Obama and Kids Pester Astronauts About Games

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Obama and Kids Pester Astronauts About Games



If you were a gradeschooler who had the chance to meet the President and speak to some astronauts in space, would you ask them ... about videogames?

Imagine you're a kid again. You go to school in Washington, D.C. and you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the President of the United States and other members of Congress. Not only that, but you get to join them in a videoconference with astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. You get to ask them anything you want - anything. So what do you ask them?

If you're one particular student, apparently you ask them: "Can you play videogames in space?" I guess we know where kids' priorities are these days.

Obama relayed the message to the crew of the Discovery and received an interesting response: You can, in fact, play videogames in space. One of the Discovery astronauts answered:

[blockquote]We can, in fact. And in fact a few years ago when I was up here for six months I had a video game that I used to play in my spare time. Unfortunately, we don't have much spare time.

So we can, we have a lot of laptop computers. But for the most part we stay real busy doing real work.[/blockquote]

I wonder what game said astronaut was playing. Maybe something portable? Using the DS in zero-gravity might be hard, when you think about it.

Man, the lag when they host must be awful.

(GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/03/24/obama-amp-kids-call-astronauts-want-know-can-you-play-video-games-space])

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Baby Tea

Just Ask Frankie
Sep 18, 2008
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You know, the question was pretty lame, but the answer was awesome.
Good to know gamers are in space.
 

Eagle Est1986

That One Guy
Nov 21, 2007
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Video games in space? Awesome, now to find a way to mix that with peanut butter and dinosaurs and we might just have the best thing ever, thinking hats on people!
 

mattttherman3

New member
Dec 16, 2008
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Even the video game world is not immune to stories about what the Obama kids are doing it seems. Well at least they can play video games in space! Immagine DDR or Wii fit in space!
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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mattttherman3 said:
Even the video game world is not immune to stories about what the Obama kids are doing it seems. Well at least they can play video games in space! Immagine DDR or Wii fit in space!
These aren't the Obama kids. These were regular DC Schoolchildren.
 

Rajin Cajun

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Sep 12, 2008
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I would ask them serious and very pressing questions like how are they preparing humanity for the coming zombie apocalypse.
 

Anton P. Nym

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Sep 18, 2007
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The absolutely most common question asked of astronauts, for years, was "how do you go to the bathroom in space?" Folks aren't necessarily interested only in the grand sweep of things; sometimes the banal attracts their attention too.

CantFaketheFunk said:
I wonder what game said astronaut was playing. Maybe something portable? Using the DS in zero-gravity might be hard, when you think about it.
Remember last year when the news reported that a computer virus had made it aboard the ISS? If I recall correctly, the virus's most common method of transmission was through an adulterated version of Maple Story... so I suspect we know at least one game title aboard the station.

-- Steve
 

sirdanrhodes

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Nov 7, 2007
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Yeah...
CantFaketheFunk said:
Man, the lag when they host must be awful.
Did you not see Dave Hiroshima? The astronauts simply hack into the game making aliens network, and play for free, with speeds we can only dream of.
 

J.E.T.

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Mar 9, 2009
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Does this mean the next person I kill on a multiplayer match could be an alien, does it mean that I may have indeed played with a space chick, we may never know.....
 

Nimbus

Token Irish Guy
Oct 22, 2008
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Baby Tea said:
You know, the question was pretty lame, but the answer was awesome.
Good to know gamers are in space.
Gamers in space? I predict a Uwe Boll movie.
 

Knonsense

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Oct 22, 2008
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Enh, it's a lame question, but really, the opportunity they've been given is kind of lame. It's not the sixties anymore.
 

Dectilon

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Sep 20, 2007
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On a related note I saw today that Christer Fuglesang (the first swedish astronaut) is going to play himself in some sci-fi movie :/

The world is a strange place...
 

Zer_

Rocket Scientist
Feb 7, 2008
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Actually I've heard a while ago that at some point in time astronauts had a small LAN game of Quake in space. Don't ask me which one, most likely 2 or 3.
 

rosseloh

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Mar 19, 2009
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ae86gamer said:
Must be hard to play the Wii in space.
"Hey guys! If I spin the remote, the pointer stays dead center! WTF?"


I must say that if I was in space, I'd probably spend my free-time staring out a window. But gaming from the ISS would be a different experience...