No good thing ever dies, Stephen King once wrote, and while he was talking about hope, the saying could well be applied to the hugely popular ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books from the 1980/1990s. That’s because one person has decided to revisit the magic of those books and old-school text-based RPGs, by inventing a bespoke e-ink handheld device for reading and gaming.
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Anyway, inspired by his son’s lack of interest in reading, Daniel Pucha, an electronics and programming entrepreneur (who prefers to go by the name Dana) decided to develop his own handheld device, called the Ink Console (via The Verge), that can be used to play/read CYOA books. While the prototype looks like nothing more than a simple e-ink reader, the device offers more than just an interface for electronic books.
That’s because while you’ll be able to purchase new books to read/play in the form of tiny cartridges that you pop into the device (which Dana calls Gamebooks), he and developer Rafa Laguna are also working on creating a software kit that will allow you to create your own CYOA stories and text-based RPGs.
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As with all such projects, Dana is turning to crowdfunding, via Crowd Supply, to generate the income required to bring the Ink Console to market. At the time of writing, though, the funding project hasn’t started so it’s not clear just how much the Ink Console and the extra Gamebooks will cost if everything all comes to fruition.
Why on Earth does this need to be a “console” with cartridges? A normal epub with links could achieve the same thing without creating additional e-waste.
I like the idea but fear few games will be made for this limited market. This will lead to the old chicken egg idea.
I do need a new ereader though…
If someone could make a script to turn old books into the games, it might be a genuine use of ai, not to write the books, but to format existing ones into a format that is usable.
I love this idea and very much miss single use electronics, but you gotta wonder how long this thing is gonna be supported.
Niche products like this, without any larger backing? I’d wager not very long.
I wonder how many actual CYOA books you could buy for the cost of one of these bad boys?
