EZUZ — Ask a 1970s kid to imagine bringing his favorite video game to life, and you might hear some weird stuff involving Ms. Pac-Man. Or, he might dream about playing the legendary arcade video game Space Invaders — for real.
Well, the latter is now (kind of) possible, thanks to drones and the work of the too-much-time-on-their hands tech geniuses at this year's edition of Geekcon: a three-day event held in Israel's Negev desert and meant "for hackers, makers, geeks, tinkerers and everyone who's interested in building cool stuff."
Using eight autonomous drones controlled by a computer to move in formation, players sitting on a motorized car seat equipped with a laser turret can now enjoy the thrills of shooting down pixelated aliens with much more than a joystick.
The result may be slightly underwhelming, as the whole thing basically looks like playing laser tag with a t-shirt cannon, and the Invaders manage to seem less scary than they do in the arcade.
In the end, the project delivers what the Geekcon's motto promises: Top talent, Endless creativity, Mostly useless.
