X-Rayed X-Boxes (And Other Video Game Consoles)

May 2, 2009 6:28 PM

Reinier van der Ende, an x-ray technician at the largest hospital in the northern part of the Netherlands, decided to combine his work with one of his hobbies and proceeded to x-ray his collection of video game consoles, peripherals and game cartridges. Here are the fruits of his labour.

There's also an x-ray of an X-Box 360 that dosen't appear to be part of the main set (it's part of this subset). No indications of whether its red-ringed or not, though. [via]

posted by Effigy2000 (20 comments total)

Oh good god this is great. Please add the "Nerdgasm" tag. Thx.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:30 PM on May 2

Wow, you can really tell how simple the circuits on the 8-bit stuff are
posted by delmoi at 6:38 PM on May 2

The Wii Nunchuck has my vote for the most creature-like.
posted by Burhanistan at 6:41 PM on May 2

Reinier van der Ende is often seen hanging around the airport x-ray machine drooling at the laptops sailing past.

Security Guard #1 Should we report him?

Security Guard #2 Nah, he's harmless.
posted by mattoxic at 6:42 PM on May 2

Never has [more inside] seemed so appropriate.
posted by FishBike at 6:43 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]

There's no Atari 2600. This set is useless without a shot of Stella.
posted by localroger at 6:47 PM on May 2 [1 favorite]

Obligatory Powerbook G4 xray.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:53 PM on May 2

This is awesome.
posted by iconomy at 6:55 PM on May 2

I'd love to get that NES zapper, sans-text, on a shirt. (Would probably need to vector-trace it first, not hard with a large scan.) Maybe I should ask the guy if I can use his photo. :)
posted by Mikey-San at 7:14 PM on May 2

localroger: "There's no Atari 2600."

Yes there is, actually.
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:18 PM on May 2

I'll be impressed when someone carbon-dates them..

and... no pong?
posted by HuronBob at 7:38 PM on May 2

I love my PS3 even more now.
posted by HumanComplex at 7:57 PM on May 2

Pong wouldn't fit inside the x-ray machine.
posted by ryanrs at 8:09 PM on May 2

But can he see their souls?
posted by GuyZero at 10:35 PM on May 2

There were pranks, some engineers love pranks and good for them.
posted by longsleeves at 12:07 AM on May 3

Good thing he wasn't an MRI technician instead.

YT: Ceramic coffee cup being crushed by a wrench pulled from across the room when the MRI machine is turned on. The game consoles would come through a lot more Cubist-looking than in the X-rays, I think, if they have any magnets or ferrous metal in them.
posted by XMLicious at 1:56 AM on May 3 [1 favorite]

It might be because of what I'm working on at the moment but all I could think was "Who authorised that? Does the hospital know he's wasting their money on that? Did this affect patient waiting times?"

I think I'm just a different sort of geek :)

(Cool pics as well, once my inner health economist stopped having a benny)
posted by Coobeastie at 3:22 AM on May 3

Suit: "To be perfectly frank, we've surveyed over three hundred worlds and no one's ever reported a gaming peripheral which, using your words 'gestates in a competitor company's gaming system' and has 'concentrated molecular acid for blood.'"

Gamer: "Look, I can see where this is going. But I'm telling you those things exist. Out behind that Gamestop is a foreign cargo container and on that container are thousands of Wii Nunchuks. Thousands. Do you understand? I suggest you find it, using the GPS data. Find it and deal with it -- before one of your 'secret shoppers' comes back with a little surprise."

Suit: "Thanks, 'bro.' That will be--"

Gamer: "--because just one of those things managed to kill my entire vintage console collection, within twelve hours of hatching. BOOM, and there was Atari confetti all over my garage."

Suit: "Thank you, that will be all."

Gamer: "That's not all, Goddammit! If those things make it to the shelves, that will be all. Then you can just kiss your market share good-bye, Jack! Just kiss it goodbye."
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:13 AM on May 3 [7 favorites]

Wow. I'm startled at the sheer difference in actual size and complexity of the SNES and N64 cartridges (super mario 64 and ocarina of time especially).
posted by tehloki at 8:53 AM on May 3

Having done a bunch of this kind of thing myself, let me offer up a protip: You can paint, preferably airbrush, various componets with iodine to balance the exposure for different materials. (Iodine will make the too-light parts darker.)
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:32 PM on May 3