Avid gamers in for a course of shock treatments AP/Mad Catz Bioforce uses small wired pads attached to a player's forearms to transmit a mild electrical current, causing the player's muscles to spasm when their game character is hit. SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  The must-have gift for video-game fanatics this holiday season could well be a gadget that momentarily immobilizes your hands when your character takes a hit. Mad Catz, the company devising "Bioforce," thinks it has a winner, and some people who have tried it think it's great. But other game enthusiasts aren't sure people will pay for a gizmo that helps virtual opponents pound them into cyberpaste. "Force feedback" joysticks and gamepads have been around for years. They deliver vibrations, similar to the buzzing of a pager on silent mode, for car racing, flight simulators and other video games. Bioforce goes beyond that by producing a mildly shocking sensation. Still being refined and tested, Bioforce could end up as a complete controller or simply an add-on to existing devices. In its current version, small wired pads attached to forearms transmit a mild electrical current, causing muscles to spasm when your game character is hit. "The first time you feel it, you look down to figure out what's going on," said Matt Bennion, Mad Catz's business development manager. "Your muscles tense up and you can't defend yourself. You feel it as kind of a shock, but what you're really feeling is your muscles tightening up." An Australian inventor brought the idea last year to Mad Catz, a Santee, Calif., company that sells peripheral equipment for video games. Mad Catz developed a working prototype and took it to E3, the annual video game extravaganza held in Los Angeles in the spring. "It caught a lot of people's imaginations," said Mad Catz's president, Darren Richardson. Richardson compared Bioforce to the electronic gizmos  advertised on late-night TV  promising Schwarzenegger-like muscles simply by hooking yourself to the machine. "The biostimulation of muscles has been around for years," Richardson said. "It causes the muscles to contract and gives you a sensation that makes it difficult to move your hand. It really works well with fighting games." Some intense gamers aren't enthusiastic about the idea. "I don't want to be giving myself electric shock treatments," said John Ripley, 34, as he waited in line at a Sony outlet in San Francisco for a copy of Gran Turismo 3, a new driving simulator for the PlayStation 2. "It sounds stupid." But Jon McCarron, a Tucows.com software reviewer who tried out Bioforce at E3, said he's excited about the product. "I think it's the beginning of very cool technology that will bring video games into the tangible realm," McCarron said. "You won't be just guiding a disconnected body on the screen. It delivers an electric current. When you are damaged in the game, it shocks you." "The feedback is adjustable, from very mild to something that feels like a throbbing or vibration in your arm," McCarron added. "It's not painful. At the highest setting it's a little uncomfortable." Richardson said Mad Catz plans to study its medical impact before Bioforce reaches store shelves, but he stressed that the technology isn't new. He said customers face little risk of being barbecued. Yet some video game players may care more about their characters' health than their own. "Gamers are such a competitive breed," said Dan Amrich, senior editor at San Francisco-based GamePro magazine, which covers the video game industry. "Will they be willing to buy a peripheral that will put them at a disadvantage? Maybe you can only appreciate it by doing it, but it sounds like a tough sell at best." Richardson acknowledged the product "seemed like an odd idea to us, too." Still, peripheral companies like Mad Catz are familiar with niche marketing. They sell replacement controllers with features not found in factory controllers, as well as steering wheels for racing games, lights, battery packs and even rechargeable batteries for handheld machines. Mad Catz hopes Bioforce will be ready for sale by November. It will be targeted at males ages 16 to 30 and sell for as little as $20 to $30. "When it was first pitched to us, we said, 'Sure, right,' "Bennion recalled. "Then, when we saw it, we were laughing. But when we hooked it up and people started playing it, we couldn't get them off." Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.