Dear Ruby devs and game devs. I have a crazy announcement I want to share. Please boost.
Last week I released A Dark Room to the Nintendo Switch. Within the game, I also shipped a Ruby interpreter and a code editor as an Easter Egg.
*This Easter Egg effectively turns every consumer spec-ed Nintendo Switch into a Ruby Machine.*
1. Download A Dark Room from the US/EU.
2. Connect a USB keyboard and press the “~” key.
3. Follow the onscreen instructions.
Welp guess we saw who was right and who was wrong now.
@rin @hj @amirrajan They released a new hardware revision where this is fixed. If you buy a new switch it will be patched.
(Old switches are still unpatchable and good though 😄)
@hj there is precedence for this: take a look at Fuze: https://www.fuze.co.uk/nintendo-switch.html
Also. Stop living in this world of fear. A kid's eyes would have lit up seeing this. And that is my intent/motivation.
PS: Let me worry about that. Go forth and create awesome crazy things.
@hj none of this happened. I'm not an idiot and didn't expose anything that would have gotten me in trouble.
My intents were not malicious (think about why I would have done something like this).
So yea. No lawsuit. The game is back up on the eShop. And I have a DLC in the works that will be released "the right way".
In short: lol, you're wrong.
@hj and don't be offended.
Just shit posting myself 😛
@amirrajan Holy shit that's really fucking cool! Can't wait to mess with this!
@noirscape here is the source code for some of the stuff within the game. Feel free to monkey patch as needed: https://github.com/amirrajan/power-overwhelming
@noirscape hope you had fun messing with the environment.
Here's the next iteration of it (coming soon to a Switch new you... as a DLC to ADR): http://fiddle.dragonruby.org
@amirrajan@ruby.social just tried it. one of the best easter eggs i've ever seen in a game :)
@glitch source code to help with your video game making journey: https://github.com/amirrajan/power-overwhelming
I've included parts of A Dark Room source in there too so you can "mod" it.
@glitch and if you need anything else added to it, I'll throw it up there for reference.
@glitch I'm baaaccckkk.
Next iteration of the Easter Egg: http://fiddle.dragonruby.org
Coming soon as a DLC (this time "the right way") 😬
@vaartis yep! The Switch version is highly tuned for "active" play. Pacing is different and there is a much much deeper narrative (since it's assumed that the player is more attentive).
There is always a non-trivial decision to make or task to do on the Switch version.
@amirrajan does the ruby interpreter have graphics and input so one could make another game inside ruby?
@boots yep! Build all the things!!
Here is some sample code here: https://github.com/amirrajan/power-overwhelming/blob/master/kaigi_2019_logo.rb
@amirrajan \o/!!!
@amirrajan don't have a way to connect a keyboard to an undocked switch, so no video, but here's a pic!
@amirrajan ill probably play the game, too, since it looks neat, i just heard ruby interpreter + engine on the switch and got excited
@boots sorry for taking so long to reply. Hope you had fun geeking around with it.
Here's the next iteration of the easter egg: http://fiddle.dragonruby.org
@amirrajan (that white blob in the middle DOES say 4 for the record)
@amirrajan i love a dark room already and this is just next tier as hell, omg
@robin *really* appreciate the kind words you sent me back then.
They helped me weather the storm ^_^
ADR is back on the eShop. Spread the word <3
@amirrajan You, good Sir, are brilliant.Thank you!
@moritzheiber thank you for the kind words. And sorry for taking so long to reply (had to stay radio silent for a while).
@Frinkeldoodle Thanks for trying it out on day one.
It was so freaking cool seeing people get "hello" printing on their device. Best feeling in the world that I actually brought some of the magic back with regards to coding 🙂
@amirrajan holy shit lol. I’m not a programmer but I do own a switch and that’s cool as hell.
@Ethancdavenport never too late to learn :-)
@amirrajan u right! What’s your game about?
@Ethancdavenport @amirrajan coding is not that tough to get started with, it just looks really intense from the outside. there's lots of online free courses and a few of the books out there do a great job getting you started. at first, I found coding dull..and now that I can really use it, it feels like magic and I can't imagine doing anything else for work. give it a shot!
@amirrajan Nice, it even works with my USB-C to lots of connectors dongle
@amirrajan this is so cool!
Here’s the proof. This is a Nintendo Switch, running A Dark Room, which allows you to execute Ruby code. The Ruby code in this video is a Quine that executes Ruby code.