PyGamer
by Adafruit
The Adafruit PyGamer is an entry-level gaming handheld for DIY gaming and maybe a little retro-emulation, all in one compact dev board.
The PyGamer is powered by the ATSAMD51 microcontroller with 512KB of flash and 192KB of RAM. There is an additional 8 MB of QSPI flash for file storage, handy for images, fonts, sounds, or game assets.
On the front, you get a 1.8” 160x128 color TFT display with a dimmable backlight. There is fast DMA support for drawing - screen updates are incredibly fast. A dual-potentiometer analog stick gives great control, with easy diagonal movement, or really any direction you like. There are also 4 square-top buttons which fit square top button caps (available separately). The buttons are arranged to mimic a gaming handheld, with 2 menu-select buttons and 2 fire-action buttons. There are also 5 NeoPixel LEDs below the LCD screen to dazzle or track activity.
On the back, there is a full Feather-compatible header socket set to allow plugging in any FeatherWing, providinge expansion of the PyGamer’s capabilities. There are 3 integrated STEMMA connectors: two 3-pin with ADC/PWM capability and one 4-pin that connects to I2C - this can be used for Grove sensors as well.
For built in sensors, there’s a light sensor that points out the front, and a 3-axis accelerometer that can detect taps and free-fall. To make bleeps and bloops, plug in any set of stereo headphones. For projects where you need more volume, you can plug in an 8 ohm speaker. The PyGamer will auto-switch to speakers when they’re plugged in.
You can power the PyGamer from any Adafruit LiPoly battery, but this 350mAh one is suggested as it will fit into the Adafruit PyGamer acrylic case (sold separately). An on-off switch will save battery power when not in use. Or power the PyGamer from the Micro USB port - it will also charge up the battery if one is attached.
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CircuitPython 9.0.4
This is the latest stable release of CircuitPython that will work with the PyGamer.
Use this release if you are new to CircuitPython.
Built-in modules available: _asyncio, _bleio, _pixelmap, _stage, adafruit_bus_device, adafruit_pixelbuf, alarm, analogio, array, atexit, audiobusio, audiocore, audioio, audiomixer, audiomp3, binascii, bitbangio, bitmaptools, board, builtins, builtins.pow3, busdisplay, busio, busio.SPI, busio.UART, codeop, collections, countio, digitalio, displayio, epaperdisplay, errno, fontio, fourwire, frequencyio, getpass, i2cdisplaybus, i2ctarget, io, json, keypad, keypad.KeyMatrix, keypad.Keys, keypad.ShiftRegisterKeys, locale, math, microcontroller, msgpack, neopixel_write, nvm, onewireio, os, os.getenv, paralleldisplaybus, ps2io, pulseio, pwmio, rainbowio, random, re, rotaryio, rtc, samd, sdcardio, select, storage, struct, supervisor, synthio, sys, terminalio, time, touchio, traceback, ulab, usb_cdc, usb_hid, usb_midi, vectorio, warnings, watchdog, zlib
Included frozen(?) modules: stage, ugame
CircuitPython 9.1.0-beta.1
This is the latest development release of CircuitPython that will work with the PyGamer.
Alpha development releases are early releases. They are unfinished, are likely to have bugs, and the features they provide may change. Beta releases may have some bugs and unfinished features, but should be suitable for many uses. A Release Candidate (rc) release is considered done and will become the next stable release, assuming no further issues are found.
Please try alpha, beta, and rc releases if you are able. Your testing is invaluable: it helps us uncover and find issues quickly.
Release Notes for 9.1.0-beta.1
Built-in modules available: _asyncio, _bleio, _pixelmap, _stage, adafruit_bus_device, adafruit_pixelbuf, alarm, analogio, array, atexit, audiobusio, audiocore, audioio, audiomixer, audiomp3, binascii, bitbangio, bitmaptools, board, builtins, builtins.pow3, busdisplay, busio, busio.SPI, busio.UART, codeop, collections, countio, digitalio, displayio, epaperdisplay, errno, fontio, fourwire, frequencyio, getpass, i2ctarget, io, json, keypad, keypad.KeyMatrix, keypad.Keys, keypad.ShiftRegisterKeys, locale, math, microcontroller, msgpack, neopixel_write, nvm, onewireio, os, os.getenv, ps2io, pulseio, pwmio, rainbowio, random, re, rotaryio, rtc, samd, sdcardio, select, storage, struct, supervisor, synthio, sys, terminalio, time, touchio, traceback, ulab, usb_cdc, usb_hid, usb_midi, vectorio, warnings, watchdog, zlib
Included frozen(?) modules: stage, ugame
Absolute Newest
Every time we commit new code to CircuitPython we automatically build binaries for each board and language. The binaries are stored on Amazon S3, organized by board, and then by language. These releases are even newer than the development release listed above. Try them if you want the absolute latest and are feeling daring or want to see if a problem has been fixed.
Previous Versions of CircuitPython
All previous releases of CircuitPython are available for download from Amazon S3 through the button below. For very old releases, look in the OLD/ folder for each board. Release notes for each release are available at GitHub button below.
Older releases are useful for testing if you something appears to be broken in a newer release but used to work, or if you have older code that depends on features only available in an older release. Otherwise we recommend using the latest stable release.
Update UF2 Bootloader
Latest version: v3.15.0
The bootloader allows you to load CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino programs. The bootloader is not CircuitPython. You can check the current version of your bootloader by looking in the INFO_UF2.TXT file when the BOOT drive is visible (FEATHERBOOT, CPLAYBOOT, etc.).
It is not necessary to update your bootloader if it is working fine. Read the release notes on GitHub to see what has been changed. In general, we recommend you not update the bootloader unless you know there is a problem with it or a support person has asked you to try updating it.
To update, first save the contents of CIRCUITPY, just in case. Then double-click the reset button to show the BOOT drive. Drag the update-bootloader .uf2 file to the BOOT drive. Wait a few tens of seconds for the bootloader to update; the BOOT drive will reappear. After you update, check INFO_UF2.TXT to verify that the bootloader version has been updated. Then you will need to reload CircuitPython.