Meet GAMEMY: The APRS Riddle Bot That Turns Your Handheld Into a Quiz Show

Meet GAMEMY: The APRS Riddle Bot That Turns Your Radio Into a Quiz Show

If you have an APRS capable radio or app, you already have everything you need to play a game. No app to install, no website to sign up for, no subscription. Just point your APRS message at a callsign called GAMEMY and you are in.

GAMEMY is a quiet little APRS-IS station that runs a riddle game over APRS messaging. It was built by 9M2PJU, a Malaysian ham, as a way to give APRS users something fun to do during a quiet band, a long commute, a SOTA activation break, or just a lazy afternoon in the shack. The idea is simple. You send it a message, it sends you a riddle, you send back your answer, and the bot tells you if you are right. That is the whole game, and it is surprisingly addictive.

This is not a broadcast service. GAMEMY does not spam the network, does not announce leaderboards, and does not talk unless you talk to it first. It is a pull based station. You send a message, it replies. If you do not, it stays quiet. That makes it a good APRS citizen and a friendly neighbor on the shared network.

Here is a look at what it is, how it plays, and why it is worth a try the next time you have your HT or APRS app open.

What Is GAMEMY

GAMEMY is an APRS-IS station running a riddle game bot. Its callsign is simply GAMEMY, no SSID. It lives on APRS-IS and answers direct messages from any APRS user who sends one.

The bot has a bank of 1,000 riddles covering a wide mix of topics, from classic brain teasers to ham radio trivia, APRS terminology, Q-codes, Malaysian geography, science, computing, navigation, music, food, and more. Whether you are a brand new technician or a seasoned extra class operator, you will find riddles that make you smile and a few that make you think.

How You Play

Playing GAMEMY is as easy as sending an APRS message. You do not need any special software, any registration, or any setup beyond what you already use for APRS.

Here is the basic flow.

1. Send a message to GAMEMY with the word START
2. GAMEMY replies with a riddle, broken into APRS friendly chunks so it fits on your radio screen.
3. Send back your answer. Just the answer, nothing else.
4. If you are right, you score points and GAMEMY offers you the next riddle.
5. If you are wrong, it tells you to try again. Get it wrong twice and it automatically gives you a hint. Get it wrong three times and it suggests you skip to another one.
6. Keep going as long as you like, then send STOP when you are done.

That is it. The whole thing happens over APRS messages, just like chatting with another ham, except the ham on the other end is a bot with a thousand riddles up its sleeve.

The Commands

GAMEMY keeps things simple. Here are the commands you will use.

The answer matching is forgiving. It ignores case and punctuation, so “Echo!”, “ECHO”, and “echo” all count as the same answer. That matters when you are typing on a tiny HT keypad with a wet finger in the field.

Scoring And Hints

GAMEMY rewards you for being quick but does not punish you for being stuck.

• 2 points for a correct answer on your first try, no hint used.
• 1 point for a correct answer after a wrong guess or after using a hint.

Each riddle has exactly one hint. You can ask for it manually with the HINT command, but you only get one per riddle. If you do not ask and you get the answer wrong twice, the bot gives you the hint automatically. It is a nice balance between keeping the game challenging and keeping it fun for newcomers.

Your score is private to you. There is no global leaderboard, no public ranking, no pressure. It is just you and the riddles, which is honestly a refreshing change from the usual contest pileup mentality.

A Sample Session

Here is what a quick game looks like over APRS.

You → GAMEMY: START
GAMEMY → You: Riddle: I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. What am I?

You → GAMEMY: echo
GAMEMY → You: Correct +2. Score 2. Send NEXT for another.

You → GAMEMY: NEXT
GAMEMY → You: Riddle: What has many keys but cannot open a lock?

You → GAMEMY: door
GAMEMY → You: Wrong. Try again.

You → GAMEMY: lock
GAMEMY → You: Wrong. Hint: It can make music.

You → GAMEMY: piano
GAMEMY → You: Correct +1. Score 3. Send NEXT for another.

You → GAMEMY: SCORE
GAMEMY → You: Score: 3. Send START to play.

You → GAMEMY: STOP
GAMEMY → You: Game stopped. Send START to play again.

The whole exchange takes maybe two minutes, fits easily on a handheld screen, and works whether you are sitting in your shack or standing on a hilltop.

What Kind Of Riddles Are In There

This is where GAMEMY gets interesting. The 1,000 riddles span a genuinely wide range of topics, and a lot of them are aimed squarely at the amateur radio crowd.

You will find riddles about:

• Ham radio terms: antenna, transmitter, receiver, repeater, callsign, PTT, QSL, net
• APRS specific terms: digipeater, igate, beacon, path, position, symbol, APRS-IS
• Q-codes: QSL, QTH, QRZ, QRP, QRO, QRX, QRT, QSY, QRV, QRQ
• Signal and modulation terms: SSB, FSK, AFSK, VHF, UHF, S-unit, modulation, noise
• Navigation and map reading: compass, GPS, waypoint, contour, bearing, altimeter
• Electronics: resistor, capacitor, diode, transistor, inductor, LED, transformer
• Internet and computing: HTTP, DNS, SMTP, SSH, RAM, CPU, packet, firewall
• Programming terms: variable, function, class, loop, boolean, string, algorithm
• Science and astronomy: atom, molecule, gravity, sun, moon, comet, satellite
• Weather: rain, snow, lightning, thunder, fog, hail, tornado, rainbow
• Geography: river, lake, mountain, valley, desert, island, waterfall
• Malaysian geography: Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, Penang, Johor, Sabah, Sarawak
• Classic riddles: echo, map, footsteps, stamp, and other timeless brain teasers
• Everyday topics: food, drinks, clothing, tools, musical instruments, sports, household items

There is even a set of meta riddles about the bot’s own commands, which is a fun touch. Whether you are a hardcore contester, a casual APRS app user, or a new ham just learning the lingo, there is something in there for you.

Why It Is Worth Trying

There are a few things that make GAMEMY more than just a novelty.

It works with any APRS-IS connected device. If your radio, app, or client can send an APRS message, it can play GAMEMY. That includes handhelds with APRS built in, mobile rigs, APRS apps on your phone, and desktop clients like APRSIS32 or Xastir. No special software, no extra hardware, no registration.

It is radio friendly. GAMEMY was designed to be a good neighbor on APRS-IS. It only replies to messages addressed to it. It does not broadcast riddles or announcements. It rate limits each sender to one command every 5 seconds to prevent flooding. It chunks long messages into 67 character pieces so they fit on a radio screen. It expires idle sessions after 15 minutes so it is not holding state forever. In short, it was built by someone who actually cares about the network.

It is educational without feeling like school. The riddle categories cover a lot of ground that is useful to hams, from Q-codes to electronics to navigation to APRS terminology. You will pick up a few things without trying, and you will have fun doing it.

It is a great way to test your APRS setup. If you want to confirm that your message path, igate routing, and reply handling are all working end to end, GAMEMY is a friendly automated station that will reply reliably. It is like a parrot for your APRS gear, except it asks you questions instead of just repeating what you say.

It is genuinely fun. This is the part that is hard to convey in a blog post. There is something satisfying about getting a riddle right on a tiny radio screen, with a hint or without, and watching your score tick up. It is the kind of thing you pull out while waiting for a net to start, or while sitting on a summit between SOTA contacts, or just when the bands are dead and you want something to do with your radio.

Where To Find It

Send a message to GAMEMY with the word START and see what comes back.

If you have an APRS app on your phone, a handheld with APRS messaging, or a desktop client connected to APRS-IS, you can play right now. Send HELP if you want the command list first, or just send START and jump straight in.

Final Thought

APRS is one of those parts of amateur radio that people either love or never touch. A lot of hams have APRS capable radios and never send a message, because there is nobody to message. GAMEMY gives you a reason to use that message function. It is a small thing, a quiet bot with a thousand riddles, but it is exactly the kind of project that makes amateur radio fun. Someone in Malaysia sat down, wrote a bot, and gave the worldwide APRS community a free game to play with their radios. That is worth a try.

So the next time you have your HT on and the bands are quiet, send START to GAMEMY and see how many riddles you can get right. You might be surprised how addictive it is.