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:*
- Microprocessor: ESP32-D0WDQ6 (dual-core 32-bit)
- Flash Memory: 4MB
- PSRAM: 8 MB
- SRAM: 520 KB
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi 4
- Built-in SD card reader for additional games
Three initial titles are in development:
- Toto Umbrella
- The Visit
- 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?
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.
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.