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Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

446 points2 yearspolygon.com
tialaramex2 years ago

Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is taxed, there's no technical reason to use poison, and so the EU took the poison out, for the same reason it doesn't execute or torture criminals.

exmadscientist2 years ago

> there's no technical reason to use poison

Yes, there is. Methanol and ethanol are very chemically similar and small amounts of methanol in your ethanol is usually acceptable from a chemical standpoint. But denatonium benzoate is not like ethanol, and can be a contaminant that destroys the process.

To get around this, you either have to find old-fashioned methylated spirits in very high purity, pay the alcohol taxes (which are stratospheric on 200 proof...), or file a crapton of paperwork to buy ethanol tax-free because you're doing chemistry things with it, not drinking it. The latter is what big operations do, but it's a giant pain in the ass if you are not a big operation and you just need moderate volumes of high purity alcohol for your critical cleaning operations....

AlotOfReading2 years ago

Labs aren't buying their stuff at Walmart, so I don't know why they'd by affected by any remotely reasonable law. The supply houses can keep selling methylated alcohol, but let's get the unnecessary poisons off store shelves and out of consumer cabinets.

exmadscientist2 years ago

No disagreement from me. I'm just saying there is a technical reason to use methanol denaturants sometimes.

+1
Shared4042 years ago
martyvis2 years ago

Except 100% ethanol would be considered a poison too. 100ml (4 ounces) could likely kill a 5 year old child. https://www.alcohol.org.nz/alcohol-its-effects/health-effect...

+5
exmadscientist2 years ago
AlotOfReading2 years ago

And if you denature that, it's almost twice as toxic because methanol is so much nastier. Hopefully I don't need to point out why completely banning alcohols is a rather different conversation.

+1
vimacs22 years ago
djtango2 years ago

Except this is why chemistry is less entrepreneurial - you can't just set up a lab in your shed (for better and for worse)

And so now I write code for a living instead of trying to push the frontiers of medical chemistry :)

FYI I fully get why many chemicals are fully regulated. I recall a funny story from uni and how only the big boss head of the entire chemistry org had the authorisation to handle lysergic acid (precursor to LSD) and he had to be supervised while pouring it/measuring it for your experiment.

salamandersauce2 years ago

As kid I had a reprint of the Boy Mechanic from the turn of the 20th century. Sooo many of the activities involved going to a pharmacy and getting X dangerous compound or element that I doubt most pharmacies today even carry let alone would sell to a 12 year old kid.

+1
tasogare2 years ago
Gigachad2 years ago

Can you distill out the denatonium? I'm guessing it would just be too much work to make it worth it if so?

3232 years ago

Drinking this medical disinfectant denaturated alcohol has become a meme in Romania, where very poor people drink it because it's so cheap - $1.5 for 1L of 70% ABV (almost twice Vodka strength which is about 40% ABV).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdZuHPjJtgs&t=1825s

RealityVoid2 years ago

While Mona is a disinfectant, it _is_ ethanol, only the production method differs, it's obtained through industrial processes (or so it was explained to my by someone who worked at some industrial alcohol synthesis factory) as opposed to fermentation and distillation. Drinking methanol will fucking blind or kill you, so... a bad idea overall.

Interestingly a valid treatment for methanol poisoning is ethanol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity#Treatment

shmoe2 years ago

If I remember it overloads the uptake of the methanol or something along those lines. Crazy stuff.

andai2 years ago

Very interesting. It's not the methanol that's toxic but its metabolites, so the ethanol slows down the liver's metabolism of methanol, stretching it out to the degree that the metabolites do not reach an unsafe concentration?

Also, "The preferred antidote is fomepizole, with ethanol used if this is not available."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity#Treatment

>Fomepizole is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, found in the liver. This enzyme plays a key role in the metabolism of ethylene glycol, and of methanol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomepizole

matheusmoreira2 years ago

I've seen alcoholic patients try to drink alcohol 70% antiseptic solutions in the emergency room.

oblio2 years ago

mitilicu' :-))

chrisshroba2 years ago

I'm sorry for my ignorance, but could someone give more context on this? I don't understand what "denatured alcohol" is, how it relates to tax avoidance, or what illegal use people are finding for it?

greiskul2 years ago

There are many uses for Ethanol like starting fires, some stoves, not to mention industrial uses. Alcoholic beverages are normally taxed with a 'sin tax' to discourage consumption. Goverments realized that people could just drink Ethanol that was sold for other uses, maybe mixed with stuff to make cocktails, but that circumvents the 'sin tax' i.e. tax avoidance.

So some countries sell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol, which is alcohol with additives to discourage consumption. Some countries limit themselves to just adding a foul taste and smell, while some add poisonous substances to it to make it toxic.

jonny_eh2 years ago

Governments started adding poison to alcohol products that are not meant for human consumption. They did this because people would buy products like rubbing alcohol to produce alcoholic drinks at home, since they were cheaper (e.g. avoiding sales taxes).

matheusmoreira2 years ago

Alcohol is extremely useful for many things but some people will drink it if they find it. So they add denatonium to it to discourage that. Alcohols that are meant for people to drink are taxed more heavily, so adding denatonium puts it into a completely different category of product thereby avoiding all those taxes. Just like the way Sony avoided taxes by adding Linux support to the PS2 and PS3 which caused it to be classified as a different type of computer.

totetsu2 years ago

Did sony pay that tax when they removed linux support?

DonHopkins2 years ago

A computer not running Linux is considered a sin, so it's taxed??!

+1
lazide2 years ago
wodenokoto2 years ago

You tax alcohol for consumption but not for cleaning products, like rubbing alcohol.

Now you need to figure out a way to stop people from consuming cleaning products.

LorenPechtel2 years ago

All the rubbing alcohol around here is isopropyl alcohol, not ethanol.

xyzzyz2 years ago

Rubbing alcohol is often isopropyl alcohol instead of ethanol, which makes it even more toxic.

+1
andai2 years ago
dijonman22 years ago

Or lower alcohol tax

+1
robbedpeter2 years ago
vondur2 years ago

Many countries levy a tax on alcohol in beverages. One way around that is to put something in it that makes anyone who drinks it sick. If you have an industrial process that can use denatured alcohol, then you don't have to pay the alcohol tax.

heavyset_go2 years ago

Ethyl alcohol is an industrial solvent. People like to drink it. The market is bifurcated into industrial use and recreational use. The former can often use impure alcohol for their purposes, or explicitly require it, but those impurities are poison if consumed.

verisimi2 years ago

This is governments protecting their tax margins.

They tax stuff some people like, because other people think its bad. But some stuff they can't tax because companies want it, so they make it taste awful or poisonous so people won't like it.

hoangdung1232 years ago

yeah same

cwkoss2 years ago

Does this bitterant leave a residue when the alcohol evaporates? That seems like one benefit of methanol vs bitterant: all of the alcohol can still evaporate without depositing bitterant as a side effect.

Are there bitterants that evaporate similarly to alcohol but are not toxic?

3232 years ago

The bitterent used is so powerful, the concentration is like 0.01 ppm. So unless you are in a clean room, there will be more dust from air which deposits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium

rasz2 years ago

Try cleaning glasses with it - leaves nasty stains.

legulere2 years ago

Here in Germany they add Butanone, which evaporates at very similar temperatures as ethanol so it’s very difficult to purify the ethanol even with a lab setup.

arghwhat2 years ago

We use isopropyl alcohol, which is not denatured, whenever high purity is required.

dont__panic2 years ago

Or in a pinch, 99% grain alcohol.

Source: some friends make drinks with grain alcohol, and then don't want it any more after they make those drinks (gee, I wonder why?). Provides an essentially endless supply of alcohol for cleaning purposes for me.

+1
kunai2 years ago
+1
Scoundreller2 years ago
3np2 years ago

Well, for Sweden there's the national monopoly, so denaturing it means being able to sell it for private establishments like hardware shops... And also not requiring an ID check and being > 20yo to buy.

The reasoning is public health. You can argue that it's not a preferred solution but there's definitely more than tax to it.

jessriedel2 years ago

Whether it's reasonable to use poison as a disincentive needs to depend on how often people consume it, accidentally or purposefully. If it's extremely rare, then this is a reasonable use case, even if we don't think poisoning is a reasonable punishment for tax avoidance (because, indeed, the poison is not intended to be a punishment).

Likewise, we put up physical barriers like metal posts and concrete walls to dissuade drivers from crossing certain lines even though it would obviously be outrageous to punish a driver for crossing a lane line by smashing their car. As long as drivers strike these very rarely, it's reasonable to use these as disincentives.

By all means, if we find disincentives (like bittering agents) that are just as effective with even less risk, we should use them. But claiming that poison is being used as a punishment for tax avoidance is unjustified.

avianlyric2 years ago

Your situations are not comparable. It's impossible for a human to tell the difference between methanol and ethanol using our readily available senses. Once the methylated spirit is removed from its container there's nothing to warn someone the alcohol is poison that will probably intoxicate, then kill or blind them. Methylated sprits substantially increase the risk of death for no other advantage than to prevent tax evasion. It's the equivalent of deciding the punishment for tax evasion is to execute one in every hundred tax evaders.

Physical barriers on the other hand are both obvious to car drivers, there's no situation where a car driver believes a physical barrier might be safe to drive into, and more importantly, physical barriers are used to protect other road users, not punish people. So you're trading an increased risk of death to prevent bad driving, you're increasing the risk of driver death to reduce deaths caused by bad driving. If drivers regularly strike a barrier that protects a school, it would be completely unreasonable to remove that barrier, and allow drivers to strike children instead.

arpa2 years ago

Even more so, counterfeit drinks contaminated with methanol have killed people who accidentally bought and unknowingly consumed said drinks, even in bars! Becherovka incidents come to mind.

so you're not killing tax evaders, but rather random innocents.

matheusmoreira2 years ago

> It's the equivalent of deciding the punishment for tax evasion is to execute one in every hundred tax evaders.

And no doubt causing permanent blindness in an even higher number of survivors.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC1771266/

> During summertime, the patient had earned his living by fire eating at different Spanish locations.

> According to the patient, a sudden episode of hiccough during fire eating caused accidental ingestion of denatured alcohol containing methanol.

> Our patient demonstrates that accidental ingestion of even small amounts of denatured alcohol containing methanol can cause irreversible blindness with intracerebral lesions.

> As a clear, colourless, volatile liquid with a weak odour, methanol is difficult to differentiate from other forms of alcohols such as ethanol.

> Methanol is rapidly absorbed not only after oral ingestion but by inhalation or after cutaneous exposure and becomes oxidised in the liver to formaldehyde and to formic acid, metabolites which are more toxic than methanol itself

noduerme2 years ago

This highlights the fact that the average person has no idea how seriously methanol should be taken. I started distilling my own moonshine / hand sanitizer at the beginning of the pandemic, and before that I really hadn't heard the horror stories and had no idea how common accidental poisoning was.

Horrifically, the US government actually increased methanol in industrial spirits during an prohibition with what seems to have been clear intent that more people would die as a result[1].

https://www.vox.com/2014/8/8/5975605/alcohol-prohibition-poi...

jessriedel2 years ago

> It's impossible for a human to tell the difference...

You are arguing that the risk of accidental poisoning by methanol is in fact high. Thats an empirical question, and I explicitly agreed in my comment that if the risk is high then this is not a good method of disincentive. Importantly, your argument is not the one I was rebutting, that poisons are bad disincentives because they are inhumane punishments for tax evasion.

But more to your point: methanol poisoning is often used in situations where the potential drinkers are highly informed, e.g., people ordering chemicals out of a catalog. The risk, ultimately, is an empirical question, and you are invited to check how often accidental poisonings of this type happen.

> It's the equivalent of deciding the punishment for tax evasion is to execute one in every hundred tax evaders.

It's not, both in terms of numbers and in terms of principle.

> physical barriers are used to protect other road user...

You have misinterpreted my comment. I did not refer to protective barriers. There are plenty of examples where metal posts and concrete barriers are used to stop cars from getting to places where they would be a nuisance but not dangerous (e.g., pay parking lots, dedicated express lanes, and "no thru traffic" barriers).

+1
avianlyric2 years ago
WastingMyTime892 years ago

> If it's extremely rare, then this is a reasonable use case

I don’t really see the point of risking poisoning people as a way of dissuading tax dodging especially when alternatives exist. In the same way we don’t put solid barriers on roads unless people walking need to be protected - when a barrier is there to dissuade a driver it’s designed so a car runs through a barrier without hurting the driver and passengers.

jessriedel2 years ago

> I don’t really see the point of risking poisoning people as a way of dissuading tax dodging especially when alternatives exist.

You're not disagreeing with what I wrote.

> In the same way we don’t put solid barriers on roads unless people walking need to be protected

Not true. We also put up barriers when people driving over the line would merely be a nuisance, e.g. in parking lots or to keep people from entering closed areas.

+1
noduerme2 years ago
xg152 years ago

> If it's extremely rare, then this is a reasonable use case

You never actually gave a reason for that assertion.

> Whether it's reasonable to use poison as a disincentive ... > (because, indeed, the poison is not intended to be a punishment)

What is the difference between "disincentive" and "punishment" here?

> "Likewise, we put up physical barriers*

So, would you be OK with replacing the physical barriers with, say, spikes that would tear up a car's tires and instantly cause an accident, should the car try to cross the line? Just to make the disincentive more effective?

jessriedel2 years ago

> You never actually gave a reason for that assertion.

As discussed elsewhere in this thread, all interventions carry some risk of bad unintended things happening. You can get killed in car accident driving to court, but we don't eliminate court.

> What is the difference between "disincentive" and "punishment" here?

Traditionally, punishment is seen as having up to three components: deterrence, retribution, and/or incapacitation.

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/reasons-...

I'm using "disincentive" here to emphasize that (1) only deterrence is sought, (2) the deterrent is created before the deterred action rather than implemented later, (3) the deterrent is "bound up" with the deterred action in a particularly tight way. There is more to say about (3), but it would take a while to unpack, and I think (1) and (2) are sufficient for this discussion.

(I'm happy to use better or more standard terminology if it exists.)

> would you be OK with replacing the physical barriers with, say, spikes that would tear up a car's tires and instantly cause an accident, should the car try to cross the line?

Only insofar as the effectiveness went up so much that the total harm caused was less.

The spikes sound scary and bring a grisly accident to mind, and intuitively we know that in the real world drivers would sometimes hit them by accident. So let me try an alternative hypothetical that may help illustrate my position better.

Suppose we are trying to build a humane prison and we need to find a way to keep people inside. First note that, traditionally, a fence with razor wire on top is used as a disincentive even though we all agree it would be terrible to punish escapees by cutting their hands with a razor. And say there is some rate of prisoners escaping (1 per decade, or whatever) with the fence. Now, imagine we could replace the fence with an extremely deep pit around the prison that would be fatal to fall into. (For the sake of the thought experiment, we assume counterfactually that the pit is as cheap as a fence and introduced no other issues.) Suppose the pit has a railing around it so no one falls in accidentally, and also that it is much more effective at preventing escape because essentially no one bothers to try.

Death by falling is even more unreasonable as a punishment for trying to escape, yet the situation seems better than the razor wire. The reason is that the pit is a very effective disincentive (a deterrent created prior rather than after the fact) and the total harm (number of escapees plus injury to attempted escapees) is much less.

southerntofu2 years ago

> for the same reason it doesn't execute or torture criminals.

I don't disagree with the idea, but to be precise torture and execution at the hand of police and secret services is still a thing in the EU. Especially since the covid lockdowns started almost two years ago, it seems police murders have raised significantly in some parts of the EU (like France).

bryanrasmussen2 years ago

The best data I could find was the following https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2021/12/SPACE-II_2020_Final_r...

Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics – SPACE II – 2020 - so evidently 2021 not published yet.

that is the full report maybe take this https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2021/06/KeyFindings_Probation... which is the keyfindings and a quicker read.

Figure 3 on page 5 (in the keyfindings document) - Probation and Prison population rates (per 100,000 inhabitants) on 31st January 2020 shows the median prison population is 103 per 100,000

where probation is concerned on 31st January 2020, there were 1,512,765 probationers under the supervision of the 31 probation agencies of the Council of Europe member states which use the person as the counting unit for their stock of probationers...

which would lead to a probation population rate of 311 probationers per 100,000 inhabitants. However, when the European median value is estimated on the basis of the population and the number of probationers of each country, it corresponds to 149 probationers per 100,000 inhabitants

in Table 3 on page 16 shows Composition of the probation and prison populations on 31st January 2020 and mortality during 2019.

Is your suggestion that some part of these deaths are killings by the EU authorities as a part of policy / extrajudicial killing, or do you mean that there are other deaths that are not in this table. If so - your sources for this claim please?

kdunglas2 years ago

The OP is probably referring to this well known article (in French): "In 2020, 27 deaths as a result of law enforcement response, including 12 during containment"

https://basta.media/recensement-interventions-policieres-let...

southerntofu2 years ago

I was not referring to this article specifically but yes i was referring to those infamous stats. Before Macron, we had a casual rhythm of ~1 police murder/month. Under Macron they started raising, until we hit over ~2 police murders/month last year, as you pointed out.

If talking about secret services murdering people, the Rainbow Warrior would be a good example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior

And about police torturing people, i've been lucky enough to be only mildly hurt by police who beat me down on more than one occasion, but i know first-hand people who were tortured by police. These situations are well-documented by copwatchers. One case made news worldwide two years ago but is a good symptom of the wider problem: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/26/paris-police-f...

MBCook2 years ago

I know this isn’t new but I still love that Nintendo did this. It’s such a Nintendo thing. They’re a toy company and think like one.

Did Sony do this with the Vita cartridges? I don’t remember hearing so (and never thought to taste them?).

Heh.

badlucklottery2 years ago

>Did Sony do this with the Vita cartridges?

Well, wonder no longer. I just licked a PS Vita copy of World of Final Fantasy and it only tastes faintly of plastic.

nitwit0052 years ago

I appreciate the effort to answer these important questions.

G4E2 years ago

While I salute your dedication, reading the article was enough to know actually :

>Intrepid reporter Julia Alexander tried tasting cartridges from the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. None of them had any particular taste.

tomcam2 years ago

SCIENCE

and thank you

mywittyname2 years ago

It's not SCIENCE until somebody replicates the OP's results.

+1
shifto2 years ago
flatiron2 years ago

My SD2Vita also doesn’t taste too bad ;)

jonny_eh2 years ago

What about the microSD?

ajmurmann2 years ago

Just the idea of it makes me nauseous

RC_ITR2 years ago

It's actually amazing how Nintendo's "Focus on 1P titles and make HW that is appealing to the masses" used to be its greatest disadvantage and is now probably the only reason for their existence.

Kind of Japan's Apple in some ways (with SEGA unfortunately being Japan's NeXT).

jmole2 years ago

Sony is Japan’s Apple if anyone is.

A company like Nintendo doesn’t seem like it has an American equivalent, and I actually can’t imagine a company like that surviving the ups and downs of the 80s/90s/00s tech cycles in the US, especially with our tendency towards M&A.

TylerE2 years ago

I don't get the Sony:Apple comparison at all.

If anything, Sony is Japan's Microsoft: Do a gazillion things, many of them poorly, to such a unfocused extent that some of your divisions actually end up competition with each other.

Like in Sony's case, how they've had internal battles for decades between the device side (that wants to make devices that are useful) and the content side (that wants DRM out the ass on everything)

+3
astrange2 years ago
+2
tacker20002 years ago
+2
nemothekid2 years ago
grenoire2 years ago

It's not entirely about the business structure or its fundamental revenue sources. Don't think like an accountant here, it's about the brand. In terms of being the top-tier tech and hardware firm of your nation, Sony is Japan's Apple. It's a strong household name too, regardless of their conglomerate style being close to Microsoft.

+1
KennyBlanken2 years ago
+1
Melatonic2 years ago
Dig1t2 years ago

That comparison aside, I think Nintendo and Apple are very similar in a spiritual sense. They both love vertical integration, they both love to own as much of the software and hardware stack as possible, they both have a perceived emphasis on quality, independence of thought, they don't play nicely with others as much as they can get away with, they both have super loyal, obsessive fanbases, and they have literal mountains of cash because of this attitude within their respective industries. I think Sony is in a similar line of business as Apple but they don't have the same attitude that these two share.

Another company I'd lump in with these 2 would be Disney for the same reasons as above.

mikewhy2 years ago

> A company like Nintendo doesn’t seem like it has an American equivalent

I find they're similar to pre giant-media-conglomerate Disney. Their products target families, and are very child friendly. Ridiculous limits on when you can buy things (Disney Vault, Mario 35). Both are incredibly litigious.

Although I can't think of any comparisons to Nintendo's lack of decent online services.

RC_ITR2 years ago

I would disagree - No one ever really assumed Sony would go out of business from a fundamental standpoint. They may have gone through a period of diminished value and failed projects (laptops, smartphones, etc.), but the PlayStation has always been a hit, the media arm has always been a 'Top 4' player, the headphones were always category-leading, the camera sensors were always top notch, and I'm sure I'm missing many other aspects of their business. If anything that brings to mind MSFT (who's always led in core areas, but has also had periods of diminished value and failed projects).

On the other hand, many people thought Nintendo (as we know it at least) might go belly-up in the Gamecube and Wii U eras. There was real talk of them becoming a game dev with no hardware if the Switch was as much of a failure [0]. Similar to the talk around Apple post-Newton, pre-iBook.

[0]https://www.gonintendo.com/stories/376204-after-the-failure-...

GlitchMr2 years ago

Nintendo has a lot of money, a failure of a home console after Wii U probably would kill their home console division (no reason to continue making products if they all fail), but it wouldn't kill the company as a whole, in particular they would keep making handheld consoles.

Since Sony has entered home console market, Nintendo was essentially unable to compete with them. Nintendo 64, GameCube and Wii U weren't successful compared to PlayStation. Wii and Switch on the other hand succeeded by doing something completely different to what PlayStation did.

brandrick2 years ago

..and Nintendo is Japan's Disney. (yes yes, Ghibli)

kbelder2 years ago

They really are an interesting company. They are slower than Sony/MS, yet more innovative at the same time. They make a fair amount of bone-headed decisions, but I certainly trust them more than I do most other tech companies.

Especially back in the PS3/XBox360/Wii days, they seemed like the only thing stopping the VG industry from a nofun dystopian duopoly.

vlunkr2 years ago

It's interesting that Sony and MS have not even attempted to compete directly with the Switch, despite it being a massive success. They're kind of in their own market right now, which is where they usually succeed (like the Wii). Steam is coming in 5 years late with the Game Gear 2, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

ascagnel_2 years ago

I think Microsoft is trying to compete via cloud streaming of games -- saying "you can play Halo on basically any device with an internet connection" is a compelling argument, even if they have a ways to go to make it a compelling experience.

hbn2 years ago

It's really true, I definitely get the same feeling using Nintendo products as I do using Apple's. A constant struggle of love and hate. A company that's doing things in its space so differently than all its competitors, and is in a completely unique situation from the rest that allows them to do those things so differently. Occasionally annoying and archaic with their inability to get with the times in certain areas.

But I use their products, and love them anyway. Cause generally (with exceptions, of course) they create some of the very few computers/consoles/software out there that feels like it had someone constantly questioning whether the thing is fun/nice to use throughout the design process.

klodolph2 years ago

Seems like Nintendo tried the same strategy over and over again, and it sometimes works due to the right confluence of decent hardware design (not all of their hardware is good) and the right circumstances.

It worked for the Game Boy. Its competitors were more powerful, but it turns out that people would rather not spend more money for a color screen if it your system chews through a set of six AA batteries in three hours.

It worked for the Switch. Its competitors were more powerful, but it turns out that people like the portability, and it doesn't seem like they're getting cut-down inferior versions of games for other systems.

It didn't work so well for the N64, Game Cube, or Wii U.

mikepurvis2 years ago

Complete with kind of a weird takeover/resurrection story:

https://stoneagegamer.com/blog/the-xbox-almost-the-dreamcast...

oddeyed2 years ago

When I had Covid in December, I briefly lost my sense of smell and taste (only for a few days, thankfully). I decided I would see if the Switch cartridges tasted as bad as I remembered - purely in the interests of science, of course.

I couldn't taste it at first, but then the wave of toxic unpleasantness slowly built up, even after I had moved the cartridge away from my tongue. It was different than I remembered it being, but then again it had been a few years since I tried it (probably spurred by this same headline). Really horrible. Good to know that this bitterant it still is a deterrent if you have anosmia!

divbzero2 years ago

That is really interesting, especially because you could compare the taste with vs. without anosmia. Thank you for trying that for the sake of science and glad you recovered shortly thereafter.

hnbad2 years ago

There's a small YouTube channel by a person with anosmia who made a number of videos explaining what anosmia is like. I think the series is worth a listen if you're interested in that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3_w7IOivw&list=PL32E3dB2pp...

eloisant2 years ago

Anosmia is the sense of smell.

Most "flavour" are actually perceived with your sense of smell, which is why you felt like you lost the sense of taste. However things like bitter, sour, salty, sweet and umami are perceived with your tongue so you likely didn't lose those.

The cartridge is probably bitter which is why you could taste it.

If that happen again try it, you should still be able to taste salty and sweet typically.

matheusmoreira2 years ago

> “A bittering agent (Denatonium Benzoate) has also been applied to the game card,” the spokesperson said, adding that Nintendo recommends keeping Switch cartridges away from children “to avoid the possibility of accidental ingestion.” The representative also noted that denatonium benzoate is non-toxic.

That was unexpected and interesting.

Alex39172 years ago

Note that non-toxic does not mean edible, as the FDA recently clarified due to many people being severely poisoned from eating cakes decorated with luster dust meant for crafting.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7043a2.htm

You would think that if something says non-toxic, licking it shouldn't kill you, but apparently not.

matheusmoreira2 years ago

Dose makes the poison.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8351798/

> The toxicity of denatonium benzoate is low with acute po LD50's in rats of 485-740 mg/kg.

https://www.chemsrc.com/en/cas/3734-33-6_1028011.html

  TYPE OF TEST:
    LD50 - Lethal dose, 50 percent kill
  ROUTE OF EXPOSURE:
    Oral
  SPECIES OBSERVED:
    Rodent - rat
  DOSE/DURATION:
    584 mg/kg
  DOSE/DURATION:
    508 mg/kg
Non-toxic definitely means that common exposure to the product shouldn't pose serious risks to one's health. In other words, licking a Nintendo Switch cartridge should not result in a dose of denatonium anywhere near high enough to cause any deleterious health effects. Drinking entire bottles of the stuff probably will.

This luster dust apparently contains lead, how these manufacturers managed to conclude that it is non-toxic is beyond me.

kragen2 years ago

Apparently one of the "luster dusts" was 25% lead, and another was pure copper dust, which is also pretty toxic if ingested. Lead sulfide (galena) is 86% lead, shiny when in large crystals and probably low enough toxicity that you could label it as "nontoxic". https://www.mindat.org/mesg-361788.html says the oral LD50 of galena in guinea pigs is 10000 mg/kg, which is about three or four times less acutely toxic than table salt. But table salt doesn't accumulate in your bones and brain over time, so seasoning all your food with galena would still be worse for you, even if you didn't chip your teeth.

I thought lead metal was maybe also inert enough to prevent lead poisoning from metal ingestion—just as you can drink substantial quantities of metallic mercury with no ill effects—but that turns out to be wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead#Toxicity says, "Most ingested lead is absorbed into the bloodstream," and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#Lead-containing... says, "Ingestion of metallic lead, such as small lead fishing lures, increases blood lead levels and can be fatal.[126][127][128][129]"

+1
kortex2 years ago
smoldesu2 years ago

Kinda makes you wonder what the relative toxicity of a Switch cartridge is. Some labcoat at Nintendo probably ran the number for this one on the weekend.

Sebb7672 years ago

If anyone else is wondering, the only somewhat concise explanation I found was this[0]:

> Non-toxic is essentially a placebo term and unlike food-safe or food-grade products, has little to no government regulation in terms of its accuracy. [...]

> What non-toxic means is that the product contains no ingredients that have been linked to toxic responses in humans. Toxic responses are things like hormone disruption, poisoning, or cancer.

[0] https://www.greenmatters.com/p/does-non-toxic-mean-food-safe

NovemberWhiskey2 years ago

One of the basic principles of toxicology is "the dose makes the poison".

From an OSHA perspective, "toxic" means (amongst other things) a mean-lethal-dose (LD50) of up to 500 mg per kilogram of bodyweight when ingested orally in lab rats.

There's all kind of stuff that doesn't meet the standard of toxic that you still wouldn't want to eat.

Dylan168072 years ago

> One of the basic principles of toxicology is "the dose makes the poison".

That's a given, but this this is something where it comes in a small jar to sprinkle with and a single spoonful is dangerous.

LorenPechtel2 years ago

And there's stuff that is toxic that you do want to eat. Check your multivitamin, there's stuff in there that would kill you at that level.

NovemberWhiskey2 years ago

Also, for example, aspirin.

yread2 years ago

So at LD50 of 508 mg/kg you could call it "barely non-toxic"

earthscienceman2 years ago

Wait. WTF does non-toxic mean then? Non-toxic to touch? I don't fathom what they're trying to communicate then..

umanwizard2 years ago

What _does_ it mean, then?

alfanick2 years ago

I immediately knew what's the article about, just by looking at the header. Anecdote time: my father used to be one of top-5 world's manufacturers of Denationium Benzoate, before he decided to retire. I grew up with this substance, I moved bottles, bags, canisters, flasks, barrels full of it. I drove in a car that was used to ship it. I had my clothes washed together with the clothes that was in contact with the DB.

I simply grew up to like the bitterness. You put your t-shirt on, there is bitterness in your mouth. You enter the BMW 5-series with leather seats, sit down and just enjoy the bitterness. This thing is really really spreading easily in powdered form. That was fun childhood/teenager times :) Actually, really inspiring, I've met a lot of interesting people - from random sales people, random purchasers, seen extremely interesting usecases for the Denatonium (like checking whether the cooking process is actually kosher, if it's not the food would be bitter, amongst more funny stories), met CEOs of petrol companies, met whole bunch of liquor producers... Honestly lucky me to be born to a producer of Denatonium Benzoate.

lilyball2 years ago

I cannot taste "bitter" (it's a genetic thing), though bittering agents used in food/drinks do taste very unpleasant to me (I don't know what it is I'm tasting in those or why it's so unpleasant).

I have not tried licking a Switch cartridge.

Does anyone know if Denatonium Benzoate will still taste bad to me, or is the badness entirely contained in the "bitter" that I cannot taste? I could experiment myself but I've resisted the urge to lick the cartridges for 5 years and I'm not particularly fond of the idea of tasting something awful.

Edit: Looking more at this in Wikipedia, it sounds like the genetic inability to taste bitter is specific to the TASR38 receptor, and that Denatonium Benzoate targets a different set of receptors. I am not a subject matter expert here, but it sounds to me like I should be able to still taste it.

gilgoomesh2 years ago

I think your edit points out the reality: what we call "bitter" covers a wide range of different tastes and we have at least 25 different receptors that are considered "bitter".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste_receptor

Melatonic2 years ago

You REALLY have to try monkfruit - it has some weird enzyme or something that will make sour things turn sweet. And given that bitter and sour often go together......I wonder how the hell that would taste given your genetics

jrootabega2 years ago

Isn't that miracle fruit?

llbeansandrice2 years ago

I was unfortunately reminded this when swapping out game cartridges on a flight once. I stuck one in my mouth a bit to hold it while I messed with the carrying case and other cartridge and had the awful bitter taste for the rest of the flight.

mikestew2 years ago

...and had the awful bitter taste for the rest of the flight.

Thanks for saving my lunch by letting me know that it is not just a momentary bit of unpleasantness, because I was about to go grab one from the Switch case here at 11:46 in the morning just to see how bad it is.

EDIT: curiosity got the best of me. If I can eat a green persimmon, I can handle a Nintendo cartridge. A little lick of the sticker tells me not to put the whole thing in my mouth. Lunch should be fine, though. :-)

azeirah2 years ago

Oh maybe it depends per person but I'm the kind of person who needs to know how bitter it is (like you!)

And it lasted for maybe 30 seconds, maybe it's different if you realllllyyy get into it but I wouldn't advise that anyway.

spicybright2 years ago

Can confirm, was about 30 seconds. It bound to my lips for a bit but you can just lick that off.

Article was not wrong about the taste.

kosievdmerwe2 years ago

Just FYI if you actually want to taste it, the bitterness is in the sticker, not the cartridge itself.

vel0city2 years ago

I've got a pile of Switch cartridges next to me. They're bitter all over. Trust me.

+1
kosievdmerwe2 years ago
pvaldes2 years ago

Trivia. I ate green persimmons, but there is a trick. It --must-- be a persimmon from the correct cultivar (or a treated one). It doesn't worth it, but is perfectly doable. Somebody trying the same in a common persimmon will suffer the persimmoncalypse.

arrrg2 years ago

Eh, when I got a Switch last year I tried it out right away (after reading such articles in the past) and if you just give it a careful lick you will immediately notice it but it’s not as if it’s lingering around forever.

Hamuko2 years ago

I haven't even put a cartridge in my mouth and I've still had to experience it. I think I swapped out some cartridges, and a moment later licked my finger for some reason. Turns out that the agent lingers on your fingers after you handle the games.

tablespoon2 years ago

> People have speculated that the manufacturing process for Switch cartridges involves coating them in a layer of foul-tasting film, so as to discourage people from, well, putting the cartridges in their mouths. (Why do you think Play-Doh is so bitter and salty?)

IIRC, Play-Doh is basically flour and the salt is there as a preservative.

svachalek2 years ago

I think it's more than that, it has something to do with its consistency. You can find recipes to make your own and they all use a seemingly ridiculous amount of salt.

Ekaros2 years ago

Probably something to do with absorbing or that is storing moisture. Want to keep it relatively moist.

thematrixturtle2 years ago

It also helps keep bacteria and mold at bay.

ortusdux2 years ago

The same bitterant has been used in anti-freeze for about a decade now to help prevent poisonings of children and animals. It is also used in air duster cans, which I've found annoying because it can go from your keyboard to your fingers.

klyrs2 years ago

Windshield wiper fluid, too. I got a little on my fingers once, and didn't notice for a few hours, when I licked a finger... what is that flavor... probably licked it a dozen times before I remembered. Whoops. Problem is, I like bitter flavors, and that one was just fascinating.

KennyBlanken2 years ago

Given my friend's dog licked up a bunch of antifreeze a couple months ago, I'd say it doesn't work very well.

ortusdux2 years ago

It's the most bitter compound know to humans, with a detectability down to 0.05 ppm, and average aversion dosing around 10ppm. Lab tests show that some animals require 100,000 times the dose before detection. This discrepancy is leveraged for another application - making rat poison repulsive to children without reducing its efficacy.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00319...

jakear2 years ago

I take small pride in the idea there’s something I can taste better than my dog. All I ever hear is how their senses are orders more heightened than our own. Do you know if there are any smells that humans can detect better than dogs?

brian-armstrong2 years ago

More likely is that dogs can taste it fine, but it doesn't bother them. It's a matter of perspective.

KennyBlanken2 years ago

And yet I know a vet who routinely gets "rat poison dogs"

duderific2 years ago

I've seen dogs eat cat poop, so maybe they're not the target audience. Not sure what it would take to make a dog not eat something.

disillusioned2 years ago

Ironically, while my dog is happy to eat his own shit, _citrus_ is a bridge too far, for him and most dogs, which is why citronella is used as an anti-bark collar component.

cultofmetatron2 years ago

> It is also used in air duster cans

obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-jp3bgyUCo&ab_channel=A%26E

criddell2 years ago

I think air duster cans for cleaning firearms does not have the bitterant in it.

burnished2 years ago

Oh makes sense, I seem to recall that anti-freeze supposedly tastes sweet?

ortusdux2 years ago

Yes, very sweet. The lethal does is also quite low - ~2.5 fl oz of pure (CH2OH)2 for a 200lb adult. A very similar chemical, propylene glycol, is FDA GRAS and used in foods, drinks, and inhalers. It is also an effective anti-freeze, so there is a push to have it replace ethylene glycol.

Jaxkr2 years ago

I waited outside GameStop on launch day to snag a Switch with my friend. We had heard about the bittering agent applied to the cartridges by day two and immediately tasted them ourselves.

Hard to believe the Switch is five years old…

njovin2 years ago

I have a fond memory of camping outside a Target from ~10:00p to 6:00a when the Wii was launched. We hung out with a group of strangers in camping chairs, talked about our favorite games, and tried to keep warm. When the Starbucks bakery delivery came a few hours before the store opened the driver gave us all free pastries.

The Wii ended up being a very disappointing launch experience IMO but we had a fun time waiting for one.

eternityforest2 years ago

The early 2000s were like the peak of tech.

Video games are kinda just OK now. The actual experience was always like 70% set and setting. The game companies put a lot of effort into the games themselves but where are the LAN parties and release events? Where is.... any other aspect of gaming except the games?

Esports youtubers don't really replace split screen multiplayer.

capableweb2 years ago

> the LAN parties

I dearly miss LAN parties so much. Used to help coordinate one recurring one back in early 2000s. We had so much fun when Battlefield Vietnam was released and everyone was playing it together while sitting next to each other and speaking mostly in expletives. DC++ was a huge factor as well, especially when someone with a 100GB hard-drive from the biggest city nearby arrived and could share everything they managed to pull down from the almighty broadband connection they had.

fomine32 years ago

Gaming console computer technology was very different to PC. The last unique one was PS3 Cell (but also RSX by Nvidia). Now they are just PC or smartphone based.

meristohm2 years ago

Videogames are just getting started. The Breath and depth of games is growing, and like with novels and moving pictures not all games are great.

atom-morgan2 years ago

I have a not so fond memory camping out in Walmart for my Wii. I think we could just stay inside since it was 24hrs and they were selling them right at midnight.

I got home, turned on the Wii, and was asked to insert a startup disc. I searched that box at least 20 times trying to find the disc with no luck.

I was a heavy user of GameSpot's forums at the time and asked about this disc. Literally everyone thought I was trolling. Nobody believed me until I uploaded photos of my TV.

Eventually my dad called Nintendo and they shipped out a new one ASAP but my 16 year old self was so pissed given all the hype going into it. Days waiting with a useless Wii staring back at me.

Startup Disc: https://lostmediawiki.com/Wii_Startup_Disc_(found_software_d...

jimmaswell2 years ago

It had Twilight Princess which is good enough for me to call it a great launch. Wii Sports was fun too.

KennyBlanken2 years ago

What's hard to believe is that Nintendo is still milking what was already an ancient screen and SoC for all its worth, or that despite making container-ship levels of profits off the Switch, they haven't bothered to make joycons last longer than their warranty period.

tribby2 years ago

another example of this kind of intentionality from nintendo is the curve on top of SNES, which is there to discourage setting drinks on top of it, unlike the NES before it

jonny_eh2 years ago

The SNES is also top loaded (like the Famicom), so wouldn't normally be a good drink surface.

addaon2 years ago

This is the same chemical (denatonium benzoate) that's used in fingernail-biting-prevention aids like nail polishes; it's very bitter, but non-toxic.

w0mbat2 years ago

My daughter was sucking her thumb even on the first ultrasound. When she was a baby, thumb sucking was cute and she never needed a pacifier. However as she got to be a toddler it became a problem in terms of hygiene (her thumb was often not clean). Plus her thumb was pushing her front teeth out of line, which was affecting her speech.

We pleaded with her to stop.

We bribed her.

We got special pretty thumb covers for her to wear at night. She always pulled them off.

Finally we got the special nail polish containing the bad taste agent and put it on her thumbnails. One application was enough. The first try tasted so bad it put her off thumb sucking for life. It's been years now and she is cured. Thanks, denatonium benzoate!

xen02 years ago

If you own a Switch, I encourage you to drop whatever it is you're doing and go lick one of the cartridges.

You need to experience this.

progbits2 years ago

Definitely second this. I have been downloading all my Switch games but bought one cheap cartridge just to see what all the craze was about.

It did not disappoint, no matter how bitter you think it can be, it is worse. The aftertaste lasts for a very long time and rinsing your mouth makes little difference.

testplzignore2 years ago

I just licked my $60 Super Mario Odyssey cart. I'm not tasting it :( I am so disappointed...

testplzignore2 years ago

Same for Metroid Dread. Maybe I'm missing a gene or something.

pampa2 years ago

Just licked mario + rabbids I got yesterday. Tastes ok.

jwineinger2 years ago

I'm gonna avoid licking the cartridge I checked out from our library.

kbelder2 years ago

Uh, this is a tangent, but what? Libraries have Switch games? Is this common?

jwineinger2 years ago

Ours has a couple of copies of 20-30 games. The waitlist can be a while since you get 3 weeks / checkout. They have some recent titles such as Bowser's Fury and Metroid Dread, as well as older things like Breath of the Wild.

boondaburrah2 years ago

Yes. I've played many PS4 games for a week from my library. It's like the world's best free trial.

Doxin2 years ago

Our local library will loan out the consoles too.

rtkwe2 years ago

I learned about this when it first came out and Jeff Gerstmann just shoved one in his mouth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzw0rWubE_4

pimlottc2 years ago

This is directly referenced in the article, there’s a gif of it too

okl2 years ago
simlevesque2 years ago

NileRed is a national treasure !

jugg1es2 years ago

This is an incredibly timely repost. Last weekend, my 8 month-old third kid was on the floor next to me while I was talking to my other kid when she started screaming. She had found a Mario Party switch cartridge under the couch and had it in her hand. I thought she had bit it too hard on her toothless gums because it had some saliva on it. She was more upset than I would have expected, and this has to be why. Thanks for reposting!

setgree2 years ago

Can you wash off the bittering agent? The article does not specify and I want to know for…hypothetical reasons

magneticnorth2 years ago

According to another comment, the bittering agent is in the sticker, so presumably you could remove the sticker before consuming your switch cartridge.

isk5172 years ago

Forgetting to remove the sticker before adding the cartridge is a common mistake many new and inexperienced chefs make.

spicybright2 years ago

They're computer chips, not regular chips silly.

ant6n2 years ago

U can wash regular chips?

Xavdidtheshadow2 years ago

This lead to some great headlines as the Switch was launching:

> Sure, Breath of the Wild is fun; but how does it taste?

Tabular-Iceberg2 years ago

> It doesn’t hit you at first. It tastes just as plain and feels just as slippery as the other three cartridges. In just a few milliseconds, though, a very sour taste invades your taste buds.

What chemical is causing that? Because I don’t think you can explain that with denatnonium. Or maybe extreme stimulation can cause some kind of intra-gustatory synesthesia in some people. Or it’s a cultural thing, like we had to import the concept of umami from Japanese, where they in turn often use the same word for green and blue.

honkycat2 years ago

I remember seeing this at the time, and trying to lick a cartridge.

No effect, tastes like nothing to me. This is because I am a non-taster.

I have notoriously blunt taste amongst my loved ones, sometimes they won't even waste good wine on me, ha!

Another example of not tasting bitter: I am rather fond of Jeppson's Malort, a meme liquor popular in Chicago for its extremely bitter taste. Personally, I think it tastes bad, but do not have the same reaction as many other people.

ctf1er2 years ago

If covid happened 30 years ago, I can imagine public safety ads about kids sharing and blowing on NES catridges to make them work, quite a vector.

JetAlone2 years ago

If it were to happen 30 years ago, I can imagine:

A) Satellaview/Sega Meganet/Telegenesis taking off worldwide to reduce trips outside to buy games for systems one already owns.

2) Early implementation of online multiplayer console games in the 5th generation, possibly even delaying or stunting developments in console 3D graphics.

III) Parents just straight up don't let kids go outside/mingle (there was already the satanic panic and then the fear of kidnappers after all), single player games become superbly dominant.

Four) Couch multiplayer becomes so unthinkable that no console is ever built to support more than 2 controllers ever again.

ɛ) The entire games industry crashes/crunches hard because of supply chain problems.

六) Going outside is considered dangerous enough that portable consoles don't do as well as they did.

0111) An AI developed in a top secret soviet lab to manage airdrop supply chains goes rogue and attempts to crush human civilization starting in Moscow, with giant falling containers full of explosive payloads. A global crack team of scientists, pilots and demolitions experts get together and realize they can just barely defuse all the bombs in time, but only if they intercept the connected crate packages mid-air and guide them into orderly straight lines.

kazinator2 years ago

> In a statement emailed to Polygon, a Nintendo representative confirmed the theory that Switch cartridges are coated in a material that’s meant to dissuade people from putting the units in their mouths.

So under a kind of Streisand-esque effect, tons of people are now doing this who would never have done such a thing.

donatj2 years ago

It seems to fade with age/handling. Brand new cartridges taste really bad. My several year old ones taste fine.

FlingPoo2 years ago

From an IGN article in 2017

Nintendo Switch Cartridges Taste Terrible

https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/02/nintendo-switch-cart...

jms7032 years ago

Save you a click:

“A bittering agent (Denatonium Benzoate) has also been applied to the game card,”

To prevent children from eating them.

RIMR2 years ago

I hate how in the matter of like 2 minutes I can be goaded into doing something dumb like licking the cartridge right out of my Switch, only to learn precisely the lesson I could have learned by simply reading the article: That the cartridges taste profoundly offensive.

99_002 years ago

>Why do you think Play-Doh is so bitter and salty?

I didn't know that it was. Interesting that they assume this is common knowledge. Other people must be putting a lot more in their months than me.

Little_Fish2 years ago

This is so funny. But, anything that dissuades the kids from putting them in their mouths is okay by me! (If only because the games are so expensive I don't want them eaten!)

kragen2 years ago

The title is clickbait; it should be something like "Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad because they're coated in denatonium benzoate (2017)".

erwincoumans2 years ago

Touching you tongue to both terminals of a small 9V battery also tasts bad and sour. I've done it several times as a kid, checking if a battery was (almost) empty :)

emptybottle2 years ago

This sounds similar to what is now done to button cell batteries to deter kids from putting them in their mouths.

I’ve never tried tasting either but I wonder if the process is the same?

mattlondon2 years ago

Thanks Nintendo. There are undoubtedly a bunch of kids around still today who avoided having A Bad Time because of this (...and the kids won't even know it)

Good work.

teewuane2 years ago

Before I even read this, I had the taste of a switch cartridge in my mouth for a day, it was terrible. K, I'll read the article now.

amelius2 years ago

This type of coating is also on Duracell batteries.

MBCook2 years ago

I had to buy some coin cell batteries a few months ago (CR2032s or similar) and was surprised to see the package proclaiming they’d done that. Made sense, but had never thought of the need before.

mattlondon2 years ago

Coin cell batteries can kill toddlers within 48-72 hours if swallowed. Even if they don't kill, they can cause terrible internal burns when the gut shorts the terminals.

If there is any suspicion of swallowing a coin cell, go direct to hospital. Do not give the child anything to eat or drink until given the all clear.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-29610570

isthisnametaken2 years ago

Kids swallowing coin cell batteries is a recurring and very serious problem. Hospitals will take it very seriously (x-rays, etc) if there's even a suspicion that one has been swallowed.

young_unixer2 years ago

You know what tastes bad? The alginate material dentists use when making a mold of your teeth.

bityard2 years ago

You know what happens when you tell kids/teens not to do something, right?

dlbucci2 years ago

Well, they aren't just telling them not to do it, they are physically dissuading them from doing so. This is probably a lot more effective than a warning sticker to not put the cartridge in their mouth.

dahfizz2 years ago

The irony, of course, is that everyone's reaction to hearing about the bittering agent is to immediately lick a cartridge to taste it for themselves.

mywittyname2 years ago

Have you seriously never tasted something after someone told you, "this thing tastes awful"?

spidersouris2 years ago

But at least with such a taste left in their mouths, they'll surely not do it.

siltpotato2 years ago
countvonbalzac2 years ago

Probably so little kids don't eat them

micromacrofoot2 years ago

Yeah it says that in the article.

“A bittering agent (Denatonium Benzoate) has also been applied to the game card,” the spokesperson said, adding that Nintendo recommends keeping Switch cartridges away from children “to avoid the possibility of accidental ingestion.”

It's somewhat common practice, some products will even say "contains a bittering agent to prevent ingestion" somewhere on the container. I believe engine coolants are required to have it.

mywittyname2 years ago

> I believe engine coolants are required to have it.

This has been successfully used to poison people in the past. The end result is heart failure, which is not a surprising/suspicious outcome for a large portion of people.

joshuaheard2 years ago

Exactly, it's so babies don't choke on them.

Flankk2 years ago
spicybright2 years ago

Uhh, ok?

Decabytes2 years ago

I mention this trivia to almost all my friends when they come over. Many have given it a kick to see for themselves

xcambar2 years ago

So... you mean that almost all your friends have licked a Switch game of yours?

Not my kind of fetish but ok. :)

DonHopkins2 years ago

https://www.quora.com/When-MacOS-X-was-announced-Steve-Jobs-...

>When MacOS X was announced, Steve Jobs said “We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them.” When was the last time you licked the screen of an Apple product?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/lickable-buttons/

>“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them.” Steve Jobs on Mac OS X’s Aqua user interface, January 2000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzfhAcz0OKw

>Steve Jobs Introduces Aqua (UI Design Language): Aqua is the graphical user interface, design language and visual theme of Apple's macOS operating system. It was originally based on the theme of water, with droplet-like components and a liberal use of reflection effects and translucency. Its goal is to "incorporate color, depth, translucence, and complex textures into a visually appealing interface" in macOS applications. At its introduction, Steve Jobs noted that "one of the design goals was when you saw it you wanted to lick it".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_(user_interface)

>Design elements: Gray, white and blue are the three principal colors which define the Aqua style. Window toolbars, window backgrounds, buttons, menus and other interface elements are all found in either of these colors. For instance, toolbars and sidebars are often grey or metal-colored, window backgrounds and popup menus are white and buttons (in older systems also scrollbar handles) are accented with a bright blue. In versions of OS X prior to OS X Yosemite, most controls have a "glass" or "gel" effect applied to them. David Pogue described this effect as "lickable globs of Crest Berrylicious Toothpaste Gel".

https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000...

>Everyone expected him to unveil a new computer or two. Instead, Jobs showed off a flashy, completely redesigned Macintosh operating system called Mac OS X [ten], which, when it's delivered this summer, will put a glossy new face--graphical user interface, that is--on the Mac. "We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them," he says. (Some of the design elements he approved help illustrate these pages.)

hoangdung1232 years ago

yeah

jb19912 years ago

Tldr if you don’t want to immediately spit it out, you might have Covid.

matheusmoreira2 years ago

Now I wonder how sensitive for COVID-19 the Switch cartridge licking test is...

bserge2 years ago