aderack: There's this game for the Intellivision, called Magic Carousel. It's probably the most terrifying thing I've ever played. aderack: You start out with a screen-filling illustration of a carousel. When you press anything on the pad, it begins to rotate. A disembodied voice crackles: "HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY. STEP RIGHT UP." aderack: When you press anything, the carousel halts and the voice crackles: "WAIT FOR THE DEER", except it's accentuated so it sounds like it says "WAIT FOR IT HERE." aderack: Eventually, as it keeps rotating, the voice says "HERE COMES THE DEER." aderack: There's a deer, sort of, as one of the animals on the carousel. When the deer's in the center of the screen and you hit anything, the screen border starts to flash, you hear white noise applause and air raid sirens. The voice says "THAT'S THE DEER." aderack: The screen goes black for a moment, then a cropped image of the carousel appears in the center of the screen, with the deer in the center. A phone immediately begins to ring. aderack: The voice screams at you: "ANSWER THE PHONE!"
You realize you can move the deer. There are a bunch of icons scattered around the edges of the screen, though none of them look like a telephone. aderack: You finally decipher which is the phone, except you can't pick it up. Then you remember this is the Intellivision, so you bring up the emulated keypad, with its overlay, and you press the "telephone" button. aderack: The handset hovers off the set and is turned toward the TV screen. The voice says, in its shaky cadence: "HELLO? NOW LET'S DRINK THE MILK." ajutla: ... aderack: A glass of milk appears; you walk up to it and press the "glass of milk" button. A straw appears at your throat, and the milk slowly drains from the cup. The phone immediately begins to ring again. aderack: RING RING ANSWER THE PHONE! aderack: You pick it up. The handset turns toward the TV screen.
"HELLO? NOW BLOW UP... [fooouuurrr].... BALLOONS."
The number is said in a completely different voice from the rest of the sentence. ajutla: Wait, wait. ajutla: Why have I never heard of this game? aderack: It's... obscure. aderack: I think I'm going to review it for Insert Credit. ajutla: The Internets say it was unreleased. aderack: I've searched Google, and I can't find anyone really talk about it. aderack: So you blow up four balloons, by walking up to them and pressing the "balloon" button. aderack: RING RING RING aderack: NOW LET'S TAKE A PICTURE. aderack: You walk up the the camera, and press the "camera" button. A Polaroid develops, showing the head of a deer. aderack: "BACK TO THE CAROUSEL", it says. So you maneuver your way back, and it begins to rotate again.
"WAIT FOR THE LION", the game says. ajutla: And then it happens again? aderack: Yes. aderack: It's like something out of Kafka. ajutla: Yeah. aderack: It's the perfect videogame. ajutla: You just follow this disembodied voice. ajutla: Without questioning it. ajutla: They could remake Final Fantasy IV with a telephone! aderack: And it gives you all these bizarre arbitrary commands. aderack: Why does it call you on the phone, when it can just talk to you? Because it wants you to go out of your way to pick up the phone first. ajutla: And why do you blow up balloons at all? ajutla: And why four? aderack: The milk thing is what really gets me. ajutla: IT'S LIKE DRINKING THE GAME'S KOOL-AID ajutla: ... aderack: There's also a jack-in-the-box. When the game tells you to play with it, what looks like it might maybe be a very low-res naked woman pops out.
I am paralysed just looking at the diagram. Wow. How can that *possibly* be a good idea? Is this highly optimized for a quirk of local traffic flow, or did some traffic engineer just get mesmerized? One suspects Crowley .
There are several of them at various places in England, including one at Hatton Cross near Heathrow Airport (Google Earth has high-res imagery of that one, but Google Maps doesn't).
I've never experienced one directly, but they are consistently described as working very well. The pattern is clearer for the larger ones: you can think of them as a ring made of little roundabouts with bidirectional roads connecting them. Unlike a plain rotary, they allow you to go either way on the bidirectional roads. The little rotaries just behave as rotaries do.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 08:05 pm (UTC)aderack: You start out with a screen-filling illustration of a carousel. When you press anything on the pad, it begins to rotate. A disembodied voice crackles: "HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY. STEP RIGHT UP."
aderack: When you press anything, the carousel halts and the voice crackles: "WAIT FOR THE DEER", except it's accentuated so it sounds like it says "WAIT FOR IT HERE."
aderack: Eventually, as it keeps rotating, the voice says "HERE COMES THE DEER."
aderack: There's a deer, sort of, as one of the animals on the carousel. When the deer's in the center of the screen and you hit anything, the screen border starts to flash, you hear white noise applause and air raid sirens. The voice says "THAT'S THE DEER."
aderack: The screen goes black for a moment, then a cropped image of the carousel appears in the center of the screen, with the deer in the center. A phone immediately begins to ring.
aderack: The voice screams at you: "ANSWER THE PHONE!"
You realize you can move the deer. There are a bunch of icons scattered around the edges of the screen, though none of them look like a telephone.
aderack: You finally decipher which is the phone, except you can't pick it up. Then you remember this is the Intellivision, so you bring up the emulated keypad, with its overlay, and you press the "telephone" button.
aderack: The handset hovers off the set and is turned toward the TV screen. The voice says, in its shaky cadence: "HELLO? NOW LET'S DRINK THE MILK."
ajutla: ...
aderack: A glass of milk appears; you walk up to it and press the "glass of milk" button. A straw appears at your throat, and the milk slowly drains from the cup. The phone immediately begins to ring again.
aderack: RING
RING
ANSWER THE PHONE!
aderack: You pick it up. The handset turns toward the TV screen.
"HELLO? NOW BLOW UP... [fooouuurrr].... BALLOONS."
The number is said in a completely different voice from the rest of the sentence.
ajutla: Wait, wait.
ajutla: Why have I never heard of this game?
aderack: It's... obscure.
aderack: I think I'm going to review it for Insert Credit.
ajutla: The Internets say it was unreleased.
aderack: I've searched Google, and I can't find anyone really talk about it.
aderack: So you blow up four balloons, by walking up to them and pressing the "balloon" button.
aderack: RING
RING
RING
aderack: NOW LET'S TAKE A PICTURE.
aderack: You walk up the the camera, and press the "camera" button. A Polaroid develops, showing the head of a deer.
aderack: "BACK TO THE CAROUSEL", it says. So you maneuver your way back, and it begins to rotate again.
"WAIT FOR THE LION", the game says.
ajutla: And then it happens again?
aderack: Yes.
aderack: It's like something out of Kafka.
ajutla: Yeah.
aderack: It's the perfect videogame.
ajutla: You just follow this disembodied voice.
ajutla: Without questioning it.
ajutla: They could remake Final Fantasy IV with a telephone!
aderack: And it gives you all these bizarre arbitrary commands.
aderack: Why does it call you on the phone, when it can just talk to you? Because it wants you to go out of your way to pick up the phone first.
ajutla: And why do you blow up balloons at all?
ajutla: And why four?
aderack: The milk thing is what really gets me.
ajutla: IT'S LIKE DRINKING THE GAME'S KOOL-AID
ajutla: ...
aderack: There's also a jack-in-the-box. When the game tells you to play with it, what looks like it might maybe be a very low-res naked woman pops out.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 07:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 07:52 am (UTC)I've never experienced one directly, but they are consistently described as working very well. The pattern is clearer for the larger ones: you can think of them as a ring made of little roundabouts with bidirectional roads connecting them. Unlike a plain rotary, they allow you to go either way on the bidirectional roads. The little rotaries just behave as rotaries do.