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Pedal Your Way Through Quake
loteck writes: "Tom's previewed this latest toy that allows health savy gamers to peddle their way through flight simulators, racers and even first person shooters. Someone is providing a plethora of compatible games by which to Quake or Carmageddon yourself to that six-pack that you've always wanted." I wonder if this would burn more calories than the floor-pad from the old Nintendo system.
...for this "simcycle" is here [elonton.com].
What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?
I'd see the day where I'd need to be in shape to sit on my ass and play a computer game. Or the day where I could get in shape doing the same.
The first link in the story is incorrect, Tom's little preview is actually located at http://www4.tomshardware.com/technews/technews-200 11108.html#0053
I am (almost) speechless. Where do people get the ideas (and funding) for these things? What's next, a barcode scanner so that you can sit in front of your computer and look up stuff from adverts?
If I wanted to spend $200 so that I could get hot and sweaty in front of my computer I'm sure I could find more enjoyable methods...
Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
This would actually be pretty cool for Spinning. For those of you who aren't familiar, you basically sit in a class of networked excer-cycles and a psychotic instructor that keeps breaking promises.
Two more minutes...Three, two, one... OK... Now just one more...[sound of several BFGs]
Class over!
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
I seem to remember having something similar to this when I was young. It was called, let me see now... yes... REAL LIFE EXERCISE!
I already have a 6 pack, its just hidden by my case of 24.
An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
I remember that old nintendo running pad. We actually had one, along with the olympic games cartridge. The problem is that when you're playing someone else they would always figure out a way to just stomp their heels really fast or actually use their hands, and it defeated the whole purpose. Hopefully that won't be the case with this device.
~ now you know
I visited a health club that had a couple of old stationary bikes that were fitted with some kind of old tank combat game. Pedaling would determine how fast the tank moved, and buttons on the handle bars allowed for steering, firing, etc.
Usually my patience (and energy) runs out after about 30 minutes on a bike, but that day I 'played' for 2 hours.
Amazing magic tricks
From the pictures from the companies web site, it seems that the cycle is a unit separate from the chair you are sitting on that sits on the the floor with pedals sticking out. How you can apply force to the pedals without the unit sliding around, or from the angle you are sitting at - really be able to "workout" with the unit is hard for me to imagine.
To really be able to get a mediocre workout from an exercise cycle it must be solidly constructed and the "chair" and pedals must be one integrated unit. Think about how much abuse a controller takes just from your own fingers, this "cycle" just doesn't look like it could handle the kind of abuse a fragfest can generate.
Uh, so, this is good because it makes it harder to play games? What's the connection between pedalling and rocket jumping? I don't suppose it makes much difference how fast you're pedalling, and I'd be highly dubious about how fast this thing will respond compared to pressing a key, so it makes about as much sense as moving forwards by slapping your head, or yodelling.
I'm actually rather taken by this, but it's a wierd way of advertising it. Instead of bundling a gamepad with it, why not bundle some software, basically a cheap landscape engine, so you can go for a cycle in the park, or the mountains, or in some wierd post-apocalyptic nightmare world populated by the undead and... oh, wait... OK, maybe they have got it right. ;-)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I think the market may not be the two or three people who would want to put an exercise bike in front of their computer, but maybe health clubs that would put a nice flat screen running a flight sim or Quake in front of one of those boring-ass exercise bikes.
That's not true. I never slapped the pad with my hands. The best approach to cheating in games with the gamepad was to play the olypics game and then choose "long jump." I'm not entirely clear what was so fun about running really hard to get your guy fast enough so he was able to launch a tremendous jump, and then simply stepping off the pad and watching him fly through the air as if you yourself were simply the most talented leap frogger around.
I spent hours standing next to my gamepad long jumping. Hours. Unfortunately the game would catch on if your jumps were too heroic and you'd need to step back onto the pad at some point the make your guy land.
What a game.
--
RumorsDaily
I remember seeing an ad in my old Genesis gaming rags about an exercise bike that would allow you to control games. A Google search turned up the ExerGame, a bike with such an interface. The web page hasn't been updated in years, and doesn't offer too much info, though.
For more information, click here.
They'll re-invent the "power glove" for Leisure Suit Larry.
Heck, if they really want to make it more enjoyable a force...ahem...feedback and vacuum-cleaner attach...oh, never mind.
Work + Games....yeah, that sounds like a wiener.
If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
Here in Brazil we are also like California: Eletricity Racionalization (is that the correct spelling?). It would be nice if besides of playing games we could also generate eletricity.
It would be amazing, and the government could also lower importing taxes for this device :o)
-=-=-=-=
I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
OK, we all know of the existence of "aimbots" for various FPSes. I guess that how quickly you pedal this thing will affect your aim, so will pub servers now be infested with people using "pedalbots" to help them cheat at pedaling?
Want Linux games? HERE.
for games like Half-Life or Carmageddon. Im a fat bastard so in Half-Life i would be dead(In the game and in real life) in about 4 minutes(max). As for Carmageddon, I personally switch between forward and backwards alot and that could do damage to the bike assuming that pedaling forwards makes you go forwards and pedaling backwards makes you go backwards.
Forever live the fighters!
...but it doesn't matter how well defined your abs are if they are hidden by a layer of lard :)
sounds similar to a situation I found.
I always had a difficult time doing my 1/2 hour of Nordic Track for my physical Therapy after some knee surgery.. I tried putting in front of the TV for news/music videos/cartoons anything to take away the boredom and drudgery I felt with churning away in my own personal gerbil wheel.
Finally I picked up the controller of the Super Nintendo and put in Spiderman vs. Venom... voila... I found myself not even noticing the workout. After a while I found myself "skiing" faster during the battles and slower during the other parts of the game which was a better way for the heartrate.. I was attempting to wire the controls down to the "handles" of the NordicTrack when a bottle of water spilled over the SN system shorting it out for good. oh well
-- Life: Hate the Game... Love the cereal
then I can bind the to and to and be even more productive than today!
Sure, you have some levels where you need to just bash everything in sight. But there are other levels where you need to collect pieces and you're working against a clock. It is tough to do with a normal control. I'm wondering that, if I'm not going flat-out all the time, would it still be possible to complete those levels?
Sounds like it could take out some of the enjoyability if it makes games too tough to play.
Arthur C Clarke once wrote a story about a race in Earth-Moon space on space bicycles. (IIRC, it was Clarke) The bicycles were really Wimshurst (sp?) generators powering ion engines to provide thrust, and the course was somewhere in the range of 24 to 48 hours long. Minimal shell to hold in air and heat, minimal supplies, Kremer-caliber athletes, etc.
It was a fun idea, though somehow I can't quite believe it would all hold together. I didn't think ion engines would generate sufficient thrust to make it to cislunar space. Nor would I expect that even a 48-hour spacecraft could be made light enough. I'd expect temperature control to be the biggest problem, between sunlight and shadow, maximum exertion and resting/sleeping.
But with this idea, we could have it in sim form, and it wouldn't take 24-48 hours to get to cislunar space, either.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
There's an arcade game I've played before which features something like this (though more robust). In the game one flew a pedal-powered aircraft over a fantasy landscape and had to fly through dertain power-ups within a certain time limit to gain more flying time. I have NO idea what the game was called, but it was fantastic. Rather like I imagein Pilot Wings to be (though I admit to not hvaing played that!).
Pedalling harder meant one could ascend, pedalling slower meant one began to descend. The dynamics of the game were excellent.
Damn - I'm rambling now! Basically, I would want *that* game to go with this device.
A little planning goes a long way...
They could make a variant that generates power. Ever wanted to be your own power backup? "Don't stop peddling now! I want to finish this map!" :)
Do you like German cars?
That would be PropCycle by Namco, ca. 1988(?)
A truly great game, requiring both skill and endurance. Very imersive, very pretty levels, shock full of hidden bonii that will keep you replaying it over and over...
They still have it at the local amusement park, so I get to play it every summer, lucky me!
In other news, people are now selling "exercise bikes" that can be used while watching TV. Despite this ability to burn calories while watching TV, Americans still seem to be overweight. Researchers admit to being puzzled, but maintain that cycling while playing a video game is totally different in a way they can't yet explain.
Get dance dance revolution for the playstation.
For those unfamiliar with the game, basically you have a pad with 4 arrows, up down left right. On screen you see 4 static arrows at the top of the screen and then some colored arrows floating upwards toward them. You press the arrow on the pad when the colored and static arrows overlap.
It's a great form of exercise, it even includes a diet mode where you set the amount of calories you want to burn and itll make you play until you reach your desired goal.
heres a site with some more information: www.ddrfreak.com
Instead of bicycling, how about someone hack one of those "Dance Dance Revolution" game pads for Quake. A player could put in on the floor in front of his chair and use his feet to control his movements, freeing up his left hand to type in comments about his l33t 5ki1z.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
I don't know about you, but I get tired quite quickly at 100 watts (I've got a meter on a LifeCycle, and I break that regularly, but not by much, and not for more than several minutes at a time).
So this would be fine for a "portable comuter" design, but not good for a tower model with a CRT.
And you'd better handle lighting separately.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Play Dance Dance Revolution!
The Nintendo Power Pad was a great idea in concept, but the system wasn't powerful enough to provide a decent entertainment experience with it. DDR is addictive and fun. If you don't want to play in the arcades where people can see you and make fun of you, then get a home set - It's domestically available for PSX, though Konami has only domestically published two titles, and has a third in the works. If you import, Japan has over ten Dance Dance Revolution titles, and they're almost totally in English anyway, so you'll only need to get a modchip or a GameShark.
Konami also released two DDR games for the Dreamcast in Japan, and a Disney-themed DDR for the N64 (Which is also now available for the PSX) but I don't think they made any first-party dance mats, so you'll have to stick with third-party crap mats if you want to play DDR on your Dreamcast. To my knowledge, nobody makes 3rd-party mats for the N64.
Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's loads of fun, and while you might not be very good at it right away, it doesn't take that much practice to get good. It's especially fun to show off in front of a crowd at your local arcade.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Is to actually exercise. "Tricking" your body and brain into thinking that you're moving your muscles around isn't an effective way to exercise. That's why every time a product like this comes out (remember how big the "ride your stationary bike with the fake moving digital scenery in front of you" products tanked a couple years ago), they all bomb.
The bottom line is that in order to improve your cardio or muscle performance, you have to actually EXERCISE. That means you're not playing a video game, whether standing, sitting, bouncing, or sliding from side to side.
You're running, cycling, rowing, climbing, lifting, or doing some other form of focused physical exercise. Study after study has shown that people get more out of exercise when they're paying attention to what their bodies are doing. In other words, when they're focused on exercising.
Sometimes there are no technology solutions to issues that are mental. It's difficult to stay motivated to exercise, but it's also a self-reinforcing thing. The more of it you force yourself to do, the more of it you'll want to do, and the easier it is to motivate yourself.
Plus, the real, physical experience of blasting down a single-track on a mountain bike beats any video game ever created.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
would be a power generator connected to a pedaling unit, this way if you want to continue playing your favorite game you would have to pedal, or else - game over.
Not only will you get in shape but the power lines will have some relief from all you, playing videogames.
You can't handle the truth.
If only it came with a port of Prop Cycle...
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
There is such a sport, at least in meatspace. I was watching a match once & thought it would be neat to fave a FPS (first person cyclist) version. Now someone else has developed the perfect input device. How's that for serendipity?
On a side note, Quake can be pretty addictive. I had to stop playing after I realized how many all-nighters I was pulling. The combination of the addictiveness (word?) and this device may send plenty of gamers to the emergency room, leading zealous Congresscritters & the D.E.A. to "do something" about "this dangerous Quake drug". Sigh...
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
Cheat for power pad:
put socks on your hands, and make circular motions on the pads with your fists. When done right, your player will zoom to the finish line.
I prefer the next level, Mosh Mosh Revolution, as popularized in MegaTokyo. Full body workout, bandages not included!
They had a two-person videogame setup that you played by riding exercise cycles. The cycles were, IIRC, recumbant-style, with integrated "consoles" for the hands, the ability to tilt left and right to control steering, and feedback so the system knew how hard you were pedaling. (I don't recall it being able to dynamically adjust the resistance, though maybe it did.)
Of the four games offered, three were basically scenic two-person "outings" -- you could pedal around a mountain (ski simulation maybe?), around an island (including going underwater), and the third might have been a road-race kind of thing. In all three, you saw your partner/opponent as they pedaled around in your monitor, they saw you in theirs, in animated fashion of course.
But my favorite was the fourth game, where you actually competed with each other in some sort of Aztec or Mayan-inspired game where you were driving little carts that could push and shoot a ball through a stone hole up in two of the four slanted rock walls.
With this game, you really did get a lot of exercise, because the faster you pedaled, the quicker you got to the ball. Beating your opponent to the ball meant you could usually "grab" it (by running into it, basically) and run with it until you lined up a good shot and fired using the console. But your opponent could knock you about and, I think, knock the ball off and retrieve it for herself.
Watching the 3D rendering of the arena, the ball bounce around, learning how the cycle-powered simulated cart responded, all that meant both of us, who had already done a pretty good workout, pedaled ourselves silly for about half an hour. (Oh, the system allows for an RPM or resistance handicap -- at the time, that helped my wife compete, since she couldn't pedal as fast as I.)
Then we both got too dog-tired to go on, and basically crashed the rest of the day.
Ever since, we've occasionally talked about how wonderful it would be to have a system like that in our house somewhere, though ideally with more choices of games.
Personally, I am more likely to exercise harder in competive situations than just to burn calories, and I think that's true of my wife as well. So a game like that is great.
Whether the pedaling system described here is good enough, I don't know, but the game we played was, at least for that one time!
Practice random senselessness and act kind of beautiful.