On Super Mario, As Never Seen Before

The Nintendo generation passed me by.

It didn’t make me cry. It certainly didn’t make me blue. But when my friends had the Nintendo Entertainment System, I didn’t. I didn’t really even care. That rectangular controller? All those buttons? It made no sense to me.

So, the whole appeal of Mario? I don’t get it. I just don’t.

Yes, this made working for EB Games for so long a little strange. I knew the history, and I could talk the history like I’d been a game-nerd my entire life. I could even fake the excitement of knowing the Konami cheat code. (Don’t ask me about it now; I couldn’t remember it if I tried.)

Games just weren’t my bag.

However.

When I see something like this, I just have to applaud.

A kid took a Theremin. And he turned it into a Nintendo controller.

A Theremin! That “instrument” that made “music,” the weird, spooky “Oooo”s that were common to B-movies of the 1950s and Mars Attacks! and Destroy All Humans! A Theremin!

Watch!

On the one hand, he has too much time on his hands. On the other hand, he’s a friggin’ genius.

A Theremin!

If only it still made music. I’d have loved to hear a Theremin soundtrack to Mario battling the mushrooms.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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