E Ink gaming slate takes you straight back to 80s text adventures

Back in the very early days of home computers, onscreen imagery was a bit rubbish so text-based adventure games ruled the gaming roost. The Ink Console is aiming to rekindle this retro vibe by combining an e-reader with a gaming platform.

Though today's digital games can teleport us to ancient times or distant alien worlds with the power of eye-popping visuals and non-stop action, text adventures were no less exciting to eager players in the 1980s.

It was like being wholly engrossed in fantasy fiction. But instead of reading a tome like The Hobbit or becoming a thief or wizard in role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, players sat transfixed to a monitor and tapped away at a keyboard. For hours on end. Totally absorbed by the adventure.

Ink Console/Crowd Supply

The maker behind the Ink Console – Daniel Puchau, otherwise known to gaming community as Dana of GreenBoy Games – says his new project "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."

At its heart, the Ink Console is essentially an e-reader featuring a 7.5-inch E Ink display at 800 x 480 resolution. Its 32-bit dual-core brains are supported by just 4 megabytes of flash memory and 8 MB of PSRAM, but it does have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This device loads games into the system via a built-in SD reader.

These "cartridges" will come as Gamebooks, text-based adventure games presented as stories – "everything from thrilling expeditions and deep-sea adventures to immersive sci-fi narratives and fantasy epics in fantastical realms." These won't just be produced by the Ink Console team, but created by the player community thanks to an open-source Software Development Kit.

"Our You Create Software Development Kit is designed to empower creators of all stripes – writers, artists, game designers, and anyone with a passion for storytelling – can bring their Gamebook to life," reads the project page over on Crowd Supply. "Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a first-time creator, this toolkit will give you everything you need to build immersive, interactive stories for the Ink Console – no coding required."

Ink Console/Crowd Supply

As the narrative unfolds, and players make choices to shape the direction of the story, items (such as spells, weapons or nourishment) can be gathered into an inventory locker for use in the game as challenges present themselves.

The device features an analog joystick for navigation, as well as a potentiometer for tweaking settings and control of functions. Puchau also looks to be considering a mini keyboard module for conversational games, though this is still very much just an idea at this point. Other specs that seem more settled include a mono speaker cooked in, plus a 3.5-mm audio jack and 2-channel stereo output. The 5,000-mAh battery is topped up over USB-C.

There's no word on how much this fun retro-modern gadget will cost, but the project is due to go live on Crowd Supply early next month – when such things will be revealed. Video footage of the working prototypes is still incoming, but we do have a teaser to be going on with.

Source: Ink Console