BadgerHack: Gaming Add-On Kit

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Contributors: Shawn Hymel
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Introduction

The BadgerStick that you received by visiting a SparkFun booth at one of the various events we've attended can be hacked to perform a wide variety of tasks. The display may be small (don't get your hopes up of running Doom on an 8x7 monochrome display). However, we can use it to display information and even play some basic games.

BadgerHack

This tutorial will guide you through turning your BadgerStick into a micro gaming system. Remember the game Breakout? Let's make a Breakout clone on our BadgerStick by adding a joystick and some buttons!

Breakout on the Badger

NOTE: The BadgerStick and RedStick are two different products. The BadgerStick (aka BadgerHack) originated as an event-only platform to aid SparkFun in teaching soldering and programming at events like Maker local Faires and SXSW. The RedStick evolved from that concept and is the retail version of the BadgerStick, available for sale on SparkFun.com. All of the BadgerStick tutorials and expansion kits are compatible with both the BadgerStick and the RedStick, unless otherwise stated.

Required Materials

We will need a few other components to make a simple controller for the BadgerStick.


Suggested Reading

Before starting this tutorial, we highly recommend you work through the main BadgerHack guide first.

BadgerHack

September 23, 2015

This tutorial shows users how to solder their SparkFun interactive badges as well as put them to use in other projects.

Additionally, if you are new to soldering or electronics, we recommend you check out the following:

When you are ready to start hacking your badge, we definitely recommend reading: