Topics

1

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / Visual Studio Code

« on: January 30, 2019, 08:14:54 PM »

Hi there! Are you guys planning to add support for debugging using Visual Studio Code? I would love to be able to use that IDE instead of the Arduino IDE.

2

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / Font use on screen

« on: August 07, 2018, 01:06:09 AM »

Hi there. I have tried today to print a score in our game, but I'm not sure how the font system works.

I found an example in how fonts are used here: https://tinycircuits.com/blogs/learn/tinyscreen-battery-voltage

So I put the following lines in my setup() function:

display.setFont(thinPixel7_10ptFontInfo);
display.fontColor(0xFFFF, 0x0000);

Then in the loop function, i have an scoreUpdate() function called. Here is what it is in scoreUpdate:

display.setCursor(12, 12);
  display.print(score);

(score is a global variable, initialized to 0)
As it stands, when I run the program everything on screen is "frozen" (player can't move, nothing is updating on the screen except the player and the score), and the 0 value for the score is displayed there and it's flickering constantly.

For drawing the screen I am using the drawbuffer function that came with the TinyArcade tutorial.

Could anyone point me to the right way of doing this?

Thanks,

3

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / How do you compare the TinyArcade hardware with?

« on: August 06, 2018, 01:43:05 AM »

Hello everyone. I was explaining to a friend how much fun we were having with the TinyArcade, and he wanted to know how does it compare in terms of hardware with old video game consoles. What do you think it would be a fair comparison to?

Cheers,

4

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / Custom colors (other than the 16 pre-defined?)

« on: July 23, 2018, 11:25:57 PM »

Hi there. Today I have been creating new sprites for our game, and I've been having a hard time finding how I can set up an RGB color. I am not sure what's the right format.

I found this page: http://www.barth-dev.de/online/rgb565-color-picker/ . But if I use their color values (for example 0xFE82), I get a completely different color on screen.

The only colors that work well are the ones defined in the library (TS_16b_Yellow for example).

Can you tell me what format should I enter the color values for each sprite pixel?

Thank you,

5

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / Creating sprites dynamically (on run time). Is it possible?

« on: July 19, 2018, 10:34:06 PM »

Hi there. One question I have (as I started coding my first game) is: is there a way of creating multiple instances of a sprite? I see that the source code for Tiny Brick and Flappy Birdz they both do not do this. Even though they could use the same bitmaps, the source code specify many instances of the same sprite and they live offscreen until they are needed. But ideally I would like to create the instances on the fly, as I need them (like for example, bullets, or different enemies).

Is this an Arduino limitation? I looked online on how I could push items to an array but it seems that is not possible. Is there a different way?

Thanks.

6

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / Truly Random Numbers

« on: July 09, 2018, 10:19:22 PM »

Has anyone figured how to create truly random numbers with the TinyArcade?

Per the tutorial (https://tinycircuits.com/blogs/learn/how-to-develop-a-game-for-the-tinyarcade-new), I checked the Arduino reference at https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/language/functions/random-numbers/randomseed/

But pin 0 seems to be in use by the TinyArcade. The joystick does not work properly. I looked at the TinyArcade manual and it seems all pins are used. Or isn't it?

Any help will be really appreciated. Thanks!

7

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / Recommendation: Amendments to the TinyArcade tutorial

« on: July 04, 2018, 04:29:57 PM »

Hello! I'd like to recommend an amendment to:

https://tinycircuits.com/blogs/learn/how-to-develop-a-game-for-the-tinyarcade-new

Since the start of the tutorial, in the screenshots you can see GameTutorialSprites.h as a tab, but there is no explanation that we need to create the file from scratch. It's also confusing because you are instructed to download TinyArcade.h, but no reference to the other file.

So I would explain that GameTutorialSprites.h will be created later, and then in the "The Header File..." section I would start explaining to create a new tab (pointing to the button where that is), and save the file.

I know this info may be obvious for you Arduino devs, but I'm a gamedev who has never done Arduino before.

8

Tiny Arcade & Pocket Arcade / Black Screen after Uploading program for the first time

« on: July 02, 2018, 04:56:54 PM »

Unfortunately our time with the TinyArcade was cut short. We put it together and we had fun playing the installed games.

Then we followed these instructions in order to set up Arduino in my son's computer:
https://tinycircuits.com/blogs/learn/158833543-tinyscreen-setup

Board showed up, port showed up fine. We initiated the upload of the TinyScreenExample. Arduino said it was completed. But our TinyArcade shows nothing. In fact, now the TinyArcade doesn't work anymore. On/off/on again, nothing.

The instructions point to another page on the oWatch web site, where it explains how to reset the TinyScreen:
http://theowatch.com/start/troubleshooting/reset-tinyscreen/

But the web page says:
To reset the TinyScreen, power off the TinyScreen using the slide switch. Use a pencil or some other similar object to slide the switch down to the OFF position.

"Then press and hold the button closest to the usb connector while sliding the switch to the ON position. Then try uploading your program and it should work. Repeat this step if it doesn’t. If it still doesn’t resolve the problem please contact us for support."

Excuse me? What button closer to the USB port? Well, we tried both buttons. We held them as we turn the TinyArcade back on. Nothing.

Can anybody recommend us what to do?