Quest Smith (a raspberry pi thermal printer multi select text based game machine)

thingiverse

Quest Smith is an addictive text-based game driven by a Raspberry Pi Zero thermal printing experience. Each level offers a unique storyline based on player choices, creating a distinct gameplay experience with every playthrough. I first discovered this concept at the Game Museum in Berlin and was immediately inspired to recreate it. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddWztlJpOYY Github link: https://github.com/bekirdag/quest_smith ## Parts list: * 1 Raspberry Pi Zero * 1 Thermal printer, I used GOOJPRT (https://bit.ly/2H0mE9l) * 1 5V Voltage Step-up Boost Module (https://bit.ly/2SOJ13i) * 1 TP4056 (https://bit.ly/2EQ2gWp) * 1 18650 battery (https://bit.ly/2SM6QZk) * 2 Momentary Tactile Switches (https://bit.ly/2TlT4BN) * 1 3D printed case top * 1 3D printed case bottom * 1 Micro usb to usb female cable (https://bit.ly/2EzYsqP) * 1 Usb cable (this should come with the thermal printer) * 4 Screws 3.5 X 20 mm * 1 On off switch (https://bit.ly/2C4Zs5Z) * Cables ## Tools I used: * Glue Gun * Soldering iron ## The sketch: https://bekirdag.com/random_files/sketch.png ## Pictures https://bekirdag.com/random_files/quest_smith1.jpg https://bekirdag.com/random_files/quest_smith2.jpg https://bekirdag.com/random_files/quest_smith3.jpg ### Putting everything together After soldering the wires as shown in the sketch picture above, you need to fit the hardware into the empty space left from the thermal printer in the box. To save space, use a short usb cable and glue the thermal pinter and buttons in place. Once everything is assembled, glue the switch button to its designated hole. ### Coding 1. Download and install raspbian OS from here https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/ 2. Update packages: `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade` 3. Install the packages: `sudo apt-get install libpython3-dev libpython3-stdlib libqt5printsupport5 php7.0-mbstring python3-rpi.gpio python-rpi.gpio python-setuptools python-dev build-essential` 4. Install composer (here are the instructions: https://getcomposer.org/download/) 5. Install python packages: `pip install setuptools` `pip install locustio` 6. Create a directory under home and get the code for the story: `mkdir quest_smith` `cd quest_smith` `git clone https://github.com/bekirdag/quest_smith.git` 7. Add a line to crontab again to update the software on each reboot so your story will be up to date `@reboot sudo cd /home/pi/quest_smith && sudo git pull origin master` ### Final word Well, that's it! When you turn the raspberry pi on as well as the printer, it should run the script automatically. Your game is ready to be played! ## Contribution Each level requires two versions of the story, making possibilities grow exponentially. It will be very difficult for me to finish a single story by myself. For the player to reach level 9, we will need to have 1023 story parts to be written. If you can help me with that, it would be amazing! ### How to contribute The story is under the story_text folder as txt files like: 0.txt (the first item ever) 00.txt (when the user chooses -NO- at the beginning) 01.txt (when the user chooses -YES- at the beginning) 001.txt (when the user chooses -NO- and then -YES- respectively) 010.txt (when the user chooses -YES- and then -NO- respectively) And so on. So, as you can see, for no, put a 0, for yes, put a 1 at the end of your story option file name.