Video Games Can Save Your Life

StrategyPage ^ | March 10, 2006

[Cannoneer No. 4]

[tcostell]

I just knew all those hours playing "Call of duty 2" were worth something.

[Old Sarge]

We've got one near here - one, single system. The kids rave about it, and how easy it is to make it perform.

[wita]

May I introduce ma deuce.

[FreedomPoster]

Not quite like being behind a Ma Deuce, I suppose, but much safer.

[stormlead]

260k for a turret, a screen, and sensors? Sounds a bit pricey, but I guess anything is cheap if it saves a life.

[1rudeboy]

Screenshot follows (note the crescent moon):

[Nip]

A bit of history.

The first operational remotely controlled gun turret that fire 4 .50 caliber machine guns first flew in1943 when the B-29 started flying.

How successful and effective was it?

Well it was able to rapidly shoot down attacking Japanese fighter aircraft. The closing speeds (B-29 airspeed and the Japanese fighter’s speed) was over 600 miles an hour.

The sighting method was a set of binoculars in a mount with a man behind them.

It took 50 plus years to change it from the Mark-1 human eyeball to a video system?

Wonder what else from the 1940-1950 era we should be exploring?

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Because of innovations like this, in another 10 years, tanks and other armored vehicles are going to change beyond recognition. Buck Rogers country!

[Tennessee_Bob]

Not quite like being behind a Ma Deuce

But a hell of a lot safer than being in front of one...

[FreedomPoster]

Nice!

I spent a lot of quarters on that one, back in the day. That, and Missile Command.

[1rudeboy]

Missle Command is one of the few video games that I could not bring myself to play. Watching oneself get nuked at the end was too horrible.

[fooman]

we should almost never have to be seen.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

How do you win hearts and minds from inside an up armored humvee?

Sometimes you do have to be seen.

[FreedomPoster]

Understandable.

Back to tank games, I lamented the removal of Tokyo Wars from the local Dave & Busters. Had kickers in the seat for when you fired the main gun, or got hit, great sound, fun stuff.

http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=538&page=1#1336

[FreedomPoster]

That's a really excellent observation.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I like technology. I like not exposing gunners. But sometimes the man on the gun has to be seen to be believed. Sometimes the driver of the on rushing car has to SEE the look on the gunner's face and back off and nobody dies that day. Such subtlety is not possible with Robo-cop tech.

[Minn]

I loved that game. What was it called?

[ArrogantBustard]

Looks familiar!