Witness the blessed union of video games and beer: the Gamerator. As you can see, it looks like the result of an old Pac-Man arcade cabinet canoodling with a kegerator. Who knew they could make such beautiful music together?

News of this nifty contraption has been making the internet rounds for a little while. Although the eBay auction is closed, I felt compelled to comment based on my interest in video games and beer. The clever hybrid definitely didn’t go unnoticed, so I imagine it’s only a matter of time before another one (or more) becomes available.

A quick cautionary tale regarding beer and video games: when I had more time on my hands I used to host Halo 2 LAN parties with a bunch of friends (Yeah, I’m a giant nerd, so what?). For those who don’t know, in Halo, you and your team of cybernetically enhanced super-soldiers run around futuristic settings gunning down other cybernetically enhanced super-soldiers. Chops get busted as mayhem ensues.

Anyway, it was a BYOB affair and, much to my wife’s chagrin, sometimes it got a little rowdy. Not surprisingly, those of us imbibing also became drastically less effective killing machines as the night wore on. After countless hours of “research” using myself as a guinea pig, I can confirm that quality of play is inversely proportional to amount of beer consumed. It gets a lot harder to score a sniper headshot or drive a virtual all-terrain vehicle after a few beers.

I came up with an extremely scientific formula to easily understand the concept: (Me + (Beer x 3+) = Repeated Death). Other possible results include broken controllers, profanity and hurt feelings (of my more sensitive teammates). The lesson is don’t drink and game. If you must game, for crying out loud, game responsibly!

TAGS [ GAMERATOR | DRINKING GAMES | KEGERATOR ]