History of Motion Detection in Gaming

kukyfrope writes "In the spirit of the Revolution controller, GameDaily takes a look at the history of motion detection in console games, including U-Force and the infamous NES Power Glove, to name a few." From the article: "When the Sega Genesis came around a few years later, Sega decided to try their hand- and legs and feet- in the motion-sensor game with the release of a device called the Activator. This was a grid-like octagon that laid on the ground and allowed the user to stand in the middle of it, and then use a number of motions to convey actions in a series of games that worked with it, including Sega's brawling titles Streets of Rage 2 and Eternal Champions. But, again, it took too much effort to really figure out how to make it work in a comprehensive manner, and many folks just ended up taking a pass on it."

Comments

They Left Out My Favorite!

[Cadef]

I remember way back in the Genesis days... My parents bought me what was perhaps the strangest input device ever... a chair. Basically, it was a seat mounted on top of a set of joystick actuators, so that when you leaned left the game received a "left" input, etc. It even had a vertical grip for each hand that had the buttons mounted in the handle. One of my favorite games ever for that was Road Rash. Road Rash was a series of motorcycle racing/combat games. Motorcycle racing was especially well-suited to the chair/controller contraption, because in order to turn your bike left, you just leaned left, a lot like on an actual motorcycle. I loved that thing, until the actuators finally wore out.