You can read the state of a button using Arduino and a few lines of code. The actual state is shown in the Serial Monitor window as 0 or 1, 0 meaning the button is not pressed and 1 that the button is ...

Repetitive tasks in video games often find a way of pushing our buttons. [Facelesstech] got tired of mashing “A” while catching shooting stars in Animal Crossing, so he set out to autom… ...

To start, you need to buy an Arduino. It comes pre-assembled or, for those handy with a soldering iron, in kit form. A fully assembled Diecimila board from the excellent Make costs just $35.

Every segment came out to a single pin, it could be jumpered to 3 others (L/R, and either up or down, depending, it was only 2 rows of pins). You got always on, on for turbo, or on for slow.