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The Power Glove Lives! - Alternate Game Control Schemes
Thanks to Armchair Arcade for its article discussing alternate videogame control schemes from the '80s to the present day, particularly concentrating on "a consumer VR glove called the P5", which takes a cue from "the legendary [Nintendo] Power Glove." However, the author comments "One thing you will quickly notice when playing [P5-compatible] games is how tired they make your arm... When I was in elementary school, I had a teacher who would punish students by making them stand with their arm over their head for five minutes. At the end of the ordeal, your hands are cold from lack of circulation and your muscles are fatigued. It's the same thing here." Armchair Arcade also has a number of other new articles online, including a look at intellectual property and videogame history, and a discussion of FPS games vs. 2D platformers.
DDR on a huge blurry screen would suck... accuracy would go right out the window. I admit it's a cool concept-- and if you had an LCD monitor for the dancers to use, it would look hella cool-- but unless it's a little sharper I probably wouldn't want to use FogScreen for anything that requires a whole lot of pinpoint precision.
I came very close to picking up EyeToy Groove the other night (decided on Mario vs. DK and Viewtiful Joe instead) simply because I love the challenge of something totally different from what I expect to think of when I hear "video game". It's part of what attracted me to DDR in the first place; I'm particularly fond of gun games, and the recent crop of motion-capture games to come out of Konami (Police 911, MoCap Boxing/Golf) are certainly welcome in any arcade. If games want to continue to be successful they cannot be afraid to bend or break existing control paradigms. Give it a couple more months, maybe a year, and we'll start seeing a few of the more obscure Bemani games come to the US-- and following those, more games with unique cabinets and unique controls.
To go off on a tangent, anyone who says that arcades are dying because home consoles can do things better than an arcade cabinet has obviously not been to an arcade recently. Here in Erie, we have two major arcades (plus the occasional machine in shops here and there). Each of these is filled with games with highly-specialized cabinets. One arcade (Splash Lagoon, if you find yourself on I-90 one afternoon with a few bucks to burn) has DDR, Warzaid (Vietnam-looking 4-player gun game w/ rifles), Mechwarrior (with full-motion cockpit-- hella fun), about half a dozen more gun games, and MoCap Boxing, Golf and Police 911 2. Aside from DDR, show me any of the home versions of these. Arcade game manufacturers need to focus a little bit more on creating new games that simply can't be done economically on a home console. Spend a few extra bucks on a specialized cabinet and I can guarantee you that if the game doesn't suck, you will make that money back.
(Don't mod either of these offtopic, please-- DDR is pretty much the textbook definition of "alternate control schemes". ^_^)
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
Wow, you missed here on a pretty obvious point, demonstrating that you didn't read the article, nor are you familiar with the device. The p5 is for the PC, and has been out for at least two years or so.
Other peripherals - for example the multitude of light guns for every system, or the DDR pad for home versions - have all sold quite well, despite not coming with a system. Some light-gun games have even sold for $99 or so instead of $50 because they include a gun (i.e. no real savings, you just get a branded gun).
"Stumble before you crawl"
I was think of getting a P5 after I heard that Black & White supported it.
P5 + B&W = not too good.
Although B&W says it uses a "hand" to control everything, that's really just a different looking mouse cursor. B&W's interface is highly optimized towards use with a regular mouse (gestures and everything), so you wouldn't gain anything from having 5 fingers to bend. Although it would give a new meaning to gorilla arm... ("I got gorilla arm from slapping my monkey too much")
(But then again, my P5 is really too inaccurate to use for anything. Even clicking desktop icons is a challenge)