geekosystem

Claw machines have mostly been relegated to a sad existence in the breezeway at supermarkets or left to rot in shady bowling alleys. Many a childhood dollar has been spent in search of stuffed animals and gaudy jewelry buried within their glass confines. As it turns out, those machines had next to nothing to do with skill. Reddit user TheDJTec, who claims he is an arcade owner, has confirmed that they totally are rigged just like we always thought.

Villain of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters Billy Mitchell has opened up a "King of Kong Arcade" arcade in the Orlando International Airport, which has the aesthetic theme of the titular film. I say aesthetic theme--as opposed to regular theme--because the arcade currently does not have a Donkey Kong arcade machine, which one would assume would be essential to an arcade based on a movie based on Donkey Kong. At least the absence of the unit allows us all to make jokes about how Mitchell wouldn't want someone beating his record in his own arcade.

(Arcade Heroes via GamesRadar via Joystiq)

The concept behind the RACER project, spearheaded by German designer Malte Jehmlich, is straightforward enough, but it's still an incredible thing to see in action: A player sits in an arcade-style racing rig and plays what is by all appearances a standard racing game, guiding a car along a WipEout-style track from a first-person perspective. But here's the twist: It's all real. In another room, there's a camera-equipped 1:28 model RC car on a sturdy cardboard track, which the 'gamer' is actually controlling. Jehmlich says that many of the players he's asked to test out RACER have taken a while to catch on to what's actually happening.

Video below: