It all started with a google alert in my inbox that mentioned this one page on Gizmodo describing an allegedly ‘Zombie’ SNES:

Run. Run! Run for your life, but don’t step over giant green pipe on your way out, or the zombie Super Nintendo will catch you to suck your blood and soul. The damn thing even glows in the dark:

The picture is of a paint splattered, banged up, modified console with, amongst other things, a plastic eyeball grafted on, and it has LEDs inside to glow in the dark… apparently. No actual information on the *intent* of the design is available, however. Why is it labeled a ‘Zombie’ by Gizmodo?

Because the author finds it scary, I guess.

So I wanted to track down where it *actually* came from, and saw this at the end of the post:

[Game Over Project via Technabob via Kotaku]

So this post comes to Gizmodo via Technabob from Kotaku who are summarizing something else? Could geek sites, particularly ones in the Gawker orbit/collective/hive mind, be any *more* incestuous with their updates?

I went to Kotaku, and they say this about the console mod:

While most case mods are designed to improve the appearance of a games console – or at least tailor it to suit the whims of a more fickle owner – we don’t see many that will make small children cry.

But, man, if I was four years old and saw this thing, it’d disturb me. And that’s just during the day. At night, it glows green and bellows smoke like a the very gates of hell.

But then at the end Kotaku says they got it from Technabob, not the other way around:

!GAME OVER PROJECT! [Retrotaku, via technabob]

So I went to Technabob. They posited the case was inspired by demonic possession, and indeed, from the far larger picture they include, it seems more demonic and less Zombie-related.

I debated what to do, but ultimately decided in the interests of journalism that I needed to reproduce that picture here:

Ultimately I have to ask, however: Why be so threatened by this console modification, whether it is supposedly a Zombie console or a Demonic one? It still plays games, and runs on electricity, and needs human interaction to be meaningful. If you wanted to anthropomorphize, to the extent that it did before, it still wants your love and affection.

Can’t we all be friends with our ancient, Zombie/Demon consoles?

Perhaps an even more important question is why Gizmodo felt that, on the basis of clearly inconclusive evidence, it had to run with the ‘Zombie’ connection and then demagogue against said console, largely for being a Zombie?

Is it poor journalistic practices, bigotry, or fear? Some combination of the three?

The ZRC would like to know, but in the meantime, is pondering getting an SNES of our own and ‘Zombifying’ it. A cheerful green coat of paint, perhaps some LEDs, it could be a great hobby project. And of course, our mod would be Zombie Positive.

Tags: Journamalism, Mainstream Media, Videogames

This entry was posted by John Sears on Sunday, February 13th, 2011 at 12:14 am and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.