News from the Test Bench! One of the very lovely features of the game, and honestly the one I like the most, is the UART hacking mode.

When you start the game and press Select on the main screen instead of Start, the game enters UART hacking mode. From there, you can connect a UART USB module to the link port of the GBA and hack the game through a UART console.

In case you do not know what UART is, this might be the perfect moment to learn. UART is a very common interface used in hardware hacking, debugging, and embedded development. So this mode is not only a fun extra feature, but also a tiny introduction to real-world hardware hacking skills. All required settings, wiring information, and useful details are provided in the UART wiring TXT file I created for this mode.

But what can you actually do once the mode is accessible? Essentially, UART mode gives you a terminal with various commands to interact with and hack the game. You can type help to get console information, set points, lives, or ammo, and even use peek and poke to access device memory directly. For people who know what I am talking about: feel free to debug, experiment, and hack the game.

My idea with this mode was simple: the game should not only be fun, it should also have a small learning component. It is just a tiny bit of hardware hacking, but if you are brave enough, it can introduce you to that world and open up a lot of fun possibilities.

Once the physical carts are ready, each cart sold on Etsy will include all parts needed to build a working interface, including a small PCB for self-assembly.