Atari 2600's Mind Maze Exploits Your ESP

Thanks to Atari Age, who point to the AtariProtos site's new information about the unreleased Mind Maze for the Atari 2600. The writers have spoken to original designer Howard Scott Warshaw, also famous for Yar's Revenge and the cataclysmic E.T. for Atari 2600, and "...apparently Mind Maze was based on the unproven theory of ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) and was an attempt to create a mind reading game for the (also unreleased) Mindlink controller." The updated preview, based on a recently unearthed prototype, reveals: "Supposedly, the headband was to read the player's Alpha and Beta waves in an attempt to help predict their actions. However, since the Mindlink was really just a sensor that detected muscle movements in the player's forehead, this was complete bunk."

Comments

Similar experience

[dtfinch]

While working for the shareware distributer RocketDownload I had to review a similar game, but it didn't involve headbands or other forms of input. Just a random number generator moving something that you're supposed to try to control with your mind. Give it long enough and it'll always arrive somewhere. What a crappy day that was.

With a headband to control it through slight muscle movements, that sounds like a great way to impress your friends. Too bad it never took off.

Innovation

[Hedonist123]

Sure it was a bunk idea, but at least they were trying to be innovative way back in the day. I wish more companies would try stuff like this now. Of course, with going for the sure-fire dollar, stuff like this just isn't going to happen anymore. I long for the days when every game was a crapshoot, so companies had to be innovative.

hed.

Re:Innovation

[Babbster]

Innovation like that gives us (and, more importantly, video game companies) items like the PowerGlove which usually turn out to work badly...of course, the specific kind of "innovation" referenced in this story gives us things like the miracle of spoon-bending and The Psychic Friends Network.

It reminds me of the days when I could astound easily astounded people by reading tarot cards. I used the Arthurian tarot (because the deck looked cool) and had a whole spiel about why I considered it superior to other forms of tarot. To make a pretty short story longer, I became quite adept at identifying what was going on with people's lives by interacting with them over a deal of the tarot and some of the simple-minded really believed my malarkey - at least I wasn't charging money.

Getting back to your point, I would submit that innovation in terms of controllers does happen, though it tends to be more practical, particularly in the area of rhythm games. Dance Dance Revolution would be nothing without the dance controller pads and Samba de Amigo was all about shaking the ole maracas. Heck, I used my fishing controller on the Dreamcast quite a bit (yes, I was one of the few).

Designing new and innovative game controllers is expensive and there needs to be a good reason to do it. Too often, they turn into curiosities which are unprofitable, unworkable or both.

Re:reminded of U-Force

[heliocentric]

It worked by a series of light sensors. From the drawing you'd think 8 total, four on each "side" from one in each corner. In reality it only had 6 I think, two of the spots weren't life. There were also A/B buttons along with start/select and several slider switches to set which setup (pin out) you used.

It wounld sense the change in light of you moving your hand over a spot.

It sorta worked, but it had problems with misreads (not reading an actual movemens) and false positives (reading the shadow cast by accident on another sensor).

You could lay it flat and play games like metroid my moving your hands all over, but you looked like a DJ on smack. It had the 90 degree setup where it would sense combinations of moves, but I don't recall what that was for. Tyson was the only one that used a slightly more open setup - like 100 degrees. As I never had that game I can't really say what that got you, but commercials indicated you could punch at the thing and it would register it was a punch in the game.

The stick I mentioned earlier was for flying/driving games and the buttons would trigger the sensors for A/B buttons. But, the ability to leave them constantly depressed (for RC Pro-AM) was impossible. If you had something that A would decrease throttle (B to inccrease) for example, I guess it might work, but nothing like that comes to mind. instead of it sensing the direct movement of the stick it relised on the sensors in the board to see that you were twisting the stick or not and was just as reliable as without the stick (see problems listed above).

I came across it a few years ago in the orginal box. I took it out and I had carefully put everything back, including the foam between sides. It still had that new U-Force smell, something I have never experienced since, but I do associate with a lame failure.