Burnie: Now, I don't care how old or how young you are.
At some point in your life, you probably played a 2D sidescrolling game like Super Mario Bros here.
and I've always found it interesting, that even though this world is perfectly flat and you can only look at it from the side,
everybody instantly understands how to navigate it.
So, that must mean it's pretty easy to do that, right?
[INTRO MUSIC]
Now, wouldn't it be fun to have your own 2D sidescrolling adventure, only in real life?
Problem is, once again, how do we achieve that?
You know, that always seems to be our problem on this show.
-So, time to head down to the lab and say hello to our good friend, Griffon here. -Hi.
and see what she's cooked up for us.
Well, the challenge for this one was how do we show a person, himself
only from the side and nothing else
Right, just like what we did for the car before where we had the camera behind the vehicle
now we want to do it with a person, from 90 degrees to the side and all of the equipment contained on that guy
Right, exactly.
So we start with a Panasonic HVX,
which is recording the profile and in real time sends the feed via composite signal to the RFRCA transmitter.
And then the the transmitter sends a wireless signal to the receiver, which they'll be wearing in their backpacks
BURNIE: There's no cables running out to the person at all.
GRIFFON: Exactly, they'll be able to move about freely.
BURNIE: OK, cool, and then where does it go once it ends up in the receiver?
The receiver then sends the signal to the video glasses, which have tiny screens on the inside.
So they can see themselves from the side. We also attach blinders
around the top, bottom, and side so that's the only thing they can see.
No cheating kids. Well, now that we know how they're going to see the world,
uh, they need something to interact with inside that world.
-Obstacles. -Obstacles. Enemies, right. What do ya got?
Well, we've got wooden barrels.
BURNIE: Barrels, nice those are classic, from Donkey Kong.
-GRIFFON: Exactly. -BURNIE: Alright, what else?
-GRIFFON: We have a remote control turtle shell. -BURNIE: Wow! Remote control, I get dibs on that.
Okay, and then finally, Bullet Bill.
Bullet Bill, we have our big, boss Bullet Bill, nice.
Okay, well, let's see how they do.
Okay. And here we are back again with our friends, Number 1 and Number 2.
Guys I see you're dressed for our little experiment today, I assume that means you've been briefed.
No.
Perfect! OK, all you need to know is, we've set up a course for you to run today and Geoff, you're up first.
-GEOFF: where do I g-- that way? -BURNIE: (shouting from distance) Go towards me!
GEOFF: Can't see shit!
[ Mario music in background ]
This is freaky!
Platform. Okay, woah.
Would you say he's got cat-like reflexes?
(laughing) Maybe not cat-like.
BURNIE: Some kind of cat, I'm sure there are slow cats. Oh, nice jump, he made that one.
GRIFFON: Yeah, I thought that would trip him up a bit.
BURNIE: He can't see anything different from what we see, so he doesn't even know the barrel is there,
until it's 5 or 6 feet away from him already
Right, so he's pretty much got to start jumping immediately.
BURNIE: Alright, there's turtle shell.
Ah! He made it-- no, I guess you had a homeing turtle shell there
(Griffon laughs) Yeah, should have been a red one, right?
[Mario victory music]
GEOFF: Whew! Man, that is somethin'.
Alright, how'd you do, how do you think you did at least.
I think I did ok, um, I don't know if I was too drunk, or not drunk enough
but I had the mix wrong for sure, I don't know.
What was the hardest part, was the hardest part the flatness of it? Or the fact that you couldn't see what was in front of you?
GEOFF: Well it's both, a little bit of both. But, you can't see anything.
It's like, you just get a hint of a blur of something coming at you and you just pray it's not going to break your face.
Okay, Gus are you ready?
She told me these were prescription!
GEOFF: He does not stand a chance.
-I know he doesn't -He has zero athleticism.
[Mario music plays]
BURNIE: Alright, well, first off are the platforms, how were the platforms for you?
GEOFF: Uh, the platforms were actually one of the hardest parts, I don't know why.
-'Cuz there about this tall. -GRIFFON: 4 inches. -4 inches
That's the scariest 4 inches you'll ever encounter.
My wife would disagree with that.
Okay, now here we come onto the barrels.
GEOFF: they're pretty scary 'cuz you can't really see 'em coming.
GUS: Yes! In your face!
Do we have workman's comp? -No, we don't. I don't think it would cover barrels being thrown at your feet. what do you think?
GEOFF: Good point.
BURNIE: You both the same, like, grandma tip-toe maneuver. I don't know what that is exactly.
[laughter]
That's terrible!
GUS: That doesn't count! That don't count, that's from Donkey Kong.
I'm writing minus 1 life, Gus.
-Okay. -And, then I'm gonna make an unhappy face.
Alright, so here he is back in action.
Nice! Direct response.
GEOFF: Kudos, Gus.
BURNIE: I guess we can't return that now, though, can we?
GRIFFON: I'm sure we'll find a use for it.
Alright, well, that's my cue, time for the boss battle.
[Mario music ]
(Geoff laughs)
[Mario loss music plays]
(Geoff laughs)
[Mario time pass music plays]
BURNIE: Well, today I think we leaned a little bit about perspective in video games.
and learned a lot about beating the hell out of your friends with a giant black bullet.
GEOFF: Hey, who won?
Nobody won.
You're both losers.
Science is the only winner today, science gets to kiss the princess.
[impact]
[ Mario loss music plays]
Next week on immersion
What diya got?
Got some armor, next we have a pistol, the shotgun.
The machine gun. Here we have the plasma gun.
The BFG, the chainsaw.
And then we have the rocket launcher.
[Boom sound]