PlayStation 2 Trance Vibrator: But does it run (on) Linux? Yes! Oh yes!

(tags controller, hardware, Linux, device driver)

A crafty kernel hacker named Sam Hocevar created a PlayStation 2 Trance Vibrator device driver patch for the Linux kernel (thanks Pete Zaitcev). This allows your USB 1.1 capable computer running Linux to control the infamous "Synesthesia" game enhancement hardware. It appears the only thing you can do is change the vibration rate, from 0 Hz to... "Yes! Oh yes!"

Finally, does this mean that we'll be looking for Rez knockoff games for your Linux OS to supplant novel controller games like Frets on Fire (Guitar Hero free-as-in-speech knockoff), and Pydance (Dance Dance Revolution free-as-in-speech knockoff)? Or are we finally going to master up the excitement of Tux Racer, muh ha muh ha?

Dinking around with Internet searches, this looks like the first time someone has tried to make a driver, though I could be wrong.

Did I mention I have 3 of these things? At 580 yen (but originally 2000 yen) they were a steal at Sofmap in 2003.