Of the traditional five senses, only sight and hearing are catered for in a major way by videogames. Recently rumble and motion control have brought a slight tactile element to gaming, but we’re far from experiencing the kind of virtual reality depicted in films or novels.
Although our sense of smell is relatively weak and underused compared to most other species, it can still be one of the most evocative and sensual, especially if you believe that everything the perfume industry says is true.
It can also be a powerful catalyst for nostalgia, as author Vladimir Nabokov once said, “Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.”
Whilst researching for this blog post I found a news story from just last month that had completely passed me by. According to the BBC, at Birmingham University, Professor Bob Stone and his team are working on ‘ScentPallete’, which is a device that generates synthetic smells by blowing high pressured air onto paraffin waxes.
Although the technology is currently being developed with military applications in mind, as a way of letting soldiers in training familiarise themselves with battlefield smells, a partnership with gaming hardware, and thus the advent of Smell-O-Gaming, certainly isn’t out of the question.
“We’re getting a lot of interest from games companies and games magazines around the world,” says Prof. Stone. “I think within the next five years we’ll see maybe smaller versions of this delivering specific smells for specific games.”
Cooking Mama was specifically mentioned as an example of a game where scents would benefit the player, allowing them to smell the ingredients and products of their cookery. In that spirit, let’s examine what scents you might associate with different games.
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker – A fresh sea-breeze
Shadow of the Colossus – Dusty earth
Bioshock – Seaweed and saltwater
Ico – Damp stone
GTA: Vice City – Gasoline, sunbaked sand and cologne
Mirror’s Edge – Disinfectant
The Darkness – Urine and old newspapers
Portal – Electrical short circuit
LittleBigPlanet – Wool
GTA III – Cigar smoke
Fallout 3 – Toxic Waste
Jet Set Radio – Aerosols
Final Fantasy VII – Hair Gel
Silent Hill – Rusting metal
Mario Galaxy – Pick n’ Mix
Metroid Prime – Plastic and Carbon Dioxide
Mario Kart – Bananas and burning rubber
Nintendogs – Canine faeces
God of War – Fresh Medusa blood
Assassin’s Creed – Hay
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island – Cotton Wool
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker – Tears of children
MotorStorm – Mud
Wii Fit – Sweat
WarioWare – Garlic
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee – Raw meat
Flower – Flowers…
I’m sure that you can think of many more gaming experiences that could be enhanced with some nasal stimulation. So I’ll leave you with the thought: What does Half-Life smell like?
15 comments ↓
Alan
July 12th, 2009
While I can appreciate why this might make Cooking Mama fun and the smell of gun fire would be a great addition to various games this will never get off the ground.
It’s too much of a risk because theres no real benifits to bringing on board this technology for a developer and only the opportunity for disaster if the project is impossible to impliment in the home or the customer decide its a silly idea and don’t buy into it.
I don’t think i’d be allowed to stink my room out with sea weed and raw meat.
Ian
July 12th, 2009
In reply to question: Beards.
Nogert
July 13th, 2009
Once the smells are in the air though, how do they get rid of it to produce the next smell.
As for Half Life I think it smells like muddy swamp water, Kleiner’s old man aroma and rotting flesh.
PhilWal
July 13th, 2009
Gordon Freeman’s skanky BO from being inside that suit for what, 6 days straight? And no bathroom breaks, and presumably the suit deals with that too, so those smells will be in the mix and all.
Also: crowbar-stench.
Seth
July 13th, 2009
Lingering smells are apparently one of the biggest hurdles that the Smell-O-Gaming guys are trying to overcome. Maybe they’ll have to include some sort of huge extractor fan within the apparatus.
Also, most games would just smell of rotting flesh from all the people/zombies/aliens that you’re killing…
Sean
July 13th, 2009
They’ll never get the Mario Galaxy scent now that Woolworths is gone
Rob
July 14th, 2009
hmm… imagine if you could record smells… Oh the fun!
Manu
July 16th, 2009
If thats the case i will never… never play again conker bad fur day or a boxing game… really i mean it.
But jokes aside i think this is great news, because playing bioshock for instance, a great game that deeps you in his world, and imagine it with a particulary smell for a type of enemy ,you can sense it before you see it or hear it… awesome sensation, and for a survival horror game would do marvelous things too. just imagene the possibilities for this application. count me in please.
Kingdemon
July 25th, 2009
I think this will be great technology for future gaming. the sent of gunpowder, and the battle field would be an awesome thing for war games, along with the smell of an enemy, either that being Carbon plastics for Counter terrorists, or the smell of dust and sweat for Terrorists, using counterstrike as an example here. Half life two would most likely have smells like carbon for combine, rotting flesh for zombies, a strong stinging smell for the acid, and the general smell of a trash can
micro-mario
July 25th, 2009
if the next-gen consoles have little cans of smells in then in cod7 you could have one full of smoke so when someone drops a smoke grenade it fills your living room with smoke not sure about the tabun
gas on cod5 though could get messy.
you could also have surround-smell systems, could be good.
Ian
July 25th, 2009
Next they’ll be installing guns either side of your TV in order to fire live rounds at you when your character gets shot.
Micro-mario
July 25th, 2009
Lol mines under your sofa
double_O
July 31st, 2009
Black Mesa: dried blood, grease, gunpowder, steel, with a hint of bleach, body odor, and zombie spunk.
City 17: concrete dust, gasoline, rotting flesh, exhaust, gunpowder, the ocean, sand/dirt
Kylar
August 9th, 2009
“Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.”
Im so happy to hear somebody else who believes that..
EVERY TIME I step out side in the spring into the fresh air and take a big inhale it reminds me of doing just that several years ago while playing pokemon silver on my way to school. very happy times for me haha
Aaron
August 10th, 2009
I think the problem of getting the smell out of the air and the problem of annoying others could be solved by using some sort of mask or nose cap. Something that could constantly pump smells in and out of the apparatus, thereby creating a dynamic smelling system that is linked with the game at all times.