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More Worst Videogame Ads
An anonymous reader writes "1UP has posted another feature with the best worst videogame advertisements of all time. There are some absolutely laugh-out-loud ads and descriptions for the Jaguar, 3DO, Super Metroid, Bubsy, Super Street Fighter II, and a bunch of others, including some bizarre peripherals from the '90s such as the Interactor, a subwoofer that you'd attach to your chest. 'It's the kind of thing you'd expect to see on a particularly lame supervillian, except he'd at least be able to knock people down with some kind of ripply sound wave effect, as opposed to just looking like a dip while playing Mortal Kombat.'"
Oh, that thing. Aura was a sad story. They developed the first really powerful direct drive linear actuators, things that looked like hydraulic cylinders but were entirely electrical. (U.S. Patent #5,099,158) Some were so powerful that they were used for active damping on metal bridges, to reduce vibration when heavy trucks rolled by. These things were shown at industrial automation shows.
But they didn't sell. Good idea, too expensive.
Aura tried making the Interactor, a big subwoofer, using their actuator technology. Nobody cared. Aura eventually went under, in an ugly mess involving some stock scam.