Gameband

Gameband + Minecraft was a series of wearable rubber wristbands with embedded USB flash memory that contained a portable copy of Minecraft: Java Edition. The devices were manufactured by the startup company NowComputing, which officially collaborated with Mojang Studios.^[1]

The band included a laser engraved design based on Minecraft ores. The redstone edition, which featured a red display and button, was the most common version. A diamond edition with cyan colored elements was also produced.^[2] A limited MINECON 2012 pre-release version featured a Creeper face engraving and a green diode panel molded into green silicone rather than the standard black material.^[3][4]

NowComputing was a startup company founded by Feargal Mac Conuladh in Barcelona, Spain.^{[5][better source needed]}

The company's first Kickstarter product was StormFly,^[6] a device similar in concept to Gameband. Instead of including Minecraft, StormFly contained a portable operating system. It was marketed as a cost saving solution for small businesses. The concept was based on purchasing multiple wearable system drives that employees could connect to a shared computer, rather than buying separate computer workstations for each employee.^[7]

The concept behind Gameband was to store all files required to run Minecraft directly on the wristband, including player worlds and settings. Users could connect the band to any Windows, Linux, or macOS computer and launch the game without installing additional software on the host system, provided that the Java runtime environment was already installed. This also allowed players to use the same installation without downloading the game again when switching between computers.

The device included 8 GB of storage, although some users reported owning a band with 16 GB of storage^[8][9]. Approximately 2 GB was used by Minecraft and the included software, leaving about 6 GB available for user files.^[10] Gamebands also came pre-loaded with content from Hypixel, SethBling and Dragonz.^[11]

For an additional $9.99 per year, players could purchase a cloud storage service.^[12] The players' worlds were then periodically saved to the cloud whenever the band was connected to a computer with an active internet connection. If the wristband was lost or damaged, the company offered replacements that restored the user's files.

Gameband featured a battery powered panel consisting of 140 diodes. Users could program the display using the included Pixel Furnace software. The panel could show the current date, time, or short animations imported as 20 by 7 pixel black and white GIF files.^[13] White pixels activated the corresponding diodes. The software also allowed users to create text animations or draw custom animations frame by frame. Both frame rate and frame count could be adjusted.

Gameband was priced at approximately 79.99 USD^[14] or 64.99 GBP^[14].^{[better source needed]} The purchase price did not include a Minecraft license, which had to be bought separately from Mojang.^{[12][better source needed]}

The product was discontinued around 2017, when the Gameband website started redirecting users to a new Kickstarter page, announcing a new edition of the watch no longer assosiated with Minecraft.^{[15][16][better source needed]}

For some time after that, an FAQ was available at NowComputing's website explaining the project's sudden end.^[17] Around December 2019 the page had become unavaliable by then.^[18]

Following the closure of NowComputing and the end of official support, Gameband devices no longer function with the original software.^{[19][better source needed]} Users who wish to operate the device as originally intended must rely on unofficial community modifications.^[20] Alternatively, the internal storage can be formatted and used as a standard USB flash drive.

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  A Gameband wristband
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  Front of a Gameband + Minecraft box
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  Back of a Gameband + Minecraft box
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  A promotional image posted on Minecraft's Facebook page^[2]