As someone who covers gadgets, screens, and digital culture all day, I’ve caught myself wistfully remembering print media. I’ll admit it: I miss the weight of a good magazine in my hands, and the way a beautifully designed spread could make me linger. That’s what got me stuck on the Red Bull GamePop GP-1 playable magazine.
In a world saturated with infinite feeds, push alerts, and AI-optimized content, the big idea here isn’t just publishing print again. It’s making print interactive by turning it into a game. That’s what sets this edition apart.
This issue embeds a fully functional gaming system directly into the cover. The playable version centers on a flexible panel built with 180 tiny RGB LEDs mounted on a custom circuit board.
Those LEDs form a thin display that powers a version of Tetris directly on the magazine’s surface. Capacitive touch sensors are in the copper layer to act as controls, replacing physical buttons. A small ARM-based processor drives the experience, and rechargeable coin-cell batteries keep it running.
All of that hardware is laminated into the cover. Meanwhile, only a limited number of copies include it. However, the standard version still provides plenty of interaction with its sewn-in manga booklet and a hidden, multi-step text adventure woven through its pages.
Print media as mass consumption is long gone. But products like the Red Bull GamePop magazine prove there’s still love for print. All the more if it includes a paper-thin screen you can play.
When a company commits to being tactile and interactive, their product becomes an experience rather than a skim. Something that combines nostalgia, but is still forward facing.
And that brings me to the point. The GamePop GP-1 isn’t meant for mass availability. It’s a collectible object — something you might keep on a shelf long after the batteries die.
Limited runs, embedded hardware, physical design constraints — those suddenly feel like advantages, these days. And it signals something important: the objects we own don’t just deliver information. Their physical presence shapes how we value them.
For gamers and collectors, the Red Bull GamePop GP-1 edition is a pretty cool toy, and it combines two trends that continue to rise in popularity: retro gaming and analogue nostalgia. If, like me, you remember the days of print media and arcade-style games fondly, this gadget is really going to hit home for you.
Meanwhile, the thin, flexible, playable Tetris screen places this magazine right into the modern era of foldable, bendable displays. It’s no wonder the GP-1 is in demand!
Lauren has been writing and editing since 2008. She loves working with text and helping writers find their voice. When she's not typing away at her computer, she cooks and travels with her husband and two daughters.