Or maybe it’s playing with you….?
Videogames are kind of like music. In the way that most music is “listenable” most games are playable. Some songs outright suck, as do some games. And sometimes there are works of genius.
Rez is one of those.
It’s been out for a while (originally released for the PS2 in Japan in 2001, following its debut on the Dreamcast), yet some people still haven’t heard of it. It’s tough to find now, which means that even if people have heard of it and want to play it, they might not be able to. I lucked out and found a used copy at a game shop in Akihabara a few weeks ago. I’d been checking for it every time I went out game shopping, but never had any luck until then. I snagged it and have been very pleased with the purchase.
The game is hard to describe, and most of the time it’s referred to as a “music shooter.” That’s accurate, but it’s still not a good description. In the game, you control what’s basically a hacking program, trying to penetrate a computer. The way you do this is by zipping along and shooting everything that comes at you. Sounds simple, and hardly revolutionary.
But there’s a catch.
Everything happening on the screen is reflected in the music. Fire a shot or take an enemy out and instead of an explosion you get a different beat melded into the music. I doubt I’m really doing it justice, but it’s a very cool effect, and it’s flawless. And if seeing the hearing thing everything syncing together isn’t enough, there’s on more feature:
You can feel it too.
Vibrating controllers are nothing new. There was the Rumble Pak for the Nintendo 64 and the Dual Shock controller on the original Playstation. The PS2 has this as well, but the developers of Rez took things one step further.
They came up with a special extra vibrator:
As you can see from the box, it plugs into the PS2’s USB port. And they were nice enough to give it an extra-long cable as well. (I’ll leave any comments about the removable, washable cover to your imagination.) What does it do? Well, it serves the same purpose as the Dual Shock motors in the controller – it vibrates in time to stuff happening on the screen. Sounds odd, but it does add a bit to the overall sense of the game.
And yes, others have though what you’re thinking right now.
Jane, over at GameGirlAdvance, did a writeup about just that back in October of 2002. It’s a good read, and I’ll let you get her perspective on the game as well as the Trance Vibrator.
But she didn’t really take things far enough…
You see, the Trance Vibrator is nothing more than a motor with an offset weight just like any other vibrator. The only thing that makes it special is the USB cable and the circuit board that interprets the signals sent from the PS2, telling the motor when to spin, for how long, and how fast. So couldn’t that circuitry be applied to someother vibrating device?
Yes. Yes it could.
The Trance Vibrator is cheap enough these days (just under $6), so I decided to sacrifice one in the name of science. It was pretty simple, and the only extra parts needed were a couple of alligator clips. The end result looks much like the original:
I’m sure you can think up all sorts of comments about this, so I’ll just stop here and let your minds wander….(Oh here’s a link to my directions on how to do it yourself (along with some trippy Rez desktops) if you’re so inclined. ^.^)