| Set On Stun |

Stop by the virtual 7-11 for a cyber slushee first

The block party is on the way. Okay look, maybe I’ve been a bit harsh on Microsoft recently so here’s something nice. As we head into March the folks over at Xbox Live have a big launch plan they are putting into action related to the what they talked about last year — the Xbox Live Gameroom.

Starting March 3, gamers can download a new arcade game every week and the end of the month they can download the app that goes with it. As a bonus you get 400 MS points at the end of it all and well you have three new games. The first two games (Toy Soldiers and Scrap Metal) are 1200 points and the last one, the cherry on top game is the old Perfect Dark (not the one that was part of the early 360 launch– Perfect Dark Zero). This was the multiplayer masterpiece that was originally released to the Nintendo 64.

After all this is said and done Xbox live will be as they call it in their press release, “kickin it old school” in this virtual arcade (replete with old school cabinets) with dowloadable arcade classics that will run anywhere from  240 to 400 Microsoft Points for game downloads  and 40 Microsoft Points for single gameplay. That’s .50 cents for a single play. The games on the roster will be revealed.

Okay so yes you have to spend like $40 bucks to get $5 back but this whole new virtual arcade may just be a good way to get a lot of casual gamers on board using Xbox live  and change up the game a little bit from the usual frag fest that’s online now. It’s a clever move create a central locale for all these games and your avatars. With a solid library of old games the this type of setup creates the instant gratification of the quick play or the re-playability of owning the game both on your console and your PC. This is the kind of move that targets the gamers who grew up with these games who can relive the glory of shooting asteroids and floating polygons. For the new gang of gamers it’s a chance for them to say — “This was a game?”

Updates will be continuously posted and uber promoted on XBL throughout the month.

So imagine if you will it’s the early 1980s . You and the brain trusts at Atari and enjoying all the relative success of this new form of entertainment your company has created called videogames. Now you’ve been tasked to come up with something that will blow people’s minds. So you you hunker down in that room with your team of video game wizards and you come out after several hours of proposing all sorts of fantastical ideas and you come up with this … A controller that allows you to use the muscles in your brain — yeah that’s right a brain controller. Feast your eyes ladies and gentlemen … on the Mindlink.

think jump, think punch

Back then Atari had made several games that required a paddle controller.

why use paddles when you can use your brain

This was the controller that Atari had for games like Pong and Breakout.  And the Mind Link was created to work with games used a paddle controller. The idea behind the Mind Link was that the movements would be read by infrared sensors attached to your head and transferred as movement in the game. Early tests proved that the device, which looked like some kind of weird headband was causing headaches as players moved their eyebrows to try and control the game.  They even developed two games for it — Bionic Breakthrough and Mind Maze.  Unfortunately Atari realized this would never work after trying to tinker with it and make the device better so they just tanked the whole project. So the brainchild of designer Tom Palecki never made to the shelves. At least the made a really cool ad for it.

A peripheral ahead of its time