Hello again!
I think PewPew Standalone has a big potential to be a low-cost Micro:bit alternative for teaching children how to program microcontrollers and make simple games with it. However, it still lacks easy-to-use online tools, such as MakeCode for Micro:bit. There is Pewmulator, but it requires downloading Python and Pygame, which is less comfortable than using an online platform. So while I am waiting for my ordered PewPews, meanwhile I am developing an online emulator for PewPew Standalone using Pygame4skulpt. Your CircuitPython code is running fully client-side inside the browser, handling LED display and key presses. Here is the demo of the first proof-of-concept: https://gfycat.com/ifr/kindheartedsilveritalianbrownbear. The Pew Pew Standalone Emulator will be open sourced when it is more mature.
I was thinking about incorporating it into the latest EduBlocks beta, but it would be much easier if there was already some support for the Pew library in EduBlocks. Or if MakeCode supported PewPew Standalone. Maybe one day it could be a part of a bigger platform for educating children in less developed countries. Do you think it is a good idea?
Best wishes!
State of PewPew for 2020-04-26
******************************
News
====
* Makerfabs has published a video for PewPew M4 assembly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5lZwVgA690
* Szymon Jakubiak implemented Conway's Game of Life to honor
the recently departed mathematican:
https://twitter.com/SzymonJakubiak/status/1251043560314613760
* A fix landed for colors on all boards using Stage -- now the
colors will be consistent with DisplayIO.
* Also, the sound buffer has been increased, fixing some sound
issues.
--
Radomir Dopieralski
State of PewPew for 2020-07-27
******************************
News
====
* CircuitPython 6.0.0 is coming soon. You can help testing it, see
http://circuitpython.org for download links and
https://pewpew.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pewpew10/hardware.html#updating-the…
for updating instructions.
* Both PewPew Standalone and PewPew M4 will last longer on battery with
CircuitPython 6.x, because the brownout detection threshold has been
lowered for them. Note that when the battery is weak, the screen might
be dimmer than with new batteries.
* There is going to be a slight performance improvement.
* The pew library and the game selection menu have been rewritten for
PewPew M4. The old menu will no longer work with version 6.x, so
please make sure you upgrade the main.py file from
https://github.com/pewpew-game/game-m4-menu
* The space freed by this change allowed us to enable AnalogIO for
PewPew M4.
--
Radomir Dopieralski
