Blue Shell vs. Blue Screen

      by Wyatt Walter

Anyone who has both used Windows and played Mario Kart, can relate to the horrors that are blue screens and blue shells. Video games have been used as tools to teach real-life lessons and skills and blue shells in Mario Kart seem to be teaching us how to deal with blue screens. In some circles, Mario Kart is taken more seriously than real life and I’ve found a number of similarities between blue shells and blue screens of death in Windows. Below are some of my findings:

1) They are both blue in color. This is an obvious observation, but an indication of things to come…

2) Both have the initials “B.S.”. The letters “B.S.” also stand for something else, but to keep this G rated, we won’t go there. One of my good friends in college always said, “It’s no coincidence that the acronym for blue shells is ‘B.S.’.”

3) They both cause users to start over. In Mario Kart, the leader is completely stopped, stripped of all his/her weapons and forced to sit and wait until the kart is ready to go again. In Windows, the user is completely stopped, stripped of all the programs in memory and forced to wait until the system reboots.

4) They can happen at any time. In Mario Kart, the blue shell can appear at any time fired by any other driver (below third place) on the track. In Windows, any exception or hardware failure can cause a blue screen at any time.

5) Both are the cause of bad language. It’s a proven fact that Mario Kart causes bad language (see diagram below, gotta love xkcd!). We’ve all been there at midnight while working on an important project and suddenly, blue screen! Sometimes it can be enough to make a preacher cuss.

6) They are both scary looking. Let’s face it, the blue shell has large spikes and flies through the air, and you can observe the blue screen below:


Blue Screen Of Death by *IMustBeDead on deviantART

7) Both strike fear into the hearts of those who have experienced them. Whenever the words “blue shell” are heard by a Mario Kart addict, terror usually ensues. The same can be said for Windows users.

As you can tell, Mario Kart blue shells way too close to the Windows experience for my comfort. Okay, so maybe it’s a little exaggerated, but clearly there’s a resemblance, especially for those of us who take Mario Kart way too seriously.

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Filed under Just for Fun : Comments (2) : Sep 2nd, 2008

2 Responses to “Blue Shell vs. Blue Screen”

  1. Kyle Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    This topic hits close to home for me. Nice work on this piece. I would have to disagree with 4) “blue shell can appear at any time fired by any other driver on the track.” In an eight player race, the blue shell will only be made available for players below third place. However, there is an equal opportunity to receive the blue shell for firing purposes below third place.

  2. Wyatt Walter Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 9:27 pm

    Indeed, I correct it :)

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