I’m going to try and make my heartbeat go higher, by breathing heavily which is going to make me look like a complete twat.
So for the last two weeks, I’ve been talking about some of the pickups I’ve purchased from the London Gaming Market and this is the final video that I’m going to use to talk about that, and the reason why is that I thought I’d make a special video just for one particular item I purchased the other week and that is this little guy here and I’ve referred to is as a biosensor because that is basically what it is. This is a Japanese-only peripheral that only came out in Japan and was only released and used for one game in particular, and that is Tetris 64. I thought, since no-one really knows too much about these things, it would be the perfect opportunity to show you something that not many people have seen – Someone actually playing Tetris 64 using the Bio Sensor, to see how it works, so I’ve got my N64 pad here and we’re just going to plug this bad boy in. Then, I’m going to clip this little thing to me ear here so it can take my pulse – It’s quite difficult to actually keep it on, it’s not very tight which is good in some ways, but I’m worried it’ll fall off a bit.
I’m going to start the game, and then see what we’ve got. We’ve got all sorts of different modes, luckily the menu is in English! So there’s a Sensor Check option, just to make sure it’s all working, so it’s taking my pulse – I don’t know if that’s good or not; 90 to 100. That’s probably normal, I guess. Hopefully. I don’t know if that actually changes depending on me talking as well, so lets see if that works.
There’s a Bio Tetris mode, and I haven’t actually properly played this yet, so I’m not sure what to expect. It’s my understanding that when I play this game, it’ll take my pulse and it will change the difficulty the game speed accordingly. So I’m going to start off on level 3, I think.
I wouldn’t say I’m the master of Tetris, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t say I’m terrible at it, either. I’m competent, I think is the best term you could use. You have that little pulse rate there, can’t talk too much because that’s going to…
It’s supposed to make it harder when my pulse rate is quite low, and easier when it’s high. To test that theory, I’m just going to hold my breath for a bit and slow my heartbeat down.
Now that my heartbeat is quite slow, it’s giving me very normal Tetris pieces. So far, so good. This one does have some very weird pieces for a Tetris game.
In a second, I’m going to try and make my heartbeat go higher by breathing heavily, which is going to make me look like a complete twat on video, on the internet – But this is all in the aid of science, and showing you something a little bit different.
I’m going to start breathing heavily now, to see what happens.
It’s not really doing very much to be honest. Although it’s clearly reading my heartbeat as a bit high, it’s not actually going a helluva lot, to be honest. I’m going to try and calm myself down again.
This isn’t working very well, I’m just going to try a different mode, just to see if it’s any different. So, I’m going to try B-Type.
Start off, from the beginning.
I’m just going to test a theory, I’m going to take this off, just to see if it actually changes anything. So, it looks like I’m dead, but I don’t know if this is reading it from my finger, maybe? Let’s try again.
So it’s got my pulse now.
There’s a part of me that thinks that maybe this isn’t working as it’s supposed to? I don’t think it’s a faulty unit, I think that’s working absolutely fine, I think it’s just a very low fidelity technology that doesn’t work particularly well. I think it’s picking up my voice more than my pulse at this moment.
I wonder if I put it on my finger…Might be a better place to put it.
It might not pick up my voice so much.
That looks a bit more normal.
It does actually tell you to put it on your ear, but it’s quite weird that it’s not working quite as well.
I’m going to try a different mode again, just to see if another mode works. I’m just going to start quite a high level, just to see if I can artificially make my heart beat quite high organically just by playing the game. It’s not actually working now, which is a bit weird.
There we go.
Things are moving a bit differently now, I don’t know if this is related to the pulse rate I’m going to hold my breath again just to see if this slows down.
I don’t know if you can tell whether it’s making any difference to the speed – It’s hard for me to tell. It could just be the level I’ve put it on. Again, I don’t think it’s doing much, which is quite weird.
There is a multiplayer mode on this, with up to four Bio Sensors. When you go into the Sensor Check there are other spots to have more of these on, but again – Not really much happening when you actually play the game.
Let me see what happens when you change the Bio Feedback, just to see if it’s something a little bit different.
I’m going to put the level up again to see if there’s any difference to actually playing it like this. The other thing it could be is, it depends how stressful Tetris makes you. I’m naturally a very calm person for the most part, so playing Tetris is not something I’d consider a strenuous activity, or something that would make me particularly stressful, and maybe that’s showing in this. It’s hard to tell.
I’m going to hold my breath to see if anything changes, I don’t think it is.
Honestly, I think I’m going to give up at this point, I think.Tetris 64 with a Bio Sensor is a great idea, but I don’t think the technology quite works up to the potential. I’m surprised that Nintendo haven’t come up with their little BioSensor they were talking about a few years ago for the Wii U, and this is probably why because it doesn’t work particularly well. So I’m actually going to leave it there. It’s not the most exciting video, so I’m sorry – But you can’t always trust technology, especially from the late 90’s. I’m going to leave it!
Thank you very much for watching, as always you can subscribe to this channel which is great and keeps you up to date all of the videos I do, from retro stuff to modern stuff, the random stuff to do with Bio Sensors, all that guff. And I’m going to see you around, thank you very much for watching, and don’t forget to keep gaming positive!
