Plug and play: game cartridges for your smartphone on display at Tokyo Game Show

Earlier this week, we introduced you to Pico Cassette, a tiny physical game cartridge for the smartphone era. Modeled after Nintendo’s original Famicom (NES in North America) cartridges, the device acts as a physical key for unlocking retro game titles – or at least that’s the plan, according to Tokyo-based startup Beatrobo. Founder and CEO Hiroshi Asaeda brought his latest creation to Tokyo Game Show 2015 to drum up support and, hopefully, secure a licensing deal with one or more of the big Japanese game publishers.

When we last spoke with Asaeda, he discussed the technology that powers Pico Cassette and his many ideas for the future of the product. Unfortunately, he wasn’t ready to show off any games. Earlier this week at Tokyo Game Show, however, Asaeda revealed a simple game that demonstrated Pico Cassette’s potential.

“The booth hasn’t had a break,” he tells Tech in Asia. “People have been lining up to check out our product the entire show. It really validates what I’ve been saying for a long time – that there are definitely people out there who’d like to have a physical device that they can touch and feel before moving on to the digital experience. A physical object gives them assurance that they actually own the product.”

The Flappy Bird clone, made in-house at Beatrobo, was nothing special – in fact, it was even more frustratingly difficult than the original. But it was satisfying to plug the Pico Cassette into the iPhone 6 on display and see a game appear on the screen. The Pico Cassette app prompts users to insert the device upon launch, and loading takes just seconds after the plug is inserted.

The menus and loading screens are all done in 8-bit fashion, but with a color palette and crispness that feels modern. The startup even made a cute RPG-inspired intro video about a character on a quest to obtain the Pico Cassette.

In addition to earning the trust of old-school game publishers (an industry that’s been generally reluctant to embrace mobile in the first place), there’s the nagging issue of weak virtual buttons on touch-screen devices. Asaeda says that he intends to offer support for controller cases and – since Beatrobo is a hardware startup – is considering a companion controller of some kind. Tokyo Game Show may have also convinced him to broaden content offerings beyond retro titles: