Bringing Quake to Arduino: a game-changing project by Nicola Wrachien

Following up on his successful Doom port last year, engineer Nicola Wrachien – who works at Silicon Labs, a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world and long-time Arduino partner – has now tackled an even bigger challenge: porting Quake, the iconic 1990s’ first-person shooter, to an Arduino gamepad.  What a […]

The post Bringing Quake to Arduino: a game-changing project by Nicola Wrachien appeared first on Arduino Blog.

Following up on his successful Doom port last year, engineer Nicola Wrachien – who works at Silicon Labs, a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world and long-time Arduino partner – has now tackled an even bigger challenge: porting Quake, the iconic 1990s’ first-person shooter, to an Arduino gamepad

What a great warm-up for the upcoming Matter Challenge! If this kind of project sounds like fun, follow the competition or submit your own entry by October 31st. 

Sponsored by Mouser Electronics, Silicon Labs and Arduino, the Matter Challenge is open to all skill levels. Take the opportunity to inspire others, by creating an incredible project with the Arduino Nano Matter board.

Released just three years after Doom, Quake was a huge leap forward in gaming technology. It introduced full 3D environments complete with dynamic lighting effects, and its enemies and weapons were 3D models rather than 2D sprites. The game also featured a scripting engine that gave modders a lot of creative freedom. But with more realistic graphics, a particle engine, and more complex sound effects, Quake was also a far bigger technical challenge to port.

Tackling this project required Wrachien to level up on memory and speed constraints. If you want to dive deeper into these challenges, be sure to check out the dedicated post on the Silicon Labs community blog.

In the face of demanding requirements, Wrachien turned to the Arduino Nano Matter, developed with the powerful Silicon Labs® MGM240S as part of a partnership to better enable seamless development of Matter over Thread applications on the Arduino platform, which also led to the release of Arduino’s first-ever Matter software library earlier this year. 

Reflecting on the Arduino Nano Matter board, Wrachien said: “The Nano Matter board, featuring the Silabs xG24, offers impressive processing power and versatility in a compact size, making it a fantastic tool for both simple and complex projects like this one.”

If you’re intrigued and want to explore more technical details, dive into Wrachien’s full post and get into the nitty-gritty of this remarkable project on his blog. You can get your Arduino Nano Matter from our store and replicate his idea thanks to all the information he shares, or imagine a new challenging project of your own! 

The post Bringing Quake to Arduino: a game-changing project by Nicola Wrachien appeared first on Arduino Blog.

Two NEW Arduino Plug and Make Kit projects recreate iconic vintage games

The Plug and Make Kit is a toolbox you can use for infinite ideas. So what happens if you ask a mix of Arduino designers, engineers, and managers to sit down and brainstorm new ideas to have fun with it? Well, at least one of them is guaranteed to come up with an adorable, old-school, […]

The post Two NEW Arduino Plug and Make Kit projects recreate iconic vintage games appeared first on Arduino Blog.

The Plug and Make Kit is a toolbox you can use for infinite ideas. So what happens if you ask a mix of Arduino designers, engineers, and managers to sit down and brainstorm new ideas to have fun with it? Well, at least one of them is guaranteed to come up with an adorable, old-school, slightly addictive video game. 

That’s exactly how Luca Doglione developed Flappy LED and LED Pong, during a “Make Tank” workshop we held in our Turin, Italy office a few weeks ago!

Meet Luca Doglione, Plug and Make Kit Star

Doglione is an engineering manager for the Arduino software and cloud teams, and one of the key people behind our website, cloud services, and course platform. He likes games in any shape or form, from board games to competitive computer games to vintage 2D arcade games. During the workshop, he was inspired by the different types of Modulino nodes and how they can be used together.

Flappy LED

Using Modulino Distance, Modulino Knob, Modulino Buzzer, and Modulino Buttons, Doglione quickly came up with a simple way to interact with the LED matrix on the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi, all of which are included in the kit. 

The goal of the game is to guide an LED dot up and down to avoid obstacles as you go – just like you would do with the bird in Flappy Bird. The longer you are able to avoid collisions and keep the LED moving, the higher the score!

You can control the movement of the LED light in two alternative ways: turning the knob, or moving your hand up and down above the distance sensor. You choose which mode you prefer by simply pressing the corresponding button on Modulino Buttons (A for the encoder or C for the distance sensor). 

Follow the full tutorial on Project Hub to build this quirky game yourself, and let us know how you customize or expand it. The sky’s the limit!

LED Pong

Doglione worked out Flappy LED so quickly that he had time to ideate a second game. He immediately thought of the classic Pong, and created his own version with Plug and Make Kit. This project is just as portable and easy to recreate as the first, and can be played by two people together. 

LED Pong requires two Modulino Knob: since each kit includes one per type of the seven nodes currently available, it is also a great idea for a collaborative making session with a friend! 


The knobs are used to move the paddle and bounce the ball back and forth. Missing the ball gives the other player one point – as neatly displayed on the Modulino Pixel. The first to reach five points wins! 

The full tutorial is here on Project Hub: try it out, and you’ll quickly bounce from nostalgia to excitement over how many new ideas Plug and Make Kit will unlock!

From reimagining old games to learning new tricks!

After seeing his playful ideas come together so easily, Doglione says, “My favorite part of Plug and Make Kit was being able to bypass the electronics to focus on user experience and interaction. This really unleashed my creativity. Having to figure out circuits always stopped me from tackling complex hardware projects – and I have a degree in computer science! Having that little yellow base and modular Modulino nodes made it really satisfying to see my project looking neat.”

What do you think about Doglione’s games? And what vintage games could you recreate with Arduino Plug and Make Kit? 

Flappy LED

LED Pong

The post Two NEW Arduino Plug and Make Kit projects recreate iconic vintage games appeared first on Arduino Blog.