Snackade Lets You Play Video Games and Collect Real World Power-ups

I think we have all played video games before and wondered just what the power-ups the on-screen character was eating might taste like. Snackade aims to answer that question by giving the player real-time, real-world powerups that closely match what the character on screen is collecting. The guys behind Snackade- Adam Grant, David McDonald, and Huw Parkinson- created the contraption for the Sugar Mountain Festival held in Australia each year.

The Snackade machine allows the player to play games like “Pac-Man”, “Super Mario Bros.”, “Donkey Kong Country”, “QuackShot,” and “Super Bonk.” As the character collects things, real edibles come out of a conveyor belt as the player plays the game on a big screen connected to the front of the castle.

The player catches the snacks in a net as they come out of the conveyor belt. If you are playing “Pac-Man” as the yellow character eats dots, yellow M&Ms comer out of the conveyor belt. A chocolate gold coin is the large powerup dot and if you eat a ghost, a marshmallow comes out.

The team says they tried to make the snacks that come out of the conveyor belt as literal as possible. This means if you grab a mushroom in “Mario Bros.” a lone mushroom comes out of the conveyor. The system isnt completely automated, there are two people behind the scenes putting items on the conveyor belt reports Food & Wine. The video below shows Snackade in action.