By Andrew Liszewski
Did you ever have a Labyrinth, or one of those other games where you had to successfully navigate a metal ball bearing around a maze by tilting and angling it? Well the Aqua Drop from Bandai is pretty much the exact same idea. But instead of using a metal ball bearing, it uses drops of water, while the maze itself is covered with a water repellent surface. It kind of makes the water drops look and behave like drops of mercury, but you know, without all the risk of mercury poisoning. I’m not sure if the Aqua Drops will manage to tear kids away from their DS’s or PSPs, but come June there will be four different mazes to choose from, at just $15 a pop.
[ Bandai Aqua drop an old game with a futuristic touch ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]
I had one with actual mercury in it. It was in the 80s, and the blob of Mercury was pretty big. I had it for years, and the Mercury gradually degraded so that it didn’t blob up again normally. If I shook the case very hard, it would spread fine drops all over the inside, which wouldn’t collect up as normal. No warning about Mercury poisoning then.
That’s not new, or futuristic. I had the exact same thing in the 80’s that you put a drop of water into the corner and then tilted it around. The plastic was coated in a powder that would prevent the water drop from sticking to it. But once you touched the powder, it would come off and when the water drop hit that spot it was doomed.
This doesn’t have any powder in it I don’t think….seems like a pretty innovative use for this material! At least, according to the product page:
http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/catalog/aqua-drop-maze-game-p-307.html