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Technology

Shake While You Quake for $20? 55

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-there's-a-bargain dept.
Bill Houlehan, the same dude who has a million unopened atari 2600 games for sale from his cave warehouse is now selling Aura VR Units which are essentially a vibrating vest you hook up to any audio source (read:pc playing quake, although I suppose it has pr0n potential as well if you swing that way). No big deal, except at $20 I figured this is might be worth mentioning on a quiet sunday afternoon. here's another review of the thing. You can get more info at the website which is a strange mix of oddball old widgets (Atari T-Shirts? Tetris Keychains? 14 Acres of Colorado Land?) that amuses the hell out of me.
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Shake While You Quake for $20? More

Shake While You Quake for $20?

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  • Potato Head (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Mr Potato Head massager is basically a vibrator with eyes.

  • Taco, you're rich (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Rather than post some link, why don't you.
    1. Pop for the 20 bucks and buy one.
    2. Try it out.
    3. Take some pictures of yourself wearing it.
    4. Write your review.
    5. Post it here.
    That would be more interesting. Of course it would require you to get off your fat ass. Ahhh. There's the rub.

  • hehe. (Score:2)

    by garcia ( 6573 )
    what surprised me was the lack of people complaining that they have seen this all before (the guy w/the 2600 games in his cave). After all, who the hell reads the articles? I figured they wouldn't even read the blurb ;-)
  • They're not that cool. I think I got mine from onsale.com for $20 a few years ago. Its more painful than anything else - especially if you strap it onto your head and listen to thumpy bass music. Ouch.

    Not worth the $20 at all...
  • that was MUCH too funny.
  • Hmmm.... given my nick's namesake, I'd probably want the Atari shirt. I've already got a navy one, but the problem is that on the sleeves, they use some sort of non-elastic band. A normal T would be nice. If only I could get one of the Aesthetics "Console T's" to go along with it.

    I'm starting to wonder what kind of gadgets I can put together with all these 'out of date' and 'market failed' stuff. A Nintendo VR glove + a vibrating vest + a "le stick" (a joystick with mercury switches to detect movement) + one of those eyepiece games + a JAMMA pr0n game board straight from Japan.

    This is starting to sound interesting. Almost as interesting as hooking a camera up and putting it on a web page, and giving the control of the vibrating action to people who view the web page.... oh boy. This is starting to get messy.
  • Okay, now I want an atari hockey shirt.

    What I don't want is for elroy to blow me.

    http://oshealtd.com/3trackroy.htm [oshealtd.com]

    Sup wit dat, yo? Astro is a big pimp or something.

  • My friend has one of these, we hooked it up and played I think Duke Nukem. It's really loud and shakes your body so much you can't speak clearly. A very cool thing, but definatly no porn value, at least not if you wear in in the conventional manner ;)
  • $20.00? Go on eBay - you can regularly find them on there going for $10.00 and less. Aura also used to make chair "pads" that had the bass shakers in them - used the same amp as the Interactor, but was a pad shaped thing that could be moved from chair to chair, so it was less something to wear, and more for PC game playing.

    Want something more? Look into Aura Bass Shakers - these were devices that you would bolt to whatever you wanted to shake (underside of chair, floor, etc), to get ultra low sub-sonic shaking. They made two models, one a low cost 25 watt device (and believe me, they put out a lot of force!), the other could handle much more (75 or 100 watts). These kind of things you bolt to the concrete of your home theater room, so that when an earthquake hits on-screen, things really start to fall.

    Other companies manufacture bass shakers - most are bought by movie theater chains for the rumble system (in addition to large subs for sonic level frequencies), and tend to be expensive. Aura made ones that were affordable by the average folk...

    Worldcom [worldcom.com] - Generation Duh!
  • Another subliminal advertisement from the Slasdot Crew. Thanks! I'll put this in my stack of junk with the Atari Games, X10 firecracker, and Plasma Shoelaces.
  • Ever time I hear about "full body force feedback" I'm reminded of this strip [megatokyo.com] from the wise people at MegaTokyo. Some feedback was never ment to be experienced.
  • .... Product placement for $20!
  • I wann have one of those Atari shirts! It's just like in Road Trip! That's sooo cool! And of course: I still own an Atari MegaST 4 with 30 MB harddisk! Yay!

    --
  • I love looking at cool places that sell old junk. I always feel like I might get a deal. Reminds me of American Science & Surplus. [sciplus.com] I used to get thier catalogs all the time. I love thier hand drawn pictures. You would think they would have gotten a surplus digital camera to take pictures of stuff by now, but no, they still have drawings of the products. Coll!
  • My son uses a $20,000 (when new) medical device that applies sound to his chest to help him clear his lungs. I had bought one of these game gizmos before I'd ever heard of the $20K version, thinking I might program a series of sounds that would help him with his 2-3 times daily chest percussion therapies.

    It was an interesting experiment, but he was not interested in using it daily.

  • Aura products (Score:3)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @06:17PM (#162215) Homepage
    I mentioned the Aura Interactor last week.

    Aura, as a company, was in the linear motor business. They made things that looked and worked like hydraulic cylinders, but were entirely electrical. Aura units could typically lift about 10x their own weight, which was better than most other linear motors. I came across their products at a motion control expo some years back, where they had their biggest actuator on display: 10,000 pounds of force, water cooled, and about 4' long. It was used for active vibration damping of bridges. Smaller units, down to about 4 inches, were available. They were pricy, starting around $1000, which is a lot more than a rotating motor costs. That was the basic problem.

    The Interactor was one of Aura's last attempts to find an application for their linear motor technology. They've since given up on linear machinery, and are now making engine-driven generators, which are useful, but boring.

  • from the site:
    "2,000,000 Red Plastic Pizza Cutter Six inches in length; these were owned by Tupperware House products."

    $0.05 each..
    reminds me of spatula city!

    -metric
    "Figure 38-7 suggests the difficulty of trying to measure the length of a moving penguin by locating its front and back at different times." -- Fundamentals of Physics
  • It seems he's just easily amused, very easily.

  • Interactor (Score:3)

    by talonyx ( 125221 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @10:31AM (#162218)
    I remember seeing TV ads for these things. Basically, it's a vest that reacts to low-frequency sound like bass from firing a rocket in Quake... you get shaken pretty good. It works with any audio source, so pr0n is definately an option.

    From the site:

    "It requires no software or drivers, and simply plugs into your soundcard audio out jack. "

    An interesting use for this, for people with two sound outs (back and front), like the SB Live!, would be to use this in the back plug... it could almost be a surround-sound experience!

    To quote from another review, found at this page [joy-stick.net] near the bottom,

    "Wearing a jetpack-like contraption on your back while playing video games might sound a bit silly, but even though the Aura Interactor is designed to be worn like a backpack or a vest, it also works very well when strapped to the back of your desk chair. This is how I've been using mine, and it works very nicely. The bottom line is that if you're a speed freak who loves sim racing and you've already invested big bucks in video cards, driving wheels, and other computer-related paraphernalia in the pursuit of performance and realism, then you owe it to yourself to spend a measly $20 on an Aura Interactor. You'll definitely feel like you're getting your money's worth, and the return on investment in terms of grins per dollar just can't be beat. "

    Now I have to go beg my parents to let me use the credit card :D

  • Hey there! This is Crazy Ernie from Crazy Ernie's used cars!! We got white cars, green cars, we got enough cars to choke a camel! If no one comes down and buys a car from me in the next 15 minutes, I'm gonna club this baby seal! That's right! I'm gonna club a seal to make a better deal, because I'm CRRRRRAAAAAAZY!

    My god, that film rocked.
  • Good lord! Clean that office!
  • My dad gave me the Intensor for Christmas, and I brought it back to my dorm. The best game to play it on was Hydro Thunder, for the DC, but as you said, one could only play it for a few minutes before being very, very uncomfortable.

    On the plus side, the girls on our floor seemed to like it a LOT, usually blushing and excusing themselves from the room.

    Another demographic of people that liked it were those on Ecstacy, and they claimed that it was awesome.
  • LOL. Hahaha that made me laugh out loud. OMG, thanks for the laugh, I was in the middle of an all-night coding spree for werk... damn stupid deadlines... :-P

    http://www.bootyproject.org [bootyproject.org]
  • My dad gave me the Intensor for Christmas, and I brought it back to my dorm. The best game to play it on was Hydro Thunder, for the DC, but as you said, one could only play it for a few minutes before being very, very uncomfortable. On the plus side, the girls on our floor seemed to like it a LOT, usually blushing and excusing themselves from the room.

    Ah... the "Intensor", so that's what it was called. They should have just called it the NadBuster(tm) or BallRumbler(tm) or something! :)
    http://www.bootyproject.org [bootyproject.org]
  • I was at E3 in '98, and I remember trying out some subwoofer-equipped gaming chairs. I believe they were from the same company that is producing these subwoofer-equipped vests, but I'm not sure... anyway, the funny thing about the chairs was that the subwoofer was located directly under your 'nads!

    It was not pleasant experience. Sort of a gentle vibration might be kinda cool but this chair delivered a rather jolting effect... when I fired the machine gun in the demo game they had hooked up, I instantly regretted it. :)

    I couldn't help but think that spending more than a few minutes in them without seriously damaging your reproductive system. It was one of those products where I was like, "umm... someone actually thought this was a good idea, and was able to convince enough investors as well in order to actually get this thing MADE?".

    Usually, before purchasing any product, one of the little checks I run through in the back of my mind is, "will this damage my reproductive capabilities?". I think a good rule for potential product manufacturers to follow might be, "will this damage the reproductive capabilities of others?"

    Might have felt nice if you were a girl though, I dunno. :)

    http://www.bootyproject.org [bootyproject.org]
  • I must say this is the funniest discussion I have read in a long time... The imagery from the various users of the device is definite giggle material... Thanks for bringing a lowly work slave a smile or two.
  • Is it true that a 12Hz tone can induce a woman to sponaneous orgasm? It's probably not, but since this is a thread dedicated to vibrating devices I thought I'd mention it... Anyway, what does the vest use to induce shock? Can you tell, is it just a motor with an offset weight or is it a proper dynamic-speaker-like assembly that can create sudden shocks etcetera?
  • I had one of these strap-on pseudosubwoofers for a little while years ago (on clearance from a toy store). It was wholly unimpressive. Instead of increasing the suspension of disbelief it actually shortens it because now you've got an annoying vibrating box strapped to your torso which distracts you from the game. Its speaker is underpowered and the casing is cheap plastic. There are much better things to do with $20...

  • How much does it cost for a front page story? (Score:5)

    by duffbeer703 ( 177751 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @11:24AM (#162228)
    I'm interesting in selling some stuff, I would like to know how much it costs to get a front page 'news' story on slashdot?

    Do I need to pay per click, or can I pay a flat rate for the story?
  • Those vests are wierd. I got one years ago when they first came out to play on my SNES with I think. Its not all that really,but it is cool to listen to music with since its like wearing a sub.

    I'm selling it on EBay right now here [ebay.com] with some other game gear. Might check it out if you want

  • Non-sequitor (Score:3)

    by nick_davison ( 217681 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @07:12PM (#162230)
    "seriously damaging your reproductive system."
    Slashdot - News for nerds, stuff that matters.

    Nope, I'm still not with you there. Explain just one more time?

  • Little Johnnys first day in computer lab:

    Ohhh teacher this video about the blow fish looks like Monica and Bill.
  • You know, those

    LATEX LIFELIKE HAND PUPPETS 70+ DIFFERENT STYLES $2.00 EA. [oshealtd.com]

    almost made me getting my credit card... ;-)

    hmmm...latex... :)

  • Silly me (Score:3)

    by HongPong ( 226840 ) <hongpong.hongpong@com> on Sunday June 10, 2001 @08:53PM (#162233) Homepage
    When I read the headline I suddenly thought of a gamer's charity benefit for Parkinson's disease.

    --
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I've had one of these for four years, buying it when it was in its prime. That said and all, I'm quite familiar with the Aura VR. While probably not scientifically proven, I have received a TON of backaches from it whenever I wear it for sustained periods of time, as in after an hour or so.

    Don't write it off just yet, if you stuff it under your bed or a couch, it makes a perfect subwoofer. It's especially soothing when you send test tones through it at one frequency; depending on what you use, you can have varying modes of back massaging beds like at the Sharper Image and such.

  • ah, Weird Al's "UHF". Underappreciated in its age, like many works of genius :)
  • The coincidence of this article is AMAZING. I was just at the local Computer show and sale they hold here in pittburgh once a month today with 3 friends. We were going around looking at stuff when we found a guy selling these things for $6 a pop, $10 for 2, with 2 left. We both put in $5 bucks and got ourselves 2 at the discount price. We just felt like getting some peice of junk to play around with a bit. We put them on at the show and started running around with them scaring the hell out of people. Came back to my place soon after and plugged one in. Turned on some Techno and threw the thing up to max, almost killed my friend wearing it. Also tried it with HL though. The Ambience Kills it alot so you want to keep the filter kinda low, else you have this constant Vibration (Could be concidered relazing to some). You want to keep the filter down a good bit. I don't know about quake though. Only have 1 & 2, didn't try them yet, and not interested in 3. You can also somewhat feel the fireing, to a degree, but it's not that great. Also, a friend of mine is gonna hook his into his guitar, that should be interesting (Internal hemeroging should be fun). Otherwise, a great item of ammusment for $5.

  • Want a slightly used 747? (Score:5)

    by rebelcool ( 247749 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @10:55AM (#162238)
    This amused me [continental.com]

    Several other types of large planes for sale there too.

  • easily amused? (Score:3)

    by flynt ( 248848 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @10:19AM (#162239)
    I hope this story amuses you all as much as it did me.
    -from last story

    that amuses the hell out of me.

    Either someone seeded the TacoBot with the word "amuse" today (normally it is the word "interesting") or he's just really easily amused.
  • I remember reading an article about a guy who bolted two of these to his couch a few years back after finding them at a swap meet for $9. He said that it really makes you feel the base, and a FAQ can be found Here [telocity.com].

  • In a WinTel corporate environment, users who open unsolicited email with viruses attached get a slap on the cheek. Anyone attempting DDE between M$ and non-M$ applications get, say, a sharp dig in the ribs.

    Anyone opening Instant Messenger gets a flying kick in the chest.

    The potential is enormous. Just put the vest on the Dress Code and away you go.

    Yours in empowering the client...

  • spatula city... we sell spatula's, and that's all!
  • With this and the electrodes in your joystick [slashdot.org] Quake 2 could actually come quite a dangerous experiance :)
  • Yeah, and with the plastic pizza cutters, you have a complete halloween costume for under $25!
  • that video sender almost looks usefull, I am sick of running 45 ft of rca cable to have a tv in the can...

    any ideas on if this guy's operation is really legit?

    thanks
    covati
  • I am going to make two points.

    In order to bring this back on topic, for other slashdot readers, I'll repeat CmdrTaco's observation, that using devices like the vest for "teledildonics", is a very safe form of sexual expression. More on this below.

    In case the anonymous poster really did get the bad news that they are HIV positive -- you have my sympathy.

    Should you go around and tell everyone who might be infected? Yes, you absolutely must do this.

    How do you look someone in the face and tell them you might have infected them? Well, maybe it will help if you remember that it might be the other way around. They may have been the one to infect you.

    If you are not close to you family, if you think the pain they will cause you is greater than the support they will give you, don't tell them.

    Depending where you live the public health department may be willing to contact your former partners for you, if you can't bring yourself to do so. You must tell them in case they were the one who infected you, and they don't know they are contagious.

    "Teledildonics" was the term Ted Nelson coined when he first speculated about computer intermediated sex in his 1974 classic "Computer Lib/Dream Machines" [uconn.edu]. Technically, I can't help wondering whether hooking the device up to the audio out is the wrong approach. Shouldn't internet sex toys hook up to the MIDI port? MIDI instruments can be daisy-chained, can't they? Allowing for multiple toys. Galvanic skin response, pulse, blood pressure, temperature?

  • If not already doing so, its like cheesy banners.
  • Yeah, no kidding. I was thinking I'd buy a couple of the vibrating vests, some of the latex hand puppets, a neutra plaque battery powered toothbrush, and a few pizza cutters. Then my girlfriend and I could roll around in an olive oil filled inflatable pool while staring at Mickey Mantle posters.

    You know. For fun.

    --

  • Re:were's the fake Fubu and fake Nikes in plastic? (Score:3)

    by Magumbo ( 414471 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @08:15PM (#162249)
    Maybe that's why his kids [oshealtd.com] look like a bunch of zombies. Then again maybe it's from inhaling all the dried guano in the cave.

    "Order by 2:00, and our team of child cave zombies will ensure your merchandise ships today!"

    That's some creepy shit.

    --

  • Jaycar [jaycar.com.au] has been selling these [webfactory.com.au] in Australia for a while.
  • The only problem is it makes you look like a plastic ninja turtle.
  • These are a good unit, and fun. The only problem is they make you look like a plastic ninja turtle. Any one else feel like getting laughed out of a LAN? Definatley somthing that should only be used in the privacy of your own home.

  • odd massager (Score:5)

    by Grim Trigger ( 455109 ) on Sunday June 10, 2001 @10:50AM (#162253)
    I'm more worried about the pr0n potential of a Mr. Potato Head Massager.
  • Well,,, after reading about it and the 20 bucks i have to shell out to get one ,i went and got one from my friendly Jaycar store "just like radio shack but smaller" and i can tell you if you like o/l gaming this thing will make it better. Really makes you feel you're that little bit closer. I used it on Deus Ex and you could feel the footsteps of the guy you were chasing! My advice get of your ass spend 20 bucks and give it a go what harm can it do , if it sucks you'll laugh about it when you tell your grandkids hehe.

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