The Instant Action feature is a functionality allowing the player to take advantage of the foldable aspect of the FunKey S. Closing the console automatically saves your progress, and opening it gets you right into the game! That's really a game-changer! 🤜 💥 🤛
Talking about game-changer, have a look at these pics of our special Nintendo Editions (NES and SNES) 😍
Today is the day is we release our distribution on GitHub!
This repository contains all the sources required to build FunKey-OS, the Open-Source distribution at the heart of the FunKey S retro-gaming console.
As the FunKey S console is based on an Allwinner V3s ARM Cortex-A7 1.2GHz CPU, an Operating System is mandatory in order to access all the hardware resources without re-inventing the wheel.
FunKey-OS is based on Linux, and is built from scratch using the buildroot tool that simplifies and automates the process of building a complete Linux system for an embedded system like this.
Technically, Funkey-OS is a buildroot (v2) based external tree for building the bootloader, the Linux kernel and user utilities, as well as the optimized retro-game launcher and console emulators.
Production status
Let's keep it rolling with production : PCBAs are assembled and nearly 1/3 passed the functional test! The other 2/3 will be passing their test in the following days.
For the moment, everything is going good 🤞
Thousands of injected plastic parts (including buttons) have been produced and are now ready to become little FunKeys!
That will be all for today! Hit us up if you have a any question and have a nice weekend! 🙌
Cheers,
The FunKey team
Side note: there has been some concerns regarding the time we take to write and share these weekly updates. Be sure this does not prevent our engineering team from working on the FunKey S. These updates are written by our community manager and reviewed afterwards by the engineers so it's all fine. To be clear : communicating on the project and the improvements has no impact on the delivery 😄 😄
What's up, FunKey? episode 12
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 03:42:16 PM
Hello Kickstarter!
Episode 12 already, time flies so fast!⏳
Let's do things in order for this update:
1) Good news about production! ⚙️
PCB's are being assembled as we write these lines 😇 😇
Which means everything is going fine, we're on schedule with the diagram we shared with you last week (and that was not an easy task)💪
These videos were shot today, this is as close as possible to real time information as we can get with these updates.
All PCBAs are tested with a custom test we designed especially for our boards and the logs sent in real time to our servers so that we can see what's going on, and detect possible failures as soon as possible (nothing to declare so far 😎)
2) Assembly process and tests
Once the PCBAs are produced and validated they will be sent to the assembling manufactury where they will start assembling your FunKey S.
At this step we have also designed the assembly tests that the manufacturer will have to pass so that every product's main functionalities has been validated.
This might not seem like much but this is a crucial step during production to make sure the consoles you will receive run fine, one very often overlooked by makers.
To pursue on our transparency path, we want to share with you exclusively what the assembly tests look like:
Now your FunKey S is ready to get filled with some sweet software that will make it shine.
We're happy to say that the latest version is almost over. It's going great but there are still some last minute adjustments and non-regression tests to pass before making it official yet... Stay tuned because we'll share more next week (much more, and not just update stuff...😉)! 👾
For now we figured we could show at least a sneak peak of the included themes that will come with your FunKey S😃
4 themes (for now): FunKey, Classic, Flat and TFT. Which one's your favorite? 😎
Obviously, being more engineers than designers, you might notice that they can be inspired from existing devices/themes out there. We tried to mix between the ones we loved the most and adapt it on the FunKey S... however for the real designers out there, the ones with a creative soul and an itch for something unique, you'll be able to create and share your own themes as much as you want 😎 😃 😎!
We'll review the best shared themes and will be very glad to include the best ones in the future FunKeys 🤝 🤝
That will be all for today, see you next week for a new update!
Enjoy your week-end guys😃
Cheers,
The FunKey team
What's up, FunKey? episode 11
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Nov 06, 2020 at 09:27:51 PM
Hello retro-gamers!
We hope you've been doing great 😄
TGIF! Time to relax and enjoy our weekly update 👾
Today we'll be talking about colors, batteries, schedules, and showing gameplay videos!
Ready...Steady...Go! 🙌 🙌
#1 Last week we shared with you the first pictures of the new colors and you welcomed them so much that we gave our final GO to the manufacturer :
COLORS : ✅ ✅
#2 Since the battery's wire was too long, it needed to be kind of folded during assembly to reduce the size but was never perfectly done and took too long. So we've made a new wire, the right size this time. We've received the new battery this week and validated it, and just like that all the electronic components are validated. It won't affect the battery capacity of course, just to let you know all the production details 😉
#3 Christmas Day - our latest shipment target - approaches. We've communicated a lot about delivery dates, but between all the different production processes going on and the new screen delay, we decided to make it clearer. To be as transparent as possible, we decided to share with you this graph, detailling the theschedule of all the laststeps we're facing duringproduction 📌
As you can see the schedule is really tight and we're pushing our manufacturers like crazy so that you guys get the console in time. If they see this update (we know they do 😉), we want to thank them for their patience with our continued requests and emails pressing them all them time.
To be 100% honest with you, one person of the FunKey team was supposed to be on site with the manufacturers to make sure everything's alright during the start of the production line. As you may guess, a certain pandemic decided otherwise so we're doing our best to be in touch with them remotely as much as possible🤝
#4 GBC / PS1
Some of you asked for us to share some more gameplay footage, so here it is!
#Lastbutnotleast : Thanks to Coolie Coster and the amazing community of devs out there, we finally set up the final list of homebrew games included with the first release (games you'll be able to play as you unpack your FunKey S). We asked the developer's permission when it was needed (and also when it wasn't) so that everything is legal. Of course depending on future replies we might update the list but here it is so far: 📝
- Game Boy: Dangan, Retroid, Into the Blue, Snake, The bouncing ball
- Atari Lynx: Assembloids, Eye of the Beholder, Lynx Quest, Silas Adventure, Xump - The Final Run
- Game Boy Advance: Anguna - Warriors of Vertue, Another World, Broken Circle, Motocross Challenge...
- Game Boy Color: Drymouth, Klondike, PerplexDX, Tyrian 2000
- Game Gear: Dangerous Demolition, Fire Track, Nibbles, Wing Warriors
-SegaMasterSystem: Lander 2, Lucky Penguin, Minesweeper, The Speccies 2
-SNES: Frog Nes, MazemaM, Super Boss Gaiden
That was a long update, we had many things to share with you 😄
Feel free to tell us if you'd like a gameplay video on a specific game, we'll see what we can do 😉
Have a nice week-end!
Cheers
The FunKey team
What's up, FunKey? episode 10 - special episode
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 02:49:39 AM
This episode, we've been waiting for weeks, months even!
Hello everybody and welcome to this special "What's up, FunKey?" episode!
First, we take this opportunity to thank you all for your support regarding the last update when we announced the added delay due to the new screens. Really, your understanding means a lot to us. It shows that you acknowledge we're doing our best to deliver you the best FunKey experience we can offer.
Why is it special? Because today, we show you REAL pictures of the FunKey Project. By "real' we mean the first original pictures of our colored FunKey S ever taken 😍 😍
Yesterday we received a dozen casings, likethe ones you'll receive in your mailboxes!
We had them shipped here to check that everything is alright : casing, screens, playability, clapping, battery... We checked everything we could and everything is just fine! Which means we're giving our go to the manufacturer so they can start the mass prod.
Enough with words huh?
And now, dear backers, your FunKey S in pictures :
That feels strange and amazing to have them here with us, given that we've been thinking about this moment for months, even before the launch of the campaign.
Have you heard about DragonBorne ⚔️ 🐉 ? An RPG like the old days, on GameBoy! It's taking pre-orders for January. Here's the link if you're interested : https://www.spacebot-interactive.com/ (you can get the rom alone, a perfect match for your FunKey S!)
Disclaimer: we are not sponsored or have any kind of contract with them, it's simply that we find the idea of a new gameboy game 30 years later amazing and we can't wait to play it on our FunKey S. This is also another proof that emulation does not mean illegality.
This weekly update ends here, as we want it to be 100% focused on these pictures. Feel free to check our social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to see more visuals and share your excitement!
Last surprise : The RetroGray with colored buttons, you're the first to see it!
Have a nice weekend!
The FunKey Team
What's up, FunKey? episode 9
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 07:58:28 AM
Dear FunKey-lovers,
We hope you're doing well and had a nice week, as it's time for our weekly update regarding the news and improvements on the FunKey S 😊
Screen update
Honesty time: we were not happy with the latest screen provided by our manufacturer. We've been studying for a long time how to improve it and we finally found the solution. However changing the screen at this point means two things: a better screen is more expensive (for us, not for you 😊) and, most importantly, we would be subject to the current lack of screen panels on the market due to Covid19. We're not the only ones, even giant companies like Apple are currently stuggling with this. Before making our decision we wanted to be sure of all the parameters and, well, the final screen will be available only after the 20th of november in our factory to start assembling. It was a hard choice to make for us since it's a week delay on our schedule and we know you guys don't wish to delay, but we still made this call because...well...look at the difference :
Left = previous screen, Right = New screen (the one you'll get)
Left = previous screen, Right = New screen (the one you'll get)
Left = previous screen, Right = New screen (the one you'll get)
Look at the details on the door
Emulators
Want some good news? Here's one : the PC Engine emulator many of you asked us about is now working and optimized for the FunKey S. It will be included in the first release😍 😍
Again we want to thank you, our community for all the love and support you've been giving to us and our team. If you haven't yet, then go checkout the FunKey Wiki ! Coolie has been working hard updating accessories for everyone, refactoring pages, adding new content... that's great work, really. If you're interested, here's the link to the accessories page: https://funkey.miraheze.org/wiki/List_of_FunKey_S_compatible_keychain_accessories
Aslice of next week...
Be ready to see many MANY pictures in next week's update because we are about to receive the final samples with their final colors on monday!
Basically, we'll have in our hands, for the first time, the very first official versions of Atomic Purple, Retrogaming Gray and Original Purple FunKey S 🤩 🤩 🤩
(we can't wait!)
Enjoy your weekend, see you real soon! 👋 👋 👋
The FunKey Team
Vincent, Michel, David and Killian
Because you're the best, here's just a glimpse of the Atomic Purple edition
