In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Commodore 64, I threw together this timeline of the computing devices I or my family have owned using Timeline 3D. The C=64 had a huge influence on my life. You can read what I wrote about it on it’s 25th anniversary here.
I had an opportunity to play around with an Xbox Kinect over the holidays, and while it is an interesting piece of technology with a lot of potential, I wasn’t particularly impressed. I first attempted to play Wipeout, based on the ridiculous ABC game show. The game couldn’t tell when I stopped running in place, so my on-screen avatar would frequently run right into obstacles or off ledges. There was significant delay between my actual jump and my avatar’s jump. Counter-intuitively, the game was designed such that bending to the right made your avatar bend forward, and bending to the left would make it bend backward. I assume this was done because the kinect can’t very well detect forward and back movements. Now, these problems could very well be due to poor implementation of that particular game.
The second game I tried was Just Dance 3. My daughters have the first two for our Wii. The older of the two thinks that it works better on the Wii, but I can’t speak to this from my own experience. What I did observe was that the game was extremely forgiving in what it considered to be correct movements. There were several times that it got confused as to which player was whom (up to four can play).
The environment has a huge effect on the Kinect’s performance. When two ceiling fans were turned on in the room, the Kinect could’t see me at all. This may have been due to a subtle strobing effect caused by pot lights above the fans. My two-year-old nephew was running around, and the Kinnect would sometimes confuse me with him, even given our drastic difference in height.
The Kinect seemed to be good enough for the sweeping arm motions used in Fruit Ninja, but the more nuanced motions necessary for the other games didn’t translate well. There is a lot of potential, and the device is certainly selling well, but the experience didn’t make me want to trade in my Wii.
My kids received birthday presents from some of their aunts and uncles over the holiday weekend, one of which was Boom Blox, a game for the Wii. I’ve read some really good reviews, one even claiming that it is the best game for the Wii so far.
Boom Blox is the first collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts. Spielberg has been quoted as saying, “I really wanted to create a video game that I could play with my kids.” The result is a wonderfully designed game, and a whole lot of fun. The game is designed specifically for the Wii, and while EA claims that they may port it to other platforms, I can’t imagine how the experience could come even close. It truly takes advantage of the Wiimote, requiring the player to throw balls at towers of blocks to knock them down and pull blocks out of towers, trying not to knock them down. The puzzles appeal to children and adults, and if my family is any indication, Steven achieved his goal.
The game is noteworthy for three reasons:
Boom Blox is an exquisitely designed gaming experience. My arm has been sore for the past two days.
I had intended to give my wife a Wii Fit for her birthday last Wednesday, but was not able to acquire one in time. Like the Wii itself, FIt is in high demand. Nintendo continues the trend it started with the Wii in appealing to both market segments, women and men, resulting in a lot of sales.
Fortunately, I was able to nab one from a Target on my way home from work Friday. My wife is enjoying it, and says she is going to try to use it, if not daily, “often”.
I’m not so interested in using it for exercise, myself, as I work out on my rowing machine twice a week—playing with Wii Fit won’t come anywhere close the exertion I get with that. However, I am interested in the balance board as a novel input device (Wii Ski looks really cool!), and I’m interested in Wii Fit from a user experience point of view.
Overall, I’m impressed. Appealing to the health-conscious era we seem to be in currently, Nintendo is taking an activity traditionally thought of as slothful—video game playing—and an activity that people don’t typically engage in just for fun—exercise—and marries them for the betterment of all, including their own bottom line. It really does make exercise enjoyable. We’ll have to watch and see if it is effective.
However, my own first impression was a bit tainted. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I could stand to lose a few pounds. I have a little flab here and there I wouldn’t mind losing. I’m certainly not skinny. Nor am I fat. I’m broad-shouldered with a hefty build. I’m reasonably muscular. I also happen to know that BMI is not the best way to determine whether or not you are overweight. At six feet tall and about 210 pounds, my BMI puts me at the upper end of overweight—almost obese. So, when I was first measured by Wii Fit, it played a funeral dirge and gave my Mii a big ol’ donut around its middle. I don’t look like that! My chest is wider than my waist. Now, every time I look at the little guy, I get annoyed, because I know I’ll never lose enough weight to make him look normal. They need to incorporate a waist measurement, or something.
And it’s not just me. My (soon to be) eight-year-old daughter registered as overweight and had a “Wii Fit Age” of 25. She seemed rather upset by that, even though we explained to her that it isn’t intended for young children.
I half expect to see news articles popping up within a few months about people being diagnosed with a “Wii Complex”.
Santa was pretty good to my family this year. Here’s a few brief gift observations.
My 7-year-old daughter received Zoo Vet. Positive: She is trying to learn to read words like “anti-bacterial” and “sedative”. Negative: the game provides no support in her learning. She must constantly ask our assistance.
Positive: Unlike past years, we spent very little time opening and assembling toys. A doll bunkbed required only 4 screws. American Girl doll accessories were simply packaged in cardboard boxes—no plastic.
Positive: We got a Wii! The entire (extended) family is having a great time playing together. It reminds me of when my family first got our Atari 2600. Good times.
