By David Ponce
Kids, these days, really have it a lot nicer than, well, back in my days (which, incidentally, wasn’t all that long ago anyway). Take the “FloorIt!” racing system, currently being developed for Mattel for instance. In this game, the traditional remote control is replaced with a free-floating steering wheel. Sensors inside the wheel detect it’s orientation, and translate movement into commands. For example, tilt the wheel forward to go forward, and backwards to brake. Turn the wheel left, to, well, to turn left, and… well you get the idea. Optional throttle and brake buttons can be used in place of the throttle tilt control.
What’s more, the car itself can interact with several “course conditions” that you place on your track. Place an oilslick, say, and it will momentarily loose control. Place a “power up” sign on the floor, and you get a little speed boost.
The only thing about all this, is I’m not sure how far along the development process they are. If you come inside, there’s a great video of the cars in action (you need Flash to see it though). So, you can judge for yourselves if this is ever going to hit the shelves. If you ask me, the stuff on that video looks a little, eh, fishy, but hell, I could be wrong.
[FloorIt! Racing System] VIA [WMMNA]
[…] ma soprattutto design for change. Niente di nuovo. La cosa pi? figa del suo intervento ? stata la presentazione di un gioco della Mattel del quale vi invito a guardare il video… Interessante anche il concetto, mediato dai videogiochi, dove Usabiliy == Gameplay. Siccome il gameplay ? di fondamentale importanza per i vg, si capisce come ancora si sia indietro nella considerazione dovuta ad una buona interfaccia utente. […]