We can now all play Exapunks players' in-game games for free

Not everyone can hang with the console cowboys in cyberspace; some of us can merely gaze in wonder and astonishment at what keyboard wizards accomplish in Zachtronics games. But if you're not a kewl enough d00d to hack and program in Exapunks, the latest Zachlike, you can now at least play people's created in-game games for free. Zachtronics last night released the TEC Redshift Player, a free standalone simulation of Exapunk's fictional in-game handheld console. And the way to play Redshift games is cute: you download pictures of cartridges (which magically contain the data) then drag 'em in into the deck.

Exapunks itself is a cracking hack-o-programming game with its own campaign, praised by our Brendy, with the Redshift in there as a fun freeform toy on the side of its main campaign. Players can program the handheld to create their own software then share creations as images of cartridges - which cleverly conceal the data in the picture using steganography.

That's what the new TEC Redshift Player plays. Grab cartridges--you'll find many on Reddit's Exapunks board, such as Into The Dungeon We Go! by "johnmcbain" as seen in that screenshot ↑ up there--or get your pals to send theirs then drag images into the Player and bish bash bosh you're away, playing basic games. It supports optional red/blue anaglyph 3D too.

Oh sure the Redshift is mostly for novelty and showing-off, but it's neat! I like neat stuff that people want to show off. Did you see all those wild Redshift creations Brendy was looking at?

You can grab the Redshift Player free from Steam. Exapunks itself is still in early access, though the full launch seems close judging by the updates with names like "Wrapping up Early Access, part 3 of ???" If you want in now, it'll run you £15.49/€16.79/$19.99 on Steam.