Gameduino is an Arduino Shield. This is the first one we are using here in this book. Basically, a shield is a PCB (printed circuit board) that can be plugged to another PCB, here our Arduino.
Arduino Shields are pre-made circuits including components and sometimes processors too. They add features to our Arduino board by handling some specific tasks.
Here, the Gameduino will add VGA drawing abilities to our Arduino that can't be done on its own.
The Gameduino adds a VGA port, a mini-jack for the sound, and also includes an FPGA Xilling Spartan3A. FPGA Xilling Spartan3A can process graphical data faster than the Arduino itself. Arduino can control this graphical hardware driver by SPI interface.
Let's see how it works:
The Gameduino controller Arduino Shield
Arduino Shields can be plugged in Arduino boards directly. Check the following screenshot:
The Gameduino plugged in the Arduino board
Here are some characteristics of the Gameduino:
Video output is 400 x 300...