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The Furminator (video) has been making the rounds lately (and here I am perpetuating its fame). The crackpots behind this startlingly polished monstrosity have essentially put a Terminator 2 pinball machine up at eye level, repositioned the insert lamps (which show the status of the game to the player; normally they would be embedded in the playfield) so that they can be seen, and added cameras and video so that you can SEE THE AREAS YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO SEE IF YOU WERE PLAYING IT AS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED.

I don’t think this project would frustrate me nearly as much if they had designed their own playfield/game specifically to be played from that perspective. Indeed, that would have been a lot more work. A lot more. But a game that’s 20 inches wide and 42 inches deep is not made better by restricting the player’s view of it to one point right behind the flippers. I’m sure it’s intense. But is it anything more than a novelty?

Part of the fun of pinball for me (and a number of other players) is getting your body into the game. The Furminator does not promote this kind of interactivity. Also, as far as I can tell they’ve removed any sort of sound dampening (i.e., the glass), and it’s hard to imagine that the helmet does anything to protect your ears from that. If you haven’t played a pinball game without the glass on, I can assure you that it’s loud. Louder than you think.

I applaud them for this: they have taken their idea and run with it, and they seem to have done a very nice job of executing it. I also haven’t played it, so it’s entirely possible that this thing is a blast and I will want one for my home to play daily. Somehow I doubt it, though.

Posted: Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 10:19 am; Category: Pinball; Comments feed: RSS 2.0.
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