Eliminating the middleMAN
Gamer builds a robot to play the video game for him - eliminates the middle MAN.
When US gamer David Harr got frustrated being 60 points short of completing a title he decided to take radical action - he built a machine to do it for him.
Car mechanic David Harr, from Seattle, realised he needed to devote 40 hours of playing just to earn the final reward points for Perfect Dark Zero.
He built a machine that would start and re-start the game to register for the final achievements he needed.
"I reverse engineered the problem and came up with the xBot," he said.
Xbox 360 games come with up to 50 different achievements for gamers to unlock.
Each achievement carries a different points reward, which is reflected in the player's overall gamer score.
Some of the achievements are unlocked by completing levels, but others are more challenging - pulling off a series of spectacular headshots, or doing a 360-degree turn in a racing game, for example.
To win those final 60 points in Perfect Dark Zero Mr Harr realised he simply needed to play 2,000 offline matches in the game.
Car mechanic David Harr, from Seattle, realised he needed to devote 40 hours of playing just to earn the final reward points for Perfect Dark Zero. He built a machine that would start and re-start the game to register for the final achievements he needed. "I reverse engineered the problem and came up with the xBot," he said. Xbox 360 games come with up to 50 different achievements for gamers to unlock. Each achievement carries a different points reward, which is reflected in the player's overall gamer score.
When US gamer David Harr got frustrated being 60 points short of completing a title he decided to take radical action - he built a machine to do it for him. 
I asked myself: 'What type of rewards would be coming out of the effort of doing this? 
Some of the achievements are unlocked by completing levels, but others are more challenging - pulling off a series of spectacular headshots, or doing a 360-degree turn in a racing game, for example.
To win those final 60 points in Perfect Dark Zero Mr Harr realised he simply needed to play 2,000 offline matches in the game.
'Electronics experience'
"I calculated that it would take about 40 hours of gameplay just pushing two buttons to start and re-start a game," he said.
 Two button presses by the machine start and re-start the game |
"With my electronics experience I wondered if there was something that could push those two buttons for me so I could go about my daily life."
Using $60 (£32) of electronics parts bought from a local shop and some parts he had "just lying around", Mr Harr built his xBot machine in about 10 hours.
Two solenoids in the machine press the buttons when required so that the game starts at the right time.
Some gamers, writing in online forums, have accused Mr Harr of cheating.
"This is not playing online on Xbox Live - it is not playing against other people. That would be unethical.
"I asked myself: 'What type of rewards would be coming out of the effort of doing this?'.
"If I was recording button presses and joystick movements and duplicated that to help people bump up their scores, then there is money involved - that would not be ethical.
"This is a one trick pony, getting you just 60 points. It's not stepping on anyone's toes." Link
My brother worries a lot about his son, 10, who seems addicted to playing games on the computer. I do not think they buy him the blood & guts stuff. My brother and his wife are religious and would not go for the killer stuff. I never had the problem.
Any thoughts from anyone about it? oh.. the kid is kind of a genius type. (Read "The Chronicles of Narnia" and all of Tolkien when he was 7 and 8)
Posted by: Phoenix | 02/26/2007 at 12:33 PM
Hi Phoenix,
I personally think you should spank the crap out of your nephew. Too much game-playing is bad. He'll most likely grow up to be a gambler and a drinker and a user of whores. Being a genius-type guarantees one nothing in this life except a permanent dissociation from reality because genius types recognize that the current reality is some bad gris-gris what with people wanting to tax marijhuana when they could just as easily tax tomatoes. Stupid country we live in. On second thought, living in a virtual world might be a good thing.
Posted by: Dr. Phil E. Buster from Mississippi | 02/27/2007 at 10:03 AM
all that time spet building the machine you could have gotten alot more than 60 gamer points.
Posted by: Dr Evil | 08/19/2007 at 12:01 AM