Video Game with a Shocking Twist

[Dave (imported)]

>>Are you kidding me?

>>Shock collars?

>>

>>

http://www.ingame.msnbc.msn.com/technol ... ars-921963

A pair of masochistic French gamers has created a unique and terrible console modification. By attaching shock collars to the controllers and binding certain game events to their activation, they've made these classic Genesis games even more punishing than they used to be.

The two hackers go by the names Dyak and Furrtek, and their motives are unknown. But the "Genezap" project is well-documented, albeit in French, and is actually quite straightforward (not to say easy to pull off).

Genezap

Furrtek

The controller mid-modification

Each controller was cracked open and a circuit tapped into that would receive feedback from the console. The console itself remains unmodified, which is a plus for those of us who respect such venerable hardware. The shock collars were connected and would activate on a certain signal sent from the game.

Next, the games themselves were hacked with a ROM editor. When you die or receive damage in a game like Sonic the Hedgehog, a certain area of RAM will change its value; cheat cartridges like Game Genie would modify these values to give you extra lives or unlimited items, but this mod keeps an eye on it in order to tell when to shock the player.

The result? When you get knocked down in Golden Axe, blown up in Mega Bomberman, or otherwise fail at one of several old games, you get a couple hundred volts in the neck. Watch this video of the pair testing out their creation (warning, beacoup French profanity):

>>

>>They haven't the guts to wrap the collar around their testicles and fry away.

>>

[Cainanite (imported)]

James Bond was the first to play a video game that had shocking consequences for losing.

Not a great video, but you might be reminded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUw9BJS06NI

Sean Connery in "Never Say Never" - Not an "official" Bond movie, but still good.

[gunnutz (imported)]

Team kills now even MORE FUN!

[Losethem (imported)]

Maybe we should make these mandatory on all video games. All the little snowflakes might be encouraged to play outside if they get shocked enough.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Somehow I don't think these will catch on. But it did look like the two guys were having a shockingly good time.

River