Though “ecologically it’s pretty much a disaster,” Receipt Racer proves that the most mundane items can be crafted into inventive electronic games.
The game, an entry in Barcelona’s OFFF Festival, is a relatively simplistic racing game with a clever twist: it’s played entirely on a roll of receipt paper.
As Geek.com explains:
The game itself is a single-player survival-style racer. When the game starts, your “car” is a blue light projected on the paper. You use the PS2 controller to move your car left and right on the “track,” which is actually printed on the paper. The real challenge of the game is to manage your digital car and how it moves on a physical medium that’s in motion.
Even with that explanation, you don’t truly get the gist of Receipt Racer unless you see it in action:
Neat, right? If nothing else, it’s far more novel than endless Gran Turismo sequels.
Say however, you’ve got an ecological slant. In that light this game is an affront to Captain Planet and all he stands for! To its creator’s credit, that seems to be the point.
“50 meters is the maximum distance you are theoretically able to race in one run, before running out of paper. So ecologically it’s pretty much a disaster, just like any real car,” the project’s website states.
Don’t expect to see Receipt Racer on store shelves any time soon — creating a marketing plan for this thing would destroy the PR industry in a blinding flash of molten smartphones and sharp pantsuits — though if you somehow have a surplus of recipt paper lying around, you can download the game from its official site.
