Tamaputer

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Tamaputer is a Tamagotchi P1 emulator for the M5Stack Cardputer that runs the original game ROM from an SD card using the tamalib library, with keyboard keys mapped to the virtual Tamagotchi buttons and optimized display rendering.

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25 stars · 1 forks

Maintainer
mindovermiles262
Chip families
esp32-s3

Runs on these boards

Unverified

  • CardputerUnverifiedM5Stack
    Flash Cardputerguided

    Unverified esp-atlas asserts this board↔firmware link at the shown trust tier — it does not guarantee your specific unit or the current firmware version. Flashing can erase keys/config and can brick the device. At your own risk.

  • Stamp-S3UnverifiedM5Stack
    Flash Stamp-S3guided

    Unverified esp-atlas asserts this board↔firmware link at the shown trust tier — it does not guarantee your specific unit or the current firmware version. Flashing can erase keys/config and can brick the device. At your own risk.

README

Tamaputer - Tamagotchi Emulator for M5Stack Cardputer

A Tamagotchi emulator for the M5Stack Cardputer using the tamalib library.

Features

  • Full Tamagotchi P1 emulation using tamalib
  • ROM loading from SD card - No recompiling needed!
  • Optimized display rendering on the Cardputer's 240x135 LCD
  • Keyboard input mapping for the three Tamagotchi buttons
  • Icon display for game status

Hardware Requirements

  • M5Stack Cardputer (ESP32-S3 based)
  • MicroSD card (FAT32 formatted)
  • USB-C cable for programming

Controls

The Cardputer keyboard is mapped to the three Tamagotchi buttons:

  • Left Button: CTRL key
  • Middle Button: OPT key
  • Right Button: ALT key
  • Pause Button: P key
  • Save Button: Z key
  • Help Button: ESC key

Pause Menu

  • Adjust Volume: Left and Right Arrows
  • Adjust Speed: Up and Down Arrows

Setup Instructions

M5 Launcher (Easy)

  • Download the latest tamaputer.bin from the releases page and place it on your SD card.
  • Place the ROM file (tama.b) in the tamaputer directory on your SD Card. Create this directory if it does not exist.
  • Start your Cardputer and use M5 Launcher to start tamamputer.bin

Build & Upload

1. Install PlatformIO

If you haven't already, install PlatformIO IDE or PlatformIO Core CLI.

2. Clone and Build

cd tamaputer
git submodule update --init --recursive
pio pkg install  # Install dependencies
pio run          # Build the project

3. Prepare ROM File

IMPORTANT: For legal reasons, you must provide your own Tamagotchi ROM dump.

  1. Obtain a legal ROM dump from your own device or a legal source
  2. The ROM should be exactly 40960 bytes (40KB) for the original Tamagotchi P1
  3. Copy the ROM file to your SD card root directory as /tamaputer/tama.b

4. Upload to Device

pio run -t upload

Troubleshooting

If intelhex not found:

Install it into the PIO python virtualenv:

source ~/.platformio/penv/bin/activate
(penv) $ pip install intelhex

Credits

  • tamalib: https://github.com/jcrona/tamalib by Jean-Christophe Rona
  • ArduinoGotchi: https://github.com/GaryZ88/ArduinoGotchi by GaryZ88
  • M5Stack: For the Cardputer hardware and libraries
  • Original Tamagotchi: Bandai

Resources

Read the full README on GitHub

source github.com/mindovermiles262/tamaputer