SmartWatch Geek

The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replay ability (no two games are the same), permanent death, and turn-based movement.  Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics like the one implemented by Jeff Lait.

When I first saw this implementation of a Roguelike for inPulse I couldn’t help but wonder how the creator of this game conquered the one button challenge. Jeff cleverly used Morse code to gain control over the whole keyboard.  While traditional roguelikes use vi-keys for movement (hjlk), these are awkward in Morse code so the developer opted to use shorter keys: mian, where m is left, i is down, a is up, and n is right.

What’s also pretty cool is that the game even has a little “menu” which you can access from the “ls” command again all through Morse code.

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When I first received my Inpulse smart watch I was wondering what game I could easily write that would only require one button.  Yes no doubt a watch with 2 buttons would have made writing games much easier but after some thinking I realized that a slot machine truly only needs one button.  Anyway, as far as I know this is the first real game ever created for the inPulse watch.  I’ve got my next game already in mind and I can’t wait to see what games others will come up with.  Visit the app store at www.inpulsewatch.com to download your free copy.

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