Watch 'Super Mario Bros' as an 8-player, 360-degree game

When researchers from ETH Zurich and Disney get together, they tend to conjure up fascinating creations, such as Beachbot -- a turtle-shaped robot that draws in the sand. This time, they've turned Super Mario Bros. into a huge eight-player game for a one-night event at a Swiss night club that happened to have a 360-degree projection system. According to Ars Technica, the team used an Arduino-based multiplexer in order to connect eight controllers to an unsullied Nintendo Entertainment System. Since they wanted a supersized retro gaming experience, they fed the video output to an upscaler, and then to a computer with custom software that can stitch frames into panoramas.

That computer also has a GPU algorithm that can correct distortions in real time, enabling the projectors to beam crisp, clear images on the club's walls. If you're wondering how the game accommodated eight persons, the researchers tweaked it to switch gamepads after a certain amount of time and to transfer control to the next in line once the previous player reaches a particular point. Unfortunately, we're not sure if the team will ever repeat their efforts elsewhere, but you can see their scaled-up Mario in action below.