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Arm Spirit Arm-Wrestling Arcade Game Rampage

Arm Spirit, an arm-wrestling simulator machine popular in arcades, has been pulled from service due to three separate reports of injuries to human players.


(Arm Spirit arm-wrestling robot simulator)

"The machine isn't that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it," said Atlus spokeswoman Ayano Sakiyama, calling the recall "a precaution."

"We think that maybe some players get overexcited and twist their arms in an unnatural way," she said. The company was investigating the incidents and checking the machines for any signs of malfunction.

Too bad real-world wrestling companions haven't caught up with their science-fictional precursors. Rolem, the wrestling robot in Roger Zelazny's excellent 1966 novel This Immortal, has special features for the benefit of its human partners:

A worthy opponent was the golem. Hasan had it programmed at twice the statistically-averaged strength of a man and had its reflex-time upped by fifty percent. Its memory contained hundreds of wrestling holds and its governor theoretically prevented it from killing or maiming its opponent - all through a series of chemelectric afferent nerve-analogues, which permitted it to gauge to an ounce the amount of pressure necessary to snap a bone or tear a tendon.
(Read more about Rolem)

Via MedGadget.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/31/2007)

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