Rubik's Cube-like device lights up, lets you play 'Snake' in three dimensions

By Luke Dormehl Published August 24, 2016

One of the few bright spots in the otherwise prehistoric hellhole that was the world before smartphones was the experience of playing Snake on our chunky Nokia 3210 handsets.

That’s something a new Kickstarter project wants to bring back, albeit with a distinctly 21st century spin. What the team behind QCoo have created is essentially a portable Rubik’s Cube-style object, which lets you play a number of games — including Snake — courtesy of a smart sensor and a bunch of LEDs.

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“We used to play Snake on our Nokia phones in two dimensions,” Spencer Dai, marketing manager for the Kickstarter campaign, told Digital Trends. “With the QCoo, there’s the chance to play it in three-dimensional space for the first time. There’s a gyroscope inside it which lets you play by simply tilting the QCoo.”

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snake playing cube led qcoo digitaltrend — Image used with permission by copyright holder

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snake playing cube led qcoo — Image used with permission by copyright holder

That would be diverting enough to deserve a place on the desk of any self-respecting geek who subconsciously wishes it was 1998 again — but QCoo’s ambitions go further than that.

“QCoo is completely open source on both hardware and software,” Dai continued. “We want people to develop their own games and apps, and we’re going to collect these in a community so people can share them with each other. We’re also continuing to develop new apps ourselves. We’re viewing this as a long-term project.”

Other applications for the light-up cube include drawing an object on your paired smartphone and then having it re-created in LEDs on the QCoo, using it as a soothing relaxation tool displaying “beautiful LED effects,” or turning it into a makeshift die for gaming on the go. “For those who can program by themselves, they can share their program or ask us to help improve it,” Dai said. “For those who have fantastic ideas but [who are] not be able to develop on their own, they can tell us their ideas and we will help achieve them.”

QCoo’s Kickstarter campaign is currently $9,646 of the way toward its $30,000 goal. If you want to help it hit that target — and get hold of a unit of your own for your troubles — you can secure one with a pledge of $49 and up.

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I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…

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