Minimalist Consoles of Old School Games Arrive

Are you into minimalist pieces? What about minimalist pieces in gaming? Ishac Bertran, a designer and resident of New York City, has created three new consoles, each representing a game, with the screens plastered onto the console. He has stuffed Mario, Tetris, and Pong into three different cubes. Each small, wood-encased console comes with different controller inputs: Mario is played by pushing one button, Tetris is controlled by rotating a cube (like a minimalist Rubik’s Cube), and Pong’s score is determined through the toggling of a switch that determines where the ball will bounce. This sounds fun and all, but here is the “boring” aspect of the project: players can only make one move per day. Why? Because once you make your choice, it take a whole day for the results of your decision to show on the screen. Instead of testing hand-eye coordination, the games test memory and observation. I also believe it tests the limits of modern human patience.

The idea? To transform a quick-paced activity (i.e. most video games) into a slow-moving, contemplative experience. Video games (at least single player games) typically give us immediate reward and satisfaction. Bertran states, “This is what allows a game to be really engaging, really immersive. When you play a video game, everything in the room disappears.” Slow Games, the name for these minimalist consoles, intends to do the opposite. People who play Slow Games will take at least a couple of weeks to complete each game, provided that no deaths will happen. Would you be interested in Slow Games? Would you have the patience to complete it?