This project is still in the ideation phase and has no guarantees of being implemented. I’m curious on what thoughts you all have.
Single-print “Pass it On” Gameboy Cart.
Acts as a ledger where players can enter a limited-length message for the subsequent players to read. Total writable memory is 32kb or ~32,000 characters. At time of initial message entry the player also enters an alias that the message is signed under. For x amount of time (where x <= 24 hrs) after the message is entered it can be altered but the alias remains. When the player initially submits their message with their alias a one-time registration code for a forum is granted, with their alias encoded into it to register them under that same alias. After initial entry there is a cooldown of 24 hours before a new initial entry can be input (hoping this prevents spam but who knows).
Goals:
Bring people together on a forum with similar interests in retro gaming and a common, interesting, point of entry.
Additional details:
There could be one cart version per city of drop-off, leading to separate forums.
Each log would have a timestamp of when the entry took place, by timezone of drop-off point.
The cartridge would be transparent with instructions on the inside of the case instructing those who do not have a Gameboy to use, to leave it where they found it, pass it on to someone they know who does have one, drop it off at a nearby arcade, or at least leave it somewhere temperate and dry.
Could maybe, possibly, coat the electrical components in resin to reduce risk of damage.
Due to the fact that I can’t guarantee that I will finish this project myself, if it resonates with anyone else feel free to implement it yourself as well.
Am open to criticisms and suggestions for improvement.
that sounds like kooky fun! i think it would be best to have it started in and travelling around specifically gaming-related events like conventions, though, rather than a random location, otherwise you’re kinda limited to “people who live near this one street who also own a gameboy and their acquaintances” and it would be hard to get it started i think. cons would be a great way to get it to people from a variety of places since there are people from all over there, and someone could take it home and possibly to another con! since cons are usually a maximum of 3 days, though, a 24-hour cooldown might be a bit long…
That’s a great idea if it’s the sort of con you know people would be bringing their GB with them. My original thought on the ~24h (though this can flex) is that it would give someone, person A, a motivation to use their 24h in finding the next person, person B, or placing it as it is no longer of use to them until 24h from now. So the hope is that the marginal utility of passing the cart on and getting another forum member is greater than holding onto it for 24h and… making more text entries? Getting more registration keys to the forum? Sure but your value will decline sharply per.
Edit:
Was chatting with a friend about this idea. Could maybe get the best of both worlds. Drop it off at a con and have it start at a low cooldown. Then after # of days the con runs for, switch the cooldown to be longer. So it’d be seeded quickly but then go for a longer run.
The easiest way would be gbstudio. It has a UI and tools for making games of certain types of functionality. It’d work for most things you’d normally think of game-wise from GBC-era.
What I’m trying to learn is RGBDS. It’s assembly so not super approachable but you have lots of control over the data being read / written. And then there’s this tutorial that I’ve found is super helpful. The HelloWorld example is essentially rendering tiles that contain the text. So in terms of drawing art to the screen, that would do the basics. If you wanted to do more, which would be possible, it’d require some additional logic.
Also fun fact:
Gameboy carts have varying components inside them. Most use the space for an additional slot of RAM for doing calculations. But I believe you can theoretically, if you were to build your own cart, attach any compatible chip there and be able to interface with the IO of the chip. So in the idea of art, you could use some sort of chip to drive the logic on rendering the interactive art. I think.