DS goes skydiving

As if being able to draw a picture of a cock[eral] and then send it wirelessly to your mate wasn't thrilling enough, some wacky Americans have taken to playing with their Nintendo DSs whilst jumping out of planes.

According to a report on Wired.com, filmmaker John Hering came up with the idea of testing the new generation of handhelds' wireless capabilities by taking them to extremes. And filming it and putting it on the internet.

He started off by getting three of his mates to stand with him on opposite corners of an LA intersection, where they discovered it was possible enjoy multiplayer Need for Speed (do you see?) on the PSP at distances of 300 feet apart - despite interference from the odd passing car, or "station wagon" as they're called in America.

They also experimented with head-to-head gaming on the "subway" and "freeway", before realising that playing your PSP whilst sitting on a tube or in a car is neither impressive nor very interesting, and not really worth filming and putting on the internet.

It was then that Hering came up with the idea of taking a handheld skydiving. He was joined by three other brave souls, including professional jumper Lou Myers, to become the first people to play Super Mario whilst hurtling towards the earth's surface at 120 miles per hour.

"It was a rush," Myers told Wired. "Playing in the air was pretty exciting. It was also incredibly difficult.

"Some of the problems were that when you were jumping, you needed to bring both hands together on the DS, and it seriously decreased your stability," he added. Gosh.

The skydivers discovered that the DS's wireless function works at up to distances of almost 400 feet whilst travelling at terminal velocity, which was well worth risking crumpled legs and death to find out.

But if you think that's mental, how about climbing the world's highest mountain with a console shoved in alongside your Kendal mint cake? Yes, climbers Neal Mueller and Chris Grubb are currently hauling themselves up Mount Everest with a couple of DSs in tow.

"Climbing mountains like Mount Everest is 10 hours of tough climbing, with hours of nothing to do once the sun goes down," Mueller told gaming blog Kotaku.

"We thought the DS would be perfect because we can play games wirelessly against each other, as well as draw pictures and send messages." He did not say whether or not they could think of anything else to draw but cocks.

You can watch John Hering's video via BitTorrent here. He's quite fit actually. In a sort of a Dude Where's My Car way.