Game broker

Game Broker reflects upon the nature of financial crises with three retro games for the original Nintendo Game Boy. The installation was developed in 2009 by Derivart, in collaboration with game developer David Pello. Each of the three games brings the player back to the crises of the 1980's, 90's and the dotcom years. The games allow the player to learn about the reasons for each crisis, engage with economic bubbles, and learn key information about them. For instance, it brings up issues such as soaring oil prices in the early 1980's, the surge in interest rates in beginning of the 1990's, or the technology stocks during the dot-com bubble. The aesthetics of the games are classic 8-bit. The games challenge the player with questions about each crisis, and correct answers give the player extra points. Game Broker invites the player to rethink the nature of financial crises as a recurring phenomenon during the last decades.

The three games combine a minigame with questions referring to the crisis that is talking about, becoming a way to learn about and remember the past bubbles.

The oil crisis of the 1980s
In the first game, the enemy is the increasing price of oil and commodities such as iron, coal, etc. In a setup that reminds of the classic game Space Invaders, the player can destroy the high prices by shooting at them; otherwise, prices will go up even higher.

Crisis of the 1990s - the post-Olympic hangover
The entrance in the European Union in 1986 and celebration of the 1992 Olympic Games left the Spanish economy badly overheated. The increase in interest rates on the part of the Bank of Spain led the economy into recession. In the game, the player has to fight, Arkanoid-style, high interest rates and answer questions related to this crisis.

Dotcom Crisis in the early 2000s
Dotcom bubbles exploded in the year 2000 and put the whole world economy at risk. The player has to stop the dotcom bubble by hunting down meteors in the style of Asteroids. The player also needs to answer questions in order to increase the score.

Do-it-yourself technology and open source

To release these games for the GameBoy(TM) platform, we developed our own DIY cartridge and used open software tools like GBDK, GBTD, GBMB, ATC, as well as Lemon player. We have now technology that allows us to produce small series of cartridges (designed by David Pello) that run in original Game Boys and Game Boy advanced. We are thus able to be an "indie game development studio" for Game Boy.

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GameBroker was first time presented at Innmotion Festival at June 2009 in the CCCB, Barcelona.

Source code and Gb files for gameboy emulator is available here: GameBroker.zip
(Distributed as Creative Commons Licence with no comercial use)