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Give A Workout To More Than Just Your Thumbs
RosethornKB writes "Over at Killer Betties, we have an article on all the fitness games available on the market currently. From the article: 'Perhaps it was the Nintendo Power Pad that issued in the era of interactive and athletic workout videogames, but the results were less than thrilling and the new technology did not takeoff as intended. The Nintendo Power Pad - a twelve button (6 red and 6 blue on one side or 2 red and 6 blue depending on what side you were using) mat with sensors that corresponded to the presses you inputted for certain games that supported the peripheral - hardly made an impact when it was released in 1988.'"
I remember my sister had a dance game where the goal was to hit certain buttons on the power pad set a la DDR. It never did take off like DDR did some years later.
Even though I'm terribly uncoordinated I did beat the game; I found that if you plugged in a controller and hit "select" it advanced you to the next level.
Monstar L
The Nintendo Power Pad - a twelve button (6 red and 6 blue on one side or 2 red and 6 blue depending on what side you were using) mat with sensors that corresponded to the presses you inputted for certain games that supported the peripheral - hardly made an impact when it was released in 1988.'"
Yeah, because it took us fat kids all of 10 seconds to realize we could just sit on the floor and slap the pads with our hands.
Am I the only one, or did someone else immediately think "masturbation" after reading the title?
1) Buy DDR + two RedOctane pads ...
2) Get girlfriend and her friends hooked on game
3) Crack beer
4)
5) Profit
It's not cheap, but they didn't mention the Kilowatt, which is basically an exercise joystick. (you have to throw your weight into it, and it's supposed to have some adjustable resistance)
It looks like the company has a less expensive controller coming out, too.
If you search for 'exercise controllers' on your favorite search engine, you'll also find info about products from companies like Qmotions and CatEye.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
They manage to forget a similar floor controller for the 2600 - The Joyboard - developed by the same engineers who developed the Amiga. The original versions of the Amiga OS would occasionally serve up a crash report with a 'Guru Meditation' dumping the processor state - the story goes that one of the programmers liked to sit cross legged on the board and try to balance it while figuring out what had caused the crash - in this pose he resembled a meditating Guru, hence the error message.
There's a page on this at wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_meditation
How could they forget the Kilowatt Pro by Powergrid?! You plug it in to a game console (PS2,XBox,Game Cube) or PC (USB) and work out. There's a stick that you push, and use it like the left controller. It's not much fun on anything but driving games, where you push harder to go faster. I imagine it works with Tetris though.
Webmaster Wanted - Entropic Reactions
Video games are all well and good, but, when they are our entertainment (good ol' fashion games), our living (MMORPG economies), our excersize (DDR), our significant others (video porn), our pets (robot dogs), and our education (games in schools), where do we draw the line? Virtual friends? Virtual parents?
There is this culture developing around video games that seeks to virtualize every aspect of real life. If real life sucks so much, why even go to that effort? You'll probably find that the things that suck in the real world end up sucking in the virtual one, too.
In a hundred years or so, God will probably send down a virtual prophet to reel in yet another round of (now virtualized) decadence. In that prophesy, people will wonder if there is life after a power cycle.
From TFA:"Spinning and bicycling classes are a great way to burn calories and get your heart pumping, but sometimes the tunes blaring in your iPod just aren't enough to keep you enthralled for the entire session,"
For those who have trouble "[keeping] enthralled for the entire session" I would like to recommend a little game called "Biking Home In Rush Hour." My favorite level is "Down 5th Avenue and Across the Birmingham Bridge," though I'm sure that there are many other great ones.
How does a 7-person democracy cut a pie? Into 4 pieces.
Fitness Game Bot? It's only a matter of time...
"There is this culture developing around video games that seeks to virtualize every aspect of real life. If real life sucks so much, why even go to that effort? You'll probably find that the things that suck in the real world end up sucking in the virtual one, too."
Because the virtual world by it's nature, can be controlled. Suckage can be easily eliminated, reducing the virtual experience down to it's enjoyable essentials.
"Video games are all well and good, but, when they are our entertainment (good ol' fashion games), our living (MMORPG economies), our excersize (DDR), our significant others (video porn), our pets (robot dogs), and our education (games in schools), where do we draw the line? Virtual friends? Virtual parents?"
Speaks highly of the real world, doesn't it? Lose control of the real world, while building a virtual world were we have complete control.
"In a hundred years or so, God will probably send down a virtual prophet to reel in yet another round of (now virtualized) decadence. In that prophesy, people will wonder if there is life after a power cycle."
Not really, because the virtual is nothing without it's real foundations. One natural disaster and the game's up.
DDR was an obvious mention of the article- being an overweight guy myself, it's surprising how much fun it is to play a few rounds while making an ass of yourself in public. (You get over the nervousness quickly as you focus on your legs instead of those around you.) In fact, once the price drops on the PS2, I plan to buy one and whatever DDR games are out there to have a workout at home- a great way to relax after a hard day of slashdotting at work. Assuming I haven't already downloaded DanceMania.
I'm surprised they didn't mention the eyeToy- there are a few "games" out there that use it as a workout device (having you punch, kick, etc.) In fact, I think they have a screenshot of one eyeToy game right at the beginning.
Aside from those two things, I wonder how the Revolution will fare as an excersize platform. Since active motion will be a requirement, instead of an extra (except where developers pansy out and use the shell), it suddenly seems obvious that it could extend to excersize. Nintendo is also trying to focus on expanding the gaming market to the "common people", and if they can successfully get millions of housewives and cubical workers to get one of these, a work out game would really sell.
Think about something like tae-bo (sp?). Regulating it to just the hands, you could wear special gloves that hold a remote controller each. You can then punch along with whatever workout is being played, and the game can tell you how well you are matching the moves. If you get tired of just standing there and listening to music, hook a Ninchuck up to the controller and play a fist-a-cuffs game. Punch your way through armies of zombies, using the buttons to do special moves (karate chop!) and to switch hand held weapons (knives, brass knuckles, Britney Spear's latest CD...)
If you have four controllers, you could hook one to each lower leg as well.
Actually, I think that will be a "new" genre made for the Revolution- First Person Fighter (FPF). While there have been a few fighting games that had you in first person in the past, those were few and far between, and none have had this kind of input device to work with.
How could anyone forget this little gem? Rock 'n Roller
This is the NFL, which stands for "Not For Long" if you keep making those bulls*** calls.
Nintendo Power ... controllers (not the magazine) were not exactly what you would call a success. When was the last time you saw someone using a Power Glove ... 1989? Nintendo and SEGA both had stupid pads on the floor with IR sensors that added little to games that used them. Gamers are fatter than ever, if the idea did not go over well in the late to early 90s what makes anyone think it is going to go over well now? :)
I use my whole hand...
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Why not build something that is basicly an excercise bike, treadmill, rower or something similar but with a video game element (for example, pedal the bike faster and the bike on the screen goes faster and you win the race).
:)
Perhaps someone could hook an excercise bike to a MAME cabinet and use it with Prop Cycle
Full disclosure: I'm featured in the article. :-)
I play Nerd-Folk!
Nintendo had a partnership with Lifetime Fitness where they produced exactly what you described.
As seen here
When Nintendo originally previewed they had hoped to sell it to gamers for about $200 for the unit, but whenever was said and done it ended up being a lot more (Like $600 I think for the bike and game?) So they made a single unit built for fitness centers and sold a few of them to baileys and the like.
Its too bad, because in typical Nintendo fashion they promised the moon. It was supposed to have 2 player battles on the home version, and up to 8 player races in the arcade/fitness center. Even including features like varying resistance for going up and down hills.
AFAIK, there was only ever a single player version released. Screen shot here.
they had on at the local gym when I was a kid, but the stupid thing was always being hogged when I got there, until eventually the thing just wore out, so I've never actually tried it.
Here's a better article about computer games that rely on USB equipped exercise equipment:
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http://indystar.gns.gannett.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art
bkd
There are exercise bike like game controllers, and there are also computer add-ons for trainers for real bikes.7
http://www.gamebike.com/
http://www.gameindustry.com/review/item.asp?id=30
http://www.peaktrainingsystem.com/
http://www.cbike.com/Tacx_imagic.htm
rant