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Fancy a vinyl scratch master? vinylOS is a bullet-hell shooter that lets you spin a plate to spin your spaceship, then quickly “scrattle” the plate back and forth to fire a bullet at the enemies that come at you. (All images were shot by a projector above the white plate.) Playback is much smoother than the description suggests.
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Playing Alt.Ctrl, IGF Award Winner Fear Bol, you have to crawl into an inflated plastic bag, then hold a giant flashlight and aim it at the walls of the dome. This projects a small, illuminated area of your view. You then spin around in the real world to illuminate objects in the game. Another player outside the dome will ask you questions and guide you based on what you see. (Think Keep talking and nobody explodes.)
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How Fear Bol looks from inside its weird, plastic dome. The effect in motion is quite convincing.
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Close the leaks has four players controlling the movement and rotation of a spaceship by letting their hands off their own tube. This pushes air from one of the four missiles on the ship, but it also somewhat depletes the ship’s oxygen. The group must not only manage the combined movement, but also ensure that no precious air is wasted.
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Emotional fugitive detector uses facial recognition sensors in an intriguing way. One person sits in front of a sensor and has to give hints to a person who is outside the box of a certain emotion. If the person in the box moves their facial muscles too much, an alarm will sound and both players lose. The person outside the box must see which of the four emotions is displayed and press the appropriate button to save the other player’s life. While the face-sensitive stuff was shaky, the concept and execution were still fun to play with.
Sam Machkovech
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Orpheus Quest combines Guitar Hero, lasers and a harp. Pluck the correct laser string to the rhythm with your fingers.
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UFO bellies asks teams to break colors that match the color flashing on the screen. (Words for other colors seem to mislead players.) For secondary colors, the teams must match the correct pair (red+blue, etc.) to continue.
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Objects in space can only be played with a computer, but if you want the “pure” experience you can build your own wired kit – and the cool thing is, you can go to their site and download instructions to make your own!
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“It controls more like a submarine,” I was told by a protester, and it was true. Each button and button controlled a different aspect of defense, missile launches, rocket thrusts and more.
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Objects in space wouldn’t boot until I turned this key, pinned to some nice, fuzzy dice.
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More buttons for navigation. I got a taste of the game’s seemingly expansive mission-based structure. Objects in space was probably my favorite of the whole Alt.Ctrl exhibit.
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In zombie crawlerpull an endless loop of carpeted pedals to move forward – then slam your hands on either side to dodge left or right.
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Another angle of the rig and its “attack” buttons.
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This rhythm game mapped its pedals with real objects, which I had to hit when mice ran over them. (This, conveniently, played to the beat of a song, full of obnoxious “meow” effects.)
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A look at what players saw in VR.
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sand garden combines kinetic sand and a Kinect 2.0 IR tracker. Create sand hills based on the demands of the world on the screen, to produce forests, lakes or mountains as your settlers request. Think of it as a Play-Doh version of Doshin the giant.
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cylindrical have up to four people control a small LED light (their spaceship) as it moves around a full sphere and shoots at some obstacles while dodging others.
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Another cylindrical corner.
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Schadenfreude let players communicate with each other using paper blocks with clues on them. Players try to win mini-games that are mastered at the touch of a button (as if your group is in an elevator). However, the tight part is not required.
SAN FRANCISCO—The newest tradition at the Game Developers Conference is the “Alt.Ctrl” pavilion. Every year, hackers come together to showcase some of the weirdest games ever made. Some count as “video games,” while others eschew screens and even computers for content that barely qualifies as “digital entertainment.”
We managed to play almost all 20 games featured, and this gallery explores some of our favorites. It’s also worth clicking through for a more specific explanation of the weird content we have hands, eyes, and bellies to get to grips with.
While you’re here, don’t forget to check out Ars’ visits to past Alt.Ctrl exhibits.