Aura Interactor
The black plastic vest that plugged into your Super Nintendo or Genesis and turned every punch, explosion and bass line into a thump against your back. Aura Systems launched it in 1994 for about $100 with a $5 million ad campaign and a Mortal Kombat II tie-in. It was, as one 12-year-old told a reporter, weird.
The Aura Interactor was made by Aura Systems, built around the company's patented electromagnetic actuator. The idea came from Sensurround, the movie-theater sound system: Larry Shultz, an Aura vice president, wanted to know what it would be like to feel a video game instead of just hearing it. The device that resulted was a vest, worn over the lower back with shoulder straps, that plugged into the audio-out jack of a game console, TV or stereo. An actuator in the back panel converted the low-frequency part of the sound into vibration, so a hit in a fighting game or the bass in a song became a thump between the shoulder blades. It worked with the Super NES and the Sega Genesis and reached stores in 1994.
Aura spent heavily on it. The company announced a $5 million advertising campaign and signed a deal with Acclaim around Mortal Kombat II: Acclaim packed Interactor cards into the game's boxes and programmed special audio cues into the code to trigger the vest, while Aura packed Acclaim material into its own box. A similar swap with Williams covered Double Dragon V and Troy Aikman NFL Football. In early September 1994 Aura said it had shipped 82,209 vests in the last seven days of August. The price was about $100, though a Virginian-Pilot test that December put it at roughly $80.
The reviews were mild. Electronic Gaming Monthly said, "For $100, the Interactor is a good value. It provides economy-sized virtual reality in a small package," and GamePro allowed that "If droppin' a C-note is no bother to you, the Aura Interactor serves its purpose." The Electronics Industry Association gave it an Innovation 94 award. The Virginian-Pilot handed one to two 13-year-olds: "Whoa, I feel like I'm a bass drum. It's a lot better with the volume down," said one. "Major punch effect!" said the other, and asked for one for Christmas. A 12-year-old quoted by the Cincinnati Enquirer was blunter: "It feels weird."
That was the verdict that stuck. The Interactor was a hyped launch that never became something kids demanded, and it faded with the 16-bit era. Today it is a curiosity of the 1990s virtual-reality boom, filed alongside the Power Glove as proof that the idea was decades ahead of the hardware.
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