Game Development for the Gamebuino META

The Gamebuino META captivated me from the very moment I first laid eyes on it. I grew up with a Game Boy myself, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap remains my favorite handheld console game to this day.

The Gamebuino META is based on an Arduino and offers a beginner-friendly C++ API for developing games for the console. Admittedly, neither the memory nor the graphical resolution is enough for something like Minish Cap, but I was still able to gain some first experience with two small projects.

I named the first project Earthwire. Players fly a British fighter plane to shoot down German Wehrmacht warplanes. You earn points for every successful kill. If a plane gets away, points are deducted. The challenge is dodging enemy fire and reloading at the right moment.

The second project had no particular name but was considerably more complex. Here, players have to move their character to the level's exit. Along the way, they need to find keys, avoid patrolling guards, and open the escape door using computers.

I can say that developing both projects was a lot of fun. It also showed me the significant limitations you have to work around on a console like this in terms of resolution, memory, and processing power. In these projects, for example, I had to deliberately use pooling for the enemy planes' projectiles, since otherwise memory would fill up and the game would crash.

I'd recommend this experience to anyone who wants to build an awareness for writing performant code. And who wouldn't want to hold a little game of their own on a handheld console they built themselves.