This New Handheld Aims To Bring Back The Magic Of '80s Text Adventures | Time Extension (www.timeextension.com)
from ktec@feddit.uk to retrogaming@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 09:09
https://feddit.uk/post/24662130

Rediscovering Text Adventures with the Ink Console

A new handheld gaming system, Ink Console, aims to bring back the magic of '80s text adventures. Developed by Daniel “Dana” Puchau from Shanghai, this device features a 7.5-inch e-ink screen capable of displaying an 800 x 480 black & white resolution.

Specifications:*

Three initial titles are in development:

  1. Toto Umbrella
  2. The Visit
  3. Breath

With the potential to develop more through its SDK in future. The developer says they intend to release the SDK and open-source the project upon completion of crowd-funding campaign.

Puchau remarks:

The idea for Ink Console came from a desire to bring the magic of text adventures, like the 1980s classic Zork I, to a new audience unfamiliar with these games. We also were very inspired by the beloved Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. Our hope is that this interactive format makes reading feel like an adventure and helps instill a love for books in young readers.

There’s a link in the original article to the Crowdsupply campaign.


What are your favourite text adventure memories?

#retrogaming

threaded - newest

stoy@lemmy.zip on 24 Feb 09:42 next collapse

Sadly, I doubt it will get much traction, a portable device for text adventures, without a keyboard?

Ok, you can use suggestions, but that can spoil the gameplay…

MajorHavoc@programming.dev on 24 Feb 13:35 collapse

I could live without the “guess which commands even work right now”, aspect of the original gameplay.

I don’t have the game patience I had back then.

CrayonRosary@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 19:01 collapse

I remember playing one of the Zork games. It may even have been the first one. I felt like I knew what I had to do. There were a bunch of crows blocking my path. And there was a field with a scarecrow in it. And I could not figure out any command to take the scarecrow or take its clothes or do anything with it. And I was totally stuck and stopped playing the game. Not fun.

thirdBreakfast@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 10:01 next collapse

Didn’t Tom Hanks invent this in “Big”?

DavidGA@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 10:34 next collapse

It’s absurd that this doesn’t have a keyboard.

tehWrapper@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 11:14 next collapse

Can you not do a choose your own adventure book on a standard eReader with anchor links?

MurrayL@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 11:36 next collapse

Yes but that won’t allow the game to track stats, inventory, etc, or to dynamically change the text based on game state, so you’d be strictly limited to traditional CYOA book conversions.

This looks to be aiming for something more advanced.

wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 24 Feb 13:25 collapse

That sounds like a software issue more than anything. You can “run” Doom entirely in a PDF document (by PDF supporting embedded javascript). Any ebook reader supporting that feature set of PDFs would be able to handle “full fledged” games.

46_and_2@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 19:27 collapse

There are plenty of Android-based eReaders available too, so you can just do a CYOA app geared directly (or having a specific mode) for such e-Ink devices’ particular graphics.

ICastFist@programming.dev on 24 Feb 11:42 next collapse

Without a keyboard, that sounds terrible. Or just a glorified e-reader.

BruisedMoose@piefed.social on 24 Feb 12:22 next collapse

More interactive than CYOA, more restrictive than traditional text adventures. Kind of point-and-clicky. IDK. I'm intrigued and will keep an eye on it. I hope they release the SDK well in advance of launch at least.

mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 12:35 next collapse

Yay more e-waste.

DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 12:39 next collapse

Looks good

neatobuilds@lemmy.today on 24 Feb 12:56 next collapse

I was just thinking about texting adventures and if there were any with like trained llm backends

moakley@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 15:38 next collapse

Couldn’t you just develop these games on phones/tablets, with full color and a keyboard?

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 16:26 next collapse

Just like the rabbit r1, this could have been an email app

MurrayL@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 18:32 collapse

Yes, but there’s definitely some appeal to playing text based games on an e-ink screen. As for colour, sometimes less is more - the Playdate is also B&W and has built a terrific community.

moakley@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 18:55 collapse

Sure. I prefer reading books on an e-ink screen as well. But that’s for books, not a game genre that peaked 45 years ago.

I just can’t see a product like this having enough demand. Hopefully they find a way to make it work, because I totally get wanting to own a specialized object like this.

Encom@lemmy.world on 24 Feb 19:18 next collapse

I’m excited to see what weird and archaic form of DRM the creator decides to bake into this device, just like their gameboy games

twocupsofsugar@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 09:27 next collapse

I personally like the idea and can see the appeal, it looks like it might being going for a more modern style “point and click” or gamebook type text adventure and tbh the free-form type your command text adventure games can be a pretty frustrating if the parser programmed poorly.

LettucePrey@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 23:17 collapse

Keyboard or not, I don’t need another Lithium Ion battery in my house.