Adafruit is making the 'PyBadge'

Is that the same screen as the Pokitto?

(Seems it’s going to be running one of the ATSAMD51 chips.)

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So this is more like the Arduboy then?

120MHz Cortex M4 with floating point support and 512KB Flash and 192KB RAM

Nope, that’s a whole other league, if it’s an ATSAMD51.

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Oh wow that’s a Cortex M4. That’s pretty beefy. So this will be like a game device built off a Metro m4 board?

It is. According to the #ifdef __SAMD51__s in the code at least.

No idea. Presumably it will involve micropython?

I only found out about it because some of my code is helping to run the Arduboy2 port.

“@ladyada” borrowed my C++ translation of the Sprites::drawPlusMask assembly and sent her ‘blessings’ in exchange.

(Which is now the closest thing I’ve got to a ‘claim to fame’.)

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Adafruit is using a derivative called circuitpython (which should be education friendly).
https://circuitpython.readthedocs.io/en/2.x/#differences-from-micropython

I’ve been looking at this also and @chame has been tweeting about it. It’s got the same display as the Gamebuino Meta.

I wonder how this is going to affect the game for Gamebuino and Arduboy.

The marketing power of Adafruit is pretty awesome, they can wipe the table if they so wish to do. It’s also probably going to be in the ballpark as far as price goes.

For Pokitto, this is not a (huge) game changer. Pokitto is able to roll with the sales we have, and my personal income is not tied to the success of Pokitto ltd.

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I tend to disagree. Suppose that most members of the current pokitto community switch to pybadge or if potential new members chose for pybadge, that would harm further development of the Pokitto platform imho.

I understand what you are saying, but:

The people you mention (new users & existing members) already have X number of choices, from Bittboy to Gamebuino to Arduboy to PiBoy.

But this is not a question of membership. This is a question of business. I can estimate the situation of some of the competitors and i would be really surprised if even the best of them was bringing in substantial revenue.

If it does, great, and I am very happy for them. But, having said that. I work now on products that the sale of a single product is the size of a very successful KS campaign. And I can see what margins are needed to sustain the workforce and production. You’d have to sell an insane amount of Arduboys to have the same sort of revenue. And all of these are niche products with a limited audience. Nintendo sales are a different issue completely.

Something can be very popular, and yet be a bad business.

So, looking at the business, expenses of Pokitto are so low, that we can continue doing this indefinitely. If a product is developed with bankloans,it changes the dynamic of the equation completely. You have to make revenue or you are out of the game. This is what I meant by PyBadge not being a danger to Pokitto.

Remember PocketChip?

Now, please understand this is not dissing PyBadge or any of the other devices. I just think that if someone has hooked up their livelihood on any of these niche products, I feel they risk running out of money in due course. Adafruit can do whatever they want because they have a vast portfolio. If they only sold the PyBadge, they would come across the same problem. The volume simply isn’t there.

EDIT:
My estimate is that the only long term sustainable project is MakerBuino/MakerPhone, because they clearly are taking the Adafruit route of developing a portfolio of products, not just a single device

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Speaking of portfolio. Has it been in the works at all for the Pokitto brand to continue developing extended line of products?

Yes, several times. The problem is my limited time (mostly) and then the fact that I have a feeling that the current platform is still maturing - of which the Python compo was a demonstration.

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That totally makes sense. Like everyone is saying the jams definitely will help push the platform even further :smile: I’m so excited to see and be a part of it.

We are just starting to use the pokitto potential. You will see some nice things are still coming.

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Everytime I see one of those bare DIY handhelds I think: “Nice, but it doesn’t have a proper case. Meh.”

For a non-hardware person this kind of device is no competitor to Pokitto, Arduboy or Gamebuino, because that person is mostly interested in playing homebrew games on the go and/or developing their own (cat-)games. :wink:

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The thing with Adafruit products, at least from the vibe I get, is that they are just pieces that one can buy to complete their own DIY solutions. So these aren’t entire solutions but only parts thereof. Then they do offer full kits and tutorials for a complete solution as well (pigirl for example).

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I confess that I haven’t made anywhere near enough cat games.
I’ve only made a rabbit game.

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There’s also this (coming out of China) now:

https://www.kittenbot.cc/

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Kittenbot-Meowbit-Card-sized-Retro-Game-Computer-p-3800.html

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I like the cat theme, but the block GUI and JavaScript editors put me off.

I wouldn’t even think about buying it unless there was complete assurance that it could be programmed in a statically typed language with an offline IDE.

But it has made me decide one thing. The Pokitto needs a cat hat. With cat ears.

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Whoa… microbit compatible :thinking: I’ve got two of those laying around. One as a wearable that I’ve been meaning to code the compas lnto lol… the online editor is kind of a pain and I’ve not had the time to explore offline yet. So I could see the sense in not wanting it due to that.

Edit: apparently with micro python this can in fact be edited offline (the meowbit). Shoot that’s going on my list now :smile:

:sleepy:

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