Filed under: Computers, Video Games

Electronic voting machines are notoriously buggy and hackable. Even the manufacturers of DRE (direct recording electronic) voting talliers have admitted so much. Some states have even gone as far as to ban the touchscreen devices. While they may not be great at recording votes (or leaving a paper trail), it turns out their outdated PC-like innards are perfect for playing retro arcade games. This particular machine, the AVC Edge, houses a 486 processor and 32 MB of RAM, making it about as powerful as a 15-year-old PC. Researchers J. Alex Halderman from the University of Michigan, and Princeton’s Ariel J. Feldman managed to open the machine, overwrite the embedded psOS+ operating system with the more pedestrian DOS, and install ‘Pac-Man‘ — all without leaving any evidence that the machine had been physically altered (aside from the ghosts chasing a yellow circle around the screen, that is).

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Electronic Voting Machine Hacked to Run ‘Pac-Man’ originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Video Games

Cooperstown, New York and Ottumwa, Iowa will soon share an unbreakable bond — as cities that host a hall of fame. According to USA Today, the International Video Game Hall of Fame will induct its first class of 29 members this weekend. The honored include the classic arcade game ‘Pac-Man,’ ‘Mario’ creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the Xbox design team, video game record holders Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, and still others. But why Ottumwa? The city gained notoriety in the ’80s for holding some of the first competitive gaming tournaments at the Twin Galaxies arcade, which is owned by Walter Day, a force behind the International Video Game Hall of Fame. Mayor Dale Uehling told NPR in an interview that this makes his town “The Video Game Capital of The World,” a strong claim for a town of only 25,000. [From: USA Today, NPR and IVGHOF]

Video Game Hall of Fame Opens in Iowa, Inducts ‘Pac-Man’ in First Class originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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