Every once in a while, someone takes an old idea and reinvents the hell out of it. Apple did it with the iPhone, and now Parrot has come up with the AR Drone Quadricopter. Remote control aircraft used to be associated with pale nerds spending months lovingly building a Sopwith Camel, before crashing it first time out. Not anymore! The AR Drone in itself is an awesome flying machine, as you can see here, but Parrot didn’t stop there. The fact that control is via compatible smartphone or tablet, using the AR Drone’s built-in cameras and augmented reality, allowed the software developers to be very creative. The resulting game modes are the icing on the cake, not least because you can pretend you’re in any one of these classic films:
TOP GUN
Action-packed and ridiculously homoerotic (unintentionally, we hope, although it was backed by the Navy), Top Gun gave so much joy to a generation of adolescent males. For the straight petrolheads, there were fighter jets going ballistic. For the gays, there was the volleyball game. With ‘Flying Ace’, you can recreate the thrill of the former. You and a friend control a Drone each, using the controller’s display to out-manoeuvre and ‘destroy’ the other with computer-generated missiles. Shouting “Yeehah, Jester’s dead!” is optional.
RETURN OF THE JEDI
Anyone who watched the Speeder Bike chase and didn’t think “I have got to get me one of those” was either female or dead. Unfortunately, technology hasn’t yet stretched to high velocity hover bikes, but the AR Drone’s Pursuit app is the next best thing. Just find the nearest forest and take it in turns to mercilessly hunt each other’s AR Drone amongst the trees. For a true homage to Han Solo et al, you could get any younger siblings to dress up as Ewoks and throw rocks about.
THE TERMINATOR
Remember those haunting images of Skynet’s airborne Hunter Killers scouring the desolate landscape for surviving humans? Well, now you can play the part of either soulless robot or mankind’s last hope. It won’t be entirely faithful to the original because there’ll be fewer mountains of crushed skulls – unless you live in a really bad area, that is! However, the man versus machine element is definitely still there. The Drone pilot uses the aircraft’s cameras to search for the other player, who wears a specially designed baseball cap. Meanwhile, the ground-based player uses his smartphone to target the AR Drone with, of all things, a slingshot. First one to deplete the opposition’s health bar wins.
These are only three of the game modes available for this incredible gadget. There’s loads of fun to be had pushing the aircraft to the limit. And if that limit is exceeded, Parrot is more than happy to sell you spare parts!
© By Jack744 for Mantality.co.za
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