demonpore 64
| demonpore 64 | |
|---|---|
 A render of the console concept, with a joystick, a rack of reagent bottles and a poster on the wall. The render is not a photograph. | |
| Developer | demonpore, inc. |
| Type | Nanopore reader in the form of a home video game console |
| Release date | Not released |
| Operating system | Maxine's Quest (instrument control software) |
| Connectivity | Ethernet; DB9 joystick port |
| Power | USB |
| Successor | MR1 Molecular Streaming Device |
The demonpore 64 is a prototype nanopore reader that demonpore, inc., now Molecular Reality Corporation, built in 2020 and 2021 in the shape of a home video game console. The company's 2022 overview describes an instrument with "the general appearance and footprint of a classic 1980s gaming console", a custom patch-clamp amplifier, a 3D-printed syringe pump, swappable pore cartridges and "a Db9 plug for a custom joystick". It was operated through Maxine's Quest, which the overview calls "both instrument control software AND the portal for all our early game releases".[1]
The console was never sold. In 2026 Kent Kemmish wrote that the company "should have shipped in a form very close to the one seen, very early on. But we didn't." He added that it still wanted "to ship a very similar product and call it the 'demonpore 64', but it will be at least a 64-channel device."[1]
Design
According to the overview, the company "designed the console from the inside out, starting with the most technically demanding part": a custom patch-clamp amplifier, which measures the current through the pore at a chosen voltage. Around it sat an analog-to-digital converter, a digital-to-analog converter and a microcontroller. The console drew its power over USB and used Ethernet "to talk to our server". A stepper motor drove the syringe pump, and the pore itself sat in a cartridge, "a custom microfabricated silicon chip containing a single pore", of which the company designed "multiple styles" that "can be easily switched in and out".[1] Company records give the console's electronics, named Teabiscuits, a range of picoamperes to nanoamperes at a bandwidth of 125 kHz, and a cartridge that could be changed in under 20 seconds.[2] The electronics were spread over several circuit boards, which were meant to be replaced one at a time as the design improved: "All the electronic components within will be easily swappable as we release upgrades to the system to our customer base". In 2026 the company planned to combine their functions on a single board for its next devices.[1] The company built more than one enclosure. A caption on its website describes the one in its photographs, the "supermodel", as "the fancy one we built, we also built simpler ones", and explains: "It's just a box in which the PCBs and syringe pump sits."[2]
Controls
Apart from the joystick, the console's controls were drawn on screen, in the instrument panel of Maxine's Quest. The overview lists:[1]
- a blue bias knob "for adjusting polarity and magnitude of voltage across the pore";
- a "zapper stick" with a red handle, which "applies a brief spike of maximum voltage" (see the zapper);
- two selector switches, green and blue, that apply "sawtooth patterns to voltage and a rapid oscillating pattern to the syringe pump", for studying how particles respond to sudden changes in electric and hydrodynamic force, a method the overview calls "ping-pong" (see ping-pong sensing);
- a "potion platter" for telling the system which reagents had been added;
- a syringe pump control that "lets the player toggle between pushing vs. withdrawing liquids at variable speeds";
- a "Data TV" showing the live current, which could be switched to other channels such as "2D histograms".
For the joystick, see joystick for science. In the 2026 version of the game the Data TV was replaced by the Clay TV, a television set modeled in clay.[3]
History
The core electronics were designed in 2020 and 2021 by an outside electronics designer, and another contributor led the design of the enclosure and the flow cells.[4] While testing the prototype, Kemmish and that contributor pulled knots tied in a nylon filament through a hole about 2 mm across and recorded a downward spike for each knot. The demonstration became the company's first coded game, which Kemmish calls "the unfortunately named 'Spyke Hunter'" after the 1980s arcade game Spy Hunter.[4] See knot sequencing and Spyke Hunter.
The company announced the console in 2021 as "the world's first Molecular Gaming Console™".[2] A sign-up form from that year asked new members which early molecular game they would choose and what excited them about the demonpore 64.[2] Two videos on the company's channel show it, "Loading the demonpore 64" and "demonpore 64 with Great Spirit".[5][6] A company chatbot later said that the console had been "housed in a repurposed Atari 2600 case".[2][better source needed]
The December 2022 overview set out the console's purpose. Hands-on solid-state nanopore research, it said, "is extremely tedious and expensive", and a console would turn experiments into games played by a "small decentralized 'army of player scientists'".[1] The company's management game, Epic Quest Bio, grew from the same plan. A card on the company's list of provisions, written for its members, reads: "Yes, we are going to make the original console form factor for our electronics!" Further down it says: "Sorry for the five years it will have taken."[2]
Name and influences
The name follows the company's lowercase style, as in demonpore, inc., and the 2022 overview does not explain the number. In 2026 Kemmish gave it a meaning for the future, a device with "at least" 64 channels.[1] The phrase "Molecular Gaming Console" carries a trademark symbol in the company's materials.[2]
The overview names the look it was after, "a classic 1980s gaming console", and defends the joystick by pointing to the laboratory: joysticks are "common in microscopy for moving stages".[1] Its first game, written for the console's signals, was named after a 1980s arcade game.[4] Looking past the console, the document said that its successor "will be marketed more as a 'molecular PC' than a gaming console", although "experigaming" would remain "a major application".[1]
Legacy
Kemmish's CV describes his company as building "nanopore-based molecular sensors marketed as gaming consoles", and lists the next device, the MR Molecular Streaming Device, as "formerly demonpore 64".[7] Its game controls outlived the hardware: the 2026 Maxine's Quest keeps a bias knob and a red-handled zapper in its clay instrument panel, and the company's guide still calls its community "our tribe of player scientists".[3][8] Experigaming, the company's word for running experiments as games, comes from the same plan.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kemmishtree (March 28, 2026). "2022 sci-tech overview". EQBio-OS.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. October 2026.
- ^ a b "Maxine's Quest". Molecular Reality Corporation. Retrieved October 25, 2026.
- ^ a b c Kemmishtree (March 29, 2026). "Sequencing a string". EQBio-OS.
- ^ Loading the demonpore 64 (Video). EpicQuestBio.
- ^ demonpore 64 with Great Spirit (Video). EpicQuestBio.
- ^ "Stanley Kent Kemmish, Jr." Molecular Reality Corporation. May 2026.
- ^ "Keltar's Field Guide to Molecular Reality". Molecular Reality Corporation. August 2026.