As one of the best-selling video games of all time (or perhaps the best, depending on who you ask), Tetris is a household name. Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 may be completely unknown to your grandmother, but the occasional game of Tetris has undoubtedly been played by members of her knitting club. With that level of popularity, it should come as no surprise that this brick-stacking classic has made its way onto just about every gaming platform imaginable.
Now, it has even made its way onto a gaming platform that you have never imagined. Kevin Bates, the mastermind behind the Arduboy, has teamed up with Red Bull to design a magazine that plays Tetris . Yes, you heard that right — a magazine. There is a functional display and controller built into the paper cover of this special magazine, called the GamePop GP-1 Playable Magazine System , that will set the Korobeiniki tune on a loop in your mind.
The secret lies in clever use of flexible electronics. Instead of a conventional LCD or OLED, the GamePop uses a custom matrix made from 180 tiny 2-millimeter RGB LEDs soldered onto a flexible circuit board only about a tenth of a millimeter thick. The board is laminated directly between layers of paper, turning the magazine’s cover into a bendable handheld console. At its thickest point — where batteries and structural supports sit — the cover measures roughly five millimeters, yet it still feels very much like ordinary cardstock.
Rather than physical buttons, Bates etched seven capacitive touch sensors directly into the copper traces of the flexible PCB. Pressing the cover causes the paper to flex slightly, giving a faint tactile sensation. The touch sensitivity had to be carefully tuned to account for the glue, paper stock, and finger pressure, ensuring the falling tetrominoes respond quickly enough to remain playable.
Not everything could be flexible, however. Along the magazine’s spine sits a narrow rigid circuit board housing a 32-bit Arm microcontroller and four rechargeable coin-cell batteries. A piezo speaker provides sound effects, though only a brief snippet of the iconic theme plays to conserve power. Bates notes the speaker consumes nearly as much energy as the processor, so limiting audio extends playtime to roughly one or two hours per charge.
To charge the batteries, a deconstructed USB-C connector is hidden in a small paper pocket along the bottom edge. Sliding a cable into the opening makes contact with exposed pins inside, topping off the batteries without adding a bulky metal port.
Magazines may be going the way of the dodo bird, but just maybe tech like this could breathe some new life into this form of media. Whether that proves to be the case or not, this is one magazine you won’t want to miss!The GamePop GP-1 Playable Magazine System (📷: Andrew Liszewski / The Verge)
A close-up of the interface (📷: Andrew Liszewski / The Verge)
This magazine needs to be charged (📷: Andrew Liszewski / The Verge)
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