8-ball into the corner pocket of HELL!
[typing]
♪♪
Greetings and welcome to LGR Oddware,
where we're taking a look at hardware and software that is odd, forgotten,
obsolete...
and this.
This is the Interact
Pool Shark.
The PC pool cue controller
for "real feel" simulation.
Why did the '90s happen?
So, what exactly is this thing? Well,
I mean, it really is pretty much what it sounds like.
It's "authentic pool action using a real cue stick"
as a controller!
On your PC.
Well, first off, a big shout out to Kennith for sending me this thing to review.
Dude, you're awesome! These things are hilarious to me,
and yeah, let's just go ahead and dive right into it, right?
So this is made by InterAct,
a company that's probably most well-known for doing
game controllers and steering wheels and, you know, a whole bunch of
peripherals like that for PCs,
and other systems as well.
Then they made this.
In partnership with a company called "Mya-comet?"
"Meea-comet?" I'm not entirely sure.
They were a Massachusetts-based company
started in 1996 and they had these
grand ideas to make all sorts of controllers.
This was their first and, as far I can tell, only product.
There were plans for other ones, like one for
playing golf games, one for baseball.
Maybe some other ones–oh, yeah, one for fishing
and even one that was a laser sword controller
that looked like a–
something for Star Wars. In fact, they were trying to get it into Star Wars licensed games.
None of those came to full fruition, as far as I can tell.
Only the Pool Shark here, and
well, you know, kind of–kind of sad, but
maybe not. Let's just take a look at what's inside the box for this.
There's a lot of paperwork, and there's some CDs and whatnot.
We'll take a look at those in a second.
But let's just go ahead and take a look at the Pool Shark
cue thing itself. Um...
All right.
So, yeah, this is still like new and stuff. [chuckles]
Okay, I got it out of its cellophane prison here, and
yes, this is it! This is the Pool Shark!
And it does look a lot like a mouse, and
you know what? It actually is!
It's got mouse buttons.
Uh, a wheel down there.
And a little switch for switching the mouse buttons to do what you want.
So right, middle or left mouse button there on the bottom.
And, you know, just different buttons here,
depending on which configuration you're going to be using this in,
like where you're holding your hand.
And, uh...
ambidextrous, I guess, sort of buttons over here,
because it's meant to be used right or left handed.
And, well...
what else, I guess really it's just
the fact that it's USB is kind of interesting, so
I might just have to try this out on a modern machine
See if it works.
And then, of course, there's just this little roller.
Not a mouse wheel, you know, that would go up and down.
It goes horizontally here.
And that's because of one more thing
that is really the crux of this whole device.
It comes with pool cues.
We got three different pieces here, and
this is, you know,
you're supposed to be able to like
put them all together.
Not entirely sure...
there we go.
And it sort of telescopes like this.
So you have a pool... cue.
It's really cheap.
And, uh... [taps cue]
and is more like a police baton looking thing,
But I mean, it's like
oh, I dunno, 30 inches long here.
So not quite a meter.
In fact, I'll show a full shot here
of me just holding it up and looking
super menacing.
So the other things that you get in the box, I mean really not much.
You get a copy of Virtual Pool Hall, which
originally came with other pool games, but this version came with–
It's like a demo sort of bundle
of the Virtual Pool series of games.
I've got a registration card here from
Interact and
these always
make me happy to look at.
You know, it's like: Who bought this game for you? Mom? Dad?
Brother, sister, grandparent? Or maybe you!
Maybe you actually bought your own thing.
[laughs]
And then it asks all this really ridiculously personal information,
like how much money you make.
Um... oh, yeah, also have–
You got this little "Real Feel Online Invitational Tournament."
"Compete to Win Five Grand!"
By playing with this thing? [chuckles]
[laughs]
You know...
I wonder if that ever happened.
Because as fas as I could tell, this company was not around very long.
Interact was around a while longer, but, uh...
Mana-whatever-com, uh, comet,
Miacomet? They just kinda shut down.
And we have the manual here,
and yeah, this is just a manual congratulating you for
buying their thing.
Honestly, they should be congratulating themselves
if anyone actually got this.
Reviews were not very kind to this back in the day,
so I don't have grand expectations.
But, uh, you know what?
We're gonna find out here soon enough.
I do like this though: the troubleshooting.
"It's a well-designed mechanical device."
"However,"
you might screw it up.
Like putting it in direct sunlight.
Where have I heard that before?
And do not spill liquids on it. You know, whatever.
It's USB. Really, it just tells you to plug it in.
And, uh, that's it. I mean, it's...
There's nothing there.
The rest of it's all in other languages.
Back to the Pool Shark itself,
and, well, how does this work?
[chuckles] You know what?
It's kind of an interesting idea, really.
So you basically just have like a mouse wheel,
and that goes right there. Like you're sawing...
really cheap '90s plastic.
with...
a terrible pool cue.
Um, this thing...
feels like ridiculously cheap, and it comes apart like nothing.
But, uh,
you know what, we're gonna try it anyway.
They say it's a recommended thing that you use a real pool cue,
but I can't imagine somebody would want like...
[laughs] a full-sized one!
And a computer desk.
Let's try this out.
Okay, so I've got the Pool Shark plugged in here
on my main Windows 98 machine I do a lot of capturing on.
And, it's...
it's working as a mouse.
Although, I do need to clarify one thing here,
and that is that the little switch on the bottom
doesn't actually switch between the mouse buttons necessarily.
It does that,
but what it also does is change the orientation of the ball underneath.
Or, the sensors there.
So, switch it here, it's for right-handed people,
left-handed people for when you're playing pool games,
and then the middle is just your regular mouse.
So I'm gonna go ahead and switch over to right-hand mode, which
is weird in this orientation, but if you put it sideways,
which is how I will be playing it,
then it makes sense.
So, of course it makes using it as a mouse really awkward.
So this is the left mouse button.
And I'm gonna go ahead and...
start playing Virtual Pool hall here,
which is the game that it comes with to demonstrate the capabilities.
Although,
I need to, um...
I need to turn on the music here
because I can't just not have music when you're playing pool.
[soul music]
Oh, yeah, baby...
Okay, here we go.
Well, this is–
This is friggin' awkward.
Um...
You know, the problem with this... [chuckles]
at least with the way the game is set up,
you have to press S to start your...
Yeah, you have to press S in order to move the cue back and forth.
Like this.
[pool balls colliding]
How am I gonna hold down S and this?
I guess I need to change the mouse configuration.
All right, that should be better.
I've changed it to be what the left mouse button used to be. So...
Wow, I dunno if that's still gonna...
[chuckles]
If it's gonna work or not!
Okay.
So, it–
It doesn't actually do anything if you just hold it,
so you have to do this... aw, crap.
Okay.
I'm trying to aim here. I'm not even sure–
What am I playing, nine ball? Aw...
Well, we're gonna fail at this.
Hold down–oh, crap!
Okay, I don't need to do that.
'Cause it thinks– [laughs]
It's too sensitive!
Okay, there we go.
[pool balls break]
Holy crap, it actually went in there!
What was that? Was that even the right ball?
[pool balls crack]
[chuckle]
It's just weird, 'cause you have to kind of reset it to be like right... here.
All right.
Okay, I'm getting the hang of this. This has definitely got a learning curve.
So, what's interesting about this is the fact that, uh...
it barely works.
Wow, okay, so it just–
I must be playing a really easy mode because it's lining me up for these shots.
That's fine. I need all the help I can get.
Yeah! That almost worked!
[funky music]
Playing pool!
[loud scraping]
It's friggin' scraping up my desk, but I'm playing pool.
I almost need to hold it like right here. In fact...
Get rid of this whole thing.
I don't need a two and a half foot long–
This makes more sense.
[chuckles]
I think. Um...
Here we go.
Yeah! That's way less unruly.
Like a magic wand or something at this point.
It still sucks.
To be honest, you know what would be really good?
Just using a mouse.
Is it–
Is it one to one? I dunno! I mean, it's pretty close.
Look at that! I mean, it's...
not bad, but it's moving a lot more on the screen than it is
in real life, like it's not– I mean, look at that.
*pfft*
I'm moving like two feet by moving two inches.
I will say, though, that is a really interesting feeling.
[chuckle]
Just kinda making this happen by
moving a stick?
It's like I'm playing a demented fiddle.
[chuckle]
Yeah!
Oh, that was way better.
Just flick it with your finger.
Heh heh. That's what he said.
Man, that works so much better, just flicking it.
Come on!
And I'm not moving it anymore,
so, uh, don't have to worry about accidentally screwing things up.
Just be like...
[pool balls crack]
Yeah, look at that!
Okay, so I've moved on to my modern PC setup here,
and I'm gonna play a little bit of
Pool Nation,
which is a more modern pool game,
and you know,
since the controls for a lot of these billiard titles haven't really changed that much,
it still works just fine
without having to set up anything except the Pool Shark itself, and
I mean, this is Windows 10 that I'm running here.
I've also tried it on Windows 7 that I have installed as well, and it works
just fine, which is pretty cool.
USB, man.
It, uh... it makes things happen.
All right. Let's see, what am I doing here?
I guess I'm just in a "practice mode..."
So, uh...
Yeah, I don't really have to worry about what I'm hitting into the–
things and the... [garbled]
[chuckle]
I'm starting to like this thing more, the more I use it.
It's such a dumb gimmick and it's really cheap.
I mean, the thing only cost thirty bucks when it was new, so
obviously, the build quality isn't huge or anything.
But, man.
It's just kind of... neat.
Like, it's a novelty.
Yeah! Slow motion for no reason!
Right, so I was gonna try a pinball game or something with this
and, well, I just couldn't find any that worked with
the mouse because this is all mouse controls.
It doesn't set any keyboard or joystick commands.
And Auto Hotkey wasn't helping in that respect.
The pinball games just didn't like it. So,
I'm gonna play some Doom! [chuckles]
Because Doom and pool cues
have a bit of history, if you ask Tom Cruise especially.
So, yes, let's give the new Doom a try.
So, I've got this of course mapped to looking around,
but to make it even more interesting,
the pool cue here is gonna go–aiming up and down.
We've got this back button to move,
and this right here to shoot.
So...
Let's kill some demons with a pool cue!
Ha ha!
I am gonna billiard you guys back to hell!
[grunt]
If I can.
Okay, well thankfully the shotgun has enough spread!
Aahhh!
Come on!
It doesn't really want to do this.
Oh, there we go.
I'm even forg–
I'm already forgetting to hold down...
the thing to do this kind of aiming.
Okay, here we go.
[grunt]
[grunts]
Oooh...
I have no way to turn around!
I mean, I can turn around, but I can't–
I can't back up.
Oh, that's a problem.
[chuckles]
Oh, no!
[grunt and laugh]
This is a disaster!
It's fine.
Oh, man.
Ah, whatever. Polygon was still worse at it than me.
Well, that's pretty much it for the pool controller.
And that's because I say so. [laughs]
I'm gonna cut it off right there.
I could say more and do more, but I don't think that I need to.
It kinda got the point across there I think in those
delightful demonstrations.
Intriguing little device, I gotta say.
I'm curious what the others would have felt like.
But then again, not really,
because we had the Nintendo Wii
and the PlayStation Move, and all this stuff
in later years that
really took this kind of idea and ran with it.
And, um, well, you know,
that is what it is.
And thank you for watching this video. I hoped you enjoyed it.
If you'd like to see more,
click some of these little things right here in the annotations or whatever.
Or just subscribe if you'd like to,
or stay tuned for videos every Monday and Friday
here on LGR.
And, I've already said it, but yeah.
Thanks again very much for watching.