Slashdot Mirror
New Gamepad Designed To Build Muscles?
Robmonster writes "The BBC are reporting a story about a product designed to address both exercise and videogaming in one fell swoop. According to the piece: 'A new type of gamepad from a US fitness equipment company aims to turn the couch potato gamer stereotype on its head. The Kilowatt controller by Powergrid Fitness is designed to build up muscle while playing a PlayStation 2, Xbox or PC game." The article explains: "In a racing game like Gran Turismo, the harder you push on the joystick, the faster a car goes, while pulling back slows down the vehicle."
We might need it as the White House recommends we eat junk food (usually the preffered gaming food) as long as we excercise.
The World Health Organization recommends eating better but they have probably never played video games.
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well. - Rene Descartes (1637)
Its called a dance dance revolution pad, and those have been around for years.
(I obviously havnt read the article)
no
This would be more helpful if worked with my everyday system taskes ( build, check logs, ect.. ).
The faster I ran on this thing, the faster my compile would go. I'd buy it.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Geeky gamers with Popeye arms...
Is create muscle building keyboards and mice, and this will hail a new era of buff geeks with super upper body strength. It's a dream come true!
"There is no spoon." - The Matrix
Do these people really think that this is going to have a substantial impact upon the overall fitness level of gamers everywhere? It's not. You want to lose some weight? You stop eating like a fatass and you go outside. We're not even talking Atkins diet here, just "stop eating when you're not hungry, not when you're full." This combined with half an hour of exercise a day is all you need. Mild muscular tension is not an appropriate method of weight loss.
Why all the gimmickry?
Now I can give up my total reliance on masterbating for exercise!
what we need is not more muscle power, but better condition. Having a large bisceps can be trained in far more satisfying games than pumping a gamepad.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
-- (Score:i, Imaginary)
You don't need $695 to get exercise while gaming. Dance Dance Revolution is pretty good, if you've got a decent pad.
As long as we're heading toward the exotic, how about a martial arts game that combined a floor pad with location-sensing gloves and a kick/punch bag?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
being fat is better than working out
So, we're constanly being told to go careful with mice, keyboards and controllers, to avoid RSI and Carpal Tunnel, yet this company is selling something which makes you do the opposite? Apparantly we'll all have massive arms and bodies, but not actually be able to move them.
Can't wait
I'm too lazy for making sport so I'd play even less if it would ne sme muscles.
Woohoo! Bring it on!
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
After just a couple of minutes of playing Gran Turismo with the joystick, you can feel the strain in your upper arms and shoulder muscles. :)
And then you go back and grab your conventional controller, because who only wants to play their game for 5 minutes?!
Now I dont need all those celeb babe fitness videos to get a right arm like Arnie Schwartzenegger
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
This is just a gimmick to sell stuff. If you're serious about getting (and staying) fit, put down the controller for half an hour a day (or every other day) and do a physical activity.
You don't have to go to the gym and work out - you could do a sports activity or even just jog down to the shops and back to get some milk - but it'll be ten times better for you than twiddling your already overdeveloped thumbs.
Oh, and while you're at it, replace every other can of Coke/Mountain Dew/whatever with a glass of water. Your body will thank you for it.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
now we'll have a bunch of video game nerds with massive bowling-style forearms...
What I'd like is some small device that I can put under my desk and pedal, with my pedaling going into a battery which can then be used by my electronics. I'll save money and build muscle!
As Butt Head once put it so well, "If I wanted to read, I'd go to school."
And if I wanted to exercise, I'd go outdoors.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
DDR builds only the lower body. It's too bad nobody makes a home version of Para Para Paradise, an arm game, or EZ2Dancer, which works both the upper and lower body.
try playing Soul Calibur II with a Dance Dance Revolution pad.
Atari already had this back around 1980. It was calls the 2600. Remember my young wrists nearly sprained after an all night Pac Man marathon. Never had a srained wrist after that even though I experienced a number of nasty falls skate boarding.
Thousands and thousands of Xbox and PS2 controllers are rendered useless. Broken joysticks caused from "trying to go faster."
The nerds and geeks, with their low carb diets and new, isometric gamepads, will become a force to recon with!
At the beach, no longer will we have to feel the humilation of the muscle-headed jerks kicking sand into our faces when we are chatting up the bikini -clad hotties! We'll be doing the kicking.
Rather, we would be, but we have to get past the next track in Project Gotham Racing 2, back up our clan in Socom II, and hit level 65 in Everquest.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
Well my DDR pad works well enough for me. Besides that if I gain too much muscles I'll look odd with my friends.
- Joe
Now we know how the characters from Final Fantasy VII got their physiques! To gain their popeye-esque arm structure they used this gaming pad!
This can't go wrong!
Average age of people who buy excercise equipment: 31 years
Average age of a video game buyer:
29 years
Number of years of wasted education trying to come up with a good excuse to play games all day long instead of work:
Kernal Panic!
We're hanging here....
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
me and a friend are gonna workout using Dance Dance Revolution and a good diet (the second we already do pretty good).
:)
We have yet to see a fat DDR player
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
How many did I sacrafice to Track and Field? Still didn't count as a workout.
So now you get to be the sweaty fat kid in gym class, but in the comfort of your own home.
A lot of games require several moves of the joystick per second (fighting combos, etc). How many folks, even in great shape, can make gross (as opposed to fine) motions that fast?
I'm a tall guy. Even if I was skinny, I'd be 200 lbs. That's a LOT of weight to move quickly, without hurting myself...
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
Ouch, that's gotta hurt. At least it isn't the Megawatt controller, or the Gigawatt controller. "Guaranteed to turn you into a smoking crisp!"
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Problem the first: the tensile strength of any joystick/analog stick required is going to be much higher than in the regular el-cheapo controllers.
Problem the second: overdeveloped thumbs and puny everything-else. :P
Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
Dance Dance Revolution! ... I'm not sure their product can match DDR's popularity though...
will have certain muscles in the arms and back bulging out while others(like the legs, and heart) are left weak. At least they could have there be bike pedals, then the gamer would get a good full body workout(or some semblance.)
Programming is simply the application of logic to creativity
The article fails to mention what iIconsider to be a major selling point, if in fact this device even takes off. Will it be supported by all games?
They only mention Grand Turismo, being a racing game.
Though honestly I can't see the average gamer having even a remote interest in this device as even the average gamers play games for extended periods of time. Who would want to be working out that whole time?
I smell another "interesting idea not going anywhere" device. Reminds me of the Power Glove.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
Most people (the fat guy in the picture in the BBC article, for example) need aerobic exercise a lot more than isometrics or weight training.
As a poster above said, DDR will work a lot better at getting us all in shape.
RTFA. The article is about an isometric controller. The Powerpad just had a bunch of buttons. Dont get me wrong, I still think it will be a flop, especially at $700 a pop.
Due to the performance limitations that this controller will impose, only the sucky individuals will use this...I guess it will give more weight to their statement when they say, "at least I can kick your ass!"
I've already said all that I have to say.
While perhaps a flop, it was still fun doing the long jump in track and field by grabbing onto the rafters after you jumped and hanging there for a few seconds. The game would know if you waited too long to jump back on that you were cheating.
If I had that when I was little, I'd be an ironman triathlete right now! I hope they can get the price to come down, I know a lot of overweight kids that play games all the time. If they could get one, they'd totally do it. Or, perhaps the DDR pad could be made compatible with other games.
stuff |
I had a PowerPad! I'd play World Class Track Meet on it with my friends. My parents hated it since my room was upstairs and you could hear our pounding and running from the other side of the house. It was great!
What is your penile percentile?
The Yugo I drove in college worked on the same principle: The harder I pushed, the faster I could make it go.
It flopped, but it does look like todays market has changed
Time for some DDR!
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
I for one welcome our freakishly strong forearmed child overlords.
Seriously -- rememeber the Chris Farley Skit: "My God, these Hideously Oversized and Freakishly Strong Children Will Surely Rise Up And Destroy Us?"
find me a machine that involved exercise, video games, a love life, advice on stocks, and beer
Exercise and video games: Dance Dance Revolution by Konami.
A love life: The gathering of players of both sexes at arcades that have a DDR machine may lead to the beginning of a relationship.
Advice on stocks: Buy Konami.
Beer: Unfortunately, this is the only hard part. Most arcades I've visited do not serve alcoholic beverages, and I don't know how many bars have DDR machines next to their video slot machines. However, you can still buy the home version, get your friends, and play during the Super Bowl, between commercials. (Who watches it for the football anymore?)
Learn more about DDR
could sure use this thing, bad.
Lessee here...this thing costs just shy of my PS2, XBox *and* GameCube. *AND* all the games I own for them.
Best encouragment I made for myself to exercise was attaching a low power (386) computer with a terminal program to a stationary bike. Strap the keyboard in an accessable place and play muds for a while... amazing what motivation to not die in a dungeon will do for you.
Sig under construction since 1998.
I've always been enthralled by the idea of integrating technology into exercise so that people were more motivated to engage in cardiovascular activities. One of the best examples of this is the Dance Dance video game. One can't deny that getting good at the game is directly proportional to how in shape you are. In a market dominated by games where people hone skills such as shooting people, it's a refreshing change. Disney Quest also has some interesting video games that involve lots of physical effort and something like their giant human pinball simulation is an all-around exercise.
Now what we need is some kind of game plug-in that exposes players to sunlight and gets their Seratonin levels up to norm.
If they had the Counterstrike pad, I'd buy it. Something that forced you do do all the running, jumping and crouching (in-place I'd assume, but still taxing) that you would do in a game of CS, and somehow fed it back to the game- that would be cool.
Nintendo had this, it was called the power pad [defunctgames.com]. It was a flop. What has changed in today's world that will make it successful?
The industry has changed, as well as the target demographic (30 year old males). Perhaps if you RTFA.
Sig Feil!
This is like trying to get fit by skipping the cheese on you double whopper combo. It's already too late so just give it up.
It's $700. Case closed. Put down the joypad for 1/2 hr and walk around in circles if you must.
Seriously, I know this chick that disconnected the power steering cable from her car so she can work out her arms while she's driving. It works - her arm muscles are spectacular, but I guess safety issues be damned.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
I thought that the best part was having the "full-contact 100-meter dash", where in the running races it was fair game to push the guy next to you off of the pad.
The weakling complains that the stupid gaming-jock gets all the girls, while the outdoor athlete just gets bullied.
Soon, they all turn nerd, thanks to PowerPad!!!
Nintendo had this, it was called the power pad. It was a flop. What has changed in today's world that will make it successful?
The power pad is nearly identical to the Dance Dance Revolution pads, which are quite succesful. The difference is not the hardware, it's the software.
This product will almost certainly flop, because it doesn't have any games designed for it, so there almost certaintly won't be any games that are more fun using it. As well as being much too expensive.
So mine wasn't funny. You KNOW this is begging for one.
Go ahead, fix my pathetic joke.
Make my day...punk.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
the desperate lonliness of introverted hobbyists?
how cruel.
looks like they got one on kiloWatt
I hope they don't try to sue my friends
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
If we wanted physical exertion, we would go outside and play with the rest of the kids.
I kind of like the idea, just not the implementation. When I was rehabilitating an ACL reconstruction they had this stupid little game on the console of the exercise bike. It was just an LCD light moving around a circle according to how fast I pedalled. I was racing another LCD light that was controlled by the speed setting. It was incredibly simple but somehow darn entertaining as well. It would seem to me that some sort of simple yet well done game hooked up to a bike could be mildly entertaining. Perhaps a specialized wheel speed reader that sends data through the standard Xbox controller port? Anyway, I'm obviously easily entertained.
This controller does not involve a significant range of motion - essentially the controller involves isometric holds. This is just a $10 word word meaning that you push against a static object as hard as you can (e.g pushing against a wall - it doesn't move, but it still requires effort on your part). Isometric training is sometimes incorporated as part of a controversial training style known as "super slow" (I can't say if it works or not - I get the impression that the evidence is that at best, it's not an efficient way to train). In short - sure, it's better than nothing, but it's a LONG way from being a device that seriously combines gaming and fitness. For years, I have dreamed of combining fitness and gaming (particuly for FPS games and side-scrolling arcade games). I believe it can be done, and have some strong ideas to make it work. PS: Does anyone know who might be hiring in this field? (I'm a software guy - I need to work with mechanical engineers and EE guys - building these devices is very much a multi-discplinary team effort)
To quote Dilbert. I wonder if they'll make these things PC Compatible? The Xbox I got free for signing up with Speakeasy goes unused except when I have a LAN party, and one person has to swap out of a game (or doesn't want to play it).
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
Oh bullshit. This is not 'recommending we eat junk food':
"Steiger said in his letter that the WHO report did not adequately address an individual's responsibility to balance one's diet with one's physical activities, and objected to singling out specific types of foods, such as those high in fat and sugar.
"The (U.S. government) favors dietary guidance that focuses on the total diet, promotes the view that all foods can be part of a healthy and balanced diet, and supports personal responsibility to choose a diet conducive to individual energy balance, weight control and health," wrote Steiger, special assistant for international affairs at Health and Human Services. "
had as first thought, -ooh- GT3, must... have...
"/Dread"
The traditional way of doing aerobics (low impact long duration) only burns fat for the duration of the session but it doesn't do anything for after you have exercised. It has been shown in lots of peer-reviewed studies that high-intensity interval training (mix of sprints and lower intensity running/cycling etc) is superior for fat burning because after a workout session, your body continues to burn fat, whereas you do not achieve this during a low impact low intensity workout.
One thing to think about - look at sprinters and look at marathon runners. Sprinters are lean and mean. They train for explosive power. Marathon runners on the other hand, while skinny, are rather flabby...
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
If you already have a PlayStation 2 console, that's a different story. Just buy a BNS DX-Xtreme pad and DDRMAX2 for about $100 incl. shipping. That'll get your lower body in shape.
friends
I should use preview more often...
is that your average gamer doesn't neglect exercise because he can't exercise, but rather because he doesn't *want* to exercise. If he does, then in that case he'll use equipment specially designed for such, but no one will want to use an almost certainly inferior gamepad just because it happens to also be almost certainly inferior exercise equipment as well. (The traditional "do one thing, but do it well", argument... whose applicability is debatable in the case of closely related and easily combined electronics stuff, but not in the gamepad + exercise equipment case. What's next, an all-in-one flat panel LCD + screwdriver? :/)
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
The system works on the principle of isometric exercise, which contracts the muscles without moving any joints. After just a couple of minutes of playing Gran Turismo with the joystick, you can feel the strain in your upper arms and shoulder muscles.
.
This sounds to me like another item to add to the hundreds we use that cause carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress disorders. Now, instead of just mildly turning the joystick over and over again, there is resistance that will add to the strain. This doesn't see like its at healthy as it first appears. Exercise indeed, but what I believe these sports medicine professionals are missing is the fact that unlike lifting weights or other people who exercise for health reasons, gamers do not typically stop playing after a short one-hour workout. (Good, healthy workouts are usually about that long) Gamers sometimes sit in front of those games for hours and hours; having repetitive moments with muscular tension could actually harm the muscles instead of build them up. It would seem that this is a great idea for the health nut looking for an interesting way to lose weight as these people would play for an hour and stop, but this is not a particularly great excuse for gamers to exercise. The company should stick with the idea of putting these in gyms, but perhaps skip the idea of a marketing this to a hardcore, overweight RPGer.
However, I think that if used in moderation, I suppose this is an excuse (note: I said excuse, and its not a particularly great one) to exercise. But perhaps they should look at marketing this, instead of as a piece of exercise equipment, as a way to physically enjoy the games. Anyone remember when Nintendo made the the large floor pad so that you could really run and control the track game? It was great not because of the exercise but because one got to really participate in the game. Maybe applying this to VR, anyone?
In the end, however, one thing holds true:
This device makes a perfect symbolic comment on our culture.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"We are Linux. Resistance is measured in Ohms."
So, I'm reading a lot of reponses that are angry people saying "WTF is this? Go outside if you want exercise". Well... I guess it's time to relate what's going on with me.
I don't like gyms. They're expensive, and between going there, getting my exercise, and coming back, they take up too much of my time. Oh yeah, they're REALLY boring, which means I won't go.
I hate jogging. It sucks, especially in the winter. It's boring, and it's not safe in my area (thugz & moron drivers).
I ~love~ swimming, but I can only do that during the summer. Swim at a gym? See gyms above.
I'm a dedicated gamer, and I'm a bit overweight. I've been wanting to change that, and I have.
Every day, after work, I come home, and I put in Dance Dance Revolution Max 2. I'm getting up to "normal" difficulty, and am now burning 600 calories a DAY. As I get better, I may increase that, or I just may do my 600/day in less time.
I've already 6 pounds lighter since the first of the year. The only change I've made in my diet is a reduction to 1 soda a day (instead of 2-3).
So, while I read a lot of people sitting back and yelling "Go outside fatass", this fatass is giving y'all the finger, staying home, playing videogames, and getting fit.
~D
http://www.dracosoftware.com
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
We've had 20 years of the fattening of America's youth, and people are finally starting to take notice.
Intelligent Life on Earth
The phrase often used about 10 years ago was "Kill your TV" as response to the mindlessness of people who watch TV like drones for several hours a day.
The fact that they are developing this for, what would be my guess, a substitute to "real exercise" makes me wonder: Have we gone too far?
Will people 10 years from now be saying:
Kill your Playstation!
Kill your Computer! Kill your Internet Connection!
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
While I agree that adding large amounts of resistance to a controller is a dumb idea, a controller can be used for more than simple control. Look at force feedback for example. While it's not implemented very well in a lot of systems, it provides good information that can help with gameplay.
In a driving game, to pick the simplest example, the looseness of the wheel could be correlated to the slipperiness of the road surface, much as it is in the Real Life (tm) system.
Controllers with no resistance at all (a lot of early joysticks) don't provide the correct feel for a game. It should be hard to pull back on the stick, to some extent, in a flight sim game. That sort of thing.
What would be really nice is a controller with variable resistance that could be controlled by the game itself, to provide feedback on whatever makes the most sense. This has been done, but in only the most rudimentary fashion, really.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Now I wont have to tell my kid to go out side and play... exposing her to the sun... she can stay inside and become a pale /. reading geek like me! :)
It takes 1.21 Niggawatts to send your white-boy ass back to the fucha'.
-- GNAA
I think they might market to fitness centers. The thought of drawing in previously unavailable markets might make it a big sell. Some competitive racing at a fitness centre might just draw in the people that find fitness centre boring.
Some friends of mine and I took turns trying this device out at CES running Gran Turismo. It looked like all games should work on it, because it has a full complement of PS controls and buttons on it, including dual shoulder buttons. The consensus among the group after using it for a few minutes each? BLECH! I found it unintuitive as to how to move the device to control the car in a specific direction. It sort of made sense, but required hitting one of the gamepad buttons to put the car into reverse or to perform any of the other actions that games require during play. So, that meants that during your "strenuous" workout driving the car around, you would have to jump out of the workout abruptly to get the car back onto the road if you got turned around, then start back up again. I suppose if a game were built specifically for the device, then a continuous workout could be achieved, otherwise I thought it required too much switching between working out and playing the game. Having used this thing and DDR dance pads I can say with certainty that DDR integrates working out with fun gameplay FAR better than this device. If I may quote the horse from classic Ren and Stimpy, "No sir, I don't like it!"
This is completely useless. After doing the same excersize over and over it looses it's muscle developing affect because your body becomes used to doing the task and becomes more efficient at it (and becomes more prone to cheating, doing the excersize the wrong way that's much easier, like swinging an arm to lift a heavy weight).
Maybe if their was some sort of all in one excersize machine controller, like a bowflex or something like that, that can connect to a PC or another game console. That would be a nice way to work out although without a mobile screen you wouldn't be able to see the games without straining yourself, maybe you can use some VR goggles. It'd probably cost a fortune but it'd be a nice excersize machine for geeks (unless they use it too much and damage their muscles.)
Ok you know what forget it, just go to a gym and get a trainer, it'll be much better than working out yourself and much more effective. You won't damage your body and you won't have the same excersize over and over again doing nothing for your muscle development.
I do three types of exercise:
Free Weights
Machine (Nautilus)
Aerobic
Now I'm not saying isometric is bad for you, just that I've never seen anyone build muscle with or or get good cardio vascular from it. It can provide toning when used in conjunction with other exercise types.
I personally think people will be bored with isometric exercise, because you don't feel any movement (granted here you have game feedback). But motion is what really gets you the next immersion level. I used to do computerized rowing machine, and I really enjoyed chasing my computer opponent in the other boat.
Isometric won't condition you for real athletic performance in the real world. The same reason I use a mix of machine and free weights. The free weights train your body for how to lift against real mass in the real world, and though you may not realize it, you will be be adapted to say helping your significant other move the couch around the room a dozen times until its "Fung Shui"
I suppose its possible to get the heart rate up for cardio with isometric, but it seems unlikely for most. Again, motion is the key to health. Get moving until you work up a moderate sweat and maintain for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to really get cardio benefits.
I like the idea of linking computer games and workouts, I have a friend that is hooked on Dance-Dance-Revolution and it works well for him. I just don't think this cheap-o scheme of isometric will catch on, or more importantly really give the advertised benefits.
Letter To Iran
these have been around for a while...
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
"My, what well developed forearms you have..."
"Yup, been pumping iron all day, baby"
For all the whiney bastards going on and on about 'just put the joystick down, go outside, exercise, eat less' well, no kidding. But why not add a bit more activity in your life on TOP of that? Is that such a horrible thing?
Every little bit helps. A half hour walk, one less can of soda a day, walking up a flight of stairs, what's wrong with adding this into the mix?
Are those that read Slashdot only capable of seeing things in black and white? How do they function in the real world, having to deal with normal people?
The US government doesn't care about obecity, and it is apparent to anyone who pays attention. Recently on C-SPAN there were lots of experts discussing it intelligently, while the FDA was absent. Actually, they sent someone there to share "his own" opinions, which translate to "obecity is a result of progress, therefore good". At one point he actually said something like "my argument sounds right because it is" and everybody laughed (including me) because it seemed like he was joking. He wasn't. The FDA represents lots of people with deep pockets, making tons of money off food that is little more than flavored wheat starch and sugar. They will continue to do so as long as possible.
Wow, rafters? Is that thinking outside the box? Or missing the box altogether? I just jumped off the pad.
ender-iii
I took my x-box controller and tied a 15lbs barbell to it. Now I'm fit and healthy, thanks to my healthy 8 hour/day dosage of xbox gaming. Who needs a kilowatt controller?
...called 'Gravity Warrior.' Instead of a joystick, it uses a metallic bar as the gaming device. You load a series of 'mass regulators' onto each end of the game controller. It creates a very dramatic simulation of gravity that is much more realistic than some force feedback joystick. I've played Gravity Warrior until my arms could no longer move! Its most safely played with two players. The post-game ritual includes a series of high-fives and mutual butt slapping irregardless of who actually won the game as show of good sportsmanship. Gravity Warrior gamers greet each other with the secret code words 'whatcha bench?' in sign of community brotherhood.
mmmm beer
Can't figure out why I'm not losing any pounds though
Gamers are all going to look like Popeye!
To work the legs and heart, the player could play DDR, as many others in this thread have pointed out.
Prior art: Dance Dance Revolution
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
Flop, maybe, but have you ever played Outdoor Games on it? That was a complete workout. In fact I got my old power pad out a couple of years ago, and I wasn't able to even finish the game. Then again, I am not in the same shape I was when I was younger.
Get Firefox!
I always just jumped off the pad, used my hands to land. Despite all the cheating, I gotta say that the powerpad was quite gully.
i thought masturbation was the weapon of choice for the athletically minded gamer.
Prop Cycle was a cool looking game that had a built in exercise bike...you're onscreen character was a flying bicycle glider thingy and you had to burst balloons. I was always surprised there wasn't a home console game that had hardware to connect to an exercise bike, seems like a decently written game could be pretty engaging, like Pilot Wings on the N64... ...better for people than the Donkey Konga hardware...
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Dang. Screw that - $700 is two years at Gold's Gym.
Dagnabbit!
This looks dumb, and a good way to hurt your back.
I want a home version of prop cycle!
-Jeff
Eventually, one has to put the game controller down to move on with life (hey what's this in my hand?).
And where are the other three going to go for multiplayer games?
Seppuku: Your solution to my problems!
...600 geeks with too much money drop dead of heart attacks over the weekend. Film at 11.
"I'm not a procrastinator, I'm temporally challenged"
"We take the guilt out of gaming and put the fun back into exercise"
This makes no sense! A gamer suffers guilt from not gaming, and exercise will never be fun, or we wouldn't call it exercise. $700...what nonsense. Noone would use this unless they were paid to.
Quite the genius came up with this concept, eh?
What about those of us that understand that not moving your entire body or controller when steering or jumping, speeding up or slowing down creates the same result in the game? I just sit, press buttons, and watch the screen. This would then cost me hundreds of dollars to just stand and press buttons...
You talk better than you fool!
If the controller actually works, then this could help some people be in better physical condition than they currently are, but we really shouldn't ignore cardiovascular fitness. In some ways, this could be a bad thing, because people will think they are in better physical condition than they really are (which is already a problem). Everyone should unplug for a while and go outdoors. You'll live a longer and higher-quality life (for the most part).
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.
This product will almost certainly flop, because it doesn't have any games designed for it, so there almost certaintly won't be any games that are more fun using it.
Does that matter? As far as I can tell from the article, it's a replacement for the corresponding features on your controller. So I'd assume it acts like a standard PS2 (or whatever) controller, just bigger and funnier looking, and as such doesn't need specially designed games.
My next point is gameplay. From the prolouge edition, GT4 is supposed to be extremely hard. It will be difficult to floor the accelerator, at the perfect time coming out of the turn. If I am going to be straining to accelerate, then I will lose the race, get frustrated with the game and stop. If its not fun and I will not play and I will not exercise.
If you are obese, and need something to lose weight, then maybe. But there are better cheaper alternatives. Second of all, it will butcher the gameplay. The whole point of videogames is fun. I doubt that this will make video games more fun. If it does though, then it may be worth it's hefty $700 price.
Mod Wisely.
It's for hand control, so you could, after a few years of playing games, have arms like Popeye and legs like Olive Oyl.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
People will probably make fun of this device, but I'd consider buying one.
Hopefully a second generation model would address some of it's limitations. As far as I can tell this machine must only work one or two muscle groups in the arm (maybe some in the shoulder). That may be neat, but it's never going to be able to replace a real workout. Also the price was a bit steep.
If this machine worked out most of your body, and cost less than $300, I'd definitely purchase one, between $300-$500 I'd consider it.
Computers don't make mistakes. What they do, they do on purpose.
Oh, man, for $700 you can go to a place like Sears and get a nice little corner workout center, or, even better, you can join a friggin' gym.
Your whole body needs a whole-body workout. Working out your upper arms and your wrists just exercises your upper arms and your wrists. Don't count on that to reduce your pants size anytime soon.
If this idea is going to succeed, what they need to do is build the videogame into the exercise machine, not the other way around.
I'm picturing it... like a wall-sized screen that has orcs coming at you and you have to defeat them by lifting a 120-lb weight in three 12-rep sets. After the first wave is complete, you have to win a Nascar race by running on a treadmill for twenty minutes, followed by destroying the One Ring by enduring two gruelling sets of inverted crunches.
The gym that installs that system will have a loyal membership of fit and healthy nerds as its reward.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Puffing? I get plenty of that already. That's the reason I smoke when I play video games...
Just go into the local bar and insult the biggest guy in there.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Who can't see doublespeak for what it is. I bet you think we need more research on global warming before we do anything about it.
We all know gamers have the strongest wrists in the world....
-- taking over the world, we are.
DDR, the boxing game at some arcades (name escapes me), and a couple others have shown that it is possible to have a commercial success when blending games with exercise.
But this thing is still gonna flop. Why? Very simply... It gets in the way of the game.
Unlike DDR, or the boxing game, the controller hinders the users' ability to play the game effectively. The controller gets in the way of the game, instead of enhancing it. It is for this reason that people will ditch it... Not because it's a bad idea, but because it's a bad gaming device.
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
Wow, you've go some muscular hands.
Yea, I developed them by playing with my stiff joystick...
Wha?
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Practically speaking, repetitively working a muscle is NOT the same thing as exercise. Not only is this "exercise" anaerobic, but it also opens up a huge potential for injuries resulting from RSI. Imagine a mouse with a button which required a 1/2-pound of force to click instead of 1/20-ounce. Or a keyboard with such 1/2-pound buttons. We would all be crippled by now if we had been using these instead of our current devices.
this is simply someone trying to get some of the ridiculous quantities of money people spend on exercise equipment out of gamers.
seriously, people spend -thousands- on a Bowflex thinking they'll use it - and then they collect dust.
this company is simply trying to make $700 a shot off well-intentioned gamers and concerned parents who believe that the only thing preventing a change in lifestyle is the availability of exercise equipment.
That's why it sounds like a commercial for the Ab Abber 2000. Because it is. It doesn't have to make sense - it doesn't have to be practical. It just has to look like it can help you live better without intruding into your life style that much.
It's clever marketing, not science.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
My question is, how will you know if you're pushing hard enough to equal full forward on a joystick? The only way I can think of to know for sure would be some sort of on-screen display... which would be distracting at the very least. Not to mention that it doesn't appear they've addressed this issue at all.
Now if this can be hooked up to Quake or Doom3 coming out I'd be all for this!
:)
Great excersize, great frag'n, and best of all I'd impress the ladies with a great shape. Imagine the look on her face when she asks you how much you pump to keep that form and you answer "With my railgun or rocket launcher?"
You know each weapon would be a different workout.Railguns are light excersize (Camping) while rocket launchers are heavy excersize (Running and rocket jumping).
To bad reality isn't like that, ahh well.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
RSI?
I knew you could. . .
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I've seen similar stuff at arcades, but if they really want people to use it and/or if they want any widespread effect from people using it, they need to make it affordable!
lol
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"We take the guilt out of gaming and put the fun back into exercise," said company spokesman Chuck Martinez.
AntiOrganic asks "Why all the gimmickry?" I think the above quote from the article answers that nicely. No one who has given more than a few moments thought to this would ever dream of suggesting that pushing hard on a joystick is some form of exercise. But if you are looking for an excuse to do something you enjoy doing, it's fairly easy to say "Well, I'm going to play videogames anyhow so might as well play one that it kinda good for me." Of course, the amount that this is "good for you" is so insignficant that it doesn't mean anything but that's thinking rationally about it.
So much of what goes on these days is simply marketing trying to help us alleviate our guilt about what we choose to do. There are fat-free cookies and fat-free potato chips. Subway is advertising some new wrap sandwhich that is chock full of bacon and ranch dressing with the name "Atkins' friendly" plastered all over it as if to suggest that a sandwhich filled with hydrogenated and saturated fats is some kind of health food. Hell, even KFC was recently advertising their extra-super-deep-fried chicken as healthy until public outcry finally got too much.
One of my big pet peeves is when people think they are accomplishing something when in fact they are not. Some of the blame has to go to the marketers who try ever so desperately to claim any kind of benefit to using or consuming their products. But a lot of the blame has to go towards the buying public who are so desperate to alleviate their guilt for not doing "what they're supposed to be doing" that they are willing to eat up this blatantly bullshit advertising. Like Yoda says: do or do not do. Don't try to fool yourself by pretending that some joystick is going to solve your athletic or health goals.
GMD
watch this
I can tell you from personal experience that isometric exercises are some of the most strenuous that you can do.
Don't believe me? Try an easy one: Tense your thigh muscles as much as you can for 2 minutes. Here's a harder one: Start to do a push-up, but stop halfway down. And hold it for 2 minutes.
Bah, home fitness videogame gizmos indeed. What they REALLY need is to hook up the old Paperboy game to a stationary bike. You'd have a screen to see a first-person view of the neighborhood, a "mirror" region to see the dogs chasing you, and a button to throw papers. You could have fun while riding the damned bike. How hard is that?
I'm serious. They already as gizmos about calories burned, heart rate, miles traveled, and other crap to these bikes for infotainment. Why not take the next step? Hell, you could make people pay for rides with quarters and turn every fitness club in the country into an arcade.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
I mean, don't most people who sit around and game all day basically have the motions dealing with lower arm strength all pat and down? After so many repetitive...strokes...they must have pretty strong brachioradials.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
"In a racing game like Gran Turismo, the harder you push on the joystick, the faster the semi-delicate irreplacable touch sensors wear out, while pulling back slows down joystick wear."
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
It's called pr0n. It's been around for a very long time, and geeks have been exercising their arms with it since near the beginning. Modern versions included usage of such tools as "edonkey" or "newgroups"
"stop eating when you're not hungry, not when you're full."
a very un-insightful statement there.
many people that are overweight do stop eating when they are not hungry. their insulin-intolerance causes a insulin spike to last too long making them hungry too long.
Maybe if you knew much about the human diet and medical conditions that are common to cause obesiety you would have not made such a stupid remark.
Lumpy, while it is true that the parent's post is a bit simplistic you are erring on the other extreme. While there certain medical conditions that cause people difficulty in losing weight, to insinuate that this means AntiOrganic's advice of "everything in moderation" is a 'stupid remark' is just not right. We all know what we have to do to eat healthy and lose weight. Eat less saturated fat. Eat more vegetables. Get some regular exercise. Don't eat so fuckin' much. Really, this is sound advice and it's something we all know. You can probably find people who have certain medical conditions that cause them to have more difficulty than the 'average' person in losing weight. But that doesn't mean that reducing caloric intake wouldn't help these people tremendously.
Same stupid claim as the DDR guy above without the funny admission part - the PowerPad was a Twister-pad looking thing, this is a torsion bar for upper-body tension.
CTFL (click the fucking link), mods.
Exactly what I wanted. More excercise for my right hand. Hooray!
Free XBox, PS2
Gamers already have at least one strong arm! Thanx p0rn!
Well, if many other geeks are like me, it's not that I don't exercise ever, just not often as I'd like. Why? Because it's not interesting or stimulating. Weights go up, weights go down. Push-up, go-down. It's boring and not in any way stimulating.
In the summer, there's a lot more to do outdoors. Roller blading, biking, swimming etc are all good forms of exercise that can be relaxing and stimulating.
Walks work at most times of the year but I find are more interesting if done with somebody else (so you have somebody to talk to).
All the above work even better with music (except group walks).
One of the main problems in this season (N. America climate) is that there's not as much to do in winter on a budget. I would absolutely love to go skiing all weekend, but a season's pass is like $300-400.
Making exercise into a game is not just about making it cute, it's about making it interesting.
An articles about a joystick, which promotes exercising various muscles, and does NOT involve pr0n??? Somebody dropped the ball somewhere here...
I'd like to see something like this for vim. Mode change would require a squat, moving around would require a combination of arm movements and running on the spot. Of course there would still be a keyboard for inputing text in edit mode, but command mode would represent a real workout.
I got the powerpad one Christmas before the Summer Olympics, it was pretty fun to step up to the fast dots and try to beat the gold medalist's time or distance.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
And people used to think "nintendo thumb" was bad...
A game controller is not supposed to fight you. It's supposed to extend your skills into a game/sim environment. Force-feedback is useful and allows the environment to affect your efficiency, and controllers that "rumble" aren't too bad either, but when they market this kind of controller as a replacement for general purpose controllers I feel like spitting and running up the black flag.
.1)= $PROFIT" battle cry which was further taken up by some venture capitalists and decided to spring for it. Who knows, maybe version 2 will have a grip-pressure sensor and be able model other stimulating friction-based activites...imagine what Vice-City (n) "Bad Girls Go Everywhere" could do with something like that, featuring Christy Trysty in situations featuring Arm-Wresting, the odd dominitrix job, and the occasional "under the table" money-maker manuver before applying a killer-grip and demanding the entire wallet while trying to put the grip on some king-pin figure who framed her because she wouldn't put out for him. Sell it as a bundle for a bundle, $$$$. It would be serious wicked to hear the wife/girlfriend say, ...and much shrieking ensued.
What this controller needs to do is support a physical game, like dance-mats support DDR. If there's some kind of Arm-Wrestling game it would make sense, but when I'm flying down the slope with Kaori (SSXTricky) and the controller causes me problems I start channeling Nordic Stormgod rage. That controller dies to make room for the next one. Any gamer who values their time will not waste their time deluding themselves that a controller that exhausts them is a good idea. It's a recipie for frustration.
I'm certain that if the people who came up with device surveyed DDR gamers they would find that less than 10% actually use the mats because by the time you've even made an attempt to memorize the moves for one simple song all you want to do is just sit down and do something less strenuous in less than twenty minutes. The less time you can effectively spend with a game, the less you want to play it. DDR and other "physically" challenging video games require a "Buddy" system, much like going out and jogging.
Knowing our luck, some markettroid took a "pie-in-the-sky" number of purchased Playstation2/Xbox consoles and came up with a "$100(N *
"Yeah, I gave him one of these," makes an OK gesture," and lead him outside where I killed his petrified naked ass with a pipe-wrench," and with a devious grin says, "now it's your turn, gimme that!"
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
For one thing, people who want to play games are not as interested in getting exercise. So if it's too expensive, they won't buy it in the first place; if it is too difficult or tiring to play, they will either lose interest or find ways to cheat the system.
IMO, what is needed is a motivation for people who are exercising to keep with it -- in other words, integrate games into exercise equipment, not the other way around. Another poster already mentioned a cycle that had a simple game of chasing the pace setter. Years ago I also saw articles on exercise bikes with video displays that would take you through a virtual bike route. Someone should make a game or other type of feedback for weight machines where you could score points by the amount of weight and/or reps you could do. That sort of thing.
I can't wait to build more muscle playing street fighter games with my balls.
They showed some girl who lost a bunch of weight after she started playing DDR. Not only that she found new friends, got a new boyfriend etc. People will exercise if they think its fun.
Try playing Mortal Kombat 2 with the Sega Activator
which is a giant octagon that you stand in the middle of and stick your arms/legs out for various buttons/directions. (8 directions, two hights make for a 16 button controller)
The instructional tape that came with this was very funny, showing the kid playing with the Activator kicking the ass of the kid with the regular controller...
The only neat thing about it was that the games that supported it (couple of fighting games) would map "forward" for the character to "forward" for you as well, which was interesting, but still less efficient.
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
I always felt that this would be super simple to pull off with a stationary bike attachment.
If you have a bike you can go out and get an speedometer for it for almost nothing. Mind you a nice one will cost about 50 to 100 bucks or more depending on how fancy you want to be.
The point is this works by simpling install a magnet on the wheel, and a sensor on the frame. Then you can sense the velocity.
Now connect this to an Xbox controller and you got a work out. The controller would have to have a kind of min/max setting. Say you stop the bike completely, the game hits the pause, or start button. Once you hit a certain min range, basically just a few rpms a second you just stand there. the faster you go over this range the joystick is slowly pushed up on the controller, obviously not physically, but since the joystick is analog you could get good range.
Obviously turning is still going to be a button, but a good stationary bike will burn calories, and I think has been proven to help loose weight in combination with a good diet.
This was actually used in an arcade game, I forget the name. You where on a hang glider type of bike thing. The faster you pedalled the faster your propeller went. I'm really suprised that Bally's didn't pick up on this. The arcade wasn't successfull because no one wants to go to an arcade an sweat!!
I'm a biker to, so I'd love to get my daily workout, and get some project gotham 2 in at the same time.
et
This will have a similar effect to that of the pr0n industry - geeks with asymmetrical musculature. That is, a bulging dominate hand and arm. The non-dominate arm will still be the emaciated or flabby geek arm.
Man I wish I hadn't thought of that....
1) Chip/Fliplid your PS2
2) Buy a copy of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme JP for PS2
3) Buy a Cobalt Flux (rather expensive but worth it)
4) Profit.
DDR is great fun, exercise factor or not. Anyone who thinks this game is easy or for girls has prolly never seen someone playing some of the level 9 or 10 rated tracks. And believe me, ten minutes of treadmill at 10mph doesn't make me sweat half as much as 90 seconds of Max300 (On the highest difficulty setting, you've got to hit 555 steps in those 90 seconds. Work it out). The fact that this game is seriously bloody addictive despite all this is quite an achievement on Konami's part.
Unfortunately I'm in halls so a home setup isn't really practical, instead I blow a lot of money on the arcade version. But yes I think it makes a bit more sense than wrestling with some strange joysticks...
Now on the other hand... I've always been surprised that no one had implemented a stationary-bike kind of setup for a PC workstation (that I've seen anyways - feel free to add links). It wouldn't even been that hard; off the top of my head, you could hook the mouse wheel to a sensor on the bike wheel, so you had to pedal to scroll while browsing. Backwards and forwards. Imagine you'd burn a few calories that way...
Anyways, the invention is a compelling idea, but they should have bundled specific games with it... a MechWarrior kind of thing would be neat...
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Back in highschool we found that some of best lifts for cranking your max were incremental lifts, stop 10 times up and down, you could only do about 1/2 as many reps as you would normally do with that weight. You'd only want to do this on your last rep. Incidentally Fran Dresser (the Nanny gal) claims that her secret to looking good (say what you will about her voice, she has a nice bod) is isometric excercises anytime she sits.
Thanks for letting us know Dr. Fran Dresser's latest research on the subject of physiology. This, coupled with the detailed studies you conducted in high school has given me the confidence to give up my doctor-approved workout regimine and adopt something that takes less time and effort.
Buddy, I hate to tell you but celebs are not a wonderful source of fitness knowledge. Most of them are genetically very lucky and would look pretty damn good regardless of what they do.
A few pulleys and levers, some screws... yeah, I'd be good at these games.
I've had this sig for three days.
Masturbation ... What's that all about? Is it good, or is it Whack?
1. Use PC.
2. Get a flight sim.
3. Get a Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar joystick...
4. ???
5. Strong muscles!
Seriously, the springs on said joystick are ridiculously hard. If any other gaming will build up muscles, this will! (Personally I can't stand to use one for more than 10 minutes)
There are already plenty of games out there that help you get exercise. Basketball, baseball, soccer ... no expensive electronics required, either!
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
Imagine the other kids mocking you because your gran turismo track times suck "haha! you only got around 3 laps in 10 minutes. We're all in shape so we use our controller, so we do it in 6 minutes!"
I could see something like this selling for use in a niche of games - not because you get exercise, but because your strength determines if you win. Kind of like those big "ring the bell by hitting the mallet" games at carnival, or arm wrestling, or all the games in Mario Party that depend soley on hitting a button really fast.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...is having a LAN party/strength training session with all my friends.
...is having santa bring me an eliptical with a nintendo logo on it
...sweating while playing video games when my roommate's friends walk in
I mean seriously this thing has some wide ranging implications... Especially the modified USB version to make porn a more active activity!
Today is the closing of a parenthesis opened before this sig, before this story, before this existence that is me (as if
Back in the days of NES & SNES, I could eat anything and not worry about my weight. Then came the N64 controller and I suddenly started to gain weight. I switched to computer games and played games mostly with the keyboard and mouse. My weight has increased through college and since. I have a PS2 now. I'm not noticing the effects of the SNES controller where I'd keep the same weight. I don't think the vibration controllers have helped. I think the jumping around the room and yelling at the screen because the character didn't move when I pressed the button helped. I'm calmer now. I just lay down on the couch and play FFX2. Hell I just hold down the damn X button and beat just about all the enemies except for bosses.
We need a return to classic gaming where we had to press that jump and shot button like 5 million times and jump around the room and off the couch alot. I think a sensor in the controller that wouldn't let your onscreen guy jum unless you did would work wonders. Jumping would help everything.
pipe dream
You've got a great point here. Some of the things that treadmills with a heart monitor do is make sure that your heart rate stays in the correct range. Varying the terrain and chasing dogs could help you get to the correct heart rate. Paper throwing and navigation complexity could increase for each level, rather than physical difficulty.
Prop-cycle was a pretty reasonable game, too.
I'm all for it, sign me up!
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
The above comment is merely an observation.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
.. go play Epyx Summer Games for C64 with a Joystick.
Does muscle really "turn into" fat? I know we all say that, but I don't think the cells really change from being muscle cells to fat cells. It seems that way, probably, because when you burn less calories (less muscle) but still eat the same, you gain fat (new cells).
From that description, I don't see how losing muscle or stopping running is different...
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
There's an open-source clone of DDR called stepmania that also supports EZ2Dancer.
I know. I play StepMania, partly because I can't afford a PS2, and Konami isn't releasing any more DDR games on PS1 or any on GameCube at all. Yes, there exist Para and EZ2 modules for StepMania, but what affordable USB or PSX controller should I use for them?
when playing videogames you really want do phisical effort... that's why you play video games... the problem were the flimsy controls that couldn't stand... I can see the sales soaring...
Existing gamepads already build up my muscles. My THUMB muscles!
for those who still have a powerpad around, try this
That is the typical wisdom... more muscles, more weight loss. However, most people don't look at this solution for the long run.
One thing that is helpful to note is that tuxette is a dedicated weight trainer (she's mentioned that she powerlifts in previous posts) so she is looking at it in the long run.
More muscle also means more maintenance. If you can bench press 300, you'd better be at the gym 5 days a week to maintain that muscle. If you don't, you'll lose the muscle and it'll just turn into... fat.
I didn't realize this myth was still around! Seriously, all you'd have to do is take 30 seconds to do a google search and you'd see this has been debunked a long time ago. Regarding your assertion that advanced bodybuilders need to go to the gym more often than novices, that is also false but for different reasons. Once you get to the point where you are benching 300, most of your "easy gaining" years are behind you. You need to be much more careful about maintaing a balance between actually lifting weights (which causes microscoping damage to the muscles) and rest (which will allow you body to rebuild the muscles so they are stronger than they were before). You need to spend less time in the gym as you get more advanced, not more. Of course, the time you spend in the gym has to be damn intense. But building muscle on a body that already thinks it has enough is more about quality of effort than quantity.
All that having been said, if your motivation for lifting weights is solely to lose fat then you probably are wasting your time. You do have to work to maintain any muscle you build. Not because it will turn into fat but because your body will tear down the protein stores and burn that for energy. However, the effort you have to put into maintaining is not all that much and certainly doesn't require you to go to the gym 5 days a week. That's just crazy.
GMD
watch this
Does that matter? As far as I can tell from the article, it's a replacement for the corresponding features on your controller. So I'd assume it acts like a standard PS2 (or whatever) controller, just bigger and funnier looking, and as such doesn't need specially designed games.
It doesn't *need* them, it just doesn't have a chance of actually being fun without them, IMO.
Dance Dance Revolution is designed around the exercise - you can't just add it to any old game and expect it to be as fun as it was with the controller it was designed for.
So THATS the reason that my right arm is stronger than my left ;-)
when it was called 'force feedback'
How do the guys who sell this junk even manage to get the product to market without dying from laughter as they bilk stupid investors out of millions of dollars? And why is it that investors still haven't caught on that specialty video game controllers without mainstream game support-lightgun games, ddr, steering wheels-don't make money?
Funk dat!
And people wonder why I refuse to invest in stocks...
But people do respond to advertising. So why not limit the advertising of the stuff we know will make you fat and expand the advertising of stuff that is more healthy for you?
So, most gym equipment is actually computerized, providing different courses for challenges, etc. How is this any different from going to the gym? If people are not going to the gym, why would they go here?
Talk about some motivation to exercise (I have to win the race!). Plus with the variety of maps/tracks available, this seems like it would make exercise quite fun. Now only if I could get exercise like that when playing Quake...
both actually
I definitely agree that having computer games and exercise equipment linked is the way to go. I would rather play a sport than work out at the gym. I'd rather play computer games than do pushups at home. They still have room for a lot of improvement, but it's a step in the right direction.
Isometric exercise and/or cardio. Every little bit helps. And building muscle is a great way to reduce fat ( though not necessarily lose weight).
I though of this years ago. Except I was going to take it at a lower level. And it was the bad old days of dial up with a 14.4K modem. Stop pedalling and your screen goes dark. Pedal gently to keep the screen alive. Pedal faster for net access - the faster you pedal, the greater your baud rate. Trouble is, I was frightened of a heart attack as you try to load pages from a slow site, not realising that it is their fault, not yours, that the download is slow. And the danger of downloading prOn is frighting ("just a bit fastaer and I'll see....").
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Right now I'm building myself a game controller out of my exercise bike. It should yield a reasonable workout, will actually make for a playable game (turn with handlebars, pedal to go faster), and will certainly cost less that $700.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Ok, you get a strong right hand, right arm, right everyting..
There are other exercises you can do to achieve the same result :-D
We should stick to Dance Revolution, at least the side effect is that you can pretend to have a fit.
You want good exercise while gaming? well, if merely lifting an x-box controller isn't enough for you, why not hook the tv and game system up to a treadmill, so that you generate the power you use (i would recommend a ups in case you have to use the bathroom before reaching a save point.)
Cogito Eggo Sum, I think therefore I'm a waffle
Did anyone else notice this ?, whats up with the relationship between the powergrid logo and the hacker logo, conspiricy ?
Every other day lift pieces of metal (sometimes called weights) with your biceps, triceps, shoulders, neck, etc., keep increasing the number of repetitions until it becomes incredibly easy then increase the weights and do it again!
Note that this game is my invention and I do charge a royalty to use it.
Uhh. The picture of the guy in the article doesn't encourage my hopes for this thing's prospects...
...Oh wait. I'm the only one who actually read the article.
Freedom isn't free; its price is the well-being of others.
What muscles will my "Celebrity Strip Poker" enbiggen?
I think we already have (daily?) exercises that build up the ever-important wrist muscles...and gamers are already performing this exercise at a very high frequency!
I'm talking about typing of course! What were you thinking?
I can walk 1+ hour twice a day, everyday (up and down hills), eat less then 2000 cals (none of it junk food), and I will still gain weight.
Losing weight is not about absolute measures of what you do, it's about relative ones. You need to do MORE than what you're doing now -- it doesn't matter how much you are ALREADY doing. It sounds like your metabolism (or something else) is really fucked up. Okay, then deal with it. You'll have to do MORE than walk 1+ hour a day. Eat LESS than 2000 calories. Who gives a crap if this is way, way more than most people have to do? It sucks to be you. Just deal with it! This approach WILL work because in the limit of tons of exercise and almost no food, you'll be emaciated.
If you are like me, see a doctor and be ready to do some real work (diet, exercise, pills, and more).
Well, you already claimed that diet and exercise don't work for you. So what is this 'work' of which you speak? Pills? 'And more'?
If eat less, exercise more works for you, be happy because it doesn't work for everyone.
It DOES work for everyone. You just haven't gone far enough yet for your particular situation.
Whats ironic is that the makers of this "so called controller" never bothered to make one for the Gamecube. Ah well no big loss, it'll just end up in the heap like all the other 50 billion fitness gimmicks over the last few decades that are designed, not to work, but to steal your money.
You must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait! - Gimpy
Kids these days.
Back when I was a kid, if we wanted to build up our arms, we jacked off - AND WE LIKED IT!
playing videogames for extended periods of time certainly builds muscle.
:)
why, after my first 10 hour marathon of Street Fighter II on the SNES, I found that the little muscle between my index finger and thumb on my left hand was weak and unable to move well. three days later (and a few more marathons), the damn thing was rock hard.
also, playing games like Tekken Tag Tournament (especially when playing someone like King, Nina, or Armor King) will build up the muscles in your right forearm, from all the repetitions of complex button presses. after a good 2 hour stint of "king of the hill" on a Tekken Tag arcade machine, one's forearms will be screaming for mercy.
oh, they meant cardiovascular fitness? pfft. who needs to jog for miles when I can crush concrete with my bare hands.
This seems like it could spur a whole new surge of Repetitives Stress Injuries. My hands used to hurt enough just from using a regular control pad.....
-shpoffo
Don't know who the AC was, but i can't resist a challenge: Sony PS2: $180 Copy of Gran Turismo 4: $50 Kilowatt gaming system: $695 Having an excuse for your overdeveloped forearm muscles other than pr0n: pricless
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
There was an arcade game at on point where you flew a stationary bike through varoius landscapes. I've often thought that ifI had one of those on my home pc, I might be in much better shape, esp. if the attached game could hold my attention.
JFMILLER
Strive to make your client happy, not necessarly give them what they ask for
Jumping would help everything.
Go to an arcade, drop some tokens into Konami's Dance Dance Revolution Extreme, choose heavy mode, and pick any of the songs "Dynamite Rave", "Drop Out", or "Maxx Unlimited", all of which feature rapid-fire jumps (a "jump" in DDR involves pressing two arrows at once). Then see if you still want a jumping game.
The article states that the controller will be compatible with XBox, PS2 and GCN. I'm assuming the way this works is that they include a controller>ps2 cable, a controller>xbox cable and a controller>gcn cable, so that one merely has to connect the correct cable. The major problem I see with this is extended support for newer consoles. While I do not personally own any home exersice equipment, I know people that do, and from that, I do know that the usefull life of exercise equipment is generally much longer than the life of a typical console.
So what happens to all the people who buy this, then can't get appropriate connectors for the PS3, or XBOX2 or the Nintendo Game SuperQuadratic Ellipsoid or something. I know I would be upset to spend $700 on this thing, then not have it be supported in 3 years when the new consoles come out.
Another problem I see is that if they do indeed use the same unit with different connectors (which would seem the most logical way of doing it by far), the consoles each have rather unique control schemes, and a common button interface may not adapt well to any of them trying to support all of them.
That said, I could see the unit popular amongst XBox Players, as the unit as described seems to be quite a bit smaller than the standard xbox controller, and only slightly larger than the new smaller controller </really old humor>
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
reebok cyberrider has been on sale for over a year now http://www.reebokfitness.co.uk/upload/Products/Ful lsize/cyberriderlarge.jpg
I know of at least two more exercise bike/entertainment combinations, but sadly I don't know any product names:
The first is a combination that I recall seeing at EPCOT at Walt Disney World in Florida several years ago. The user picks a city and a video of a "ride-thru" of the city is shown on a TV monitor. The speed of the rider's pedaling determines the speed of the video. It was fun to try and match the speed as perfectly as possible to the speed the video was shot at...but it was also fun to pedal as fast as possible just to see things fly by. I believe you sat in a reclined seat, more like the bicycles built for speed records
The other is more exciting. I also saw it at EPCOT on the same trip, but I've also seen it featured in Nintendo Power magazine. The unit was a fairly normal exercise bike with a TV and Super Nintendo in front of it and one half of a Super Nintendo controller on each handlebar. The only game that I know of that really took advantage of the set up was a bicycle racing game in which your pedaling determined the speed of your character in the bicycle race. The game itself was seen on the TV from behind your racer, and when other racers were next to you, you could hit a button on the controller to reach out and push/grab them. The digital pad was used to steer.
The last one especially was always an exciting idea to me, and it's a shame the idea didn't truly take off. I'd love to have something like that now with 5~ different games I could play for 30 minutes once a week each.
As a side note, I've also been interested in the Pocket Pikachu, Nintendo's Pokemon-themed digital pet. Not only was it IMO one of the superior digital pets, not only did it link via infrared to a Game Boy Color running Pokemon Yellow, it also included a pedometer that I'm sure encouraged a lot of people to take the long way to and from where they were going.
Thin doesn't imply healthy. When we discuss people with no muscles who weigh 300 pounds, we are talking about fat and that is unhealthy. On the same hand, a thin person with no muscle and a poor diet, but little fat, is still unhealthy. Fat people don't understand that their problem isn't that they're fat, it's that they're eating unhealthy foods and making themselves unhealthy. The solution isn't to "become thin", it's to become healthy, which for some body types might mean having a bit of love handles and stuff like that, but still regular work outs and avoiding sugar and carb fluffs (which are also the SOLE REASON for tooth decay and cavities, and the reason why they don't satisfy the body.)
Basically, you'll have to end up not listening to a bird on TV telling you to eat a colorful cereal just because they fortified vitamins into the nothingness that it is. Marketing and Business is the study of lying to trick people into using stuff they don't need. Here are the only things your body needs, for those who are brainwashed and completely forgot:
1) Water. Water water water. NOT LIQUIDS. NOT FLUIDS. I'm talking about water!
2) Food. Not sugar, not carbs. Do you guys even know that sugar and carbs are just cheap placebos that don't do anything positive for the body, just triggering an insulin spike to eat more of them? Except they're worse than placebos because they actually hurt you. Sugar is the reason we have cavities, we did not have cavities until coca cola and other sugary foods entered mainstream. Why did they enter the mainstream? TO MAKE THOSE PEOPLE MONEY. And the companies still lie and market that shit as healthy when none of it is. Eat manly stuff like red meat, all sorts of meat, half of your diet meat! That will fill you up. The carbs should be stuff like vegetables and fruits (and their sugars are good because they fibers of the fruits wipe the sugar off the teeth!), etc. Basically, you do need to eat carbs, but THE MAIN THING THAT SHOULD BE THE DIET IS MEAT. Unlike this crap that the FDA says, that it should be 11 servings of bread. LOL. The diet should be meat and fruits and some milk. Eat cereal once in a while (Cheerios, Special K, Korn Flakes) of course. The whole point is to switch from eating cheap dime a dozen carbs to meat. WHY DO YOU THINK SUBWAY HAS SO MUCH BREAD AND SO LITTLE MEAT? Do you think it is because they want to follow the FDA guidelines? It's because THE LITTLE MEAT YOU GET IS is expensive compared to the TONS of bread that's worthless. That just makes you feel like not hungry for 10 seconds. You do need carbs with meat, but not as much as we are used to seeing. They should give half the bread and 3 times as much meat. Except this would cost like 3 times more!!! Why? BECAUSE MEAT IS WORTH MORE AND BREAD IS WORTHLESS! It spikes your insulin and makes you want to eat more stupid shit like that which just stores as fat.
Cover your eyes and click this link!
videogames can promote health!!!
honestly dont go buy some glorified force feedback joystick. how about going out and doing something. or if you must play videogames, choose one that provides a strong aerobic workout like DDR.
...this is not going to be any serious exercise. Maybe I'm missing something, but the demo showed no significant range of motion being used in ANY muscle. Of course, exercising through the full range of motion is critical to any serious fitness regimen.
It is also possible that the thing is a real hazard. If that back/hip rest is placed a bit too high, and the user suddenly applies a lot of force with one or two legs, the stronger leg muscles could overwhelm the back muscles and cause an injury.
As a lifelong serious competitor currently in training, I would ordinarily be 100% behind this type of development. But, it MUST be done right, and I don't think these guys have it, unless I'm missing something.
One of the most promising things that I saw wasn't even designed as an exercise. It was a large screen video game where the player rode a stationary bike. The scenario was that you had bicycle-powered ornithopter-like aircraft and were involved in a race both around a course and picking off various bonus items. Wonderfully whimsical and well done. To control the craft you pressed the handlebars to turn and pedaled faster or slower to go up or down. Hours of laughs the first time we found it, and fun later.
I can't criticize them because they weren't trying to create an exercise device, but I do bemoan the missed opportunity. This engaging scenario could have helped users exercise HARD for genuinely useful periods. In fact, the one distraction was that the pedals had no resistance, so were a bit harder to control. Ah, but for a generator and a resistive loop controlled by the software...
and they dont realize that the market they're targeting don't already have an overly developed arm as compared to the other?
But I take issue with your other claims. They are, to put it bluntly also bullshit. There are very few, if any, vitamins, minerals or substances needed by the body that would in any way be lost by being powderized. What do you imagine vitamins are ? Small glass-pearls that get crushed in a mill ? Heat harms many vitamins. As does prolonged storage. As does, in some cases, exposure over a long time to uv-ligth. There's no nutrient that I'm aware of that takes any damage from being ground to a dust.
You're rigth though that cutting calories help with loosing weigth. That's fairly obvious to anyone who doesn't live in la-la-land. And you're also rigth that many of the high-carb foods we eat today contain few useful nutrients beyond the raw carbs. (aka "empty calories")
"Enriched/fortified bread is made from enriched white flour, which is milled from only the endosperm of the wheat kernel. "
Not all complex carbohydrates carry the same nutritional benefits. "Refined" starchy foods like white rice, white pasta, white bread, and cereals made from "enriched wheat flour," lack the fiber and several of the nutrients that "whole grain" foods provide. In a sense, refined, starchy foods act more like simple sugars in the body and provide mostly empty calories.
What is a "Whole Grain?"
A whole grain has four parts: the germ (the nutrient-rich inner part), the endosperm (th soft white, starchy inside portion), the bran (the fibrous coating around the grain), and the husk (the outer inedible shell).
What Is "Refinement?"
Refinement is the process that removes all but the endosperm portion of the grain, leaving a white, nutrient-poor refined flour.
What Is "Enrichment?"
Enrichment is the process that adds back five nutrients to white, refined flour: iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folic acid. All the other nutrients from the whole grain are still lost (magnesium, zinc, vitamin B6, cromium, vitamin E, and fiber).
What's Considered "Whole Grain" and What Isn't?
Use the following guidelines to make sure you are really getting whole grain products:
*Cracked wheat, stoned wheat, wheatberry, 100% wheat, seven-grain, and multi-grain are all made from mostly refined grains, not whole grains.
*Look for the word "whole" before "grain" or "wheat" on product labels. It also should be the first ingredient listed.
Complexity of Carbs Link
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