Proud member of the sinister Smart Goat keiretsu.

 Permanent link to: Just a little more to the left... Just a little more to the left...

January 6, 2004 12:37 AM

7-year-old gets stuck in stuffed animal game machine

This story just tickles me, probably because I used to play these machines pretty religiously. In high school and college, that was my favorite game at the arcade. Not for the prizes -- sometimes you'd get a Looney Tunes character, but most of the stuffed animals were just lame -- but for the skill required to win. You have to have an eye for it. You have to identify a good target -- something that is loose, where you can get the claw around its center-of-gravity. Then, as you line up the claw, you have to check it from several angles to be sure you have the claw in the right place. And, don't release the claw too early -- if it's swinging too much, it won't land right.

Remember the crane game scene in Toy Story? If you've never played a crane, let me tell you, that scene was highly inaccurate. Oh, sure, the toys inside really do worship the crane as if it were a God, but did you notice the grip that thing had? No claw has that kind of grip.

Like I said, I played those games a lot.

Needless to say, if I had been there, the kid wouldn't have been stuck for an hour...

Smart Goat
Crafty Goat
Central Oklahoma Mensa
Jon's Site
Slashdot
Techbargains
Camworld
WWDN
Arts & Letters Daily
A List Apart
Zeldman
Doc Searls
Dan Gillmor
Engadget
Lawrence Lessig
Technorati Profile
 


January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
 

 

Valid XHTML 1.0!

Valid CSS!

Movable Type

Browse Happy logo