The Gym Arcade

theodp writes "Cross Halo with an exercise bike, and you get Expresso Fitness' S3, which lets you blow away dragons by squeezing handlebar-mounted triggers as you pedal hard through the Chinese countryside. Portfolio notes that a new generation of Wii-like workouts is hitting gyms and homes, with companies like GameRunner incorporating treadmills into First Person Shooters and Kickstart offering mini steppers and cycles for popular game systems."

Comments

An idea

[cvd6262]

I've been playing a little Red Alert (1) since it was released for free this year. At the same time, the weather is turning cold and I've had to set up my bicycle on a stationary trainer. Wouldn't it be cool to have an RTS where at least one of your resources was wattage produced from some exercise?

Pedal faster, build more units/buildings/etc.

Re:An idea

[Flying Scotsman]

Personally, I'd like some sort of racing game that uses your output on the stationary trainer's resistance wheel to propel your character (car, hovercraft, whatever) forwards, and some sort of device that sits under the fork's dropouts to control steering in the game. I once read about a similar system, but it was very, very, expensive, and it wasn't really a game. You just saw pretty pictures roll past on the screen.

cf. Propcycle

[6Yankee]

First thing that came to my mind when I read the headline was Propcycle.

I'd love to rig something similar up, using MS Flight Simulator and an exercise bike.

Do people really use these, on a regular basis?

[schnikies79]

I lift for about an hour 5 days/week and run about 30-40mpw. When I work out, I want to be unpluged. I don't want to see a screen, don't want to interact.

It's my mind, my body and me. Nothing else. Everyone needs it.

Re:Do people really use these, on a regular basis?

[Translation Error]

Then this definitely isn't something for you; you've got a good workout system that you enjoy. A lot of people find working out to be pretty boring and uncomfortable, though, which leaves them trying to force themselves to do something they don't enjoy.

Adding a gaming aspect to the workout removes the boredom and distracts from the discomfort, allowing these people to get the exercise they know they need--and enjoy it rather than enduring it (or maybe just giving up something they hate doing).

Re:lmao

[Steve525]

I don't agree. The reality is that for a lot of us it is very difficult to find enough people who are available to play, who are at a similar enough skill level. When I was younger it was much easier. Now, people are too busy for a pick up game. Clubs tend to have people who are pretty serious, and I'm not. So, if I want to exercise, I'm left either going to the gym (boring!) or finding an activity that's solo (biking - a little better). Something like this could make getting exercise a little more fun for people like me, and I don't see how that's a bad thing.

ESPN Street Racing

[Layth]

The key is to really work fun game play into the system, and I think this has a much greater chance of success than the children's "educational game software" attempts to make learning fun.

I remember an old playstation ESPN racing game where your character would ride around on a bike, but you could kick the other players on either side and knock them to the ground.

Add some blood, maybe a few screams as they hit the pavement and I think we would have a winner!

If you want to get really sophisticated that would be really badass if you could work something like this into google-streetview and ride around in actual city scape.

GameBike

[Steve525]

This isn't exactly a new idea. I bought a gamebike (http://www.cateyefitness.com/GameBike/) a year ago for this sort of thing. It's an exercise bike which plugs into a PS2. Unfortunately, I don't have a TV for it, yet. So, at the moment it's just serving as an ordinary exercise bike. My impression from the brief time I tried it, is that'll it'll be more fun that just riding an exercise bike, but it isn't a great controller. Part of the problem is that PS2 games aren't made with this bike in mind. Custom games written for it could make it much more fun.

Re:lmao

[dontmakemethink]

What's more funny is that most of these are aerobic exercises. Just play soccer or something. I hope these fail, because this only makes the art of "fun exercise" less social.

But what if workout chains started installing networked Wii-like facilities?

I would pay good money to see a roomful of hot chicks storming the beaches of Normany on bicycles.

Re:lmao

[Laser_iCE]

Actually, the average age of gamers in Australia is 30:

http://au.gamespot.com/news/6200065.html

Healthy Gaming

[Anonymous Coward]

More news and info about health related video games here:

http://www.healthygaming.com/blog/