Surely you’ve played some little games right on your PyGamer or PyBadge — perhaps using CircuitPython or Microsoft MakeCode. But did you know…you can also use PyGamer or PyBadge as a USB game controller with your regular computer or with popular emulators on Raspberry Pi! Not just any game controller though. With that little screen, why not give it some personality? So we made a little animated friend and named her JOY. Joy’s eyes blink and follow the joystick, and she makes an occasional encouraging “pew pew!” as buttons are pressed.
JOY will watch and cheer you on as you play, but doesn’t have to be a game controller. She can control all manner of software or media such as YouTube, Photoshop, Premiere, Ableton Live, etc. Anything that a USB keyboard can do, JOY can operate as well.
Adafruit has had paid day off for voting for our team for years, if you need help getting that going for your organization, let us know – we can share how and why we did this as well as the good results. Here are some resources for voting by mail, voting in person, and some NY resources for our NY based teams as well. If there are additional resources to add, please let us know – adafruit.com/vote
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
