@Lawya:

i remember that also, black unit with a steering wheel that used a odometer for counting score and a red buzzer for showing collision with cars in the background, it used a physical car model on a clear piece of plastic with a background that rotated much like a treadmill.

good times!

teeuwen

I worked with the man who designed the IR sensor system for the power glove. Pretty interesting & smart guy.

yashichi8bit

@Ehardergardens: sigh it may HAVE predated the nintendo lightgun, I recall the patent looking like it was from the 70's

Ehardergardens

@Ehardergardens: also it may not have predated the nintendo lightgun...

Ehardergardens

@Parapraxis: I don't think so, can't recall the girl's last name, but I don't think that was it.. it wasn't the look of the gun, it was the principle that made it work...

Ehardergardens

For the track & Field trick, no need to get a special device, just use a Carmex or Chap-Stick tube. Works perfectly. lol

Capp

@reddkidd mcpeepants TheMadjai

I'm with those guys. I don't quite remember the model car (not saying it wasn't there, just that I didn't rememeber), but I definitely had a game where you watched a video of traffic and were scored with an odometer-style ticker that counted down when you collided with something.

Lawya

@Ehardergardens:

was that lance barr?

Parapraxis

Racing's good, but think of a Sonic game built on this premise. Having a physical component to represent Sonic means no other characters.

MysidianMan

I cant help thinking I've seen something similar before like maybe I drooled over it in a JCPennys catalog (there wasn't much else to do in the middle of nowhere). Also, speaking of old school T.V. tech, what the heck was that toy line of spaceships that interacted with the T.V. and when you got "shot" the cockpit popped out? I wanted one of those so freaking bad! LOL. I'm kinda glad I never got one, that thing had to suck right? At least thats what I'm telling myself as I gently cry into my pillow every night.

Oreot

a friend of an ex girlfriend of mine showed me the patent for the original (nintendo?) light gun done by her father I believe... sort of neat... of course it didn't look anything like the final version just the design of how it would operate

Ehardergardens

We laugh...

...but it's only funny until someone eventually makes a slightly similar gaming device then gets their asses sued.

Mact

THAT'S AMAZING!

get2sammyb

Wait 50 years, and then it will become so retro it's next gen. it works with vacum cleaners, it can work with video games!

Acebuckeye13

I've got one in my basement - Tyco & Sega joint production

mcpeepants

I don't know if this was made by Sega either, but I definitely played this game. It wasn't a video game, though.. it was a movie that you watched and then drove the car through the traffic. Score was based on what you hit and your speed.

Looking back, I remember waiting in LINE to play that thing at church lock-ins and stuff. Because the car was *real*.

TheMadjai

These patents are made up of my childhood dreams.

firstworldman

I think i may have played this thing before, or I just got to that weird place where your dreams meet up with reality. Either way, it's bizarre.

reddkidd

They never should have taken the force choke out of the Power Glove's initial design.

Mister_Jack

@yashichi8bit: that man had a hand (ahem) in crushing the trust of so many children...

Ehardergardens

@bigbadron: SURELY it's worth it man? Think of the masses!

GViper

jesus christ, i had thing as well. that shit was amazing way back in the day. i bet if i looked hard enough, i could find the vhs tape for it. but that would require me to go through a shit ton of boxes.

bigbadron

@teeuwen: The buzzer! I was pretty young when I played this game, so I heard that buzzer a lot.

Lawya

@TheMadjai: Yeah I think I had that toy too when I was a kid.

The Sega drive gadget thing actually sounds good.Though I admit it would be too cumbersome to implement.

I'm still wishing for a First Person Fighting/MMA/Boxing game wherein you strap gloves on and the game tracks what you do physically. Yeah it's never going to be made as the audience will be very very limited but I can still imagine can't I?! =D

excaliburps

@TheMadjai: True story. I've seen it at several Dave and Busters. I've also played one with a motion-tracked katana. That was ~2003, and it was still way better than Red Steel.

Lawya

@excaliburps: They have that game! It's in the arcades. If you can find a gameworks around you somewhere, they're almost sure to have it. It's a boxing game where you stand in a cage-like-thing, and strap on these... Oh, the closest thing I can come up with is "handles" and it tracks your dodges and your punches.

It's... exhausting. :)

TheMadjai

That "power glove" one looks like it would probably work better than the real one. It looks like it takes actual movements of the wrist to bend mechanical joints. The bending of those joints then are translated into code like press left and transmitted to the console. It essentially looks like just a wireless remote in which button presses are replaced with wrist movements. The real power glove worked (or didn't work as the case may be) using dreams and well wishes.

Also, it reminds me of the controls you sometimes see for robotic arms which are actually kind of worn by the operator.

Or the controls of the loader from the final fight of Aliens.

Eltigro

The funny thing about the NES cart one is that the caution label in the drawing is waaaayyy too high for where they actually are on the carts. GG patent drawer.

edgeblade

Um yeah, that's a real product. From Sega and Tyco. You mounted the car/sensor thing to the tv, popped in the VHS tape, and you "drove" the little car around avoiding obstacles.

Technically, it worked like this: The sensor bar hid the bottom part of the screen, where there was just a big black space. When you started "driving", the sensor (which was attached underneath the little toy car) would move back and forth. On the video, little white lines would appear on the left or right side of the black area (unless you were supposed to stop... then it would be all white). If the car/sensor was in the white area, you would get penalized.

Ghetto arcade FMV goodness.

miniboss1232

@Oreot: Man I so remembered that toy but for the life of me I can't remember what that toy was called.

Retorrent

@Capp: Yeah, we would always use an AA battery for track and field.

I also remember the game with the plastic car on the screen.

Adam In Texas

@firstworldman: False. Your dreams are made up of those patents. Prepare for litigation!

Chef

Scud Race in Europe had the "Crazy Toy" cabinet. You sat down into a plastic modeled car (1 or 2 people would fit in) and using hydraulics, it would make the car model on which you were seated go left/right, and rumble as you were steering or crashing.

CraiZE

It was called the "Video Driver" and it was made by Sega. The launch titles were "California Chase" and "Road Race" They were just VHS tapes with bars that scrolled on the bottom to detect where your car was and take off points if you "drove" in the wrong place. I still have it.

4crVinnk

The Power glove is the grandfather of the wii-remote and the running pad is grandfather of the balance board. Reinvention is an amazing thing.

Ryodestined