The progress we have made in miniaturization They have made possible things that a few years ago would have seemed like authentic science fiction, and Asterisk is one of the best examples. I am sure that many of our readers will remember those huge portable consoles that included the Tetris game (and some variants using blocks), and that allowed us to play for many hours without having to change the batteries. They were a cheap alternative for those of us who couldn’t afford a real laptop, and their success was so great that they are still being marketed today.
Asterisk is, in a way, an evolution of that huge console. This system has a size of only four centimeters, and it comes with a complete control system and a screen where we can play a minimalist version of Tetris. The two upper buttons allow us to move the pieces left and right, the lower left button makes the pieces go down faster, and the lower right button allows us to rotate the pieces. It is the only game that includes this peculiar console, but it is still impressive that all this has been integrated into four centimeters.
Asterisk screen is OLED type, works in black and white, which translates into minimal energy consumption, since to generate black it turns off the pixels directly, it uses an ATTiny85 microcontroller and the software it integrates has been customized using Arduino programming tools. The system comes fully assembled in its current version, but there is one thing that is not included, the batteries. To make it work we will need two button batteries that are inserted in the back.
Asterisk is not yet available, but it can already be pre-purchased for 20 dollars, 19.58 euros, a fairly high figure, but reasonable if we take into account the quality of the screen of this console and its small size. It is also important to remember that Asterisk does not have a release or availability date marked, so when making the pre-purchase we are waiting for that confirmation to occur, and I suppose that later they will be supplied in a staggered manner depending on the order of the pre-purchase
Depending on the country from which you make the pre-purchase you may have to pay customs fees, so keep that in mind before launching to pre-purchase it. Personally I think it’s a candy for any lover of technology, and Tetris.
