gamebuino_classic_sdl

Gamebuino Classic games ported to SDL2, SDL3 and Playdate selectable in one convient menu

Project maintained by joyrider3774 Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

Gamebuino Classic → SDL

A native SDL3 port bringing 99 games from the Gamebuino Classic library (an Arduino-based handheld with an 84x48 Nokia 5110/PCD8544 monochrome display and 7 real digital buttons) behind one shared game-select menu, running as a plain desktop executable - no emulator required.

Two more ports also live in this same repo, alongside the primary SDL3 port in src/sdl3/, all three sharing one src/gameworld/ codebase (all 99 games, the menu, the shims):

SDL2 (src/sdl2/) - built by porting src/sdl3/’s own platform files API-call-by-API-call, then verified functionally identical (every behavioral constant, every input mapping table, every one of the 99 games).
Playdate (src/playdate/) - a genuinely different kind of port (fixed 400x240 1-bit hardware, its own C SDK, no CLI/window/desktop concept at all), so a from-scratch platform layer instead - a brand-new Playdate-native menu (alphabetized, numbered, paginated, with a live gameplay thumbnail + author caption for the selected game), manual GAME_SCALE-based rendering (84x48 native display content scaled 4x, 336x192, to fit the real panel), real per-game frame-rate sync (pd->display->setRefreshRate() tracks whatever rate the running game actually requests, leveraging the real hardware’s own native 0-50fps refresh-rate control instead of a fixed-tick accumulator), a real, native LCDPattern-based checkerboard dither for GB_GRAY content (kColorGrey, a genuine device-pixel-level dither via the Playdate SDK’s own pattern-fill mechanism, not an approximation), and Gamebuino’s own Button C - which has no physical Playdate equivalent - routed through a real system-menu item instead of a face button. See CLAUDE.md’s own “The Playdate port” section for the full design writeup.

See CLAUDE.md’s “Directory layout / multi-port structure” section for the full writeup on how this multi-port layout works, and for what a future fourth port would need to add.

The game logic itself is already-ported, already-bug-fixed C, carried over from the sibling gamebuino_classic_vircon32 project by converting only the small amount of nonstandard Vircon32 C-dialect syntax it depended on back into standard C (array declaration order, int[]-as-string → char*, bare struct Tag → typedef struct)

the actual game code, and the whole bug-fix history behind it, is unchanged. Every per-game bug already found and fixed there (the byte-truncation/shift-wraparound/signed-sentinel/logical-shift family of dialect bugs, plus dozens of genuine game-logic bugs found via real play) applies here too, since it’s the same C. Real upstream bugs (gameplay quirks that look like mistakes) are preserved by default rather than silently fixed, matching that project’s own established policy - see its own BUGS.md for the full list of what’s deliberately preserved vs. what was fixed and why.

The shared gameworld/gamebuinoShim.c sound engine is a real port of the actual tracker/pattern/track engine (notes, patterns, tracks, and instrument envelopes/slide/arpeggio/tremolo commands), not just one-shot tones - with one real, documented gap carried over from the sibling project unchanged: there is no noise instrument. Real hardware drives its speaker from a genuine pseudorandom noise generator for any instrument step flagged as noise (e.g. playTick()); this port has no noise waveform at all, so a noise-flagged step plays as a plain tone at the same pitch/duration instead.

The platform layer itself - window/input/audio/rendering, the menu, the CLI, and EEPROM persistence - is new, built directly against SDL3, reusing infrastructure and technique from the same author’s Tinyjoypad_SDL project where it fit: the CInput keyboard/gamepad abstraction (copied verbatim, fully generic), the audio oscillator shape, the menu’s own real Vircon32 BIOS-font rendering (biosFont.h, copied byte-for-byte verbatim), and the general multi-port directory/CMake structure.

This port was built with the help of Claude AI (Anthropic) - the platform layer, the dialect conversion, every game ported across several batches of background agents, every bug found during the port, and the Playdate port’s own design work were all done through an AI-assisted development workflow.

Building

Requires CMake and a C compiler (developed against MinGW-w64/GCC on Windows; nothing in the source is Windows-specific beyond the -mwindows linker flag, which only suppresses the console window and is skipped on non-Windows).

This repo has no top-level CMakeLists.txt - each port under src/ (src/sdl3/ and src/sdl2/) is its own standalone CMake project, built from inside its own directory:

cd src/sdl3          # or: cd src/sdl2
cmake -B build -G Ninja -DUSE_VENDORED_SDL=1
cmake --build build

USE_VENDORED_SDL=1 builds SDL from the matching vendored checkout at the repo root (SDL3/ for src/sdl3/, SDL2/ for src/sdl2/) as a static library and statically links everything into one self-contained executable (no SDL DLL needed alongside it).
Omit -DUSE_VENDORED_SDL=1 (or set it to 0) to link against a system-installed SDL instead (find_package(SDL3 CONFIG) / find_package(SDL2 CONFIG) respectively).
The menu’s thumbnail images are compiled directly into the executable (assets/thumbnails/thumbnailData.h, generated from assets/thumbnails/ thumb_NN.bmp by tools/gen_thumbnails.py - re-run it after changing any thumbnail) - there’s no assets/ folder to ship or find alongside the built exe. The single resulting binary is the complete, runnable, relocatable artifact - copy just the .exe to distribute it.
The resulting binary ends up at src/sdl3/build/GamebuinoClassicSDL3 (or src/sdl2/build/GamebuinoClassicSDL2, or .exe on Windows either way). See CLAUDE.md’s “Directory layout / multi-port structure” section for why the build entry point is per-port rather than a single repo-root command.
The two ports are functionally identical (same shared src/gameworld/, same CLI, same keybinds) - pick whichever matches what’s actually available to link against on your system/platform. SDL3 is the primary, most-exercised port.

See CLAUDE.md’s own “The Playdate port” section for how to build src/playdate/ (Simulator and device targets, requires the official Playdate SDK).

Running

Identical CLI/behavior on both SDL ports - examples below use the SDL3 binary, substitute GamebuinoClassicSDL2 (from src/sdl2/build/) for the SDL2 one.

./GamebuinoClassicSDL3                    # opens the menu
./GamebuinoClassicSDL3 -g "FLAPPY BIRDO"  # launches a game directly by title
./GamebuinoClassicSDL3 -list              # prints every game's title, then exits
./GamebuinoClassicSDL3 -help              # full command-line reference

See -help for the complete flag list (window size/fullscreen, -ns to skip audio, -fps for a live FPS overlay, -nd to uncap the framerate, -s to force software rendering instead of the default GPU-accelerated one, -ms to batch-capture a gameplay screenshot of every game, -gbu to write a .gbu stub file per game for external frontends, and a .gbu file itself as a positional argument to launch straight into that game).

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Gamepad
Move / navigate menu	Arrow keys	D-pad or left stick
Gamebuino Button A / confirm	X	South button (A on Xbox)
Gamebuino Button B	C	East button (B on Xbox)
Gamebuino Button C	D	West button (X on Xbox)
Start / pause / quit-confirmation dialog	Escape or Enter	Start or Back
Cycle pixel-grid / glow / CRT scanline effect	G (also L, W, or Z)	Left shoulder (L1)
Toggle real-solid-gray-color mode	R (also V)	Right shoulder (R1)
Volume down / up	-	Left/Right trigger (L2/R2)
Mute / unmute sound	S	North button (Y on Xbox)

The quit-confirmation dialog (Start, mid-game) freezes the current game and asks YES/NO before returning to the menu - unless the game was launched directly (-g <NAME> or a .gbu file), in which case there’s no menu to return to, so Start quits the app immediately instead, with no dialog. GB_GRAY content (used by several games for a dithered “third shade” on this strictly 2-color display) renders as a real, flickering checkerboard dither by default - matching real Gamebuino Classic hardware exactly - or, with the real-solid-gray-color toggle on (the default here), as a genuine flat, solid gray instead; only visible in games that actually draw GB_GRAY content.

The pixel-grid/glow/CRT cycle is a single button stepping through all 8 real combinations of the three effects (a genuine 3-bit counter - off, each effect alone, and every pairing/triple together), only visible during actual gameplay, not on the menu screen. Fullscreen/volume/mute work everywhere (menu and in-game) and are logged to the console on every change, since there’s no on-screen indicator for them; -f/-ns on the command line still cover fullscreen/no-sound at launch time.

Games

Click a thumbnail for the full-size screenshot. In the menu, a handful of titles are shown in red text instead of white - a plain visual “known unfinished” warning (e.g. missing scoring/win-lose conditions, built from a genuinely incomplete upstream source, or a known bug like a ball that can get stuck). They’re still fully selectable and playable like any other game, just flagged.

The table also includes Sound Test, which uses the same red-text flagging but for a different reason: it’s not a ported game at all, just an in-cartridge diagnostic tool for exercising the sound shim’s own primitives directly (playOK()/playCancel()/playTick(), a raw pitch sweep, and a few instrument/volume/slide extras).

Game	Author	License	Save	Source
101 Starships	Zoglu	None	—	zoglu.net (no stable link)
A to K	Carlos Mari	CC-BY 4.0 (+ no-selling note)	✅	carloslabs.com (no stable link)
Aerial-Assault	SkylarHylar	None	—	Strike Down
Agaruino	ogbaba	GPLv3	—	Agaruino
Aimbuino	Baptiste Pouget (hosted under ogbaba’s account)	GPLv3	✅	Aimbuino
Another 2048	grafMakulaDer2te	None	—	another2048
Armageddon	wuuff	GPLv3	✅	armageddon
Artillery	Frakasss	None	—	Artillery
Asterocks	Yoda Zhang	None	✅	yodasvideoarcade.com
AsteroidRipper	ripper121	None	—	Recovered via direct download (no stable link)
B-Rally	scmar	MIT	✅	B Rally
Bang! Bang!	RackhamLeNoir	GPLv3	—	gamebuino bangbang
BigBlackBox	STUDIOCRAFTapps	Custom (non-commercial, keep credit - see source)	✅	akkera102 08 gamebuino
Blob Attack	LudumDareDevelopment	None	✅	Blob Attack
Blockdude	Sorunome	None	✅	blockdude gamebuino
BlocksBuino	frthery	None	—	BlocksBuino
Bomber	Clement83	None	—	Bomber
Breakout Ripper	ripper121	None	—	Recovered via direct download (no stable link)
Bub	smogheap	GPLv3	✅	smogheap.github.io/bub
Castle Defence	kh9282	None	✅	CastleDefence
Catcher	qubist	None	—	Gamebuino Catcher
Community RPG	Sorunome	None	—	gamebuino community rpg
Conduit	adekto	MIT	—	conduit
Copter	Clement83	None	—	Copter
CopterStrike	Frakasss	None	—	CopterStrike
Crabator	Rodot	None	✅	Crabator
CrazyCar	Baptiste Pouget	GPLv3	—	CRAZYCAR Gamebuino
CrazyTown	Clement Quintard	None	✅	CrazyTown
Cruiser	Michael Specht	None	—	cruiser
Dark Tower	Marcus Hutchings	GPLv3	—	DarkTower
DarkShmup	Clement83	None	—	DarkShmup
DeathMaze	msevilgenius	None	✅	Recovered via direct download (no stable link)
Descent into Hell	etienne72230	None	✅	DescentIntoHeel
Digger	scmar	None	✅	Digger
Elventure	trodoss (original, TEAM a.r.g.) / wuuff (Gamebuino port)	GPLv3	—	Elventure
Fifteen	Tnxec2	None	✅	fifteen
FireBuino!	LADBSoft	LGPLv3	✅	makerbuino firebuino
Firemen	Vicking69	GPLv2	✅	firemen
Flappy Birdo	Forklift5	None	✅	FlappyBirdo
Footlol	Baptiste Pouget (hosted under ogbaba’s account)	GPLv3	—	FOOTLOL Gamebuino
Gamebuino2048	Josiah Winslow	None	✅	Mediafire (no stable link)
Gemgem	Tnxec2	None	✅	gemgem gamebuino
GlaciGlaca	Clement83	None	—	GlaciGlaca
Gruniozerca	Arkadiusz Kaminski (arhneu)	Unlicense	✅	gruniozerca gamebuino
Invaders	Yoda Zhang	None	✅	yodasvideoarcade.com
Jezzball	RackhamLeNoir	GPLv3	✅	gamebuino jezzball
Kill Race	Yoda Zhang	None	✅	yodasvideoarcade.com
Lander	Yoda Zhang	None	✅	yodasvideoarcade.com
Lights Out AD	94k	WTFPL	—	Recovered via direct download (no stable link)
Maruino	ajsb113	None	—	Dropbox (no stable link)
Master Kebab	ogbaba	GPLv3	✅	RMKebab
Maze	Andy O’Neill	MIT	—	gamebuino maze
microHexagon	valdenthoranar	None	✅	microhexagon
Minesweeper	dirksteindorf	None	—	Gamebuino Minesweeper
Mole Control	grafMakulaDer2te	None	—	mole control
MotoCross	Clement83	None	—	MotoCross
MyRPG	Frakasss	None	—	MyRPG
No Name Platform Game	Frakasss	None	—	NoNamePlatformGame
Paqman	Yoda Zhang	None	✅	yodasvideoarcade.com
Parachute	Jicehel	None	—	Parachute Gamebuino
PetitMonstre	Clement83	None	—	PetitMonstre
PinBall	Clement83	None	—	pinBall
Pong 2017	yawn-g	None	—	pong 2017
Pong Local Multiplayer	qubist	None	—	Gamebuino PongLocalMultiplayer
Pong Solo	Aurelien Rodot	LGPLv3	—	Gamebuino Classic examples
Punkt	Andy O’Neill	MIT	✅	gamebuino punkt
Ralph	Clement83	None	—	Ralph
Robot	Frakasss	None	—	Robot
Save Princesse	Clement83	None	—	SavePrincesse
Senet	Maximilian Timmerkamp	Apache 2.0	—	Recovered via direct download (originally hosted on Bitbucket, no stable link)
shipwrek	yawn-g	None	—	shipwrek
ShootBuino	frthery	None	✅	ShootBuino
Shufflepuck Cafe	AWOT83	GPLv3	—	Gamebuino Shufflepuck cafe
Simonbuino	Jerom (Forklift5)	None	—	Simonbuino
Skibuino	Mike Del Pozzo	GPLv3	✅	skibuino
Smash-and-Crash	Skyrunner65	None	—	Smash and Crash
Snake 5110	Lady Awesome & MakerSquirrel	CC-BY-SA 2018 / GPLv3 (unresolved conflict, see source)	✅	Gamebuino Classic Snake 5110
Snake ABC	frthery	None	—	SnakeAbcBuino
Snake Classic	Ripper121 (original), Tnxec2 (fork)	None	—	snake gamebuino classic
Sokobuino	martinsustek	None	✅	Recovered via direct download (no stable link)
Solitaire	Andy O’Neill	MIT	✅	gamebuino solitaire
Sound Test	willems davy	GPLv3 (this project’s own code)	—	Not a ported game - a sound-shim diagnostic tool, see above
Spin Spin Spinbuino!	Charly Piva “Zoglu” / Margot Piva “Isil”	None	✅	zoglu.net (no stable link)
Star Honor	Wenceslao Villanueva Jr (original) / wuuff (Gamebuino port)	MIT	—	StarHonor
StickFighter	Clement83 (art by Quirby64)	None	—	StickFighter
Stijn’s Pong	Stijn Caerts	MIT	—	Gamebuino (StijnCaerts)
Stijn’s Snake	Stijn Caerts	MIT	—	Gamebuino (StijnCaerts)
Super Crate Buino	Aurelien Rodot	None	✅	Super Crate Buino
Super Space Shooter	msevilgenius	None	—	Gamebuino SuperSpaceShooter
T-Rex Quest	Awot83	GPLv3	—	Gamebuino TREX QUEST
Taquin	RackhamLeNoir	GPLv3	—	gamebuino taquin
Tetrino	j0ff	MIT	—	tetrino
Thunder Shoot	Awot83	GPLv3	—	Gamebuino Thunder Shoot
Tron	Clement83	None	—	Tron
UFO Race	Rodot	None	✅	UFO Race
Under the Tower	wuuff	GPLv3	✅	under the tower
Video Poker	Mike Del Pozzo	GPLv3	✅	videopoker gamebuino
World’s Hardest Game	Sorunome	None	✅	Worlds Hardest Game Gamebuino
Xonix	Tnxec2	None	—	xonix gamebuino
ZombiEscape	Frakasss	None	—	ZombiEscape

Credits

gamebuino_classic_vircon32 - the original Vircon32 port this project is itself ported from: every game’s own C logic (src/gameworld/games/), already ported once from the original Gamebuino Classic sources and already bug-fixed through its own extensive play-testing history, was carried over here essentially unchanged - only a mechanical dialect conversion (see CLAUDE.md) touched it to make it build as standard C instead of Vircon32’s own restricted dialect. This project’s own platform layer (SDL3/SDL2/ Playdate) is new; the game code underneath it is not.
Gamebuino Classic library (Aurélien Rodot, LGPLv3) - this project’s own src/gameworld/ gamebuinoShim.h/.c reproduces its real API (buttons, display, sound) on top of SDL/Playdate, and its own real font5x7/font3x5/font3x3 bitmap fonts are ported verbatim for in-game text rendering.
Vircon32 - the fantasy console the game logic here was originally ported through. This project’s own menu/ dialog text (SDL2/SDL3 only - Playdate uses its own native system font) is drawn with a faithful reproduction of Vircon32’s real BIOS font (src/gameworld/biosFont.h - 10x20px, codepage 1252, all 256 glyphs extracted directly from the actual BIOS font asset, not hand- transcribed), authored by Carra (Vircon32’s own author) and published on OpenGameArt.org as “Pixel Art Outlined Text Fonts” under CC-BY 4.0 - a separate license from this project’s own GPLv3 below; this credit is that license’s own attribution requirement.
Tinyjoypad_SDL (same author, a different game collection) - the direct architectural template this whole multi-port repo is modeled on (the src/<port>/ directory layout, per-port CMakeLists.txt shape, CLI flag set), and the source of the CInput keyboard/gamepad abstraction and the audio oscillator shape, both copied verbatim - see CLAUDE.md for exactly where each was reused versus built fresh for this project’s own Gamebuino-specific needs.
Every individual game’s own original author/license is preserved unmodified in its own header comment under src/gameworld/games/ and listed per-game in the “Games” table above.

License

This project is GPLv3 (LICENSE.txt): several of the games shipped here (Agaruino, CrazyCar, Shufflepuck Cafe, Taquin, and others) are themselves GPLv3, and combining GPLv3 code into one executable makes the whole executable a GPLv3 combined work. This covers this project’s own new code (the SDL3/SDL2/Playdate platform layers, the shared menu) - each individual game’s own original license/attribution is preserved unmodified in its own header comment in src/gameworld/games/.

Known concern: Firemen’s own upstream LICENSE.md says only “GPL V2”, with no “or later version” clause found - GPLv2-only code is not license-compatible with GPLv3 the way every other GPL’d game here (all GPLv3) is, so combining it into this same GPLv3 binary as-is is a real, unresolved licensing conflict, not just a compatible-license bookkeeping detail. Inherited directly from the source Vircon32 project, flagged here rather than silently ignored; not yet resolved.