The Arduboy FX-C is an excellent time killer you might forget you’re carrying

Arduboy FX-C：一款让你几乎忘了它存在的绝佳消遣神器

The latest version of the Arduboy comes with over 300 games in a handheld still small enough to hide in your wallet. 最新版本的 Arduboy 预装了 300 多款游戏，其机身小巧到足以藏进你的钱包里。

As handheld consoles continue to grow and push the limits of what you can actually hold in your hands, the Arduboy FX-C comes in a refreshingly pocketable package. It manages to squeeze the best features of past models and some welcome upgrades into a handheld that’s still no larger or thicker than a few credit cards. It’s the best version of the Arduboy so far, particularly for gamers who want to jump into the handheld’s ever-expanding library of games and apps right out of the box, but one of its most compelling upgrades isn’t quite ready for primetime. 随着掌机设备不断变大并挑战手持设备的极限，Arduboy FX-C 以一种令人耳目一新的便携形态登场。它成功地将历代机型的精华功能与一些令人欣喜的升级整合在一起，而机身大小和厚度依然仅相当于几张信用卡。这是迄今为止最出色的 Arduboy 版本，尤其是对于那些希望开箱即玩、体验其不断扩充的游戏与应用库的玩家而言。不过，它最引人注目的升级功能之一目前尚未完全准备好投入使用。

The original Arduboy was a Tetris-playing business card created by Kevin Bates to show off his electronics skills. It went viral in 2014 prompting Bates to turn the idea into a commercial device a year later that was both a tiny open-source gaming device and a tool that could help would-be developers learn to code. 最初的 Arduboy 是由 Kevin Bates 制作的一张能玩俄罗斯方块的“名片”，旨在展示他的电子技术。该项目在 2014 年走红，促使 Bates 在一年后将其转化为商业产品。它既是一款微型开源游戏设备，也是帮助准开发者学习编程的工具。

After over a decade of minor iterations, the Arduboy FX-C looks very much like the original. The controls are limited to six buttons, four of which function as a D-pad. They have a minimal amount of travel given the device is just 5mm thin, but a satisfying amount of click when pressed. The piezoelectric speaker is high pitched but more than loud enough, and its 1.3-inch, 1-bit OLED screen is bright enough to be playable outdoors. 经过十多年的小幅迭代，Arduboy FX-C 的外观与初代机型非常相似。控制按键仅有六个，其中四个充当方向键（D-pad）。考虑到设备仅有 5 毫米厚，按键行程非常短，但按下时有令人满意的点击感。压电扬声器音调较高，但音量绰绰有余；其 1.3 英寸的 1 位 OLED 屏幕亮度足够，在户外也能清晰可见。

While the 37-year-old original Game Boy could display four shades of greenish-gray, the Arduboy FX-C’s screen is monochromatic and limited to only white pixels. Developers have to rely on visual tricks like dithering or flickering to create grayscale graphics. Equally limiting is the FX-C’s ATmega32u4 processor that’s paired with just 2.5KB of RAM. Compared to other black-and-white handhelds like the Playdate, the Arduboy FX-C feels primitive but its limitations have forced game developers to get creative and experimental, which is a big part of this platform’s appeal. 虽然 37 年前的初代 Game Boy 就能显示四种深浅的灰绿色，但 Arduboy FX-C 的屏幕是单色的，仅限于白色像素。开发者必须依靠抖动（dithering）或闪烁等视觉技巧来创造灰度图形。同样受限的是 FX-C 的 ATmega32u4 处理器，它仅配备了 2.5KB 的内存。与 Playdate 等其他黑白掌机相比，Arduboy FX-C 显得非常原始，但正是这些局限性迫使游戏开发者进行创造性实验，这也构成了该平台魅力的一部分。

My biggest frustration with the original Arduboy was its minimal storage that had me regularly connecting the device to my laptop when I wanted to play a different game. In 2020, Bates introduced the Arduboy FX with an extra flash chip on board that could hold 250 games. The FX-C inherits that chip, but a slightly larger version, bumping its included library of games to over 300, while also upgrading the device from microUSB to USB-C. 我对初代 Arduboy 最不满的地方在于其极小的存储空间，导致我想玩不同游戏时必须频繁地将设备连接到笔记本电脑。2020 年，Bates 推出了内置额外闪存芯片的 Arduboy FX，可以容纳 250 款游戏。FX-C 继承了该芯片，但容量略有增加，将内置游戏库提升至 300 多款，同时还将接口从 microUSB 升级到了 USB-C。

It’d be nice if the FX-C had a color screen, a proper D-pad, dedicated volume buttons, an improved sound chip, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even a microSD card slot, but none of those upgrades really feel necessary. It’s a handheld that feels pared down to the absolute bare necessities for gaming, but it works. 如果 FX-C 能拥有彩色屏幕、真正的方向键、独立的音量按钮、改进的音效芯片、Wi-Fi、蓝牙甚至 microSD 卡槽，那固然很好，但这些升级并非绝对必要。这是一款将游戏功能精简到极致的掌机，但它确实好用。

A tiny switch on the top edge of the FX-C powers up the handheld but it can occasionally be a challenge if, like me, your fingernails are short. After a near instant boot up, you’re presented with a simple homescreen and menu system. The bundled games are sorted into several categories including Action, Adventure, Arcade, Runner, Puzzle, and Racing you cycle through by scrolling left and right. Games in each category are instead scrolled vertically by pressing up or down. It’s simple and easy to navigate, however I would like to see one additional category that lists all the games alphabetically. FX-C 顶部边缘的一个微型开关用于启动掌机，但如果你像我一样指甲较短，操作起来偶尔会有些困难。几乎瞬间开机后，你会看到一个简洁的主屏幕和菜单系统。预装游戏分为动作、冒险、街机、跑酷、解谜和竞速等几大类，通过左右滚动进行切换。每个类别内的游戏则通过上下按键进行垂直滚动。导航简单易用，不过我希望能增加一个按字母顺序排列所有游戏的分类。

All of the games that have been developed for the Arduboy are distributed for free, so you’re not going to find any classic 8-bit games you recognize like Super Mario Bros. or Castlevania that Nintendo is still making available on platforms like its Switch. But there are plenty of excellent doppelgängers that are similar enough to scratch a nostalgic itch while also being unique enough to keep lawyers at bay. Surprisingly, despite the FX-C’s limited processing power, there are far more than just side-scrollers and falling block puzzle games included. You’ll also find first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers, and racing games with excellent frame rates. 所有为 Arduboy 开发的游戏都是免费分发的，因此你不会找到像《超级马力欧兄弟》或《恶魔城》这类任天堂仍在 Switch 等平台上发行的经典 8 位游戏。但这里有许多优秀的“仿作”，它们既能满足你的怀旧情结，又具备足够的独特性以规避法律风险。令人惊讶的是，尽管 FX-C 处理能力有限，但其中包含的游戏远不止横版过关和方块解谜类。你甚至能找到帧率表现出色的第一人称射击游戏、地牢探险游戏和竞速游戏。

There’s a lot of fun to be had, but don’t expect games that will take you weeks to finish. The Arduboy FX-C is better suited for quick pick-up-and-play sessions when you’ve got a few minutes to kill. 这款设备乐趣十足，但不要指望能玩到那种需要几周才能通关的游戏。Arduboy FX-C 更适合在你只有几分钟空闲时间时，拿出来快速玩上一把。

Unfortunately, the feature that convinced me to buy a pair of FX-Cs isn’t quite ready. I haven’t been able to get multiplayer over USB to work, although some users on the Arduboy community forums have been… 遗憾的是，那个让我决定购买两台 FX-C 的功能目前尚未完全准备好。我还没能成功实现通过 USB 进行多人联机，尽管 Arduboy 社区论坛上的一些用户已经……