Original Author: Robotopia

Translator: Luka

*This article has been translated with the original author's permission.*

Who doesn't remember those classic arcade games? Pac-Man shuttles through mazes, Donkey Kong climbs between high-rise buildings, asteroids collide in the vast universe, ping-pong balls go back and forth on virtual tables, and space invaders keep approaching the earth... Arcade represents a global entertainment revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. It is a symbol of the extraordinary creativity of that era. At that time, the arcade halls were always crowded with people immersed in the exciting game world and the unique charm brought by video games.

Many years later, the famous pocket video games launched by Nintendo allowed game enthusiasts to enjoy the fun of games anytime and anywhere. Today, the rapid development of technology has provided unprecedented opportunities for the most curious people. With the help of various open source resources, whether hardware or software, everyone can create their own video game consoles by hand, no longer just passively sitting in front of the screen to play games, but become participants in game creation and give full play to their creativity.

Now ELECFREAKS Micro:bit Retro Arcade is such a convenient and simple device that allows you to create your own wonderful world through programming through MakeCode Arcade.

What is MakeCode Arcade?

MakeCode is a block editor developed by Microsoft that is very similar to Scratch. It is designed to make it easy for children to learn programming. MakeCode ARCADE is a special variant of the software, tailored for children aged 8 and above, designed to help them write simple but fun video games. Through the intuitive graphical programming interface, children can easily realize the movement, jumping, attacking and other functions of the game characters by simply splicing various code blocks together like building blocks, making programming simple, easy to understand and full of fun.

Programmable arcade game machines have an irresistible appeal in the classroom

The core goal of teaching is to guide children and young people's strong interest in technology to a more valuable direction, rather than just entertainment. Creating games is a very suitable teaching activity for the classroom. It requires a lot of creativity to plan the overall structure of the game, plot setting, and level difficulty. In the actual design and programming process, various technical problems need to be solved, such as how to optimize game performance and how to achieve intelligent AI of game characters. These rich and diverse activities enable students of different ability levels to play their respective strengths in the team, collaborate with each other, and complement each other.

Teachers can easily access a variety of rich educational materials through the Internet, and easily introduce MakeCode Arcade into classroom teaching. These educational materials cover all aspects from basic programming knowledge explanation to complex game case analysis, providing strong support for teachers' teaching. On the other hand, students have step-by-step tutorials to learn. For beginners, they can start by modifying simple games and gradually become familiar with the basic concepts and operation methods of programming. As they learn more, they will be able to gradually master more advanced programming skills and eventually create a game that belongs to them completely from scratch.

Programmable console with MakeCode Arcade

Due to the growing popularity of MakeCode Arcade, companies have joined the race to make portable microcontrollers that can be downloaded into games. These microcontrollers are small and portable, so children can take them with them and show off their programming works at any time.

In our educational robot store https://shop.elecfreaks.com/, you can own two such programmable arcade game consoles.

ELECFREAKS micro:bit Retro Programming Arcade is a color screen joystick expansion board for micro:bit V2, it contains a TFT 160*128 color screen, 4 directional buttons, two A/B buttons and a reset button. The picture is clear and the colors are bright, which can bring excellent visual experience to children. The 6 control buttons are reasonably arranged and the operation feels comfortable, allowing children to control the game characters accurately.

This is a simple and fun way to help children write their own games and understand the mysteries behind the games. It also supports the use of graphical programming software to customize game characters, diverse scenes and plot designs, so that everyone can easily realize interesting electronic creations and unlimited game creativity. At the same time, in addition to being a game programming learning machine, it can also be used as a remote controller.

ELECFREAKS Retro Microsoft MakeCode Arcade For Education is the first arcade device on a big screen with a high resolution. Kids are able to use them to create their games in a fun and easy way through the blocks program

It allows for a self-defined game role, multiple game scenery, and plot design. It surprises you more with the bountiful built-in sensors and gives kids more chances to create.

Project Saving and Sharing

Created projects can be saved locally in the browser, so you can open them anytime and continue editing. At the same time, they can also be saved to files for transfer between different devices, or saved to the cloud for secure data storage and cross-device synchronization. Moreover, games can be shared. When you share a project, it is automatically saved to the MakeCode cloud. As long as you have the shared URL, anyone can easily access and view your project. This not only provides students with a platform to showcase their works, but also promotes communication and learning among them, and inspires more creative inspiration.

When you have ELECFREAKS Retro or ELECFREAKS micro:bit retro arcade, you can download the program directly to your device, and then discuss and share with friends.

The convenience of ELECFREAKS Retro Arcade

MakeCode Arcade is completely free and only requires a Google Chrome browser. This means that children can start their programming journey anytime, anywhere, with just one device, to program, test and play, and enjoy the fun of creating games.

A very interesting gift

For children, there is no more fun way to learn programming than to create their own video games. In the product manual of ELECFREAKS Arcade, we have carefully prepared some great examples for you, such as simple parkour games, shooting games, etc. You can refer to these examples to guide your children to quickly get started and start their programming creation journey.

Creating games for your own console is far more fun and rewarding than simply playing games! Do you dare to challenge? Come to https://shop.elecfreaks.com/ and start your own creative programming journey!