The Arduboy Mini is a tiny Game Boy-inspired 8-bit game console

The man behind the original 8-bit Arduboy is behind the new Game Boy inspired Arduboy Mini. Despite its small size, the tiny gaming handheld offers many of the same benefits as the larger Arduboy, such as anOLED display, hundreds of open-sourced games, and an exposed design.

The Arduboy Mini doesn't come with a speaker or a battery. The battery and speaker can be found on the exposed rear of the device. A portable battery can be used to power the Arduboy Mini.

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Image: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo

There are six buttons on the Mini, two of which can be used as action buttons in the game. There is a seventh button located on the back of the device. A library of over 300 8-bit retro-inspired games can be found on the tiny console.

Image: Kevin Bates | Arduboy

The Arduboy Mini is currently available for $29 via an open KickStarter project, which surpassed its initial $10,000 funding goal within 13 hours of launching. When buying multiple Arduboy Mini consoles, you can get discounts, but fulfillment isn't expected to start until June.

The field of crowd funding is chaotic. One in 10 successful products that reach their funding goals fail to deliver rewards, according to a study done by Kickstarter. There is often disappointment in store for those products that do get done because of delays, missed deadlines, and overpromised ideas.

Use your best judgement when defending. Do you know if the product looks legit? The company is making claims. There is a prototype that is being worked on. Is the company planning on manufacturing and shipping finished products? Is this the first time it has completed a crowd funding campaign? You don't necessarily buy a product when you back a project on a site.