner and changes to
moving mode.
The A button will try and find a place
where it fits, making the LED red while
it searches. If it finds one, it switches to
moving mode. If the shape will not fit on
the current board, the LED goes off and
you are left in selection mode.
Pause
At any time, you can hit the B button and
pause the game. This opens the menu so
you can start a new game if you want.
Game Over
If it ever becomes impossible to place any
of the available pieces, the game ends.
Donwload & Play again here!
Page 7 of 40

This month we chat with founder of
Arduboy, Kevin Bates to find out more
about his journey and story behind
Arduboy.
How did the idea for Arduboy come
about?
At the time I was working in a really boring
job, and I hated telling people about
what I did for money. It was a database
administrator for a shipping logistics
company, and I know everyone has their
role but I wasn’t happy there. I wanted
to tell people about my arduino projects
I was making! A LED music visualizer or
a servo controlled camera rig for taking
panoramic photos. The problem is these
kinds of projects are difficult to describe
to someone who isn’t a hobbyist, and
nearly impossible to bring with you to
social events. At the time business cards
were getting a lot of press because there
were a stories coming out here and there
about them being obsolete. But every
once and a while you would see a cool
business card idea show up and get some
exposure so people could continue to talk
about this decreasing phenomenon of
exchanging business cards in the digital
age.
Other people had made digital business
cards before out of circuit boards, so I
thought I would try to make one myself.
This was actually nothing that new, I
wanted to make something with a few
LEDs and could maybe play a game of
Simon Says. At the time I was making it, I
was also building a digital controller for a
home made solder reflow oven converted
from a toaster oven that used an OLED
display.
Looking at the data sheet for the OLED
one day made me realize it might be
possible to power it with a coin cell
battery, what I was planning on using to
power the business card. I built a circuit
with an arduino and an OLED break out on
a solderless breadboard all powered by
single coin cell and was surprised when it
worked! From that point on it was a frantic
2 weeks of circuit board design when I
realized I was on to something big, but I
didn’t yet know what.
I knew I needed controls if there was to be
a display, and figured that a directional
pad, an OK button and a Cancel button
would give me all the features I needed
to control a menu, or play a simple game.
Pretty soon it started to look like a familiar
handheld device. I ordered the circuit
boards, assembled them, made a youtube
video like I did for all my other projects,
and the rest is history!
How have you found the whole process of
manufacturing and all that for Arduboy?
It’s exhausting and nearly impossible for
one person to do! I’ve had a lot of help,
and the open source community that
has formed around the Arduboy is really
what has been most incredible through
the process. You just have to research a
lot, have a constant unquenchable thirst
for knowledge and wanting to know why
something is the way it is. Directly, I mean
you have to be curious and personally
interested in manufacturing technologies
and how factories work in order to get
it right. The more you understand what
happens in the factory, the better you can
design the product.
How did you start with the process of
manufacturing close to 10,000 units?
I had a ton of support already because
I had been chose to participate in the
HAX accelerator which gave us access to
mentors and factory experts. This made
life a lot easier than the average person
trying to start building hardware. But at the
to be continued next page >>
Page 8 of 40
end of the day, it just comes down to what
would otherwise be known as pounding
the pavement. You have to network and
create relationships with factories. Sending
emails, making phone calls and going to
events to meet people took 2 to 3 months
of full time work before I was able to select
a manufacturing partner.
How many Devkits were made, and how
did that help with the creation of Arduboy?
Well we manufactured
400 in total, but we did
it in stages and that
actually helped us learn
a lot before building
the final kickstarter.
We produced 100
units for sale on Tindie
before the kickstarter
campaign. But in reality
we actually produced
200 units... 100 from two separate factories.
Why do this? Well it helps us figure out
which factory is better, but it’s actually
more important than that. Because you
have 2 experiences, you can get an idea
of how things might be different if you
went with still another factory. It’s less
about the specific problems you have, or
differences in costs, but the general types
of problems you are going to experience.
For example, we told one factory to use
liquid adhesive to hold the screens down
and another factory no instruction. The
factory that used the glue, had problems
finding the right kind of glue, and then
when it was applied caused problems with
fingerprints. The second factory without
instruction used a double sided tape that
was awesome. So not only did we learn
that tape is the way forward, we also
learned that for some things it’s better to
just let the factory figure out what is best.
When was the forum page created, and
how has that been a pivotal role for
growing the Arduboy community?
The forum was created the same time
we shipped the developer kits. I can’t
stress this enough but putting up the
forum has been the single best decision
the company has made. I was skeptical
in the beginning but the number of high
quality people who turn up to share their
experiences is nothing but mind boggling
to me. I’ve spent a lot of time on the
Internet and I’m proud to confidently
say we have one of the best if not the
very best communities on the internet.
There would be no Arduboy if it wasn’t
for the forum, but really it represents all
the contributions of all of it’s members. So
thank you!
I’m sure you had to overcome those
difficulties producing Arduboy, what was
your favorite thing about the Kickstarter
campaign?
By far and above, and I cannot stress
it enough, the positive feedback and
experiences I hear about from people.
Arduboy didn’t exist before, and now
there are all these people who maybe just
have a little fun with it. But there are also
people who somehow, it has transformed
their lives. Some people have got job
offers as a result of making games, others
have learned to code and may have not
learned otherwise. So that is amazing,
there is potentially thousands of people
with new experiences all because of this
little thing. It makes it all worthwhile, and I
hope there is a lot more to come.
You appeared to be traveling all the time
promoting Arduboy. What your favorite
place to visit, and why?
This is an incredibly difficult question
because at first I think about all of the
amazing people I’ve been lucky to
meet in each place and I don’t want to
single any one out! If I had to pick one I
probably should say Japan because it
was so unique and different from where
I grew up, but at the same time I had
always heard about and been exposed to
some elements of Japanese culture. The
stereotype of hospitality and politeness
was not unfounded and blew me away,
to be continued next page >>
Page 9 of 40
I ate lots tasty Tonkatsu and Gyoza and
was lucky to see a bunch of temples and I
can’t forget Akihabara.
China is amazing and taught me so
much about life and myself it’s difficult to
explain. People ask me about my time
in China and there is just no way to put
it into words, or maybe it would take a
whole book. But for me the language and
culture barriers coupled with the restricted
internet left me feeling home sick almost
immediately entering the country. Luckily
Hong Kong was only a bus ride away from
where I lived in China, and that’s one of
the most densely populated cities in the
world. Incredibly international and I felt like
I was living in the matrix or an anime.
The Kickstarter saw colored units and
goldbacks, but only white units are being
produced now. Would we see anything
like that again soon?
There are no real solid plans for color
versions or special backs, but I do want
to do a black version at some point with
anodized black back. I also think it would
be really cool to try doing a translucent
smoked black front cover, that the OLED
could shine through... but we would need
to buy a lot of that kind of plastic to do so.
We saw that the Kickstarter units were
serialised, and it looks like we got the first
unit? (1 of 10,000)
Everyone is number one! This is kind of a
funny story, and people ask me about it
pretty frequently. I originally wanted to
serialize the units and the factory said
they could support this, so I went ahead
and produced a sample that showed 1 of
10,000 to get an idea of how it looked. I
showed it around the office and everyone
got really excited about having the first
one and it was about that time we figured
out the logistical implications of trying
to fulfill orders this way. How would we
keep track of each persons order during
the assembly process? What happens if
a package gets lost, do we have to re-
make the back or send them a different
number? What if someone gets the wrong
number? But at the same time, I thought
the units would be more special knowing
how many others
were made in
the batch.
So it’s an edition
printing, not a
serial number. It’s also kind of a prank to
pull on people when they get so excited. I
hope nobody is upset by it!
Any advice for someone who is thinking of
launching a crowdfunding campaign?
If someone is really serious about it my
suggestion is you spend several hours
talking to someone who has done it before
and can walk you through the process. It’s
just too big and too huge to try and do on
your own. I had a lot of help behind the
scenes, and having gone to HAX we had
good connections to people at Kickstarter
and the media to help get things rolling.
But there are some basic things that you
need to have before getting started that I
can easily list out.
First, get all your social media going,
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram,
Snapchat, and anything else I’m
forgetting, you’ll want to sign up an
account with your business and start giving
people a reason to follow these accounts.
Start building a community and getting
people excited about what you are doing.
The goal here is to have people who are
going to buy the product the second you
to be continued next page >>
Page 10 of 40
launch and also help share it with their
networks.
Second is to start paying attention to the
media and blogs you would want to see
your campaign posted in. Figure out the
names of individual writers that cover
stories like yours. Once you have 2 or 3
major blogs identified, email or contact
those writers and in one or two sentences
explain what you are doing and link to
your website. Bloggers have very little
time to read a story, and get overloaded
with press releases, so stand out by being
authentic and real. Most of the emails
they get aren’t from the project creators,
but don’t talk their ear off, let them get
interested on their own.
Finally, and probably most important is
to get your ducks in a row. You might not
realize it but you are starting a business,
a company. Get that setup, at least set
up an LLC because that way you don’t
have to pay personal income taxes. Figure
out how much shipping is going to cost,
and pad it because actual costs are
almost always going to be higher than
what you predict. You should have a very
specific plan of how you will spend every
dollar you are going to get. Plan what
happens if you are over-funded. This was
my biggest issue, I was not immediately
ready to produce 12 times as much as was
originally planned.
In summary, I think the best thing you can
do is get together with other people who
have done it before. Why not make them
part of your team? Oh and make sure you
sign agreements with your co-founders to
avoid conflicts in the future!
Have you backed
any Kickstarter
campaigns yourself?
I backed the Pebble
Time and the Time 2,
and actually got to
meet their founder,
sad to see them get
gobbled up and canned by Fitbit.
I also helped fund the Voltera Circuit
Board Printer but didn’t pony up to
actually buy the device because I wanted
to see the technology work before going
all in. But it’s been a few years now and
they’ve got great reviews. I make a lot of
prototypes so it would save a lot of time!
But in general, I advise people to be
extra critical of hardware crowd funding
campaigns. There are a lot of campaigns
out there that are extremely exciting,
but if you look at them from a technical
or business perspective are doomed
for failure. But it’s a narrow line for sure,
products like the Arduboy probably would
not exist if it wasn’t for Kickstarter so you
need to evaluate every projects risks and
rewards yourself.
What is keeping you busy right now?
We just finally finished shipping every last
Pre-Order we have had! That is a big
milestone. In one way or another I’ve been
working on this project for almost 3 years
and now everyone finally will have an
Arduboy if they wanted one! Now I spend
most of my time trying to figure out what
comes next, I get asked that question a
lot so I’m trying to come up with a good
answer. Mostly just trying to figure out how
I can support the community the best!
Is there anything you would like to tell the
Arduboy community?
Thank you, thank you, thank you! The
Arduboy community is amazing and is
always coming up with creative new
games and technical improvements to
the code. Every day I see the Arduboy
do new things I never thought possible
like 3d with shading, gray scale, or
procedural content generation. But I also
see it changing peoples lives occasionally
and that makes me extremely proud to
help support things like that. Thank you
everyone!
Thank you Kevin!
Page 11 of 40
 Community
POLLs!
by @Celinebins

This month we took to th

asked you what makes a
We got 74 votes and

Simplicity of gameplay
“Simplicity is good because it means there’s no #1
pressure on people to make something fantastic and
because (let’s be honest) something complicated
isn’t likely to get played much on a tiny screen and 55%
will always be limited by hardware restrictions.”
-@Pharap

#2
Pixel art
If you want some ideas for pixel art, check out our
new Pixel page (page 30) to check out work from
Pixel artist Davit Masia. 48%
“Visibility- I think Arduboy games need to be easily
seen on the screen. Even though some games are
fun, they are hard to look at for a long period of time.
Great graphics and animations usually really help the
long-term playability of games on the system. There
really are some beautiful games for the system.”
-@crait
40%
#3
Amount of levels
“Replayability- This includes things like... Randomness
to each game, or maybe a lot of levels to hold you
over, or something that changes so that you aren’t
bored each time you play.” -@crait

Page 12 of 40
 What makes an
arduboy game great?

he community pages and

an Arduboy game great.
d these are the results!

#10 bullets
#9 Original story line
6%
6%
#86%Ability to load saved games

3% 7%
14% #7 Sound Effects
Effective sound can elevate a solid game to
18% something even more fun and entertaining. Find out
how to use Tunes and Tones on page 28!

25% #6 clones of classic games

“Clones of classic games are nice because nostalgia
and making things easy, but also because most
people know how they work and what the rules are
so they’re good to try to copy and to learn from.”
-@Pharap
25%
#5 Animation

33%

#4 Easy to edit source code

“Generally I’m not a major proponent of open source
(certainly not Richard Stallman level) but because
Arduboy is meant to be educational I think it’s
important that people make the source code of their
games available for others to learn from.” -@Pharap
“If there is something you dont like in a game, its
generaly prety simple to change it.. My favourite
thing about Arduboy” -@curly

Page 13 of 40
LEARN:
In this topic we would like to present
you some tips & tricks to help you
code your games for Arduboy.
What we present doesn’t intend to
be the absolute truth, it’s just a way
we at TEAM a.r.g. code.
So always remember,
these are not golden rules.

ricks
T
Tips & by TEAM
A.R.G

#3 - Keeping the “main loop” clean

by @jo3ri
In our previous article, we explained #define
and why we use those and also about the
naming of variables, functions and defines.
This time let’s have look at “if else”, “switch
cases” or “function pointers”. We will do
this, while showing you how to keep the
“main loop” as clean/empty as possible.
#include <Arduino.h>
#include <Arduboy2.h>
When you start coding, you probably just
start putting code in the main loop and so
the main loop grows and grows with code.
In our first article we explained how to use
multiple files. Well this will become very
useful, once we simplify that “main loop”.
Start with setting up the basic code in your
prefered program like this:

Arduboy2 arduboy;

void setup() {
arduboy.begin();
arduboy.setFrameRate(60); // set the frame rate at 60 fps
}

void loop() {
if (!(arduboy.nextFrame())) return; // wait for the next frame (60/s)
arduboy.pollButtons(); // check button input
arduboy.clear(); // clear the screen
arduboy.display(); // update the display
}

This will show the Arduboy logo, clear the
screen and do nothing more. Now, before
we continue, it is best to understand that
a game, like a book, has at least 3 parts:
a beginning, a middle and an ending.
Probably a lot more, but for our example
we’ll stick to these 3.
to be continued next page >>
Page 14 of 40
To help ourselves we are going to create a We are going to name our parts too.
variable to keep track of what part we are Add the next part in your code, before:
currently executing code. Remember the Arduboy2Base arduboy;
#define explanation in the previous issue?
#define STATE_GAME_INTRO 0
#define STATE_GAME_PLAY 1
#define STATE_GAME_OVER 2

And the variable for the game state, right

before: void setup() {
byte gameState = STATE_GAME_INTRO;
Now we can do a simple check with “if” variable. We’ll only show the loop to keep
statements, by checking our gameState it smaller.
void loop() {
if (!(arduboy.nextFrame())) return; // wait for the next frame (60/s)
arduboy.pollButtons(); // check button input
arduboy.clear(); // clear the screen

if (gameState == STATE_GAME_INTRO)
{
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“Welcome”);
arduboy.println(“Press A to START”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_PLAY;
}
if (gameState == STATE_GAME_PLAY)
{
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“The Game is on”);
arduboy.println(“Press A to END”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_OVER;
}
if (gameState == STATE_GAME_OVER)
{
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“GAME OVER”);
arduboy.println(“Press A”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_INTRO;
}

arduboy.display(); // update the display

}

Now if we try out our little “game”, you
will notice something is wrong. It is like the
game just loops through all “if” statements
and doesn’t stop, once we pressed a
button, although we used justPressed. The
reason? Well, if we only use “if” statements,
our code will check the first “if” and if
you press the button, it will immediately
check the next “if”. But because there
hasn’t been enough time passed, the
button still seems to be pressed and so
our gameState changes again and once
more with the third “if” statement.
to be continued next page >>
Page 15 of 40
If you change the button to “B” in the difference between only “if” and “else if”.
second “if” statement, you’ll notice that You can use this for example, when you
the problem is solved. But this isn’t the want a sprite to walk only in 4 directions
solution we are looking for. We want to be and in not 8 (diagonal).
able to use the same button for all actions.
Here is where we need “if” and “else if”. Once we have more than 3 “else if”
This will make the code execute only one statements, it might be better to have a
of the successive “if” statements. So add look at switch cases. Again the Arduino
“else” in front of the second and third Reference Page is a good starting point.
“if”. You can read more about it on the Well, now that we know, we can replace
Arduino Reference Page. Remember the “if … else”. Let’s give it a try (showing the
replaced code part):
switch (gameState)
{
case STATE_GAME_INTRO:
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“Welcome”);
arduboy.println(“Press A to START”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_PLAY;
break;
case STATE_GAME_PLAY:
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“The Game is on”);
arduboy.println(“Press A to END”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_OVER;
break;
case STATE_GAME_OVER:
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“GAME OVER”);
arduboy.println(“Press A”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_INTRO;
break;
}

Let’s continue with cleaning out our main

loop. Each case has its own part of code
to be executed, when the corresponding
gameState is selected. We can make
a separate “function” for each of those
parts. Because we have to declare those
functions BEFORE we can use them, you’ll
have to add them before the “setup”:

to be continued next page >>

Page 16 of 40
void gameIntro()
{
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“Welcome”);
arduboy.println(“Press A to START”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_PLAY;
}

void gamePlay()
{
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“The Game is on”);
arduboy.println(“Press A to END”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_OVER;
}

void gameOver()
{
arduboy.setCursor(0, 10);
arduboy.println(“GAME OVER”);
arduboy.println(“Press A”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUTTON)) gameState = STATE_GAME_INTRO;
}

Now we can change the loop into a

switch case with functions, like this (only
showing the switch case):

switch (gameState)
{
case STATE_GAME_INTRO:
gameIntro();
break;
case STATE_GAME_PLAY:
gamePlay();
break;
case STATE_GAME_OVER:
gameOver();
break;
}

It looks like our main loop is getting a clean
look, doesn’t it :) It’s time to re-read our
first article on multiple tabs/files. In our
example, each function isn’t very big, but
you can imagine they will grow fast when
adding game play. You probably add
more cases in your switch case, holding
different parts of the game, like: NEXT_
LEVEL, PAUSE, ... putting each function in
a different .h file will help you to keep the
overview.
Now that our game has been split out over
different functions, it’s time to talk about
functions by pointers in an array indexed
by gameState, our last step in the process
of getting a clean easy readable loop.
Nope, there isn’t an Arduino reference
page on this one; I’ll do my best to explain
myself.

to be continued next page >>

Page 17 of 40
It is possible to put our 3 game functions
(or more) in an array in PROGMEM.
Well, not the functions themselves, but
a reference to them, a “pointer”. All
we need to do is make a sequential list
typedef void (*FunctionPointer) ();
of those functions (and you can add a
function multiple times if needed) and
create another function to read out the
correct one. First let’s create the “list” and
name the “type” of the list:

const FunctionPointer PROGMEM mainGameLoop[] = {

gameIntro,
gamePlay,
gameOver,
};

And as a final step we replace the

“switch case” with the code that uses the
gameState to pick to correct function out
of our “list” we have put in PROGMEM.
((FunctionPointer) pgm_read_word (&mainGameLoop[gameState]))();

That’s it ! You probably noticed your code is a bit

If you managed to move all functions into
different files and added a globals.h, like
we explained in the first Tips & tricks, you’ll
have a very clean, readable, setup and
loop. As a reference, I have put the end
result on github: https://github.com/JO3RI/
tips-tricks-3-example
bigger than when you had the switch
case. This is one of the things you’ll have
to consider yourself, but just so you know.
There is lot of other places to regain those
few lost bytes.
If you have any questions about this
article, do send us a DM on twitter, or
drop us a message @arduboymag in the
community pages.

Next time, we’ll talk about how we can pass variables into
a function and how we can receive a variable back from
a function. Have fun coding your games.
 BIT
by JO3RI
SQ
U EEZ ER
#2 - Combining multiple booleans
by @jo3ri
In this issue let’s see how you can reduce
size when combining multiple booleans
into a byte, or even multiple bytes into
1 byte. First you need to understand the
difference of bits and bytes. Now that
you’re into coding, you should know that
on an 8-bit system, you have 8 bits in 1
byte. If you look at this in Binary, you’ll
“see” the bits. 0B11111111 equals to 255 in
Decimals and 0xFF in Hexadecimals. Keep
this in mind, because it will always help
you, when working in bits.
If you create a boolean and compile your
code, the boolean will take the place of
1 byte, although 1 bit would suffice. The
compiler can’t combine those booleans
into 1 byte itself, so we have to do this on
our own. Of course you might think, what
is the gain in having 1 byte instead of 8
bytes ? Let’s assume you have a game
with 256 levels and each level has for
example 8 items. To keep track of those
8 items being picked up, you can use a
“flag” (a boolean). That would mean,
you’ll need 2048 bytes in RAM ... , so here
the gain of stuffing 8 “flags” in 1 byte
becomes more obvious.
In this “small” part of
the magazine I would
like to tell you about the
possibilities you have to
reduce coding size when
creating your app/game.
But even combining different booleans
for keeping track of enemy statuses, like
“alive”, “visible”, “dying”, “invincible”,
“jumping” … could become byte saving,
when you have a certain amount of
enemies.
Another place where this could become
useful for is with tiles and maps. If you have
a map using different tiles and you only
use 16 (or less) different tiles, you could
use “half” a byte to store map data. Look
at a byte in hexadecimals and you’ll
understand. In 0xFF, you have a “right”
F and a “left” F (upper and lower), this
means you can use both for storing a
number from 0-15 and so combine 2 half
bytes into one. If want this more explained
have a look at the technical page of our
game Virus LQP-79. There we combined 2
map parts in 1 byte, but it comes down to
the same thing. Enough about the talking,
here are some examples in the next page.
to be continued next page >>
Page 19 of 40
byte chestsOne = 0B00010000;
//|||||||└------> 0 chest 0 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//||||||└-------> 1 chest 1 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//|||||└--------> 2 chest 2 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//||||└---------> 3 chest 3 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//|||└----------> 4 chest 4 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//||└-----------> 5 chest 5 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//|└------------> 6 chest 6 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//└-------------> 7 chest 7 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)

byte chestsTwo = 0B00000010;

//|||||||└------> 0 chest 8 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//||||||└-------> 1 chest 9 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//|||||└--------> 2 chest 10 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//||||└---------> 3 chest 11 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//|||└----------> 4 chest 12 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//||└-----------> 5 chest 13 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//|└------------> 6 chest 14 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)
//└-------------> 7 chest 15 has been opened (0 = false / 1 = true)

In this example we used 2 bytes to keep so you have a better understanding of

track of 16 chets. As you can see chests how it works. (Even I still use it every time
4 and 9 have been opened. Now let’s I code). There are 2 ways of toggling the
close those chests and open chests 6, “flags” (bits). We can use bitSet (set flag
12, 15 . To do this we need toggle to the to true) and bitClear (set flag to false),
correct “flag”. We always read bytes from read about bitRead (read the flag) and
left (low) to right (high). Read all about the other commands on this Arduino
bit math on the Arduino reference page, reference page. Or by using bit math (see
the previous link).
bitClear(chestsOne, 4);
bitClear(chestsTwo, 1);
bitSet(chestsOne, 6);
bitSet(chestsTwo, 4);
bitSet(chestsTwo, 7);
Once those are all toggled, we can use
an “if” statement to determine what to do,
or even switch the sprite used:
for (byte i = 0 ; i < 8; i++)
{
if (bitRead(chestsOne,i) == false) // if a chest is closed
{
player.score += 500; // add score
bitSet(chetsOne, i); // open the chest
}
if (bitRead(chestsTwo,i) == false) // if a chest is closed
{
player.score += 500; // add score
bitSet(chetsTwo, i); // open the chest
}
}
Haha fun you say, but you still need to
write an “if” statement for every group of 8
chests! Well we can even combine those!
to be continued next page >>
Let’s see how to do that on the next page.
Page 20 of 40
So lets combine the “if” statements for
every group of 8 chests.
byte allChests[] = { 0B00010000, 0B00010000};

Indeed, we used an array of bytes. The 2 bytes( for 16 chets). Now let’s open en
size of the array is limited to the size of close the same chests as in the previous
RAM you have available. Here the size is example. And then have the same “if “
statement.
bitClear(allChests[0], 4);
bitClear(allChests[1], 1);
bitSet(allChests[0], 6);
bitSet(allChests[1], 4);
bitSet(allChests[1], 7);

for (byte i = 0 ; i < 16; i++)

{
if (bitRead(allChests[i / 8],i) == false) // if a chest is closed
{
player.score += 500; // add score
bitSet(allChests[i / 8], i); // open the chest
}
}

While the “if” statement is shorter,
changing the state of the chests at the
beginning isn’t any shorter. Here we can
show you how bit toggling can be used.
allChests[0] ^= 0B01010000;
allChests[1] ^= 0B10010010;
Because this is an 8-bit system, we can
toggle 8 bits in 1 cycle and less cycles
means increasing speed. We have to set 2
bytes in total:

Doing this means we toggled bits, bits
that were on, will be off and visa versa.
I know this isn’t easy to understand by
just looking at it, but like I said before, I
find the reference page for bit math by
Arduino very helpful. Just take a pencil
and some paper and write out the bytes
in Binary with the mask under it, so you
can write down the result. In our chests
example, you might not find it useful to set
8 bits at the same time, but if you have 8
characteristic flags in a byte for enemies,
you’ll find it very helpful to be able to set
those all at once.
One final thing I want to show you is bit
shifting, again Arduino has a very good
webpage on this. shifting bits does exactly
what it says. It moves bits in a byte left
or right. The bits get lost if they fall out of
the byte, which is an advantage we can
use. Remember I started with asking you
having to remember HEX notation of a
byte (0xFF) ?
Well let’s assume you have to store 4
numbers with a max of 16 into 1 byte,
for example 9 and 4, in BIN those are
0B0001001 and 0B00000100. Here is how:

byte halfBytes = 0B0001001 << 4; // move and store 4 bits to the left (=
0B10010000)
halfBytes += 0B00000100; // add the other byte (= 0B10010100)

to be continued next page >>

Page 21 of 40
This results in 0B10010100 or if seen in HEX more than using a mask to get out the
as 0x94. Recognize those numbers ? right part and bitshift the left part, like this:
Getting out the numbers again is nothing

byte firstByte = halfBytes & 0b00001111; // only copy over the 4 most right
bits
byte SecondByte = halfBytes >> 4; // move the 4 most left bits to the
right and copy

One could use this mechanic to store a

frame counter in the 4 most right bits and 4
characteristics in the 4 most left bits. Keep
in mind that the gain will be a lot bigger if
you have a lot of elements using the same
sort of bytes, like enemies, treasure and
map data.

Voila, this a small way of reducing bytes, but by

following or monthly bit squeeze tips, you’ll soon find
out you can gain a lot of bytes, by doing this kind of
bit squeezing. Next time let’s have look at “do you
really need a switch case, use math instead”.

Page 22 of 40
 Arduboy
Graphics
by @Gaveno112

Understand how making graphics for the Arduboy works with Team a.r.g’s
Gaveno, and find links to useful tools in the article.
With the Arduboy having moved on to it’s To really understand how it all works, we’ll
new library, Arduboy 2 (update available start with explaining how the graphics
through Arduino IDE library manager), actually work. As you know by now the
it’s time to explain how to use the sprite screen size is 128x64 pixels. Also good to
functions. remember is that a byte holds 8 bits (true/
false flags) OR 8 pixels.

const unsigned char PROGMEM trollyFish[] =

{
// TILE 00
0xf0, 0xc0, 0x80, 0xc0, 0x61, 0x77, 0xfb, 0xfb, 0x9a, 0x28, 0x08, 0x90, 0xe0,
0xc0, 0x00, 0xc0,
0x0f, 0x03, 0x01, 0x43, 0x74, 0x6b, 0x6a, 0x5f, 0x1f, 0x1b, 0x15, 0x15, 0x0d,
0x0e, 0x0b, 0x01,
};

If you look closely at the picture, you’ll see

that the 8 pixels highlighted in blue are
one byte vertically orientated. This means
the height of every image, tile or sprite will
always be a multiple of 8, because you
to be continued next page >>
can’t set half bytes.
Page 23 of 40
Even if you create an image of let’s say
12 pixels height, the actual bits used will
be 16 and not 12. Never EVER forget this.
Because point (x: 0, y: 0) on the screen is
The second thing to keep in mind is: the
way you create your pixel art should
always use 100% black, 100% white and
100% transparent pixels for tiles and sprites.
Third important thing is: naming. Give your
graphics a name, but don’t use numbers
— with one exception in a moment —
or special characters. Converters don’t
like them. Then postfix the name with an
underscore and the dimensions of the
asset. For an image, it’s the total width
and height. For the tiles it’s the width and
height of one tile (note that tiles should
to be square). And for sprites, we use the
dimensions of one sprite. Remember for
every case, height must still be a multiple
of 8.
the upper left corner, it’s best to always
add empty rows at the bottom of your
image/tile/sprite, until you reach a multiple
of 8.
An image can be just black & white. In the
example above we set the transparent
pixels to pink to make it clear. Even
if you’re not going to use masks, use
transparent pixels as your “background
color”.
And finally don’t forget to arrange your
tiles and sprites vertically in one column.
Now we know how we have to name
and create our images. Time to convert
them into code. For each type we use
a different converter. You probably can
find other converters on the internet, but
we will show you how to use the online
converters TEAM a.r.g. created. All these
are based on Josh Goebel’s work, you can
find on his github repository img2ard.
to be continued next page >>
Page 24 of 40
Converting Images:
For an image use Team a.r.g’s Image
converter. An image is a picture in one
piece shown on the screen.
For a tile sheet use Team a.r.g’s tile
converter. A tile sheet is a collection of
smaller square images vertically arranged
into one column as one big image.
Each of these converters will give you an
array of bytes. The image converter will
only give you one array, including the size
of the entire image. But it will also show
you the image as it will be displayed on
the screen. (You could look for pixels that
might have changed, because the source
image didn’t have 100% black/white
pixels).

And finally for a sprite sheet use Team
a.r.g’s sprite sheet converter. A sprite sheet
is a collection of smaller images, each
representing a frame of an animated
image, vertically arranged into one
column as one big image.
This array is compatible with the
drawSelfMasked function to display the
image on screen. (If you want to use
drawBitmap, you’ll have to comment the
dimensions in the array).

sprites.drawSelfMasked(x, y, imageName, frameNumber);

Arguments: Don’t forget to initialize the Sprites object

x, y: coordinates on screen to draw image. — after the line “Arduboy2Base arduboy;”
imageName: name of the array in code. — by writing:
frameNumber: always zero (0) when
displaying an image. (the frame to draw
when drawing a sprite, or the tile to draw
when drawing a tile)

Sprites sprites;

The tile converter will also give you just one And this is the function you will normally
array, including the size of one tile (not the use for tiles. Remember, tiles are used for
entire tilesheet). You will also see you’re background and normally will never need
tilesheet with every tile nicely ordered in masking.
rows and columns, for you to check if it
was divided correctly. This array is perfect
for use with the sprite function.

sprites.drawSelfMasked (x, y, tileSheet, tileNumber);

By changing the tileNumber, you can

select a different tile to be drawn. What
you actually should do, is create a
“map” representing a number out of your
tileSheet. Best is, if you put this “map” in
PROGMEM.
I’m not going to explain PROGMEM here,
but I’ll give you an example of a 5x5
tileMap on the next page.

to be continued next page >>

Page 25 of 40
const unsigned char PROGMEM tileMap[] =
{
0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
1, 2, 1, 2, 1,
3, 3, 4, 4, 3,
1, 2, 1, 2, 1,
0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
}

Imagine your tileSheet uses tiles of 8x8 function that will draw this map, according
pixels, well now we need to create a the numbers in the array, using the tiles
from your tileSheet.
void drawMap()
{
for (byte y = 0; y < 5; y++)
{
for (byte x = 0; x < 5; x++)
{
sprites.drawSelfMasked (x * 8, y * 8, tileSheet, pgm_read_
byte(&tileMap[x + (5 * y)]));
}
}
}

To learn more about tile maps and ways
to compress them for the Arduboy, check
out the technical pages for Mystic Balloon,
Virus LQP-79, and Dungeons on the TEAM
a.r.g. website.
The sprite converter will give you not one
but three arrays. In all three arrays the
size of one sprite will be included. Again
you’ll see an image, but this time it will be
the sprite looping through all of its frames.
Now depending on what you’re going to
do with the sprite, you can use a different
function.
If you don’t care about your sprite being
“look through” (meaning you’ll see
anything else behind the sprite too), you
can use the drawSelfMasked function and
use the “sprite” array. If you don’t want
this behaviour, you’ll need a masked sprite
which doubles the amount of bytes used
by the sprite.
Use the drawPlusMask function and use
the “Sprite + Mask” array. If you only
want a small mask behind your sprite,
you can use the drawErase function
and the “mask” array, followed by the
drawSelfMasked function and the “sprite”
array.

sprites.drawSelfMasked (x, y, sprite, frameNumber);

sprites.drawPlusMask(x, y, sprite_plus_mask, frameNumber);

sprites.drawErase(x, y, mask, frameNumber);

sprites.drawSelfMasked (x, y, sprite, frameNumber);

to be continued next page >>

Page 26 of 40
The Sprites class has 2 more functions: I won’t go into detail on the specifics, give
drawOverwrite and drawExternalMask. The them a try if you’re curious.
former works similarly to drawErase.

drawOverwrite(x, y, mask, frameNumber);

The latter is different. It takes two separate
arrays to draw a masked sprite, whereas
drawPlusSelf only uses one array to do this.
Using two arrays gives the developer a
chance to use a mask created separately
from the original sprite. For example if you
want to mask only a part of your sprite.
There is one thing you should remember
though; the mask you’ll be using doesn’t
need the first two bytes in its array to be
the dimensions because it uses the same
values from the sprite, so you’ll have to
comment out those numbers yourself.
This means that the dimensions of your
special mask have to be exactly the same
as the dimensions of the sprite you use.
drawExternalMask also allows using a
different frame number for the mask than
what is used for the sprite.

drawExternalMask(x, y, sprite, mask, spriteFrameNumber, maskFrameNumber);

The procedures you’ll be using most for

sprites and tiles are drawSelfmasked or
drawPlusMask. If you want to draw a single
image, you can use drawSelfmasked.

You could also use drawBitmap, but this is

not recommended as it is redundant and
will increase code byte usage. It is most
efficient to stick to using either drawBitmap
(legacy) or the Sprites class, but not both
together.

Have fun with making some graphics

for your game!

Page 27 of 40
 game design tips
by crait
Programming a video game can be fun, but once you create a few games,
sometimes you can feel burnt out and not really know what to do next.
Maybe you’re a beginner and you don’t really know how to come up with
your own game. Either way, you can follow this guide to help come up with
a game concept.

In last month’s article, I rambled on about
a lot of stuff... I hate that I did that, but it’s
really important to take away these three
things from that article:
1) Work on games that you will finish so
that you don’t have an excuse to give up.
2) A game’s theme can be removed from
a game and it should still be fun.
3) A game’s theme can be thought up
during the ideation phase of planning.
One thing I loved doing as a kid was
catching lizards. Where I lived, they were
all over the place in the summer. I would
try to find them behind bushes or climbing
on people’s houses. In fact, I would even
tresspass in order to find and catch them.
I remember having a lot of fun doing this...
Anytime I got close to one, it would run
along the wall really fast and I’d have to
chase it, trying to cup my hand over it so it
can’t leave.

In this month’s article, which will be the

final part of this 3-part series, I want to talk
a little more about mechanics and theme.
One big debate is over which comes first
in the design process. Personally, I think
a good theme can come first or a good
mechanic can come first. If the theme
comes first, you just have to come up with
some good mechanics that fit the theme.
If the mechanics come first, you have
to think of a good theme to have as a
metaphor for the mechanics. I will show
you an example of both of these!
When coming up with a new game idea, I
try to think about cool or interesting things
that happened in my life. Sometimes, I
purposely try to remember very vague
situations I was in be that gives me more
blank spaces to fill with my own creativity.
I will take those experiences and try to turn
them into a digital game.
Let’s say I wanted to make a game with
this as my inspiration... I already have the
theme of catching lizards... I just need the
mechanics...
I could make a game where you run
around into people’s yards and have
a real hard time catching lizards, while
avoiding being caught by the owner of
the house. This would offer some challenge
and could be done in 2D or 3D. There
could even be a sneaking mechanic to
make sure the lizards don’t run away so
quickly.
Okay, that sounds like a good start for a
game, but let’s think about this experience
in the opposite order. Let’s take the
mechanics from catching the lizards, and
give it another theme.

to be continued next page >>

Page 28 of 40
It could be anything- I always start with
something completely unrelalted. Instead
of a game where you’re trying to trap
lizards climbing on a wall, I could swap
lizards out for... hmmm.... Let’s say evil
robots that try to drill into the wall. And
instead of them climbing on the wall of a
neighbor’s house, maybe they’re climbing
on the walls of banks and I’m a security
guard trying to protect the money inside!
This is one of my favorite ways of coming
up with game ideas because the games
I tend to come up with really mean a lot
to me. When they do, I feel like I have
a lot higher chance of actually finishing
them and feeling proud about what I’ve
made. In fact, many popular games have
stemmed from this kind of creative thinking
and your game can be next.
Sometimes, coming up with a general
theme is quite easy. Maybe you know that
you want to make a racing game. What
next? There are so many sub-genres of
games out there, you may not know which
one you want to try out. What kind of
racing game do you want to do?
If I am making a game and it sounds a
bit generic, one good way to make it
interesting is to combine that idea with
some other cocept that wouldn’t seem to
even fit.
It’s kinda like the mixing method I
mentioned in the first article. Come up with
something that no one would ever think to
mix a racing game with and play around
with that idea. What about mixing in
lumberjacks? What about mixing dentistry?
Yeah, I don’t think I have ever heard of
a game about racing and brushing your
teeth. Maybe your car is a tooth brush and
you have to drive around teeth to clean
them? Dirty parts of the teeth get you
more points and tooth paste make you
slide faster? See, just mix two unrelated
topics and work with the gameplay to see
what you can come up with.
There is so much information on the
internet about game design and how
to get started that I can’t possibly cover
everything in these three past articles.
Even so, I hope that these articles helped
open your mind a little about different
ways to think about game design.
I don’t know what I’ll write in next month’s
article, but be sure to take a read when it
comes out.
Until next time, take care, keep
expirementing, and be sure to
share your game ideas on the
Arduboy community forum!
Page 29 of 40
 Scribbled notes
by @celinebins
I’ve started with little programming experience, so I decided to make a
game to better understand all the users that are trying to do so, prove that
if I can do it, then anyone can too, and of course have something cool to
show off. This series is going to summarize some of the lessons I’ve learnt as I
try to create my own game. Hope it will help and inspire other users!

Different languages
So when I first started my journey to learn
programming, I realized there are a TON
of programming languages, as existing
languages constantly evolve to fit new
problems that need to be solved. Ruby
and Python are great languages for writing
code used for web applications, and C++
is used in most packaged software; for
games, office applications and operating Arduino Leonardo
Image taken from Robotshop
systems.

Arduboy and Arduino Notes on working with the IDE:

When I got my Arduboy, I immediately set
my computer with the Arduino Integrated
Development Environment (IDE). But what
is Arduino? Arduino is an open sourced
computer hardware and software tool for
building digital devices and interactive
objects. For example, you could buy some
sensors and LEDS and make an alarm that
goes off when your pet leaves the house.
As for the Arduboy, the board is already
hooked up with sensors that detect input
(buttons!) and display output (screen and
speakers!), so no additional “hacking” is
required to start.
Next question, what is an IDE? The IDE is a
platform for software development, storing
libraries that make writing and debugging
code more convenient. It is also where
you upload your code to the Arduboy.
The Arduboy’s microcontroller – the 32u4
is the same as the Arduino Leonardo,
which is why you have to select “Arduino
Leonardo” when you select your board on
the Arduino IDE.
If you download a game file (let’s say
it’s ABC game) from Github, sometimes
it saves as ABC-master.zip. If you try to
open and run the ABC.ino, it might report
back with an error saying that the game
file needs to be saved in a folder with
the same name. If you delete the extra
“-master” from the folder you should be
able to solve that problem.
Understanding C
Even though C++ is exactly English, there
are some terms used that help make sense
of code, and the different color codes
also help identify what will be read from
the code (e.g: grayed out comments will
not be). Following crait’s eight tutorials is
a great start, as you get to practice with
running some sketches on your Arduboy.

to be continued next page >>

Page 30 of 40
Using & Making Images
The best way for me to make images for
the Arduboy is to use Windows Paint. If I
wanted to trace an image I like, I save
it, open it on Paint, resize it accordingly
and trace it over with the pencil tool.
Once done, it gets saved as a PNG file.
When I was trying to make graphics using
the ToChars tool, I g ot some errors when
uploading a 71x71 pixel PNG file. That’s
because the pixels need to be in multiples
of 8! Hence it being called 8-bit.
New Functions
Do.. while
If you want to display your own name after
the Arduboy drop down logo, and only
continue after you pressed the ‘A’ button,
you can write:
do{
} while( !arduboy.pressed(A_BUT-
TON) );
This function will make your code block (in
this case your name displayed on screen)
run until its condition is false. In this case
our condition is the ‘A’ button, and will run
only when the ‘A’ button is pressed (an
exclamation mark means ‘not’). Once the
condition is false it will exit the loop and
move on to the next line of code.
Hope this has been informative for users
who are starting off! Check back next
issue for more scribbled notes..
Case
After not having success with my if
functions to get the backbone of my
text game going, I posted it on the forum
asking for help, and JO3RI replied with
using the Case function. It provides a
convenient alternative to the if when
dealing with a multiple way branch.
switch (gameProgress)
{
case GAME_INTRO:
arduboy.println(“Press A to
start!”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUT-
TON)) gameProgress = GAME_START;
break;
case GAME_START:
arduboy.println(“A: Player 1”);
arduboy.println(“B: Player 2”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUT-
TON)) gameProgress = PLAYER_ONE_WINS;
else if (arduboy.justPressed(B_
BUTTON)) gameProgress = PLAYER_TWO_
WINS;
break;
case PLAYER_ONE_WINS:
arduboy.print(“You Win!”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUT-
TON | B_BUTTON)) gameProgress = GAME_
INTRO;
break;
case PLAYER_TWO_WINS:
arduboy.print(“You Lose!”);
if (arduboy.justPressed(A_BUT-
TON | B_BUTTON)) gameProgress = GAME_
INTRO;
break;
}
In my code, the variable that needs to
be checked is the progress of the game,
and once
the matching
label is found,
the next line
of code will
be run.
Page 31 of 40
 using tunes
and tones by @Cronck
In this article, @Cronck will explore the sounds of Arduboy. Thanks to @
MLXXXp for helping the writer understand more about Arduboy Sound.
If you want to play sounds on the Arduboy
when using the standard Arduboy2 library,
you need to pick a compatible sound
library, include it in your sketch, and then
use the particular functions that it provides
to produce sound.
There are a number of sound libraries that
can be used with the Arduboy, including:
- ArduboyTones
- ArduboyPlaytune
- ArdVoice
- ATMlib
You can even just use the Arduino tone()
function, but there’s really no need since
the ArduboyTones library can do the same
thing (and more) and produces less code.
Which library you choose depends on
what features you want and the amount
of program memory that you can afford to
have it use.
The ArduboyTones library is generally the
simplest to use and produces the smallest
code.
ArduboyPlaytune provides the same
features that were available in the original
Arduboy library.
ArdVoice is intended to produce crude
speech.
ATMlib (Arduboy Tracker Music library)
plays sophisticated multichannel ChipTune
type music and effects.
To play sounds, you will need to include
and set up the ArduboyPlaytune library
and use the playScore() function.
To use this with the Arduboy2 library, you
would include it after Arduoby2.h:
#include <Arduboy2.h>
#include <ArduboyPlaytune.h>
and create an object for it after the
Arduboy2 object:
Arduboy2 arduboy;
ArduboyPlaytune tunes(arduboy.audio.
enabled);
You then need to initialise the library in
your setup() function:
// audio setup
tunes.initChannel(PIN_SPEAKER_1);
#ifndef AB_DEVKIT
// if not a DevKit
tunes.initChannel(PIN_SPEAKER_2);
#else
// if it’s a DevKit
tunes.initChannel(PIN_SPEAKER_1);
// use the same pin for both channels
tunes.toneMutesScore(true);
// mute the score when a tone is
sounding
#endif
The PlayTune example sketch included in
the Arduboy2 library is an example of using
ArduboyPlaytune.
File > Examples > Arduboy2 > PlayTune
to be continued next page >>
Page 32 of 40
If you’re writing a new sketch, you may
find that using ArduboyTones is sufficient
and simpler. To do this you need to include
it after Arduboy2.h:
#include <Arduboy2.h>
#include <ArduboyTones.h>
and create an object for it after the
Arduboy2 object:
Arduboy2 arduboy;
ArduboyTones sound(arduboy.audio.
enabled);
You then use the sound.tone() or sound.
tones() functions to play your sounds. The
latest version of Flappy Ball1 is a good
example of using ArduboyTones.
NOTE:
ArduboyTones – uses this code format:
// this is a coin like sound
const uint16_t point[] PROGMEM = {
NOTE_B5,75, NOTE_E6,225, TONES_END
};
while the ArduboyPlaytunes uses this
format:
// this is a coin like sound
const byte PROGMEM point [] = {
0x90,83, 0,75, 0x80, 0x90,88, 0,225,
0x80, 0xf0};
Both are the SAME sound just different
ways of doing things.
Getting the correct translation of code
for the Arduboy logo is what I would like
to show next. We have all seen the logo
come onto the screen at startup, but we
all remember that Original Gameboy
startup you can hear it in your head. The
sounds that the old games had, that
music stay with you still today. Think for a
moment of your favorite Nintendo 8-bit
game, now focus on the loading screen or
that first level, what does your mind hear?
I hope that this helps some of you the way that
it has helped me. Happy Coding!
So below are two examples of the
Gameboy Startup sound, one is right the
other is not.
// spot on sound of the old
Gameboy start up -- for use with,
ArduboyPlaytune
const byte PROGMEM bing [] = {
0x90,0x30, 0,107, 0x80, 0x90,0x60,
1,244, 0x80, 0xf0};
// trying to get the same Gameboy
sound-- for use with, ArduboyTones
(but its not on the money)
const uint16_t bing[] PROGMEM = {
NOTE_FS1,107, NOTE_C4,500, TONES_
END
};
So why can Playtune make a perfect
Gameboy Start up sound but Tones can
not? Well it comes down to how music
really sounds. And what these two libraries
are capable of.
ArduboyPlaytune ‘s can produce TWO
notes at the same time, think of this as
playing TWO keys on a piano at the same
time creating a note if you will thats a
combination of the Two. Its one sound but
two notes all the same. Lets call this a PRO
for Playtune.
CON – this ability for two notes at the same
time cause more code space to be used
in the name of music.
ArduboyTones uses the notes, you can see
them in the code “C4”, this gives Tones
the ability to be easily read. The down side
can be one note played at a time, we
lose the simultaneous note ability. BUT the
PRO from this is our code is smaller.
Now our coin sound is the same in both
Libraries because its a series of notes
played one at a time, but the Gameboy
startup sound can only be heard truly in
the ArduboyPlaytune version.
Here is my code (Taken from Original
FlappyBall game and imported for use in
Arduboy2 lib) for starting up the Arduboy
so that I get that original Gameboy Sound.
Page 33 of 40
 In this segment of the
magazine we feature
work from pixel artists.
Do contact them if you
would like work with
them or use their work,
their contact information
is listed below.

Copyright By @DavitMasia

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavitMasia
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/davitmasia
Note: These
screenshots are
Arduboy sized:
128 x 64 pixels
EXPLORE:

Questions
In this section we’ll ask
the same 10 questions to with game
a different developer in developers
every new issue.
by @widehaslet

If you’ve been on the forums recently with a question, it was likely

answered by Mike McRoberts (@TheArduinoGuy). We sit down with
him to find out more about his
programming background, and
his first Arduboy game - Jet Pac.

1. Where did you find out about
Arduboy the first time?
From my mate @sones who brought one
along to a Medway Makers meeting one
Saturday.
2. What is the first program/game you
created for Arduboy ?
Jet Pac - A recreation of the classic ZX
Spectrum game.
3. Did you have app/game developer
experience before Arduboy ?
Yes, I’ve been programming since I
was about 12 years old. In my younger
years I wrote games for the ZX81 and ZX
Spectrum. Some of which got published
in the computer magazines of the day.
Today I write mainly in C for the Arduino
based devices but also use Lua, Python
and Javascript.
4. What programs do you use for
creating Arduboy apps/games ?
Pyxel for sprite creation. TeamARG tools
for the HEX conversion. I use Atom with the
PlatformIO plug-in for my IDE. Good old
pen and paper for everything else.
5 . What do you read to learn how to
code for Arduboy ?
I already knew how to code in C so read
the library documentation.
6 . What app/game do you have
currently on your Arduboy ?
The current game I am working on.
7. What Arduboy app/program is your
favorite ?
Circuit Dude by @crait is a great puzzle
game. For graphics I love Sirene by
TeamARG.
8. What is the next app/program for
Arduboy from your hand we can
expect ?
I’m currently working on an isometric view
survival horror game.
9. What app/game would you love to
see on the Arduboy ?
Rebelstar! Maybe i’ll do it myself one day.
to be continued next page >>
Page 36 of 40
10.What is your best tip for other
people who want to start creating
apps/games for Arduboy ?
Just do it! The only thing worse than trying
and failing is not trying at all. Get your
game idea and just make it.
Learn as you go along. Break your idea
down into simple sub-components and do
those one at a time.
e.g. Space Invaders : Just start by learning
how to draw the alien Sprites to the
screen. Then make them move left and
right. Then add the ability for them to
drop down one line when they reach the
edges. Then make them drop random
bombs, and so on. Break every large
problem down into simple sub-problems,
get them working then move onto the
next.

Are you a developer and want to be

featured here? Reach out to the Magazine
through Twitter DM @arduboymag

日本のユーザーに叫ぶ:
私たちは日本語フォーラムを持っています

この公式カテゴリは日本語を書くことができます。
私たちはプログラミングの質問や、ゲームやアプリケーション
の投稿を歓迎します。
もちろん、他のカテゴリで、あなたは英語で話すことができま
す。
を楽しんでください。(^_^)

ありがとうございました!

東京2016
Page 37 of 40
#arduboy:

@fdd776 @incoranger @ mithykyl

@astro_andre @JuiceLizard @darkam_

Figurine Fun with Arduboy!

This month’s inspiration comes from visiting the “The Art of the
Brick” installation. Loved the seeing modern art recreated with
Legos, so here are some of the #arduboy with figurines.

Post your photos with Arduboy on

Instagram and Twitter with #arduboy.
We want to feature them in this segment!

Page 38 of 40
 Thank you!
Thank you for reading the Magazine!
Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did putting it together.

We want to know how to make Volume 4 better than

the last, so write in to us to tell us what you think!
https://twitter.com/arduboymag