Videogame oddities and peculiar failed experiments

[RCBH928]

I like new stuff, videogames are all about fun and excitement. Plus I think experimenting is what brings new breakthrough games. You can only imagine the guy behind FPS was too afraid to make the that kind of game because only platformers are selling well.
But it also makes sense, companies are heading for maximum profit so they are too afraid to take a chance.

I liked the idea that you connect with the characters in the game. I think when you are playing yourself is much more immersing than to play the game's main character, specially in an RPG.

[J T]

I think one of the most interesting ongoing videogame experiments is the use of games for personal fitness, an area of games sometimes called exergaming.

The early days of the NES had the Power Pad, first released in 1986. By running in place on the pad buttons, you controlled the speed of your character in various Track n' Field style games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Pad

In 1990, Taito released Super Sonic Blast Man. This was later released as a beat em up style game for the SNES, but it was originally an arcade machine with a punching pad that measured the strength of your punching ability. You battle various Godzilla-ish creatures to save the city. You had to hit them hard enough to knock them out in a few tries. It required greater and greater physical strength to knock out the later enemies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Blast_Man

In 1996, Namco released an arcade machine called Prop Cycle. You controlled a flying bicycle by pedaling on a stationary bike and you controlled your movements with handlebars. This game was a lot of fun, but required too many quarters to get a decent workout and was too expensive for the average person to buy.
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9139

By the turn of the century, the Exertris was born.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exertris
This was an exercise bike you could buy for your home that came preloaded with several videogames that were affected by the rate of your cycling. A tetris style puzzler would slow the rate of your falling blocks so you could score more points. A shmup gained increasing fire power through harder pedaling.

There are also various other exercise bikes and steppers. Some use the device as the controller, but often they just require that you keep moving in order to play your videogames on a standard controller. If you stop pedaling, the machine stops sending your controller's signal to the console. These seemed kind of lame to me, so I haven't bothered to try them.
http://www.gamercize.net/

Of course, there are other things that have been much more succesful attempts at combining videogames and exercise: Dance pad games like Dance Dance Revolution, Stepmania, Pump It Up, and In the Groove are all examples of popular exercise games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_pad

Sony's EyeToy requires physical movements that can help you get in a workout at home, particularly the game Kinetic, which provides you with a virtual physical trainer that leads your through various exercise movements that feedback into the game through the eyetoy. This often involves moving your body to touch various parts of the screen or mimic movement patterns where your image is overlayed on an animation you are supposed to follow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_Toy

The Playstation 2, XBox, and PC also had a game called Yourself! Fitness that has a virtual trainer that leads you through various exercise routines. You don't really control a character on screen, but you can customize your workout routines, select various music and environments, and track your progress with the game, which makes it better than your standard exercise video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJFNL8a9qPM

Yourself! Fitness was later picked up by Ubisoft and the name was changed to My Fitness Coach to go along with their "My Coach" series of games that can help you get in shape, eat better, stop smoking, learn a foreign language, improve your SAT scores, etc.
www.mycoachgames.com

Of course, everyone knows about Wii Fit as well, which is famous because of videos like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_MGPuevQK0

Now the EA Sports Active system is hoping to out-do Wii Fit and become the exercise gaming champ:
http://www.easportsactive.com/home.action

Of course, there is

[noiseredux]

"I love the Power Glove. It's so bad."

[NSBAceAttorney]

I just picked up LifeLine for the Playstation 2. If you don't know what LifeLine is, this game requires that you use a USB microphone or headset. Though you use a standard controller to bring up various maps and menus, you primarily control the game by using your voice and speaking scripts that the game can recognize.

The story is set in the future. You and a woman named Rio are both in a posh space hotel that was recently attacked by alien monsters. You are stuck in the security monitor room, but you can watch Rio through the security cameras and give her verbal instructions to act out. Rio agrees to help you find the woman you love and rescue you if you promise to give her guidance from the monitor room.

I have only played about 30 minutes so far, but I like the game because it has such a unique control concept. Now, the down side is that it can be very tricky to know what exact words you have to say to get the software to recognize what you want it to do. Nevertheless, I was surprised to find that talking to Rio quickly made me feel attached to her character. She looks to the camera and speaks to you and you kind of feel like she is really acknowledging you.

I like games like this that try something totally different, whether it works or not. LifeLine only half works, but the graphics are really nice, the voice acting is decent, and it is genuine novel and when it works right, it's pretty magnificent. I'm wondering if you guys have any other suggestions for peculiar games that tried to do something original (especially in terms of the controls) that really isn't like anything out there.

http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/ ... view/53829 enough said about LifeLine

[J T]

^ heh. Yeah, that's LifeLine. If you are willing to adjust your dialogue to just use the scripted lines though, and you have enough patience to deal with the miscommunication, the game is unique and fun.

[molotovwars]

I think one of the most interesting ongoing videogame experiments is the use of games for personal fitness, an area of games sometimes called exergaming.

The early days of the NES had the Power Pad, first released in 1986. By running in place on the pad buttons, you controlled the speed of your character in various Track n' Field style games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Pad

In 1990, Taito released Super Sonic Blast Man. This was later released as a beat em up style game for the SNES, but it was originally an arcade machine with a punching pad that measured the strength of your punching ability. You battle various Godzilla-ish creatures to save the city. You had to hit them hard enough to knock them out in a few tries. It required greater and greater physical strength to knock out the later enemies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Blast_Man

In 1996, Namco released an arcade machine called Prop Cycle. You controlled a flying bicycle by pedaling on a stationary bike and you controlled your movements with handlebars. This game was a lot of fun, but required too many quarters to get a decent workout and was too expensive for the average person to buy.
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9139

By the turn of the century, the Exertris was born.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exertris
This was an exercise bike you could buy for your home that came preloaded with several videogames that were affected by the rate of your cycling. A tetris style puzzler would slow the rate of your falling blocks so you could score more points. A shmup gained increasing fire power through harder pedaling.

There are also various other exercise bikes and steppers. Some use the device as the controller, but often they just require that you keep moving in order to play your videogames on a standard controller. If you stop pedaling, the machine stops sending your controller's signal to the console. These seemed kind of lame to me, so I haven't bothered to try them.
http://www.gamercize.net/

Of course, there are other things that have been much more succesful attempts at combining videogames and exercise: Dance pad games like Dance Dance Revolution, Stepmania, Pump It Up, and In the Groove are all examples of popular exercise games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_pad

Sony's EyeToy requires physical movements that can help you get in a workout at home, particularly the game Kinetic, which provides you with a virtual physical trainer that leads your through various exercise movements that feedback into the game through the eyetoy. This often involves moving your body to touch various parts of the screen or mimic movement patterns where your image is overlayed on an animation you are supposed to follow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_Toy

The Playstation 2, XBox, and PC also had a game called Yourself! Fitness that has a virtual trainer that leads you through various exercise routines. You don't really control a character on screen, but you can customize your workout routines, select various music and environments, and track your progress with the game, which makes it better than your standard exercise video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJFNL8a9qPM

Yourself! Fitness was later picked up by Ubisoft and the name was changed to My Fitness Coach to go along with their "My Coach" series of games that can help you get in shape, eat better, stop smoking, learn a foreign language, improve your SAT scores, etc.
http://www.mycoachgames.com

Of course, everyone knows about Wii Fit as well, which is famous because of videos like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_MGPuevQK0

Now the EA Sports Active system is hoping to out-do Wii Fit and become the exercise gaming champ:
http://www.easportsactive.com/home.action

Of course, there is

I can probably get the details, but my friend's mom works as a physical therapist and she bought an exercise bike for the PS1, I remember it being pretty expensive and you would pedal the bike to drive the cars. I think it was compatible with a decent amount of games. I'll have to see if she still has it, it would be a very cool item to pick up, as I'm sure she just uses a Wii now for gaming therapy purposes.

[Dreamstation]

The whole FMV genre was a total failure.

[PGchris]

I think one of the most interesting ongoing videogame experiments is the use of games for personal fitness, an area of games sometimes called exergaming.

The early days of the NES had the Power Pad, first released in 1986. By running in place on the pad buttons, you controlled the speed of your character in various Track n' Field style games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Pad

In 1990, Taito released Super Sonic Blast Man. This was later released as a beat em up style game for the SNES, but it was originally an arcade machine with a punching pad that measured the strength of your punching ability. You battle various Godzilla-ish creatures to save the city. You had to hit them hard enough to knock them out in a few tries. It required greater and greater physical strength to knock out the later enemies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Blast_Man

In 1996, Namco released an arcade machine called Prop Cycle. You controlled a flying bicycle by pedaling on a stationary bike and you controlled your movements with handlebars. This game was a lot of fun, but required too many quarters to get a decent workout and was too expensive for the average person to buy.
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9139

By the turn of the century, the Exertris was born.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exertris
This was an exercise bike you could buy for your home that came preloaded with several videogames that were affected by the rate of your cycling. A tetris style puzzler would slow the rate of your falling blocks so you could score more points. A shmup gained increasing fire power through harder pedaling.

There are also various other exercise bikes and steppers. Some use the device as the controller, but often they just require that you keep moving in order to play your videogames on a standard controller. If you stop pedaling, the machine stops sending your controller's signal to the console. These seemed kind of lame to me, so I haven't bothered to try them.
http://www.gamercize.net/

Of course, there are other things that have been much more succesful attempts at combining videogames and exercise: Dance pad games like Dance Dance Revolution, Stepmania, Pump It Up, and In the Groove are all examples of popular exercise games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_pad

Sony's EyeToy requires physical movements that can help you get in a workout at home, particularly the game Kinetic, which provides you with a virtual physical trainer that leads your through various exercise movements that feedback into the game through the eyetoy. This often involves moving your body to touch various parts of the screen or mimic movement patterns where your image is overlayed on an animation you are supposed to follow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_Toy

The Playstation 2, XBox, and PC also had a game called Yourself! Fitness that has a virtual trainer that leads you through various exercise routines. You don't really control a character on screen, but you can customize your workout routines, select various music and environments, and track your progress with the game, which makes it better than your standard exercise video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJFNL8a9qPM

Yourself! Fitness was later picked up by Ubisoft and the name was changed to My Fitness Coach to go along with their "My Coach" series of games that can help you get in shape, eat better, stop smoking, learn a foreign language, improve your SAT scores, etc.
http://www.mycoachgames.com

Of course, everyone knows about Wii Fit as well, which is famous because of videos like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_MGPuevQK0

Now the EA Sports Active system is hoping to out-do Wii Fit and become the exercise gaming champ:
http://www.easportsactive.com/home.action

Of course, there is

Wow, this was all really interesting I really want to play that sonic blastman arcade, this is a great thread. Heres a new cool looking skateboard controller for the new tony hawk game "Ride" http://www.shredordie.com/videos/ee8ec6 ... awk-6-9-09. And also heres an article about a bunch of crazy weird/stupid controllers including one that I think is supposed to simulate dragon riding??? http://www.gamespy.com/articles/994/994234p1.html

[RCBH928]

I was thinking , can arcade survive with systems that are too expensive to buy.

Like instead of a controller you can have a full car with gear , clutches, and everything. Or like you can engage in a war by riding a robot like machine and it has all these buttons and controllers. It will be fun playing with others, after all videogames are a social activity mostly and online gameplay can't prove that much more.

[J T]

I was thinking , can arcade survive with systems that are too expensive to buy.

Like instead of a controller you can have a full car with gear , clutches, and everything. Or like you can engage in a war by riding a robot like machine and it has all these buttons and controllers. It will be fun playing with others, after all videogames are a social activity mostly and online gameplay can't prove that much more.

Most arcades have gone that route in recent years. There aren't that many standing cabinets with a joystick and buttons, but there are lots of driving games, light gun games, dance pad games, and various other setups for riding skateboards, skiing, horse racing, playing drums, kung fu fighting etc. Plus, a lot of the old time arcade staples have stuck around as well: air hockey, pinball machines, games where you win redeemable tickets.

You can't get many people to the arcade with standard games anymore because they are usually done better on home consoles now.

I personally think people should find ways to turn standard exercise equipment into controllers for exergaming and create entire arcade gyms that can track your progress on memory cards and link you up with other players at the same gym or online. Have people sign up for membership instead of dropping quarters and you could have a hit.