Expandable & Programmable

Open Game Station is an open hardware platform that allows you to build a modular, handheld gaming console capable of playing classic 8-bit games. You can add modules to expand the console, install free games from community-maintained collections, and modify code to customize your experience or develop your own games.

Easy to Install Games

Open Game Station supports all Arduboy-based games. To play one, simply:

1. Connect the microcontroller board to your PC with a USB Type-C cable
2. Go to Erwin's Arduboy Collection and find a game you like
3. Click "Upload to my Arduboy" and wait a few seconds
4. Insert the microcontroller board back into your Open Game Station

Now you’re ready to play!

A tiny selection of the many Arduboy games available for Open Game Station. Clockwise from the upper left: Galaxion, Chri Bocchi Cat, Ardutosh, Catacombs of the Damned!, Rooftop Rescu, and Lasers

Features & Specifications

• Atmega 32U4 microcontroller
• 16 MHz clock speed
• 2 K RAM
• 32 K flash
• 128 x 64 OLED display
• Six buttons
• Arduino compatible

Everything You Need to Play (or Design) Games

We are offering two versions of Open Game Station as part of this campaign: a Basic version and a Pro version. The basic version is for all users, including those who are just getting started with 8-bit gaming or with the Arduino ecosystem. The Pro version is for makers, DIY fanatics, retro gaming nerds, and Arduino programmers looking to make classic games more fun by teaching them to read sensor data and respond to gestural input.

Open Game Station Components

Basic Version

All Open Game Stations include the following core components:

• Game Board: Serves as your controller and provides a dock into which you can insert Longan Card modules to build out your gaming device
• Structural Hardware: Includes a piece of acrylic board, screws, and spacers that greatly improve the controller's ergonomics. An included Quick Start Guide will help you put it all together.

Your Open Game Station will also come with the following Longan Cards, which you can slot into your Game Board as needed:

• Carduino 32U4: Open Game Station's microcontroller board—Powered by the Arduino Leonardo bootloader, Carduino supports all Arduboy-based games.
• OLED Display Card: Your screen is a retro-style, 128 x 64 pixel monochrome display
• Buzzer Card: Provides background music and whatever flavor of beep your game might require
• AAA Battery Card: Powers the whole device. (The batteries themselves are not included.)

Open Game Station - Basic

Pro Version

The Pro version comes with all of the above, plus the following:

• Extension Board: Gives you three additional Longan Card slots to work with.
• 9-DoF Sensor Card: Provides acceleration, gyroscopic, and magnetometer data with which a game can detect the movement of a player's hands.
• Sound Sensor Card: Detects the volume of surrounding noise and makes it available to games.

Open Game Station - Pro

Comparison Table

Support & Documentation

Every Open Game Station will ship with a printed quick-start guide. Our website includes additional product documentation, and you can reach us through the Ask a technical question form on our campaign page or by email at support@longan-labs.cc.

Manufacturing Plan

Manufacturing will begin as soon as our campaign reaches its funding goal, and we expect it to take around a month and a half. We are working with a PCB fabrication partner in Shenzhen, and will choose an assembly partner based on the number of Open Game Stations that are sold. We have collaborated with these manufacturers many times in the past—including on prototype Open Game Station modules—and we have no doubt they will do an excellent job. Once we have received and tested the production boards, we will package them up and send them to Crowd Supply for fulfillment.

Fulfillment & Logistics

Crowd Supply will ship Open Game Stations to all backers worldwide. Please see their guide for more information about ordering, paying, and shipping. Don’t forget to check your Crowd Supply account settings to make sure your shipping address is up-to-date!

Risks & Challenges

As we’ve seen over the past few months—with COVID-19 disrupting supply chains and delivery schedules throughout the world—hardware projects come with a certain level of inherent risk. That said, the number of Open Game Station boards we have already produced gives us confidence, both in our design and in our manufacturing process. We are doing our best to avoid other risks, such as parts shortages, and will keep our backers informed about any delays that we do happen to encounter.