Have you ever been sitting at your desk on a nice comfortable chair, rolling down the runway, with lots of sound and Bass coming from the speakers. How would you feel if you had all that and being able to feel the bumps on the runway, the force as you add reverse thrusters, the jolting as you move the flaps and the bump as you touch down. If you are interested in this then read on, if not then go look at a wall, because this product is one you can afford and dearcent miss.
The Aura Interactor was once on the market a few years back, but was since discontinued. Possibly the reason for this is that the games that were out back then were not real enough for something like this. Anyway, a company called O’Shea Ltd bought a bulk load of these and are now selling them at rock bottom prices, and will ship worldwide. It comes packaged in a small manageable box which contains everything you need to get start (unless your in the UK*, we’ll get back to this). There are a total of 6 components inside. We’ll start with the backpack itself. If you have ever been to a laser game or places like that, you have to wear a backpack that contains lots of heavy electrical items and straps onto your back. This is very similar although it isn’t heavy at all. Once strapped and secured over your shoulders you then attach a strap around your waist, by this time if anyone sees you they’ll think you’re off to Space (it’s not really that bad 😉
The backpack is a well designed piece of plastic, in a plain black design. Looking at the front there is a big circular speaker and some good designing on the plastic. Anyway from the backpack is a wire which connects into your main command centre called the Power Amplifier. A very light rectangular piece of plastic with dials and buttons, and other things to mess with! From the pack we plug the lead into this, which will make it rumble, very important. Next we plug the power pack in. *Now as I said before, the power pack is American (2pin plug) and unable to fit in a UK or other European (Asia – not sure) plug sockets. So what you will need is a Step-Down Transformer which converts the American plug to English and changes the power to the correct voltage. Next we have a 3.5mm Mini cord that connects from the power amplifier to your computer speaker socket (on sound card, or motherboard). If you wish to have your speakers send out sound you will need a speaker jack. Once that is done your ready to plug in and go. After everything is set (after reading manual) we turn on. Were now situated at EGLL runway 09R ready for takeoff. As we increase the power the backpack secured to my back starts to vibrate as we taxi onto the runway feeling every bump. You can also feel flaps, gear, turbulence, touchdown, and applying the brakes. So as you increase the power it starts to vibrate hard, and you begin to feel the power of those jet engines for real.
As we come in for approach we alter the flaps with about 3seconds of vibrating for each degree. We feel the gear come down and lock and then feel the wheels touch the runway. What a feeling! Bump! There are two dials you can change for the different feelings. Obviously it differs per games, but the higher the power the stronger it vibrates and the higher the Filter the longer it vibrates for. So obviously 10 you will have violent rumbles, continuous, Ouch!
This piece of hardware, was originally designed for use with Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, and comes with all the components to do so, but I prefer the PC. You can also adapt the backpack to work with a music centre, haven’t tried that, so not sure what it like but I suspect it vibrates on the bass or high pitch, just a guess. The other great thing is you can plug it into your Video/TV so you can watch Videos/TV and feel it. It also comes with a 29 page booklet, on any problems you may have, and how to setup the device for different devices.
Depending on the game you play you feel different effects such as on a shooting game you will feel gun shots, your gun shooting. On a wrestling game, you feel people hit you, kick you, on football, you feel the ball being kicked etc… So works great with every game.
So if you are looking for something like this, this will be the best thing around. Although it comes ready for American plugs it only takes a small amount of £ to convert it. For only $20 you will never stop using this product, I swear by it.
Thanks To:
O’Shea Ltd – for providing the product
Look for my next review AirNav Suite 4!
