Arduboy zine? help for noobs please

Arduboy
#1

Noob here. I would very much like to be able to program my own games, animations, chiptunes, noise toys, visuals, etc. using Arduboy, but I have zero experience with writing code.

Soon I will get my PocketC.H.I.P., another popular Kickstarter project that I’m sure some of you have heard about. What’s really cool about PocketC.H.I.P. is that it now comes with Pico-8 preinstalled. Pico-8 is another platform for programming games, etc., only it uses Lua.

What I like about Pico-8 is that it seems inviting to me… It seems like a good place to start learning. Part of what makes it so approachable is this online fanzine that I found:

So far, there are 4 issues. The zines consist of short articles regarding coding for Pico-8… in the first zine they walk you through step by step on how to start making a “Breakout”, or “Pong” type of game! I feel like I could do this.

So I got to thinking that the Arduboy community could really benefit from something like this. Especially now because there will be a flood of newcomers who are interested in learning to code for this thing and not know the first place to begin! (Like me!)

Sure, I have heard the advice about looking at people’s code, and learning C, (?)and that’s all great advice… but for me, I feel like I need something a little more structured and specific. What I am suggesting is a dedicated page (or zine or whatever) dedicated to learning to code for the Arduboy. Tutorials, tips and tricks, lessons, etc. All in one place. Perhaps I am lazy, but I find it a bit cumbersome digging around forum threads for info…

Maybe such a thing exists already and I missed it? Or planned for the future, perhaps? I think it would really help people like me, and serve to grow the community greatly.

Thoughts?

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#2

If you look through the rewards offered for the Kickstarter campaign you’ll see that one of them was an Education Kit, which included 10 Arduboys and a lesson plan. The lesson plan is described on the page as:

But that’s not all we also will provide a printed booket and free online coursework for an entire lesson plan for learning C++ on the Arduboy!

If that ever comes about, I would hope that @bateske would eventually make the lessons available to all backers and purchasers, if not everyone.

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#3

Nice suggestion! Yes we hope to continue to do updates that include tutorials for getting started. We wanted to focus on getting the hardware shipped first so over the next few months we hope to post about 10 tutorials. When that’s all done we will bundle it up print it and send it to the education backers as well.

I like the idea of it being a regular timing and some other content too!

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#4

the world is smaller than it looks, I live probably much farther than you and we’re both in the same boat … also order a “pocket chip” as well as a arduboy … even just downloaded (before reading this post) 4 FANZINES (zines) that are already in my acer ZG5 and my KOBO GLO … toys certainly have more in common than you think. the case is that PICO-8 is very interesting as well as “Pocket Chip”. ARDUBOY perhaps as GAMEPAD via GPIO (P.chip) as FCEUX (linux nes emu) controller # 2 … just think out loud !!! greetings from Madrid
PS: ARDUBOY is a ARDUINO LEONARDO (can works as gamepad, keyboard or mouse)

1 Like
#5

I’m also a noob and would really like to learn more about programming through the lens of the Arduboy. I did a lot of QBasic growing up and in College I took an intro C++ course, but looking through the code doesn’t really get me anywhere…

I really hope those tutorials are released for all. Or, at least, for a small donation. I, too, would prefer a bit more structured learning approach to this cool little toy.

3 Likes
#6

This was posted a while ago, but @jrronimo and @randmcnasty just wanna let you know that @crait made some amazing tutorials: http://community.arduboy.com/t/make-your-own-arduboy-game-part-1-setting-up-your-computer/ and there is also a Arduboy Magazine that touches on games, and tips and tricks on game creations: https://issuu.com/arduboymag/docs/vol_1 :smiley:

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