research-article

Web-based Programming for Low-cost Gaming Handhelds

Authors:

Abhijith Chatra,

Peli de Halleux,

Jacqueline Russell,

Joey Wunderlich,

Daryl ZunigaAuthors Info & Claims

FDG '21: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

Article No.: 38, Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/3472538.3472572

Published: 21 October 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Low-cost microcontroller boards like the BBC micro:bit are used to engage and inspire students worldwide to learn more about computing. Easy-to-use web-based programming environments and low-cost hardware allow novices to build physical computing systems with the micro:bit – systems that sense and respond to the real world. However, devices such as the micro:bit may not capture the attention of every student, as the interests of some may lie in graphic design, animation, or other areas that are not the main focus of physical computing.

Video game creation offers the opportunity for students to engage with computing concepts from a different angle, while keeping open the possibilities for physical computing. To date however, there is no game creation platform that has both the same low-barrier to entry and low-cost hardware as the BBC micro:bit.

We present MakeCode Arcade, a web app for creating video games for gaming handhelds, built on the same technologies as the BBC micro:bit, extended to support multiple microcontrollers and including a 2D game engine and easy-to-use sprite and music editors. We also designed a simple hardware specification that resulted in five different companies creating seven Arcade-compatible handhelds. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation demonstrates that Arcade enables a modern and fully web-based programming experience for low-cost microcontroller-based gaming handhelds.

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Cited By

Palin KFinney JHodges SBall T(2024)MicroData: live visualisation & recording of micro:bit sensor dataProceedings of the 19th WiPSCE Conference on Primary and Secondary Computing Education Research10.1145/3677619.3678135(1-2)Online publication date: 16-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677619.3678135
Hartley KRubegni EUnderwood LFinney JBall THodges SDe Halleux PDevine JAnderson EMoskal M(2024)Meet MicroCode: a Live and Portable Programming Tool for the BBC micro:bitProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3656995(355-370)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3656995
Xu QLiu Y(2023)Research on the Applicability of Makecode Arcade from the Perspective of Resource AllocationProceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Internet, Education and Information Technology (IEIT 2023)10.2991/978-94-6463-230-9_88(741-747)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-230-9_88

Web-based Programming for Low-cost Gaming Handhelds

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cover image ACM Other conferences

FDG '21: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games

August 2021

534 pages

ISBN:9781450384223

DOI:10.1145/3472538

Copyright © 2021 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 21 October 2021

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FDG'21

FDG'21: The 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games 2021

August 3 - 6, 2021

QC, Montreal, Canada

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Cited By

Palin KFinney JHodges SBall T(2024)MicroData: live visualisation & recording of micro:bit sensor dataProceedings of the 19th WiPSCE Conference on Primary and Secondary Computing Education Research10.1145/3677619.3678135(1-2)Online publication date: 16-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3677619.3678135
Hartley KRubegni EUnderwood LFinney JBall THodges SDe Halleux PDevine JAnderson EMoskal M(2024)Meet MicroCode: a Live and Portable Programming Tool for the BBC micro:bitProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3656995(355-370)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3656995
Xu QLiu Y(2023)Research on the Applicability of Makecode Arcade from the Perspective of Resource AllocationProceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Internet, Education and Information Technology (IEIT 2023)10.2991/978-94-6463-230-9_88(741-747)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-230-9_88

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