‘Bit-tendo’ prototype offers Bitcoin retro games for bars, conferences

Play to earn retro games with Bitcoin payouts may soon be coming to a bar, conference or meeting near you, according to a Twitter post on February 12 by Zebedee founder Christian Moss. The software is currently called “Bit-tendo.”

The Twitter post includes a video of someone playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on a small, old-fashioned tube TV. The TV displays a QR code on startup, asking for a Bitcoin payment. Only when the payment is sent does the game start running.

During gameplay, a “Sats” counter appears which apparently counts the number of Sats the player has won as rewards so far – “Sats” are Bitcoin’s smallest divisible unit of 0.00000001BTC each. The display also shows a timer that counts down from 90 seconds to zero, and when the timer goes to zero, the game ends and a new QR code appears. A statement at the bottom and top of the image means that the player can use the QR code to withdraw Bets.

In the post, Moss said the software will eventually “be a free retro gaming bitcoin infuser for bars, conferences, meetings, etc.”

Cointelegraph contacted Christian Moss to get an explanation of how the software works. In response, he told us that it runs on a PC or other device capable of accepting a video feed. The game itself is produced from a real Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console, but the video has been changed along the way to show the Sats counter and timer. The software tracks movement in the video stream to determine if the player has collected a coin and updates the Sat counter each time a coin is collected.

To fund the payout wallet, Moss said the bar or club must sign up for a custodial wallet with Zebedee or LNBits. The wallet is connected to the Lightning Network to enable low transaction fees and fast payments.

Related: Nigerian innovator launches the first active Bitcoin Lightning node in the country

The Zebedee app is available on the Google Play and Apple app stores. Screenshots reveal that it has a “top-up” (deposit) and “withdrawal” (withdrawal) feature that can be accessed after the user completes a Know Your Customer (KYC) process.

Moss also explained how he came up with the idea for “Bit-tendo.” He said he tried to get people interested in Bitcoin Play to earn bets at Bitcoin conferences, but found that attendees preferred to play games they already know rather than “in-house” designed games. Moss said he hopes to make the software work with all games, not just Super Mario Bros. 3:

“I also want the user to be able to train the software to recognize events in any game they might have, ultimately making it game agnostic.”

In his Tweet showing off the software, Moss stated that he would integrate Sonic: The Hedgehog 2 with it if the post received 200 retweets, which it has since received.

Christian Moss has been an innovator in the blockchain gaming space since its inception. In 2014 he created Sarutobi, a game that allowed players to collect Bitcoin by controlling a monkey swinging across a jungle landscape. Because it was before EverdreamSoft’s release Genesis beta by about a year, Moss’ Sarutobi is sometimes considered to have been the first blockchain game ever.