(Credit: Video screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Is there anything more nostalgic than a text adventure? Whether it’s a Steve Livingston gamebook or the old Zork games from the early ’80s, many of us whiled away happy hours collecting treasure, battling monsters, and being eaten by grues — all using just the power of words.
Software developer Jerry Belich loves text adventures, too, and has found a way to give them a new and exciting life. He has created the Choosatron, a little text adventure machine that lets users dictate the path of the story and prints out a receipt-like scroll for you to take home and keep.
The system consists of a box housing a thermal printer and paper reel, an Arduino Uno R3 board, an SD car breakout module and SD card, and a 12V 2A power supply and barrel jack. On the outside is a coin acceptor that takes quarters, plus a 12-button keypad, printer output, and on-off switch. Stories are written using open-source software Twine.
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