# Penny arcade shocker at Disneyland **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339 "2005-03-13T16:24:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/41 "2014-08-22T02:07:19Z")
Here is some information on the Disneyland machine found in a [Disney Fan Forum](http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2114444). Here is a link from that forum to an [arcade site](http://www.pinballhistory.com/arcade1.html). ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/42 "2014-08-22T02:20:03Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Sorry, **Hail Ants** ; as I said nine years ago, I know the difference between electricity and vibrations. The machine at Disneyland does (last time I was there) deliver an electrical current. [pictures](http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=2154) have been posted in this thread. You can [find](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UyZJ9Jel3U) [videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e_7YAZ_91k) of such machines online. And if you get three people holding hands, with each person on the end taking one handle, the one in the middle feels the shock. That wouldn’t happen with a vibrator. Well, ok, except those pictures & videos are all of ye ole’ timey ones, back when shoe stores had foot X-ray machines to see how well your penny loafers fit! But if the one in Disney does indeed work with three people linked together like you say then yes, it would have to be electricity. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/43 "2014-08-22T02:34:51Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Well, ok, except those pictures & videos are all of ye ole’ timey ones, back when shoe stores had foot X-ray machines to see how well your penny loafers fit! **JpnDude** ’s links seem to indicate they’ve been replaced by the vibrating kind. Pity, that. Even when I worked near Disneyland and had a season pass (early-2000s), I noticed that they went from two machines (one in front, one in back) to one machine (the one in front). . ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/44 "2014-08-22T02:49:17Z")
I’ve been going to Disneyland since 1957 and there is no question that the original arcade machines delivered a true electric shock, and yes, they now only vibrate. People weren’t as litigious back then and I can’t imagine anyone with a pacemaker being stupid enough to have a go at the electric shock machine. I would think if you research “Electronic Muscle Stimulators” you would have more luck discovering the ins and outs of shocking yourself without having a bad day. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/45 "2014-08-22T03:40:58Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > I think there is a home version called ‘Shaking Hands with Jesus’ but I may be mistaken. Goddammit! I came in here just to say that! I understand your play it with two forks. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/46 "2014-08-22T05:46:04Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > I can stick my dick in a light socket and get the same effect for free. […] Now that oughta be fun, Gabe–can I watch? 😃 I was thinking of turning my TV on, putting on a blindfold, and sticking two screwdrivers into the back of the set. Your idea sounds like more fun. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/47 "2014-08-22T14:15:31Z")
Jokes aside, it was a fun game. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/48 "2014-08-22T14:30:27Z")
When I was a kid at school, our physics teacher made a Wimshurst machine [Wimshurst machine - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimshurst_machine) His real fun idea was to get the whole class holding hands in a semi circle, and then give an electrode to the boy on each end (it was a boy’s school). He would crank it up until all our hair stood on end. The big problem was that some boy would always let go early and get burned by the resulting spark. Shame we didn’t have webcams back then:) ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/49 "2014-08-22T14:35:51Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Not sure if **Johnny L.A.** has satisfied his desire for a shocker device in the past nine years (!), but here’s my contribution. > > I wouldn’t even mess with an ignition coil from a car or anything like that. I think it would be far more powerful than you want. > > I managed to get myself in trouble in 7th grade by building a simple device that would do what you describe. I bought a big relay at Radio Shack and wired it up with several D cells as a buzzer (use the relay normally-closed contacts in the circuit to the coil). Then, I hooked up two leads to the terminals of the relay’s coil and hooked them to a couple of big bolts. > > It was great fun, making a circle of kids holding hands, turning on the juice and feeling the power going through everyone. It was a bit of a job to hold onto both electrodes by yourself, and it would make your muscles all tighten up and twist your wrists inward. > > Needless to say, that fun lasted about two days before I ended up in the principal’s office, with the device sitting on his desk. My dad told me about a fun physics professor long ago. The sort who’d freeze mercury into a hammer and drive a nail… He’d bring a Leyden Jar (old enough?) into the class, charge it up, and demonstrate resistance in series by having students hold hands in a circle, and then they’d drain the charge through students in series. To demonstrate RC time constant, he’d then hold one contact, put the other to his nose and there would be a spark as the remaining charge was drained. Apparently the last time he did this, one clever student persuaded the one next to him to not hold hands. The prof then demonstrated the remaining charge. When he regained consciousness… This Disney game - did it also have an optional chair and helmet? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/50 "2014-08-22T23:31:40Z")
I’m pretty sure there was a game like this in a James Bond movie. A View to a Kill? It had the two players opposing each other and using the handles as controllers to play a strategy game of some sort. Every time you suffered a loss in the game, it’d give you a shock. The game lasted until someone let go. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/51 "2014-08-23T01:45:25Z")
Johnny, if you want to build something, check about in the BDSM community. A few years ago I chatted with a hubby and wife who were both masochists who were into restraints, alligator clips and probes connecting dangly bits and internals to their home-made electro-machine that would vary the sensation from tingling to screaming pain and spasms. To get in touch with folks who could help you build such a device, sign in to [FetLife](https://fetlife.com/) – lots of nice people there, some of whom are big into electo. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/52 "2014-08-23T02:29:20Z")
I’ve heard of folks using old-timey hand crank telephone magnetos to zap the shit out of each other. Now I know squat about electricity, but I was wondering, if you connected one of these magnetos to a board of light bulbs and to yourself, could you increase resistance/reduce the current that is zapping you by screwing light bulbs in, and reduce resistance/increase the current by unscrewing light bulbs, thereby changing the intensity with which you are zapped? Like I say, I don’t know anything about electricity. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/53 "2014-08-23T03:33:02Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > When I was a kid at school, our physics teacher made a Wimshurst machine [Wimshurst machine - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimshurst_machine) > > His real fun idea was to get the whole class holding hands in a semi circle, and then give an electrode to the boy on each end (it was a boy’s school). He would crank it up until all our hair stood on end. The big problem was that some boy would always let go early and get burned by the resulting spark. > > Shame we didn’t have webcams back then:) I hope to God nobody sneezed. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/54 "2014-08-23T03:43:03Z")
Sometime in the mid-60s, I built a simple circuit using a battery, a transistor and a few other bits that provided a surprisingly strong ‘tingle’ when you touched two electrodes. I recall building it into a cardboard mailing tube with two bands of tinfoil as electrodes. I wonder if I can find the circuit diagram… or if an EE type Doper would understand my description. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/55 "2014-08-23T03:45:58Z")
That sounds easier than building the thing in the drawing. Cheaper, too. Any way to make the charge build to a maximum so as to duplicate the ‘endurance test’ of the arcade game? ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/56 "2014-08-23T03:54:19Z")
A quick search turned this up. [FK901 Low Power Tingler](http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=385) ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/57 "2014-08-23T04:42:26Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > I’ve heard of folks using old-timey hand crank telephone magnetos to zap the shit out of each other. Now I know squat about electricity, but I was wondering, if you connected one of these magnetos to a board of light bulbs and to yourself, could you increase resistance/reduce the current that is zapping you by screwing light bulbs in, and reduce resistance/increase the current by unscrewing light bulbs, thereby changing the intensity with which you are zapped? Like I say, I don’t know anything about electricity. YES! I used to do that, back in high school! We had a hand-crank generator, which you could use to light (dimly) a light bulb. There were two leads in parallel, extending beyond the light bulb. I’d hold these two leads, a friend would crank the crank, and I’d get a little electrical zap. Then we’d change places…and I would surreptitiously put the light bulb out of the circuit. I’d crank the crank, and my poor victim would get all of the current; none was now being diverted into energizing the light bulb. The poor soul would shriek and let go the wires as if they were red hot. Ah, the days of youthful sadism! ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/58 "2014-08-23T12:12:55Z")
Starting with **[Otto von Guericke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Guericke)** in the 1660s demonstrations of electricity used to do this all the time in the 18th century. In fact, it’s practically all they did, ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/59 "2014-08-23T19:21:16Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > I’ve heard of folks using old-timey hand crank telephone magnetos to zap the shit out of each other. . . . They can also be used to fish. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339/60 "2014-08-23T21:50:37Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > I’ve heard of folks using old-timey hand crank telephone magnetos to zap the shit out of each other… > [@Yllaria](#): > > They can also be used to fish. Dynamite results in more fish 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-arcade-shocker-at-disneyland/294339.md?page=4)