QR-PET: A hypothetical trading-card-based game system

[Pixelboy]

Every once in a while, I think about Nintendo's GBA e-Reader, and I frown at how much of its potential was left untapped and ultimately wasted. I like the idea of having software encoded on a trading card, and printed dot-data technology has seen some interesting advancements since the days of the GBA e-Reader.

 

Today, I came up with an idea: A pseudo-retro electronic gaming system that would use trading cards instead of cartridges. I basically have no actual knowledge of electronics so I couldn't make this proposed toy if my life depended on it, but it's always fun to ponder the intricacies of such a theoretical project. Anyway, I'm naming this theoretical project QR-PET, which stands for "QR-based Portable Electronic Toy", just because any project needs a good name. I attached some rough pictures at the bottom of this post to illustrate my ideas at a glance.

 

The main idea is to have the game software stored on a standard trading-card-sized card, using standard QR code model 2 dot encoding (Version 40, 177×177 dots). See the example card image attached below. There's a QR code block on each side of the card, and since the maximum size of a binary data string encoded in a QR block is 2953 bytes, the maximum size of any single game would be 5906 bytes. So yeah, we're talking very tight programming where the actual games are concerned, although the data on the card could be compressed data, and once uncompressed, I suppose the game software could span 8K or more.

 

To load a game, you simply turn on the QR-PET (or press the reset button if the unit is already on) and it puts itself in wait mode. Insert a card at the back of the unit (as pictured in one of the attached images below) and press the fire button. The unit reads the QR code on the inserted card and stores the data in a specific area of its RAM. If the game software is less than 2953 bytes in size, the game starts automatically. Otherwise, a message is displayed on the screen to flip the card around. Take the card out, flip it, re-insert it, and press the fire button again. The QR-PET reads the second set of data from the QR block, and then starts the game.

 

There are 5 main parts inside the casing of the proposed QR-PET: The card-reading camera, the screen, a cheap sound speaker (just enough to emit basic sound effects), the controls (on/off switch, reset button, joystick and fire button) and the tiny custom computer that binds all these components together. I don't know what kind of mini-computer would be used (Raspberry-PI, FPGA or microcontroller, perhaps?) but it would need to be advanced enough to a) receive and process the data from the QR-reader camera, b) interpret and run the software loaded from a card, and c) properly manage the output screen, sound speaker and player inputs as the game runs.

 

The screen would be a cheap monochrome display, just to keep things simple at the software level. I'm not sure about the dimensions or resolution of this screen, but I'm partial to something like this:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/cog-fstn-positive-with-white-BL_60112733973.html?spm=a2700.7724838.35.1.qfHsvj

or perhaps something with a black screen and a little less resolution, like this:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/monochrome-lcd-display-module-JHD12864-G16BSW_1866007487.html?spm=a2700.7724838.35.1.qfHsvj&s=p

 

It's a very simple system, but it has lots of underlying complexity in it. First, there needs to be software written to interact with the camera that reads the data on the card, and that's already a sizeable challenge for a hobbyist, unless he already has experience with this kind of hardware. But that's not the most interesting part...

 

The real meat of this theoretical project is to define some kind of machine instruction set that would maximize the game development potential within the limit of 5906 bytes. With this kind of limitation, you can't afford to store a lot of custom graphics on a card (even if they are monochrome graphics) so the first step would be to have some kind of graphic library inside the mini-computer that the game software could draw from. Same goes for sound effects. Then you'd need ways to draw stuff on the monochrome screen efficiently (without using a ton of code to get the desired result). I'm sure it's all doable, but still, food for thought.

 

In today's world, such an electronic gaming device would be a total anachronism, given that you can find far superior gaming on your smartphone. Heck, some would argue you can get better gaming on an Atari 2600! This is more a technical challenge for electronic hobbyists: Can this thingamajig actually be done at a relatively low cost? There's the "Hey, look at me, I got this thing running!" achievement value, and releasing new games would simply be a matter of printing new cards (game development could be a bitch though, unless an emulator was created on Windows/Linux/Mac for development purposes).

 

Anyway, I just wanted to get this idea out of my head, and share it with others. If nothing else comes of it, then so be it.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Pixelboy]

It just occured to me that this setup could actually be made to be a portable Atari 2600. The game cartridge ROMs are already small in most cases, and the mini-computer could run a 2600 emulator. The screen could be full-color, although that would probably drive up the cost of the device, and a few more buttons would need to be added (game select and difficulty switches, in particular). Releasing new games in trading card form would be easy though, just encode existing Atari 2600 ROMs!

[7800fan]

GBA cards are still hard to fake at home. Most printer's native resolution is not high enough to correctly print all those tiny dots. Even most scanner can't copy it either.

 

If it was made available, would it be worthwhile? Why not make it downloadable ROM and use SD card? Paper still takes up space and what happens if the card gets worn out? No scanning anymore?

[Pixelboy]

GBA cards are still hard to fake at home. Most printer's native resolution is not high enough to correctly print all those tiny dots. Even most scanner can't copy it either.

The dots in a QR code block don't need to be as small as the dots on GBA e-Reader card data strips. As long as cameras (like the ones on smartphones) can focus on the QR block and read it, that's the important thing.

 

 

If it was made available, would it be worthwhile? Why not make it downloadable ROM and use SD card? Paper still takes up space and what happens if the card gets worn out? No scanning anymore?

Well, an SD card could also get damaged, and a trading card would be easier to replace. Also, QR code blocks have built-in self-correcting features that can make the block readable even if parts of it are damaged.

 

But yeah, I can't deny that there's no real demand for this "theoretical" electronic toy. It's really more of a technical challenge for electronic hobbyists, the kind Ben Heck could certainly tackle.

[wireless]

Pixelboy-

 

Are you still interested in making this concept a reality? I have lots of ideas and think this or a variation of it needs to come to fruition.

 

Wireless

[Shawn]

This card concept is exactly how the WizKid "computer" worked.

 

[wireless]

The WizKid is fantastic!