Exergaming or exer-gaming (a portmanteau of "exercise" and "gaming") is a term used for video games that are also a form of exercise. The genre has been credited with upending the stereotype of gaming as a sedentary activity, and promoting an active lifestyle.
The genre's roots can be found in games released in the late eighties, including Power Pad (or Family Trainer ) for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Foot Craz for the Atari 2600, although both had limited success. Konami's Dance Dance Revolution was cited as one of the first major successes of exergaming; when it was ported from the arcade to PlayStation, it sold over three million copies. In the 2000s, a number of devices and games have used the exergame style to much success: the EyeToy camera has sold over ten million units, while Nintento's Wii Fit has sold in excess of 21 million copies. The term exergaming entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2007.
The genre has been mooted as a way to improve users' health through exercise, but few studies have been undertaken to measure the health benefits. Smaller trials have yielded mixed results and have shown that the respective traditional methods of exercise are superior to their video game equivalents.
History
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 Head-mounted 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 400/800 or 5200 system. Forward speed was controlled by pedaling while steering and additional gameplay was handled by a handlebar-mounted 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 in the late 1980s.
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 a Nintendo 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"
During the 1990s, there was a surge of interest in the application of "virtual reality" technologies to high-end gym equipment. Life Fitness and Nintendo partnered to produce the Exertainment System; Precor had an LCD-based bike product, and Universal had several CRT-based 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.
The most sophisticated of these entries was the Tectrix VR Bike . Developed originally by CyberGear Inc., The VR Bike allowed users to pedal through a number of virtual environments as well as engage in single and multiplayer games. It was joined later by the VR Climber .
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 gun-shy about adopting any new technology. As high-performance game console capabilities improved and prices fell, manufacturers once more started to explore the fitness market.
In 1998, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution was released. It was highly effective—exercise-wise—and very cost effective and so brought exergaming into the mainstream. In 2000, UK startup Exertris introduced an interactive gaming bike to the commercial fitness market. The 2005 release of the EyeToy: Kinetic, brought the first—multi-function—exergame hardware into the home market. Making the players physical movements into the game's controller. 2006 Saw the launch of Gamercize, combining traditional fitness equipment with games consoles. The minimalist approach allows game play to continue only when exercising, turning all game titles into potential exergames. Next on the exergaming revolution was Nintendo's 2006 Wii, bringing acceleration detection into this emerging trend with the Wii Remote. In late 2007, Nintendo released the exergame Wii Fit, which utilized a new peripheral, the Wii Balance Board. All four of these approaches to exergames have been documented and compared by VideoJug in an information film.
The PCGamerBike, showed up 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 a precision optical encoder which enables it to detect the slightest forward and reverse pedal motion. Another move in this field was made by the Fisher-Price Smart Cycle.
Recent activity
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. Exergames "evolved from technology changes aimed at making videogames more fun." The latest evolution of exergaming technology tracks full body movement in 3 dimensions, and provides accurate measurements of reaction time, acceleration and deceleration quickness, and movement speed and power. These systems are primarily used in rehabilitation and sports training facilities, but are finding their way into some fitness centers.
Examples of Exergaming Devices include: PCGamerBike, NeoRacer, Dance Dance Revolution, EyeToy, some Wii games, Gamercize, Cybex TRAZER, wii jOG, Powergrid Fitness Kilowatt, EA SPORTS Active, and the FootPOWR computer peripheral.
Examples of Exertainment include: Lightspace Play Floor, PlayMotion, Yourself!Fitness, Expresso Fitness S2, Wii Fit, i.play and Sportwall.
Using the Wii is seen as more being more physically demanding than sedentary game consoles, but a study published in the British Medical Journal found that while playing the Wii uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games, the energy used when playing active Wii games is not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children.
The energy expended with exergaming devices such as PCGamerBike, NeoRacer and Gamercize, that combine traditional cardiovascular fitness machines with gaming, has not been questioned. The effectiveness of maintaining interest in exercise using traditional fitness machines has been examined with Gamercize and found to be six times more sustainable than exercise alone.
Benefits of exercise on mental ability and productivity are in the early stages of research, but indications from using Gamercize with a computer have been reported as providing a 17% productivity improvement. Combining cardiovascular exercise and balance practice has been shown to increase academic success among students in grades K-12. According to the 2009 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on PhysicalActivity for Children and Youth, children who are physically active perform better in school than those who are not. Interestingly, academic performance improves even when academic learning time is reduced to allow time for physical activity. ,
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 off-the-shelf 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,
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