This Shopping Cart Simulator Lets You Virtually Hoard Toilet Paper at Home

If you haven’t heard, toilet paper is hard to find these days. As what he claims to be a ploy to distract others so he can obtain supplies for himself, Jelle Vermandere has developed a virtual toilet paper hoarding “sim.” In this game, players control a shopping cart that they drive around a store with empty shelves, and the occasional trash barrier, to collect the precious fluffy cylinders.

Also in-store are several rival carts to make things a bit more competitive. It’s actually a pretty fun distraction, that you can play on your computer here right now.

Vermandere, however, went several steps further with his build, and used an Arduino Uno with an accelerometer to create a virtual cart handle for control. To play in this mode, one grips the handle, rotating in the correct direction to go straight, back, left, and right, racing to find rolls that drop from the ceiling. You then have to escape to the check out area. As an extra trick, the game uses a microphone to detect loud sounds, simulating how you might scream at another customer to gain a panic-shopping advantage.

The game is programmed in Unity, and code — along with printed part files for the rig — is available on GitHub. Computer-Arduino interface is taken care of via the serial port, by way of a Bluetooth module to make it wireless. Check it out in the video below!