GAMBY: Arduino Retro Gaming Shield

(13 Reviews)

LCD, directional switch, buttons, and audio in a classic handheld console form factor

Designed by logicalzero in United States of America

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LCD, directional switch, buttons, and audio in a classic handheld console form factor

What is GAMBY? GAMBY is a build-it-yourself Arduino shield (expansion board) kit featuring a monochrome LCD, 4-way directional pad, buttons and speaker in a form factor reminiscent of several classic…

What is GAMBY?

GAMBY is a build-it-yourself Arduino shield (expansion board) kit featuring a monochrome LCD, 4-way directional pad, buttons and speaker in a form factor reminiscent of several classic handheld video game consoles.

In short, GAMBY is Games for Arduino, Made By You!

Limited Edition

GAMBY is a limited edition of 500. Each board is individually numbered.

Easy to Build

GAMBY was designed to use primarily through-hole components. The only surface mount parts are optional and can even be added later.

Open Source

GAMBY's design and software is Open Source. All of the code and design files are available free of charge. Create your own version of GAMBY or contribute to the main project.

Hackable and Customizable

Does the standard GAMBY hardware not have a feature you want? Add it! GAMBY's board features dozens of solder pads and other features for modifying the hardware.

Hardware Features

96x64 pixel monochrome LCD with optional backlighting (50% higher resolution than a Nokia 5110!)
4-way D-Pad
4 Buttons
Transistor-driven piezo speaker
Enough extra pads and other board features to allow advanced users to hack the hardware to their heart's content

Library Features

The GAMBY library features three different modes:

Graphics Mode

Draw lines, shapes and sprites to the screen! Use line and fill patterns, irregularly-shaped bitmaps and more.

Block Mode

Draw to the screen as a 24x16 grid of blocks using a palette of 16 tiles, while using less memory than the full graphics mode! Write your own version of a certain famous Russian falling-block game, or even a tiny Rogue-like RPG!

Text Mode

Don't need fancy graphics? Display eight rows of 20 to 40 proportional characters and icons, with automatic scrolling and wrapping! The leanest of GAMBY's modes, you can even use it on an older ATmega168-based Arduino and still have ample memory left for your own code!

Want to Know More?

See the GAMBY main site for more information, instructions and resources!

Note About Shipping

Orders typically ship on Saturdays, and orders received after end-of-business on Friday (US Eastern time) may not be shipped until the following week. Delivery time outside of North America averages about 10 business days.

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.86)

Documentation: (4.57)

Shipping: (4.86)

Communication: (4.71)

Tim | Sept. 9, 2018

Nice product

A great little addition to the arduino gaming scene if there is one that is fun to build and seller was quick to make sure issues were taken care of quickly.

Brian | Jan. 31, 2017

Great fun kit

This is an elegantly designed kit which builds up into a fun little gaming handheld. There are some free third-party games available with source code which adds to the examples and games already provided by the creator. This was my first time using surface-mount components and I relished the challenge of improving my soldering skills.

Manuel | Jan. 13, 2017

A pleasure to assemble!

I love the way this is designed. The kit is easy to build. The material is very high quality and the final look is just fantastic.
The existing demos are wonderful and there's a lot to learn from them, specially with graphic routines.
I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

Leonardo | Dec. 21, 2016

Good product

The product came very well packed and assembly info is pretty accurate.
I think the programming docs could be improved a bit more, some parts are confusing or are missing.
But I do recommend purchasing the product, I have started developing two games (on my gh /leonardo2204) and it is pretty cool.
BTW, David has been very atentious responding my emails and helping me out on the libs development.

Thanks

Daniel | Feb. 27, 2016

Fun little project!

I had to wait about an extra 10 days, but not because of the GAMBY Shield kit... rather my Arduino Uno took a lot longer to arrive here than anticipated! Being an amateur at soldering (this was my second time, actually!) This kit was perfect! It took me about 2 hours of carefully soldering, and following every instruction to a "T", but it worked on the first test and I am learning to program with it now!

I personally think the LEDs were a bit difficult to place on, though it is noted as optional! All I suggest: take it slow, and be patient. Those LEDs might be hard to get on, but it's definitely worth it when they light up your screen! I look forward to anything that David has to offer in the future, and HIGHLY recommend the GAMBY kit for anyone looking to create a fun little handheld!

Jason | May 1, 2015

Very fun, very well documented

Gamby is an awesome idea with great software and documentation. It's probably the simplest and least expensive way to turn a regular Arduino into a handheld gaming device, even if you've never written a game before.

The kit is well made and for the most part goes together smoothly. The only tricky part is soldering the SMD LED's around the screen. These are optional, but having the illumination is pretty useful with the non-backlit LCD screen.

My only complaint is that one of these SMD LED's turned out to be blue instead of white. Not the end of the world but it does spoil the aesthetics a bit on what otherwise is a very sharp looking kit. The size and difficulty of working with these LED's convinced me to leave it as-is, but a little higher quality-control in the component selection would have been appreciated.

Nelson | Sept. 13, 2014

This is a super project

I purchased the gamby not totally sure of wether I had the skill needed to complete it. Fortunately the documentation that I found on the logicalzero website was well written and easy to find. Even though I consider myself a novice solderer, and a weak programmer, and a complete newbie to the Arduino ecosystem, the project was fun to assemble and taught me more than I expected about soldering and patience.

I look forward to learning more about the programming side of Arduino and maybe writing a simple game one day! Review Image

Giovanni | May 16, 2014

Neato!

It was pretty easy to assemble, even for a noob like me. The only issue I've had was installing the tiny surface mount LEDs. Which took me a few tries till I got it right, but it was worth the frustration. The screen is alright, a bit blurry when it comes to games with a lot of motion. I kinda wished there were a case for it, so i could carry it around without touching the solder joints. Other than that, it's a fun little toy. Now I just need to learn how to make games for it.
Review Image

Phil | March 11, 2014

A fun project which is more than meets the eye

GAMBY is a really good project for the just-barely-not-a-beginner-anymore electronics hobbyist, especially if you're interested in games and input. Putting it together was pretty simple and the "hard" parts (the LED backlights) are optional. The software is likewise fairly simple but user-friendly, and if you have even a moderate knowledge of the Arduino IDE then you'll be just fine. Don't expect to create big, complex games with this system, but do expect to be delighted when you hook it all up, snap it onto an Ardiuno and see it work for the first time.

I'm hoping version 2 bumps up the refresh rate of the LCD, and/or gives us some shares of grey to play with, and eases out the spacing of the D-Pad and buttons. They're a little bit cramped to my hands, but you could trivially break them out into a separate module if you are so inclined.

Mathias | Nov. 3, 2013

nice idea but NO SUPPORT

This is a lovely piece of electronics. Simple to solder but hard to troubleshoot: On the first attempt, the demo beeps but the screen remains dead. I tried all that is described in the trouble shooting section, checked the soldering, cleaned the zebra strip but nothing worked to get the display to work. For a split second I saw a pixel turning black in the upper most row.
The real disappointing thing is that nowhere there is a way to contact the creator of the item so this is the only way to communicate any problems.
In the meantime, I thoroughly re-soldered every connection without spotting a faulty soldering pad but the item works now. The only thing to optimize is the way to get support in case of trouble.
Ciao, M.

Response from logicalzero | Nov. 11, 2013

I apologize; I hadn't realized that it was so difficult to contact me! The GAMBY site has been updated with email links to request support; there is now one in the 'troubleshooting' section of the assembly instructions (http://logicalzero.com/gamby/assembly/#troubleshooting). You may also post questions here on Tindie. I am happy to help however I can.

Andrew | Oct. 7, 2013

Great Little Retro Gaming Platform for Arduino

This is an awesome little shield for Arduino that enables programmers to create simple 8-bit games. Fun for geeks, hobbyists, and teenagers interested in electronics. So far it has provided hours of entertainment in my family (even my wife and mother-in-law love to play on it).
I think this is simply I must have for any Arduino owner, and also its very affordable!

Alex | May 20, 2013

Great Gaming Shield!

I really enjoy using the Gamby shield!

The build instructions are very detailed and easy to follow. As has been mentioned, the LED's are the most difficult part of the build (they are optional though).

I was able to port a game made for another Arduino (TVOut-based) game shield without a lot of changes to the code.

I have used both an Uno and RedBoard (SparkFun) with the Gamby and both work very well.
Review Image

Emile | Feb. 10, 2013

I love it!

This such a fun project I'm going to order a few more for friends. It is just a blast.

The hardest part were the backlights, but I got them on there- and working!

All in all, this is a super fun shield for an Arduino. I'm using an UNO. If you have kids, and are looking for a project that is a bit more advanced than a solder badge, Gamby is a great option. Review Image