How This Magazine Mastered Tetris

The world of portable gaming has taken a surprising turn with a magazine that literally comes to life. A limited-edition publication from Red Bull Media House features a fully playable game of Tetris embedded directly into its paper cover. This isn’t a simple gimmick; it’s a feat of flexible electronics, transforming a lifestyle magazine into a functional handheld console. The project represents a clever fusion of print media and interactive technology, pushing the boundaries of what we expect from both.

The mastermind behind the hardware is Kevin Bates, a developer known for creating ultra-portable gaming devices. His previous work includes a Tetris-playing business card and the credit card-sized Arduboy handheld. For this project, dubbed the GamePop GP-1 Playable Magazine System, Bates applied his decade of experience to meet a unique challenge: building an officially licensed Tetris game flexible enough to be part of a magazine sleeve.

At the heart of the device is a custom, paper-thin display. Instead of using fragile and expensive folding OLED screens, Bates engineered a solution using 180 tiny RGB LEDs mounted on a flexible circuit board just 0.1 millimeters thick. This flexible matrix is bonded between two sheets of paper, creating a display that can survive being bent and flexed. While the inclusion of batteries adds some thickness, the overall experience feels remarkably like playing a game on a sheet of paper.

Durability was a key concern. Bates subjected the device to rigorous testing, even going so far as to hit it with a hammer to prove its resilience, a test that would destroy a typical folding smartphone. This ruggedness comes from the mature technology of flexible circuits, which have been used in electronics for decades but have only recently become accessible to independent creators.

The controls also innovate for the sake of thinness. There are no physical buttons. Instead, seven capacitive touch sensors are printed directly onto the copper layer of the circuit board. The responsiveness was carefully tuned to account for the thickness of the paper and glue, resulting in satisfying, if not world-record-chasing, gameplay. The experience is surprisingly intuitive and easier to play than many dedicated Tetris keychains.

Not every component could be flexible. To manage costs, a thin, rigid printed circuit board is housed along the magazine’s spine. This board contains an ARM-based microprocessor and four small, rechargeable batteries. Charging is accomplished via a cleverly deconstructed USB-C port hidden along the bottom edge of the cover, featuring a paper pocket and pins instead of a traditional metal socket.

Some compromises were necessary for the minimalist design. The game saves high scores but omits modern features like piece previews or a hold function. Sound is minimal, just a short snippet of the Tetris theme at startup, to conserve the significant power required by the tiny piezo speaker. This efficiency allows for about an hour or two of playtime, with the battery lasting months on standby.

Only 150 copies of the magazine were produced with the playable cover, and they were never sold to the public. These rare units were distributed exclusively to tournament competitors, magazine features, influencers, and select media outlets. While this project won’t save print media or lead to rollable smartphones, it brilliantly demonstrates how existing, affordable technology can be reimagined to create a novel and engaging experience for gamers.

(Source: The Verge)