Adafruit Gameduino shield

Gameduino acts as a game adapter for Arduino and similar devices with an SPI interface, offering plug-ins for a VGA monitor and stereo speakers. Taking a nod from retro styles, it combines classic sound and graphics with enhanced sprite capabilities, courtesy of cutting-edge FPGA technology.

Its video output supports 400x300 pixels in 512 colors, all processed at 15-bit precision, and it is compatible with any VGA monitor operating at 800x600 @ 72Hz. The background graphics boast a 512x512 pixel character backdrop, with each of the 256 characters having an independent four-color palette and smooth X-Y wraparound scrolling.

The Gameduino's sprite functionality includes 16x16 pixel sprites offering per-pixel transparency and the flexibility of using 256, 16, or 4 colors, alongside features such as four-way rotation and flipping. It manages pixel-perfect sprite collision detection, displaying up to 96 sprites per scan-line and 1536 texels per line.

For audio performance, Gameduino provides a stereo 12-bit frequency synthesizer with 64 independent voices, offering sine wave or white noise across 10-8000 Hz per voice and sample playback capability. The system is managed through SPI read/write commands, functioning like a 32Kbyte RAM with unrestricted access. An accompanying reference poster and a library of sample programs provide guidance on maximizing its potential.