Gameband + Minecraft
Gameband + Minecraft
The Gameband + Minecraft is a uniquewearable band that instantly backs up the Minecraft worlds you build, allowing you to take them anywhere. Essentially a USB 3.0 thumb drive in bracelet form, the Gameband also shows off the time, date, and animations you can create with an included app. It’s a bit pricey for a peripheral, and Minecraft players who prefer the console versions are left out in the cold, since the Gameband only works with Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. But the kid-proof, durable design and easy-to-use interface ought to appeal to enthusiasts of one of the most popular video games of all time.
Minecraft
In case you’re unfamiliar with the best-selling PC game, Minecraft is all about building entire worlds out of Lego-like pixelated cubes, often with friends in an online multiplayer setting. It encourages cooperation, creativity, exploration, and problem solving, so it’s no wonder kids have taken to it in droves. It helps that the game is available on pretty much any platform, including Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles. In fact, Microsoft bought the Minecraft IP and its Swedish developer Mojang for $2.5 billion last year. It’s a big deal, and a merchandising juggernaut—just look at all that swag on the main store page. The Gameband is the latest addition to the Minecraft family, and the first hardware product endorsed by Mojang.
The Gameband comes with a Minecraft launcher preloaded, essentially turning it into an all-purpose portable, wearable Minecraft device, similar to the plug-in-and-play game cartridges of old. You can even apply mods to the software if you so please. But unless you buy (or have already purchased) a license for the full game for about $30, you’re stuck using a demo, which only lasts around two hours. To read more about Minecraft, check out our review.
Design and Display
The Gameband + Minecraft is basically an 8GB USB drive that comes in two sizes: small and large. The small is 6.2 inches long, and the large is 7.3 inches. I wore the large version for a week or so of testing, and while it is indeed large—it hung off my wrist like a bangle—I never found it too uncomfortable. Its slightly oblong shape prevents it from spinning or wiggling around too much, which is a plus.
The band separates in the middle—where you’ll find a stainless steel clasp that’s hand-painted with a blocky pixel motif—to reveal a USB 3.0 port. The clasp snaps tight around your wrist (hirsute folk, beware) to hide the USB port within the band. Not far from the clasp is a square-shaped red button that activates the LED display hidden just beneath the surface of the band. Press the button once for the time to appear, once again for the date, and once more for a custom animation or message to scroll across. If you add more animations to the band (more on that in a bit), you can repeatedly press the button to cycle through them.
The display itself looks fine in indoor environments like the school cafeteria, the gym, or wherever else Minecraft players typically hang out (the office?). But it’s pretty useless in the sun, since it’s difficult to make out the faint, red pixels in bright outdoor light.
The Gameband is rated IPX-4, so it can withstand splashes from the sink, but it won’t survive a dip in the pool. Overall, the design of the band is somewhat bland, but it’s appealing in its simplicity and customizability. It’s also pretty fun to snap the clasp open and closed—obsessives, be warned. Then again, you’re already playing Minecraft, so, have at it.
Performance and Software
Using the band is simple. Just undo the clasp, and plug it into the USB 3.0 drive on your computer—don’t worry, USB 2.0 ports will work too. Then let the setup wizard do its thing before you open the Gameband folder in the file explorer. Double-click the Gameband application to register an account, boot up Minecraft, log in, and play to your heart’s content. Then quit, and let the Gameband save your world to the band itself and to a cloud server, automatically. There’s no need to finagle with registries, files, or folders beyond the initial Gameband one.
There’s no need to worry about losing the band itself, either. Now Computing, the company behind the Gameband, will replace any lost bands (for a reduced price) with the data restored. The only catch (aside from running out of the allotted 8GB, perhaps) is the fee associated with the cloud server support. After the first year, you need to spend a fixed $9.99 per year to keep cloud-based storage going, which is something that goes unmentioned in the included instruction booklet and the official website.
The included software is a breeze, though. For starters, You can set the time of day to a 12- or 24-hour clock, and set the date to display in either day/month or month/day format. You can also customize your band with the included Pixel Furnace application. Well, somewhat. There’s a limited amount of choices, but it should be enough for someone just getting into this kind of thing.
Pixel Furnace allows you to create your own basic, pixelated animation to scroll across the Gameband’s LED display. Don’t expect anything too sophisticated: you’re given a basic 20-by-7-pixel canvas to work with, and a whopping color choice of two (red and black), so there’s little hope to rival the likes of 8-bit classics such as Super Mario Bros. or Mega Man. That said, you’re given a fair amount to toy around with, including Select, Move, Pencil, and Eraser tools, as well as options to undo and redo actions, and to adjust the number of frames and the animation speed (frames per second). Some keyboard shortcuts like ctrl+A, ctrl+C, and ctrl+V also work, which makes repeating certain frames of animation easier. That’s way more than I was expecting.
You can also export the animations you make as GIF files to show them off on social media. But since it’s a tiny 20-by-7 GIF, your followers will probably have to be ants. More likely, you’re meant to upload your creations to the Pixel Furnace site, where you can share, rate, and download animations to play on the Gameband. Check out one of mine on the right here.
You can also import foreign GIFs, though I wasn’t as successful with that. I tried loading several GIFs saved off of the Web, including some Mega Man enemy sprites, but nothing I tried worked. Ultimately, you’re left to download others from the Pixel Furnace site, or create your own, which is likely what Minecraft fans prefer to do anyway.
The Gameband also comes preloaded with worlds and mini-games made by Minecraft e-celebs Hypixel, SethBling, and Dragnoz, which is a nice addition, since younger players may not know how to acquire maps, mods, and other add-ons themselves.
Conclusion
The Gameband + Minecraft costs $80, which sounds like a lot for a video game peripheral—most Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controllers cost $60 or less. But keep in mind, the Gameband saves a lot of time and effort by backing up your Minecraft data automatically, and it comes with a Minecraft launcher, so you can essentially carry your whole Minecraft experience around with you. Plus the band itself is sleek, durable, and comes with a charmingly low-fi animation kit for its low-tech LED screen. So while it might be a little pricey, the Gameband is also a neat, convenient wearable that’s sure to make a sweet gift for Minecraft enthusiasts.
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