Therapy Tiles

Electronic twister for rehabilitation, sport training, cognitive training or just for fun.

[Via Entertainment Robotics and Wired]

Dreamflyer

Bring real-life flight experience home. For $2800, you too could get off the ground without leaving your house.

Dreamflyer

Wii Boxing Gloves

To add a little more authenticity to any Wii boxing, try these inflattable boxing gloves on for size.

- Specially designed for Wii boxing games
- Inspires and motivates you when wearing this boxing gloves to play the game
- Makes the game more realistic and exciting

[Via DealExtreme and GamerSquad]

Dancetown

"Dancetown is built, marketed and supported by Touchtown Inc. (http://www.touchtown.tv/), the world's leading provider of technology to enhance the quality of life for residents of senior living communities...

...Dancetown combines the fun of arcade games with the benefits of dance and physical exercise, and applies it for the first time to the needs of mature adults"

Dancetown

Wiimote Horse

Hacking games and especially the Wii has become very a popular hobby for those wieht the skills to pull it off. An innovative/ alternate way to way to play Wii by moving.

Other Wii hacks can be found here and here

XRtainment Zone

A fitness facility with more than just fitness on their minds....the "Alpha" of facilities integrating exergames for kids of all ages...a community space designed for generations to interact and enjoy moving....a socially supporting environment to learn about nutrition and physical activty enjoyment..this is the XRtainment Zone in Redlands, California. My friend Dr. Ernie Medina and his partners opened up this faciltiy to address their concerns about the sedentary and overwight populations. XRtainment Zone Blog

Sonica Spanish

Learn to speak Spanish by moving playing a game and stepping on a dance pad. This (Sonica Spanish) is a perfect example of how to incorporate movement in education. Oftentimes we focus so much on just teaching "skills" and forget how important it is to integrate learning across the disciplines.

Development Tools

Ruairi Glynn lists some tools, technology and resouces to develop digital and analog systems

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Funky Forest

Designer/artist Theodore Watson created this imaginative installation. Definitely a non-traditional exergame, nonetheless it requires players to be "physically active".

"'Funky Forest' is an interactive ecosystem where children create trees with their body and then divert the water flowing from the waterfall to the trees to keep them alive. "

"Fatworld" ready to play

The free downloadable game Fatworld from Ian Bogost is now available to play.

"...FATWORLD explores the relationships between obesity, nutrition and socioeconomics in the United States.

...The game’s goal is not to tell people what to eat or how to exercise, but to demonstrate the complex, interwoven relationships between nutrition, obesity and social factors like budgets, the physical environment, food subsidies and government policy. FATWORLD is a game for adults and teens, but it can also serve as a starting point for discussions with children about nutrition, health and socioeconomics."

Exergaming Outdoors

Here's a great application of an outdoor exergaming playground manufactured by SmartUS.

"... They were really excited even though --evidently-- they had played the games for a number of times already. Motivational factors were similar to other digital games -- to beat one's own record, to top the high score and to have fun."

This post is from Sonja Kangas's blog

Games available for SmartUS Playground

Conquistador - each player tries to conquer his/her own part of the game's fantasy world, and helps his/her team towards a common goal. The game develops tactical ability and teamwork skills.

PointCollection is a mathematical game where players need to simultaneously move and make calculations and to work in a group. It offers both physical and intellectual challenges to players of different ages from child to adult.

SpeedGame - players have to both react sensitively to changes in the game and to master the direction and rhythm of his/her movements. In addition to motoric challenges, the game teaches the English language alphabet. It encourages you to play again and again and to break your record.

AnimalPuzzle is a jumping game, in which funny animal characters are put together like a jigsaw puzzle. A picture is assembled from pieces that are selected by jumping on a grid of tiles.

1st post...All things considered

Only a short time ago, exergames were a small niche market with only a few popular titles. What a difference a few years a make. There seems to have been a harmonic convergence of affordable technology, popular game titles, and a genuine interest in finding ways to play games physically. From DDR in the arcades to Wii in millions of homes, in a short span of time we come a long way. I want to use this blog to chronicle our efforts to study exergames as well as document other people's project and games that extend the Exergames Library.