Exergaming

Exergaming is a term used to describe video games that gives the player a workout while playing. Most people usually associate this form of gaming/excercise with Wii Fit or Dance Dance Revolution.




However this practice of making exercise video games has been around since time of the oringinal Nintendo and the Atari 2600. The oriniginal NES had the Power Pad, which was a floor mat that the players could use to play the games. The Power Pad had 12 games made speifically for its purposes.




One of these games in particular is Stadium Events. It mainly features track & field events such as the 100m Dash or 110m hurdles. The players are named after animals for their speed with turtle being the slowest person. This is conisdered to be the rarest find for the origninal NES. Part of the reason it is considered so rare because of its high market price and it's beleived that only 2000 copies were ever produced.






Atari 2600 had the Foot Craz, which came out before the Power Pad but was basically the same concept. The foot craz was sold with Video Jogger & Video Refelx. This was in effort to get more people to excercise.




Sony Playstation also tried this practice with something called gamercize. This basically looks like a rowing machine that you hook to playstation. Gamercize has become quite popular and is now offered for the xbox 360 and PS3.






The first true attempt at exergaming was something called the Puffer Project for the Atari. The Puffer Project was a exercycle that you would would hook up to your Atari. They made three versions a pro model and a arcade model. The pro model was meant for heatlhclubs, gyms etc etc. Where as the arcade model could be found in arcades and was just for fun. There was also a home version that had a foldable exercycle. The retail price was going to be $150. The Puffer Project was put on hold by Atari and stayed there they were bought out. The Puffer never saw the light of day.




This is what the home version would have looked like if it were ever made. That's end this article, what did you think? Do you have any exergaming experinces? If so share them in the comments.