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Calculate DrunkenNES With an 8-bit Breathalyzer

Posted by samzenpus on from the blowing-a-new-high-score dept.

HansonMB writes "Electrical engineer Batsly Adams isn't a traffic cop, but if you find yourself at a chiptune show in New York, you should probably pull over anyway to try his new homebrew 8-bit breathalyzer game. Unlike that 8-bit Gatsby game, DrunkenNES is a for-real NES game lovingly constructed with machine code by Batsly, music by chiptune artist Kris Keyser and art by Motherboard photographer Emi Spicer."

37 comments

  1. Easy Win by XiaoMing · · Score: 3, Funny

    In the old days, the most effective way to clean the cartridge was swabbing the connectors with an alcohol soaked Q-tip. Looks like it'd be an instant high score for this game as well...
    Funny how some things never change ;)

    1. Re:Easy Win by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmmm... the power light keeps blinking. Does that mean I'm drunk?

    2. Re:Easy Win by Hatta · · Score: 1

      Alcohol is convenient and safe, but hardly the most effective way to clean your cartridge. It's not terribly good at getting up any non-polar residue that may be on the contacts. Use contact cleaner/TV tuner cleaner for most cartridges, for tough ones use a metal polish.

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    3. Re:Easy Win by swordgeek · · Score: 1

      Bah!

      The way to clean exposed contacts is with a pink pencil eraser.

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  2. Resolution? by stms · · Score: 0

    Why the fuck is half the video shot in 272x720?

    1. Re:Resolution? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Because that was one of the super-secret undocumented video modes of the NES that only expert coders knew how to activate?

      (Yes, I'm old enough to know that the NES had pretty boring video hardware (and was 256x240), and hidden/tricky modes were the realm of early personal computers, like the Amiga and the IBM CGA.with NTSC -- it was just a joke, get off your own lawn.)

    2. Re:Resolution? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      jokes are funny.

  3. Want by scdeimos · · Score: 1

    Want

  4. More details by scdeimos · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's more details on the maker's web site: http://www.batslyadams.com/

  5. How high does your blood alcohol level have to be by syousef · · Score: 2

    So just how high does your blood alcohol level have to be before you're allowed to play the console?

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  6. Smashed Bros by guyminuslife · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I like fairness in my drinking games.Self-balancing. My freshman year in college, I decided to play a game called Super Smashed Bros with a friend of mine. I suck at it. He was very good. We played without a handicap. Every time he knocked me out, he had to take a drink. The rules were the same for me, but I didn't get much drinking done.

    About an hour later, I was sitting stone-cold sober on the floor of his apartment, while he tried to get to his feet to use the bathroom. He couldn't do it. We had to help him up, and he staggered wildly to relieve himself. When he got back, he plopped down like a wet rag and continued to kick my ass at that game. I wasn't very good, but I wasn't a complete n00b, either. He must have been seeing double, I'm not sure how he managed to beat both of me.

    We had to cut him off, of course. He probably would have poisoned himself if we'd kept going. He was still winning consistently. He passed out not too long afterward.

    *That* is drunk Nintendo.

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    1. Re:Smashed Bros by Aeternitas827 · · Score: 2

      If I understand this correctly--the winner gets increasingly inebriated?

      Most drinking games I've played go just the opposite--the loser ends up further inebriated. See also: Chandeliers, Stick the Dealer (known in some quarters as Fuck the Dealer).

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    2. Re:Smashed Bros by N1AK · · Score: 1

      Most competitive drinking games we played/created worked in the same way. It seemed to make more sense to use the booze to handicap than make the difference in ability even more pronounced.

      That said most bar drinking games I can think of 'punish' the loser.

    3. Re:Smashed Bros by Aeternitas827 · · Score: 2

      I guess it's just a matter of perspective as a came up as a drinker. You needed to be good at the games to avoid (voluntary or otherwise) stomach evacuation, and you needed to play the games to not be labeled a lightweight. In hindsight, it does seem in the interest of fairness--not the frathouse way, as I've observed it--for the person who is doing well to be brought down to the loser's level...but I've never seen it in practice.

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      I don't post AC. I like my -1, Flamebaits. Trump/Sheen 2012 on the Batshit Insane ticket!
    4. Re:Smashed Bros by Antisyzygy · · Score: 1

      My teetotaler friend used to routinely beat 3 level 8-9 computers on that game (Gamecube version). I didn't stand a chance against him. I wish he would have drank with me because then maybe I could have. That type of drinking game is a good idea, as long as you don't kill yourself.

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      That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
    5. Re:Smashed Bros by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was kinda his point - that's a balanced drinking game, not the usual rich-get-richer (sober-stay-sober ?) variety

    6. Re:Smashed Bros by the_fat_kid · · Score: 1

      most drinking games are, at the root, about getting girls drunk.
      The same can be said of wapatoolie.
      If it wasn't for the quest to get women drunk and naked we ("men folk") would still be sitting quietly in dark bars drinking brown liquor and telling boring stories.

      Many games are played and much alchohol drunk not in the pursuit of females but let's not kid our selves why "we" as a species do it.

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      -- Sig under construction...
    7. Re:Smashed Bros by _0xd0ad · · Score: 1

      That said most bar drinking games I can think of 'punish' the loser.

      I always thought of it more as a consolation prize.

    8. Re:Smashed Bros by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Most drinking games I've played go just the opposite--the loser ends up further inebriated.

      Well, besides the obvious levelling effect by handicapping the winner, it seems like having the loser take a drink just makes both sides want to lose the game. Which makes for a terribly uninteresting game. After all, the whole point of a drinking game is to get wasted, and having the winner end up sober doesn't seem to be a great way to accomplish that.

      Now, in friendly drinking games loser-drinks might work quite well for some yuks. But winner-drinks is more sensible from a more competitive standpoint, at least to prevent deliberate losing. Some games aren't very fun if both players are trying to lose.

  7. Can't wait to blow it~ by bronney · · Score: 1

    ^o^

  8. Best drinking game I played by OzPeter · · Score: 1

    I was at the bar of a casino with some friends, none of us who gambled. But a girl and I made up a great game - we would order a round of shots and then run over to the coin-in-the-slot breathalyzer and see who blew the highest BAC. That kept our semi drunken persons very amused for an hour or so.

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    1. Re:Best drinking game I played by Antisyzygy · · Score: 1

      Thats pretty much what that those things are for.

      --
      That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
  9. how's the job? by Mishotaki · · Score: 1

    Seriously, someone's job is labeled "motherboard photographer" ? who would want such a job? at least choose to take pictures of undressing ladies, not electronics!

    1. Re:how's the job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the exact same thing at first, but the M in Motherboard is capitalized. It's some kind of technology / culture website. Kind of a dumb name to use, but whatever.

    2. Re:how's the job? by the_fat_kid · · Score: 1

      what's it pay? does it have bennies?
      Have to say, there are days at work that make me think, "motherboard photographer, that's it. I'll photograph motherboards. can't be so bad"
      Dream job? no. Worst gig you'll do for money? not even close.

      --
      -- Sig under construction...
    3. Re:how's the job? by PPH · · Score: 1

      MILF = Motherboards I'd Like to Fry?

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    4. Re:how's the job? by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      MILF = Motherboards I'd Like to Fry?

      Thanks. That other reference is clearly wrong.

  10. I don't think so by catmistake · · Score: 1

    lovingly constructed with machine code by Batsly

    O RLY? Perhaps the author meant assembly.

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    1. Re:I don't think so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah it was done in 6502 assembly, like pretty much any other NES software.

    2. Re:I don't think so by _0xd0ad · · Score: 1

      How do you know he didn't assemble it by hand?

  11. Simon by slim · · Score: 1

    There is a production breathalyser, used by real cops, which, if you short the right pins on its serial port, turns into a game of Simon.

    I've played on one, having met the developer at a party. He'd noticed that the unit had 4 buttons, and there was room on the ROM for an easter egg.

  12. Hacked? by Stenchwarrior · · Score: 1

    From TFA:

    He hacked it into a corded controller that connects to the console...

    Another over-used term. I would had called that "wired" or even "spliced" (although that's another mis-used term). Not "hacked". Unless he socially engineered the wires into the controller, or DDoS'd them onto the circuit board. Still...very neat use of an old NES.

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    1. Re:Hacked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm having a really hard time telling if you're trying to troll or you're just really that dumb.

    2. Re:Hacked? by Stenchwarrior · · Score: 2

      I am pretty dumb, but in this case I was joking. ;-)

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    3. Re:Hacked? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hacked indicates that there was no standard way to 'splice' or 'wire' into the controller. So he hacked it together. Makes sense, if you're a hacker...

  13. Re:How high does your blood alcohol level have to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there's different score levels, starting with completely sober and moving up incrementally to totally hammered.

  14. PLEASE, PLEASE... by matthew_t_west · · Score: 1

    PLEASE, stop. Think. If you will be taking a video, even drunk, of an event with your phone: Turn. It. Sideways. The tubez will thank you for it. M

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