Arduino hackers have long wanted to be able to make games on their Arduino. The only problem is it's not designed for it! The comparatively slow rate and lack of storage space etc. has always hindered it for games development, however James Bowman wants to change that with his Gameduino 2.

The Gameduino 2 is a kit that turns your Arduino into a handheld game device. It features a 4.3 inch 480 x 272 TFT touchscreen, a 3-axis accelerometer, a micro SD card slot and a headphone jack.

The first version of the Gameduino was aimed at creating vintage games on the Arduino, but this new version is designed to run faster, more beautiful games like you see on iOS and Android phones. The new open-source graphics engine is similar to Open-GL, and supports hardware JPEG loading, alpha transparency, full 32-bit colour and can load up to 2000 sprites.

The kit is designed to connect to the Arduino very easily, so you can get up and running with some of the examples straight away. With it being open source, you can hack away to your hearts content.

We'll hopefully see some cool ideas in the near future.

You can get the Gameduino 2 (with all the components) for $59 if you pledge to the Kickstarter campaign now.

EDIT:

You can get the Gameduino 2 for $59 from their online store.