Tekken Torture Tournament
| Tekken Torture Tournament | |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To inflict pain on video game players |
| Status | Complete |
| Date completed | February 2011 |
While people play the Tekken video game, the Tekken Tourture Tournament zaps people through electrodes attached to their arms.
Contents |
[edit] Parts
- A Playstation 2 running Tekken
- Butchered Playstation 2 controllers
- Zapping novelty zapping devices, such as pens that zap the holder when they press the button on top
- Assorted arcade-quality video game controls
- Anti-static wrist straps
[edit] Construction
The arcade buttons were attached to the circuit boards from the controllers, using lengths of wire.
The novelty pens contain a tiny controller board (about 5mm across), which uses an IC and an inductor to produce a sizeable voltage. These were activated by the Playstation controller's rumble circuit. The zapping controller was powered by AA batteries instead of the usual button batteries.
The zapping controllers were connected to anti-static wrist straps, which were attached to the player's arm.
[edit] Results
The most pain seemed to be produced by attaching one electrode to the inside of the wrist, and the other to the outside of the elbow. These locations might stimulate the ulnar nerve, which is also responsible for the "funny bone".
In some cases it was impossible for the player to use their fingers to press the button due to the zapping; the player could only bash the buttons with their fist.
[edit] Improvements
Tekken activates the rumble function continually. It would be nice to activate the zapping only as the player loses health: the worse they are hit in the game, the greater the zap.
This could be done with careful timing with an 8-bit microcontroller, waiting until the Playstation draws the scanline containing the health and interpreting the difference in intensity (except no 8-bit microcontroller would have the capability to process a video signal; try something like a Propeller, or more likely an FPGA, like in various projects that automatically play Guitar Hero). An easier but less impressive way would be reading the health bar with image processing software, like OpenCV.
