I have two of those Adafruit PyGamers and I love them! They have nice controls and stuff and they can handle a lot of sprites and stuff. Recently I finally made a project big enough that it doesn’t fit on my console and it was over 2133 lines of code long with like nine images and 15 levels and just getting rid of the images allowed it to run just fine. 100% would recommend the Adafruit PyGamer, just mind the price.
that thinkbox thing actually has the same exact case for a really popular fake Nintendo NES emulator console and you can actually connect it to the tv using a special adapter thing.
I think I have the same Nes emulator retro handheld and yes the rca tulip goes into the tv (yellow outputs video, and red outputs mono sound). It looks good on an old tv with scart. Digital tv's with scart show artifacts and degradation of colors. Just my 2 cents 🙂
Thank you for the video! Especially for the Elecfreaks Retro part - I've thought of buying one. Two additional consoles are listed on the makecode site as compatible - Adafruit PyGamer and Xtron Pro. And I must say, PyGamer looks very promising and very reasonably priced.
@@lovemadeinjapan Yep. I've ordered PyGamer, and It's perfect for makecode arcade. Fast, responsive, small, but not too small, - and I love the analogue stick.
This review seems to be the only one. So thank you for that. I got one of the Elecfreaks Retro Arcades. It is too slow. Any game of any complexity just doesn't run on it. At about 18 sprites games just stop cold. Space Invaders won't run on it. Break Out won't run on it. Snake won't run on it. So many types of games just won't run on it. Some kind of performance test would be good to see.
Thanks for the overview, made me curious on the Kittenbot Bridge (can't find that anywhere) and the inner workings of the Retro (no specs available). Which makes me stick to the Kitronik and the PyBadge (not in this video). That is because you don't discuss the software side, and that is actually quite important. For the Kitronik & PyBadge I know that they both run on a ATSAMD51, which is a powerful chip (200MHz, 32 bit, 192kB RAM, 2560 kB flash, FPU and 2xDAC for sound), with much more oomph than a nRF52 in the Microbit V2 (64MHz/128kB RAM/512kB Flash). And those 2 run on 1) MakeCode, 2) circuit Python and 3) my favourite C++ through the Arduino IDE or Visual Studio Code to get some serious performance out of it. I agree the buttons on the Kitronic are not the best, but the fact it is cheap, with short delivery times and made in the UK for a decent price (35€) and the Adafruit made-in-NYC for 30€ with plenty of 1 day ship options in the EU make it my favourites. Do you have any tech specs on the ones you showed?
Hi Stu! Love the video, it was exactly what I was looking for. Just curious, what is your impression of the Thinkbox 7 months later? Also, any links or resources that you can recommend for a DIY version? Cheers!
KittenBot Meowbit vs. TinkerGen GameGo: Yes, the GameGo is louder, but the Meowbit has a micro:bit connector which lets you control electronics projects in addition to running MakeCode Arcade games. Also, the softer speaker of the Meowbit may be a feature rather than a bug: do you really want a classroom of 30 students all playing games at the same time with the volume on full blast? 😱
Hi Stu! Thanks for the video! Did you ever end up trying to fix the Elecfreaks device? I that one seems like the best option for me, but only if I can easily fix the buttons. TIA!
I have a question. The thinkbot has x and y buttons, do they actually work? And if they do are they their own buttons, or just work as secondary a and b buttons?
Thanks sir, the link you put for Think Box doesn't go nowhere. and Please ¿ can you explain how to run makecode arcade binary on Raspberry Pi console? 👍
I am curious, with the Think Box one how you added games. I have cheap handheld retro game which looks exactly like that I picked up for $12, and served me well for some mindless distraction when I traveled more for work, playing some classic NES games here and there. Never really considered what was under the hood. I assumed a Famiclone on a chip setup. Now I wonder if their might be a way to cheat the hardware into running something else, like MakeCode Arcade. I'm thinking about getting a couple compatible handhelds as my kids have actually been coding their own games in their STEM school, and I'd love for them to keep at it. Also, I've coded a couple of my own games, and kind of want to see them run on actual hardware. Thanks for the rundown of these systems.
The thinkbox is actually not using the same internal hardware as the cheap retro handhelds unfortunately, just re-using the casing I think. For Makecode specific hardware they all have a specific set of chips and OS that enables games to be copied on to them.
@@makegamestuff4850 thanks for the insight. I didn't know if maybe there was a generic chipset/hardware the software ran on, it would be just a matter of flashing a new boot image.
@@StuLowe80 thank you for this information. Obviously this makes sense that it won't work with cheaper, "Famiclone," glob chips, but I am curious what the emulation possibilities of this might be. It seems to me having an inexpensive emulation box also be able to use this would be an advantage. Imagine using, "retro-gaming you can make yourself," as an additional selling point. I know there is the ability to use this software with RaspberryPi. It isn't hard to imagine it being integrated with other, "retro," packages.
I wound up getting a couple Meowbits. I am happy with them, and so are my kids. I also want to use the edge connector for some additional projects. Your video really helped my decision. Thank you!
