The Activator

[Snatch1414]

Anybody have one of these? Just curious because I see some on eBay but never really hear anyone talk about it. Seems like it'd be hard to find one complete even if you came across one in the wild. I'm sure it's a POS as well but again, just don't hear anyone really talk about it.

[Gunstar Green]

I came across one at a flea market years ago but I didn't buy it or even bother to check if it was all there. Even as a kid I said to myself, "That can't possibly work."

[isiolia]

I had one as a kid, but it was sold off with my original Genesis and all that years and years ago.

Basically, each side of the thing shot an IR beam to the ceiling. The player would use their hands or feet to break one of them, which was mapped to a controller button. I recall it being able to tell if you broke the beam high or low, but that may have only been with Eternal Champions (one of what, three games that actually "supports" it?), or possibly wrong entirely.

For most games, using it could be considered a form of punishment.

[Nemoide]

Hey, it's the ULTIMATE FULL BODY CONTROLLER!

Supposedly it's super-awkward to just get it working properly. If the ceiling is too high, too low, or if there isn't the right level of light in the room, it can mess things up. And just looking at how you use it looks UNBELIEVABLY NIGHTMARISHLY AWKWARD.

If I had two of them, and enough room, it might be fun to try to play a two-player vs. fighting game. Mostly to see how ridiculous it is. YOUTUBE GOLD?

[BoneSnapDeez]

Even worse than Kinect.

[Sasha_Blue]

Even worse than Kinect.

Ditto

[BurningDoom]

My best friend had one when I was growing up. It was TERRIBLE. The pictures on the box and the description made it seem like to us that if you were in the the Activator circle, anything you did happened on screen. So we got it thinking if we punched and kicked and stuff inside the Activator ring, then Mortal Kombat would be awesome. Yeah, that didn't happen. It's just some terrible infrared sensors or something. You end up just waving your hands all over the place, and sucking even worse than if you had a controller.