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Gameband puts Atari games on your wrist

Gameband puts Atari games on your wrist

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Gameband

Athletes, babies, and dogs all get their own wearables, but what about gamers? A new wearable launching on Kickstarter today, the Gameband, is for the gamers. Phew, I was getting worried. There are two versions of the band, which determine the games that are included at launch. The Atari version comes in the signature Atari red and includes classic games like Pong, Crystal Castles, and Asteroids. The Terraria version comes with an exclusive mini-game based off the original game.

The whole idea behind Gameband is that as a gamer, you want to game all the time. Sure, you can game on your phone when you’re on the go, but maybe you’d rather game from a tiny 1.63-inch touch AMOLED display. Right, gamers? You tell me.

The band includes an expandable microSD slot with up to 256GB of storage. To manage files, Gameband works with an iTunes-like desktop app called PixelFurnace. You can download and install watch games from PixelFurnace, and you can also store entire PC games on the watch which can then be played on another PC by plugging your watch in and launching the game from the PixelFurnace app on that computer. It sounds a little bit like Steam, but with more sneakernet.

Here are some other specs:

  • Customized Android Marshmallow
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor
  • 400mAh battery
  • Includes an accelerometer, gyro sensor, and light sensor
  • USB-C
  • Bluetooth 4.2
  • 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi

The band will ship with up to 20 mini-games, as well as standard apps like notifications, calendar, contacts, dialer, fitness, weather, alarm, stopwatch, and a music player. The band doesn’t work with voice control just yet, although Gameband tells me that’s “in the roadmap.” It also doesn’t include a heart-rate monitor, although it can count steps. Okay gamers, what do you think? Do you want to game from your wrist? How committed to the gaming lifestyle are you really? Gameband starts at $99 on Kickstarter.