View source for Demonpore 64

{{Short description|Prototype nanopore reader styled as a video game console}}
{{Lowercase title}}
{{Infobox information appliance
| name = demonpore 64
| image = demonpore 64 console render.webp
| caption = 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
| os = [[Maxine's Quest]] (instrument control software)
| power = USB
| connectivity = Ethernet; DB9 joystick port
| 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".<ref name="overview" />

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."<ref name="overview" />

== Design ==
[[File:photo-demonpore64.png|thumb|upright=0.9|alt=A matte black tray with two rows of teardrop-shaped wells, a red translucent inset holding a clear flow cell, and a syringe in front|The "supermodel" demonpore 64, with wells along the back and the flow cell cartridge in a red inset]]
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".<ref name="overview" /> 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.<ref name="records" /> 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.<ref name="overview" /> 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."<ref name="records" />

=== Controls ===
Apart from the joystick, the console's controls were drawn on screen, in the instrument panel of Maxine's Quest. The overview lists:<ref name="overview" />
* 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.<ref name="mq">{{cite web |url=https://molecularreality.com/play/maxine |title=Maxine's Quest |publisher=Molecular Reality Corporation |access-date=2026-10-25}}</ref>

== 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.<ref name="string" /> 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]].<ref name="string" /> See [[knot sequencing]] and [[Spyke Hunter]].

The company announced the console in 2021 as "the world's first Molecular Gaming Console™".<ref name="records" /> 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.<ref name="records" /> Two videos on the company's channel show it, "Loading the demonpore 64" and "demonpore 64 with Great Spirit".<ref name="vid-loading">{{cite AV media |title=Loading the demonpore 64 |publisher=EpicQuestBio |medium=Video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YSoxhYCR8o}}</ref><ref name="vid-spirit">{{cite AV media |title=demonpore 64 with Great Spirit |publisher=EpicQuestBio |medium=Video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDxxGJCfYR8}}</ref> A company chatbot later said that the console had been "housed in a repurposed Atari 2600 case".<ref name="records" />{{Better source needed|date=October 2026}}

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'".<ref name="overview" /> 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."<ref name="records" />

== 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.<ref name="overview" /> The phrase "Molecular Gaming Console" carries a trademark symbol in the company's materials.<ref name="records" />

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".<ref name="overview" /> Its first game, written for the console's signals, was named after a 1980s arcade game.<ref name="string" /> 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".<ref name="overview" />

== 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".<ref name="cv">{{cite web |url=https://molecularreality.com/kemmish-cv |title=Stanley Kent Kemmish, Jr. |publisher=Molecular Reality Corporation |date=May 2026}}</ref> 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".<ref name="mq" /><ref name="faq" /> [[Experigaming]], the company's word for running experiments as games, comes from the same plan.<ref name="overview" />

== See also ==
* [[List of Molecular Reality Corporation hardware]]
* [[Retired products of Molecular Reality]]
* [[Teamonpore]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="overview">{{cite web |title=2022 sci-tech overview |author=Kemmishtree |website=EQBio-OS |date=2026-03-28}}</ref>
<ref name="string">{{cite web |title=Sequencing a string |author=Kemmishtree |website=EQBio-OS |date=2026-03-29}}</ref>
<ref name="records">{{cite web |title=Company records |publisher=Molecular Reality Corporation |date=October 2026}}</ref>
<ref name="faq">{{cite web |url=https://molecularreality.com/FAQ |title=Keltar's Field Guide to Molecular Reality |publisher=Molecular Reality Corporation |date=August 2026}}</ref>
}}

{{Molecular Reality}}

[[Category:Molecular Reality Corporation]]
[[Category:Nanopore instruments]]
[[Category:Unreleased video game consoles]]