Slashdot Mirror
Golden Tee Golf - Major Injury Hazard
Thanks to TheWhig.com for their local news report discussing the massive popularity of U.S. arcade game Golden Tee Golf. According to the piece, "Since Golden Tee was released in 1996, at least 100,000 machines have popped up in bars and restaurants across North America." Unsurprisingly, the game developers suggest: "I think you'll find many players who say they're better after three or four beers." But drinking and golfing leads to danger, since the control method is "..a track ball that is half submerged in the machine.. the faster the ball spins, the further the shot flies. Sometimes, eager golfers put a little too much oomph on their drives. The Brass, a popular Golden Tee hangout on Princess Street, has had three players accidentally smash their hands through the video screens on both of the bar's machines."
Definetely worth trying, especially car games. Teaches you that reflexes and motorics do get fucked up, and is major fun too. Big screen, some distilled products and a driving wheel = fun.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Gamers arn't as think as you drunk they are.
peace be with you.
After a couple heinekens, my friend was able to full combo World Tour on DDR Extreme.
(In non-ddr talk: While drunk, he never missed a single one of 2500 steps in 12 minutes)
I think it's pretty well known that you can do damage to yourself playing golden tee. About ten minutes of hammering that ball on the drives will give almost anyone a wicked bruise. Luckily, thanks to many many many hours of bar time I've built up those rugged golden tee hands. But, I digress, the machines all have a speel written on them about inuries. I think that focuses on loose screws in the ball itself though, not punching through the screen (which I think I've been close to doing). I've always wondered if that warning is enough insurance for them. Could you sue after hurting yourself playing drunk golden tee? Hed.
http://goldysmom.blogspot.com
Something to swing over a sensor maybe. THAT would cause injuries.
Major Injury Hazard
.00003%? And that's only the machines - if you figure 100 users per machine, that's a .0000003% injury rate. Real golf is more hazzardous. Actually, the drinking is probably the most hazardous part of the arrangement. If you have ten million drinkers, odds are somebody's going to be killed on the way home from drunk driving.
3/100,000?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Many of the shots in golden tee do not require a 'smasher hit' every time. Rather, a good 'double-thumb' flip of the ball wil often be just what you need. Even off the tee-box, I'm often not smashin the ball.
Some Golden Tee cabinets have screw heads in the vicinity of the ball, and if they get loose catching your skin on them and cutting oneself is a risk. The bigger risks are from comming in too low or two high on the smasher hit. Too low - you catch the edge of the cabinet with your hand. Too high and you hit the ball with a down force. The ball has no give, and it results in bruising in the hand - it's quite uncomfortable.
As for golden tee's gameplay, it is the best golf game I've played. I have to say I liked the 2003 courses much more than the 2004 courses though.
I Do Think The PGA Tour Game Is Much Better.... And I Have Come In A Bit Low Before Trying To Hit The Ball (After A Few Shots And A Few Beers Of Course) And I Broke My Finger On The Edge Of The Panel. Another Time I Hit The Ball, Cracked The Plexi Glass, Then My Under-Forarm Was Caught In The Ball And Pinched In Between The Ball And The Machine Leaving Quite A Nice Welt. Ahhhh The Pains I Go Through For A Bogie Are Amazing.
...People insist on smashing the thing every time. All the people I know play like that and I just don't get it. For fuck sake's people, just use one higher club and give it nice solid but relaxed hit - you'll go just as far as the lower club and a smasher. ... Of course knowing the people I play with, I suspect that half of it is just to prove they can get x distance out of y club, but come on... Other than driving on a really far hole there's no reason to kill it.
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
I played Golden Tee a few times, and found it to be an OK game. It didn't hold my interest. This was even when the machine was on free play, so I could experiment with it as much as I wanted. It just didn't entertain me.
It is clear that Golden Tee is part of a new genre of games, like Deer Hunter, that were often criticized by the gamer community but surprised everybody by how incredibly well they sold. They make money hand over fist. The reason they sell well is because they are targeted to non-gamers.
Golden Tee is often found in bars, not arcades. I've never seen an arcade with a Golden Tee, but I rarely see a bar without one. Like those countertop touchscreen games, it is designed to be played by people who don't often play what we think of as normal games. People who don't really like or use computers that much. In other words, Joe Sixpack.
These games form a new genre: mainstream games. They should be classified as such, and not sports games. Even though they may feature sports content, the target audience is completely different, and the overall feel of the game is completely different from a conventional sports game.
For instance, because it's targeted at people with little or no experience with standard video games, these mainstream games play very slowly and often don't take any action at all unless the player initiates the action. For instance, Golden Tee will just sit there until you roll the trackball.
You probably already have a mainstream game installed on a Windows computer near you: Solitare. My partner's aunt, who hates computers and detests using them, loves to play Solitare in spite of what she normally thinks about computer games. Solitare is clearly reaching its intended audience. I'd consider that a mainstream game!
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
One evening, a rather drunk foresome (heh) was doing the old "smash-the-shit-out-of-the-game" routine and one of the guys slipped forward a bit too much. With a rather large crash, he shattered the glass above the monitor and sliced the crap out of his hand. Naturally, hilarity insued and nobody could stop laughing. It seems that alchohol makes blood funny.
After getting cleaned up and bandaged with a bar towel, one of the bartenders came out to sweep the floor. Meanwhile, the extremely drunk foresome moved to the next machine.
Mr. Bloody-stump proceded to use his uncut hand for another brilliant stroke -- obviously thinking that since it's happened once, it can't happen again -- and smashes his other hand into the screen cover with similar results.
When we spoke to the bartenders about this after last call, the said it happens about every two weeks.
The next week, all of the protective covers were Lexan.
There's so little difference between politics and jihad lately...
I live down the street from that bar, and stepping inside, you'd instantly notice that the people are so drunk that they hurt themselves trying to eat the peanuts.