exergaming fitness game history the genres roots can be found in games released in the late eighties including the power pad or family trainer released for the nintendo entertainment system nes the genre has been mooted as a way to improve users health through exercise 1980s exergaming contains elements that were developed in the virtual reality community during the 1980s the pioneer in this area was autodesk which developed two systems the highcycle and virtual racquetball the highcycle was an exercise bike that a user would pedal through a virtual landscape if the user pedaled fast enough the virtual bike would take off and fly over the landscape virtual racquetball tracked the position and orientation of an actual racquet that was used to hit a virtual ball in a virtual environment this environment was shared with another user equipped with another tracked racquet allowing the two users to play each other over phone lines in both systems the users could wear the vpl eyephones an early headmounted display hmd that would provide more immersion for the user the first true attempt at what would later be called exertainment was the atari puffer project 1982 this was an exercise bike that would hook up to an atari 400800 or 5200 system forward speed was controlled by pedaling while steering and additional gameplay was handled by a handlebarmounted gamepad the machine was nearly ready for production with several games tumbleweeds and jungle river cruise when atari declared bankruptcy and the puffer project was abandoned nintendo also dabbled in this space with the power pad released for the nintendo entertainment system in 1986 the first exergaming system released to the market was the 1986 computrainer designed as a training aid and motivational tool the computrainer allowed users to ride through a virtual landscape generated on an nes while monitoring data such as power output and pedaling cadence the product had a price that was far too high to be considered as an entertainment product but was affordable by dedicated athletes the product continues to this day where it now runs using microsoft windows compatible software with extensive graphic and physiological capabilities also released for the nes in 1986 was the family trainer which focused on entertainment rather than exercise about the same time as the computrainer concept ii introduced a computer attachment for their rowing machine this has become their erow product and is used for both individual motivation as well as competition in indoor rowing leagues 1990s during the 1990s there was a surge of interest in the application of virtual reality technologies to highend gym equipment life fitness and nintendo partnered to produce the exertainment system precor had an lcdbased bike product and universal had several crtbased systems the netpulse system provided users with the ability to browse the web while exercising fitlinxx introduced a system that used sensors attached to weight machines in order to provide automated feedback to users three issues combined to ensure the failure of these systems in the marketplace first they were significantly more expensive than the equivalent models that did not have all the additional electronics second they were harder to maintain and were often left broken lastly the additional expertise required to operate the software was often intimidating to the users who shied away from the machines out of fear that they would look foolish while trying to master the machine until 1998 nothing significant happened in the field of videogame exercise hardware was still too expensive for the average home consumer and the health clubs were gunshy about adopting any new technology as highperformance game console capabilities improved and prices fell manufacturers once more started to explore the fitness market in 1998 konamis dance dance revolution was released along with andamiros pump it up video game series a couple months later 2000s in 2000 uk startup exertris introduced an interactive gaming bike to the commercial fitness market exergaming came to the mass media attention at the consumer electronics show when bill gates showcased the exertris interactive gaming bike in 2003 and the following year the same show hosted a pavilion dedicated to video game technology that also worked as sports and exercise equipment gamercize played on playstation 2 the 2005 release of the eyetoy kinetic brought the first multifunction exergame hardware into the home market making the players physical movements into the games controller 2006 saw the launch of gamercize combining traditional fitness equipment with game consoles the minimalist approach allows game play to continue only when exercising turning all game titles into potential exergames nintendos wii in 2006 brought acceleration detection with the wii remote in late 2007 nintendo released the exergame wii fit which utilized a new peripheral the wii balance board the popularity of the wii lead to it being used in hospital wiihab rehabilitation programs the pcgamerbike appeared at ces in 2007 where it received an honoree award it differs from other exergaming devices in that its pedal motion can be mapped to any key on the keyboard it also has an optical encoder which detects forward and reverse pedal motion the fisherprice smart cycle was another entry in the field other examples of exergaming products include positive gaming idance istep cobalt flux blufit cyber coach neoracer gymkids exercise equipment with interactive technology some wii titles such as ea sports active cybex trazer powergrid fitness kilowatt lightspace play floor playmotion yourselffitness expresso fitness s2 iplay cyber exercycle veqtor sport trainer and sportwall 2010s the kinect 2010 represented a significant advance in how player motion was detected in games because the players body became the remote the exergaming trend within consoles that started with the seventh generation wii peaked with the nike kinect training 2012 pedometerpairing wii fit u 2013 games these were followed up in the eighth generation by a exergaming push by microsoft with the xbox one launch day xbox fitness service 2013 which tracked metrics such as heart rate and correct form while synchronising these metrics with the microsoft health by 2017 microsoft had pivoted away from kinect and exergaming on consoles mobile phone apps such as zombies run 2012 run an empire effectiveness laboratory studies have demonstrated that some exergames can provide light to moderate intensity physical activity a 2018 systematic review of 10 randomised controlled trials of exergaming in overweight children found that they can produce a small reduction in body mass index as of 2016 exergaming for those with neurological disabilities had been studied in around 140 small clinical trials in people of all ages to see if exergaming can help this group get enough physical exercise to maintain their health this mode of getting exercise appears attractive in this population from a public health perspective because of its low cost and accessibility there is significant evidence across multiple random controlled trials relating exergaming to improved cognitive functioning in healthy older adults with a mean age of 69 and attenuated deterioration or improvement in adults with cognitive impairment from neurodegenerative diseases such as alzheimers disease in addition studies investigated if exergaming can lead to improvements in cognitive performance in clinical and nonclinical population such as adhd and depression injury see also video gamerelated health problems design trends when making an exergaming system the manufacturer of a consumer product must make the decision as to whether the system will be usable with offtheshelf games or if custom software must be written for it because it takes longer for a user to move their entire body in response to stimulation from the game it is often the case that dedicated software must be written for the game to playable an example of this is konamis dance dance revolution though designed to be played by users moving about on a specially designed dancepad that game can alternatively be played by pushing buttons with ones fingers using a standard handheld gamepad when played with the dancepad at higher levels the game can be quite challenging and physically exhausting but if the game is played using the buttons on the hand controller none of the sequences are physically limited newer systems such as xbox 360 playstation 3 and wii use alternative input devices such as the kinect and playstation move the move uses image analysis to extract the motion of the user against a background and uses these motions to control the character in the game a specifically designed exercise game kinetic superimposes animated objects to be punched kicked or otherwise interacted with over a video image of the user the wii and playstation 3 both incorporate motion sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes into the handheld controllers that are used to direct behaviors within the game research projects such as exertion interfaces enabling novel exercise experiences not available without the technological augmentation exergame resellers have developed fitness centers and specialist room designs with programmes that focus entirely on creating environments for young people using exergaming for fitness group fitness programmer les mills international has recently launched immersive fitness studios around the globe which combine exergaming with live group fitness classes one of the newest trends is using virtual reality immersion vr systems have several potential advantages for athletic training environments can be precisely controlled and scenarios standardized augmented information can be incorporated to guide performance and the environment can be dynamically altered to create different competitive situations bogost ian montfort nick 2009 racing the beam the atari video computer system the mit press isbn9780262012577 eyetoy kinetic thin ag howey d murdoch l crozier a july 2007 evaluation of physical exertion required to play the body movement controlled eyetoy kinetic video game life sciences 2007 secc glasgow scotland ijsselsteijn w a de kort y a w westerink j de jager m bonants r 2006 virtual fitness stimulating exercise behaviour through media technology presence teleoperators and virtual environments 15 688698 httpwwwmitpressjournalsorgdoiabs101162pres156688 wii sports professor tim cable february 2007 school of sport and exercise sciences john moores university liverpool england shepherd j carter l pepping gj potter le 2018 towards an operational framework for designing training based sports virtual reality performance simulators proceedings 26 214 httpsdoiorg103390proceedings2060214 vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em 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