hiidenkonttibeta

This is one of the weirdest “games consoles” in existence. I was able to get it for a few €uros so I just couldn’t refuse obtaining this curiosity. The device is called “Barcode Battler”, and that’s what it’s all about. Battling with barcodes. Here’s a photo of the thing with two barcode cards that came with it:

Two players (there’s also one-player game) load their characters (wizards and warriors) into to device, possibly adding also some powers or accessories, by wiping a barcode in the built-in barcode reader. Then their characters fight against each other – this is visualized only by numbers representing enery (hit points), attack and defence.

The device comes with a bunch of barcode cards in the box (mine doesn’t have all of the original cards), but the main point of the game is using whatever barcodes are available. A powerful warrior or wizard may be hiding in the barcode of your cereal box! Not all barcodes contain anything, but somewhere there is hiding the ultimate fighter.

The story tells that kids who were really into this thing became such experts that they could recognize the powerful barcodes just by looking at them, and so they browsed through random shops looking for the Ultimate Barcode. In Japan, a can of tuna or something had a powerful barcode, and it was immediately sold out nationwide when the word got around.

I cut out a few barcodes to see how this works. Most of them couldn’t be read, but a few worked. Curiously, the barcode from a pack of AAA-batteries has a lot of energy, but Shepherd Neame 2004 Limited Vintage Christmas Ale has such a high attack that it usually beats the batteries in two rounds.