# Electric shock arcade game **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923 "2009-05-10T05:47:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/1 "2009-05-10T05:47:08Z")
I asked about this before, but I couldn’t find the answer. On Main Street in the Penny Arcade at Disneyland there is (or was as of several years ago) a vintage game. It had a wooden cabinet with two metal handles protruding from it. There was what appeared to be an automotive coil under glass, and a large single-hand dial on the face of the cabinet. You put in your quarter and grasped the handles. The machine delivered a mild, constant electric shock that increased in intensity as the hand progressed on the large dial. The game was to hold on as long as you could, or until the dial read maximum (at which point the current stopped). This is not one of the new games that simulates an electric shock by vibrating the handles. This machine actually delivers a safe electric shock. You can even play it with two people who hold hands, and the current can be felt; something that would not happen with the vibrating machine. I’m only looking for information on the actual-shock machine. 1. What is this type of machine called? 2. What is the specific name of the machine at Disneyland? 3. As I asked a few years ago, where the hell can I get plans to build one? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/2 "2009-05-10T06:03:42Z")
I changed my google search. I found [this machine](http://marvin3m.com/arcade/elecdoit.htm), which is pretty much like the one at Disneyland. It’s a Mills ‘Electricity Will Do It’ machine. [This guy](http://mysite.verizon.net/res8aiig/repair/repair.htm) has two pictures and a description of a tabletop model (bottom of the page): > [@](#): > > This is a penny arcade shocking machine from around 1904. “Electricity Is Life”, made by the Mills Novelty Co. You drop in a nickel, grab both handles and slowly turn the handle on the right. As you rotate the handle, an electric shock is delivered to the handles. The voltage starts out low, but increases as you crank the handle. I can only turn it about half way before I have to let go (ouch). I repaired this machine for a customer in Jan. 2007. It’s powered by a single 1.5V #6 dry cell battery. The mechanism is very ingenious. The coin (a nickel) actually closes the electrical circuit and allows current to flow. The battery voltage is stepped up to a shocking potential (pun intended) by a “step-up transformer,” of which the secondary winding is connected to the handles. The transformer is the skinny rod, which is vertically mounted in the center of the machine, as seen in this picture. There is a brass sleeve that covers the transformer shaft. As you rotate the handle, this sleeve will slide down the shaft and cause the following to occur: At the start of the game when the handle is up-right, the brass sleeve is covering the transformer windings and shunting the magnetic field. Therefore, the output voltage is low. But as the handle is rotated, the sleeve will move down the shaft and uncover the transformer, which allows the magnetic field to grow, which in turn delivers more “_life giving electrical stimulus_” (IE: a good old fashion zap) to the person willing to deposit his nickel and hold on… So… Can anyone design one and send me the plans? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/3 "2009-05-10T06:06:24Z")
Are those things safe? I’ve always read that an arm-to-arm shock is the most dangerous kind. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/4 "2009-05-10T06:16:44Z")
‘Safe as houses!’ ‘The houses will be safe then?’ ‘Of course not. They’ll be blown to bits! That’s why we’re up here in the mountains!’ Actually, the amperage is very low. Disneyland’s has been operating there for decades, and the machine itself has been working for up to a hundred years. They’re not really ‘safe’ in today’s environment; but quite safe for a given definition of ‘safe’. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/5 "2009-05-10T07:39:13Z")
I remember trying one of those machines when I was a kid, deciding I’d had enough of one of those machines and not being able to let go. It might have been safe, but it was alarming enough I was never tempted to try it again. Sometime later I saw a TV show (Wild Wild West?) where one was rigged to electrocute somebody, and I was convinced I’d been lucky to escape with my life. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/6 "2009-05-10T08:01:08Z")
We played an alternate version of this game in our student lounge senior year. Well, not really, but it’s a game that requires electricity and holding on. If you take one of those Tesla coil balls ([like these kinds](http://www.gizmodiva.com/entry_images/2811/06/isound.jpg)). And then we’d form a link between around 5-10 people, whoever had study hall and was in the lounge at the time, and I can’t recall this part well, I think we then took a coin or a key and touched it to the glass and basically created a stronger current running through all of us. The point of the game was not to break the connection between you and the person next to you, because if anyone let go- the current would send a nasty shock to BOTH people (so unless you REALLY wanted to get shocked, or were sitting next to a girl, you didn’t let go intentionally- but if you were sitting next to the girl, why would you let go? Ah… Senior year.) The goal would be to quickly grab your neighbors and start the connection with awkward poses and just see who would end up getting shocked first, and then working your way down to the final group of people. It was a stupid game, and thinking about it probably REALLY dangerous too, as I know if you take a piece of Paper and slide it between a key and those globes you can actually create a spark that could burn through the paper and create a small burning smell. I’m suprised none of us exploded that globe the way we played with it… (-\_-) But yeah, if you wanna jury rig an electrical game I’m sure that’s one way to start all you’d need is two keys, and two friends and one of those globes and then you better not let go, but increasing the power? That just sounds crazy! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/7 "2009-05-10T10:18:15Z")
They had those in some arcades in Wisconsin Dells for years too. They were not the one in the linked picture. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/8 "2009-05-10T14:16:52Z")
> [@Ro0sh](#): > > Well, not really, but it’s a game that requires electricity and holding on. If you take one of those Tesla coil balls ([like these kinds](http://www.gizmodiva.com/entry_images/2811/06/isound.jpg)). Do you mean a [Van de Graaff generator](http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3070264)? Those plasma globes don’t deliver a shock. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/9 "2009-05-10T17:09:03Z")
I contacted the guy who repairs antique arcade games, and he sent me [this wiring diagram](http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m305/llaaksonen/?action=view¤t=wiring_diagram.jpg) he made. It operates on 1.5v, but no idea of the amperage. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/10 "2009-05-10T18:08:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > /?action=view¤t=wiring\_diagram.jpg"]this wiring diagram he made. That’s your basic cattle prod circuit. You can make one yourself out of the spark coil of an old automobile: > [@](#): > > Cirilo Hernandez Diaz was a Cuban inventor who worked in Latin America as a construction superintendent for an American company. He used the induction coil from a Model T Ford to step up the voltage to around 1,500 volts and reduce the amperage to a level that would not burn anyone touched by the gloves. [Reach Out and Zap Someone](http://martialhistory.com/2008/03/reach-out-and-zap-someone/) In modern devices, the vibrating relay is replaced with a square wave oscillator. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/11 "2009-05-10T18:33:51Z")
This type of machine could be found in some British pubs in the 60s/70s. Neither I nor any of my friends were ever able to get the dial anywhere near the maximum. Haven’t seen one now for 30-odd years. ---
**Author:** ![feppytweed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/feppytweed/32/4280_2.png) [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/12 "2009-05-10T18:45:05Z")
I remember there being one in Epcot several years ago when I went. It was an Addams Family/ Uncle Fester themed one. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/13 "2009-05-10T19:04:56Z")
> [@feppytweed](#): > > I remember there being one in Epcot several years ago when I went. It was an Addams Family/ Uncle Fester themed one. Sadly, the Addams Family game is one that uses vibrating handles to simulate a shock. ---
**Author:** ![Floppy\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@Floppy\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floppy_Joe)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/14 "2009-05-10T19:18:16Z")
I used to love that Disney arcade shocking machine. I would regularly take the charge all the way to the top. I never thought it was ever very strong, really. I guess that might be because I used to build my own shocker on the cheap when I was a kid. I would take an old AC -\> DC transformer, solder a couple of longer wires and 6" pipe handles on the AC side, and a mini-plug (earphone/headphone jack) on the DC side. I’d then plug the mini-plug into my cassette player and feel the music converted into electro-shock on the handles. The volume varied the intensity of the electricity. A low volume, and you could feel the shock up to your wrists. Up the volume a bit, and you could feel it all the way to your shoulders. The interesting thing about this method was that different instruments (classical orchestras were my faves) would generate different shocking effects. Violins were quite scintillating. Percussive drums were the hardest to take. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/15 "2009-05-10T19:20:42Z")
So the power to the handles came from the cassette player batteries? Eeeenteresting… ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/16 "2009-05-10T23:11:34Z")
Ah, yes, the Disneyland electrocuter. The voltage can actually go through many people, as long as they form a circle holding hands. We used to trick friends unfamiliar with the machine by holding one handle, then instructing them to hold the other handle, then touching them to give them a shock. Hehe. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/17 "2009-05-11T14:12:34Z")
In 8th grade shop/electronics class we had a hand crank generator that we used to deliver low voltage shocks. The teacher had us form the obligatory circle and slowly cranked till someone let go. The braver (dumber?) guys held on to both terminals by themselves to see how long they could hold on while someone cranked. We all thought it would be great to take one to a church service where people form long chains of holding hands during prayers and have the guys on the end hold on to the terminals. DO YOU FEEL THE POWER OF THE LORD?!?! ZAPPP!!! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/18 "2009-05-11T14:42:28Z")
The version I remember said something like “test your courage”. The indicator moved a cutout of a knight with lance on horseback, over a backdrop of crossing a drawbridge with a dragon at the other end. I didn’t even know it delivered a shock and so I failed the first time out of surprise. The second time I was jumping up and down and going “eee-eee-EEE-EEE…” but I made it to the end. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/19 "2009-05-14T05:07:07Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > They had those in some arcades in Wisconsin Dells for years too. They were not the one in the linked picture. I played one in Wisconsin Dells, too, but it was the vibrating handle kind. ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923/20 "2009-05-15T18:07:02Z")
I have sitting on my desk right now a Shockaholics Product Shocking Lasers. Basically it’s like the old laser tag system with a sensor in front attached to the gun, but when you get hit, the handle of the gun shocks the hell out of you. It does have a “high” and “low” setting, so you could probably take one of these apart and rig up something if you wanted. Picked this set up from Spencer’s Gifts for $20 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-shock-arcade-game/495923.md?page=2)