I didn't know that there was enough going on in the field of "cocktail robotics" for it to deserve its own festival, complete with workshops and displays of machinery designed to intoxicate humans. But that's precisely what Roboexotica, which is going on this week in Austria, is all about.
The entry that caught my eye is over on Kotaku, and it's an emulated version of Super Mario Bros. running through LUA scripts that speak to a Python server that speaks to a bunch of servos that speak to tubes that speak to bottles of rum and Coke, which certainly speaks to me. The main idea is that collecting coins triggers the mechanism and dispenses a bit of alcohol, while knocking off enemies deploys some soda as a mixer. This can, of course, be retrofitted with any other beverage, and in the video below, they're running it with Cherry Coke.
All of that ambient lighting, vibration, and "wind" looks really cool, too. I'm especially into the idea of going back and, via the power of scripting, adding rumble support into games that came out before force feedback was a standard feature. That'd be a neat trick.
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