Let's Play "Htmx 4: the game"

Moments ago I just finished playing “htmx 4: the game”, the first JavaScript library published exclusively for Game Boy and Game Boy Color. I've recorded my play session and published the video to YouTube:

When I first saw this announcement it was pure blog bait for me. Game Boy, open source software, reverse-engineering, oh my. I purchased the cartridge within moments of seeing the announcement.

The Game Boy cartridge arrived earlier today inside a custom cardboard box and plastic case which I appreciate! The box was tight to open without ripping the cardboard, I managed with the help of some tweezers. The game is on a Game Boy cartridge with a label. The cartridge itself reads “Game” instead of “Game Boy” to avoid running afoul of Nintendo trademarks and licensing.

I was unable to dump the ROM using my Epilogue GB Operator, the cartridge didn't fit into the slot unless I angled it weirdly and even then the cartridge wouldn't give the GB Operator the consistent connection it needs to dump the ROM. This was unfortunate, I wanted to dig into the ROM itself more for this post, but that will have to be another day. I suspect the tolerances for the cartridge are just outside what the Epilogue will tolerate. I switched over to my Game Boy Player to capture footage of game play with my HDMI-modded GameCube. Here the cartridge fit and worked just fine.

The game is tough (especially The Slop Factory, yeesh) and took me over an hour to complete, and I didn't even find all 4 HTMX letters in each stage... hinting that there is more to be discovered! There was pervasive lag while playing which the game’s story blames on... React. A likely story! ;)

Going in I wasn't sure how they were going to distribute the final source code... Would there be a QR code to the source code (which would have been a disappointment) or would the htmx team actually make you type it in yourself like a BASIC program from a magazine? I was so happy to see that the htmx team went all the way, it means I'm even more excited to dig into this ROM!

As a software distribution mechanism... including ordering the game, waiting for delivery, beating the game, and then typing in the source code by hand from the Game Boy screen... Let's say it's slightly less user-friendly than npm install :) But that's the fun of a project like this.

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