I owned one of these, and it was a really interesting concept that lacked the proper software support IMO.
Nowadays with Bemani games doing well, and the Wii getting all of it's attention...I think a lot of us forgot about the Activator despite the fact that it shares a lot of the same qualities of these newer technologies (most obvious being a different, more physically interactive way to play games).
So the game I got with it was Eternal Champions, not a bad fighter IMO, but it didn't really suit this technology.
For those not familiar with it, I'll explain my understanding of it (wikipedia has a bad description):
It was an octagonal ring that you plugged together, and stood in the middle of. Each side of the octagon is a panel that sends some sort of beam towards the ceiling and comes back down to it's sensor. You break the beam by sticking a body part out over the sensor and it activates the button. Now, from what I remember it detected if you broke it low or high, meaning that if you stuck your leg out, it would be different from sticking your arm out, effectively reading punches and kicks as two different button presses.
Now, to move your character, you had to stick your arm out right or left to move your fighter right or left, iirc. The octagon had it's north, south, west and east panels detect movement (ie. was your d-pad), and the diagonal sides corresponded to buttons.
You could play Sonic with it, or any Genesis game, it was cumbersome and as a result frustrating, but you could have some fun with it.
SEGA tried promoting games like Mortal Kombat and such to be games that could be played with it.
But if they had games similar to Samba de Amigo, or some sort of racer, or perhaps a dancing game...my guess is that it could have taken off. It all really boils down to customizing a game to make use of it. Something SEGA never did.
A custom baseball game could have been neat, or a simple exercise game. Boxing would have made sense...SEGA should have made software customized to the peripheral, rather than expecting gamers to use this for current games that never considered the technology.
Anyways, all this does is reaffirm an old saying of mine...SEGA was quite often ahead of it's time. Add this to the list of devices that ultimately led to their demise (because they started losing focus and introduced too many new technologies to the market too quickly).
SEGA spread themselves thin on all of these hardware endeavors, that they weren't able to provide enough custom software for each. With the Genesis, Pico, Game Gear, 32X, Sega CD, Sega CD/32X combo, their arcade boards, and SEGA Channel all existing at a the same time and all requiring software...it's easy to see why the Activator took a back seat to all of these things.
Nowadays with Bemani games doing well, and the Wii getting all of it's attention...I think a lot of us forgot about the Activator despite the fact that it shares a lot of the same qualities of these newer technologies (most obvious being a different, more physically interactive way to play games).
So the game I got with it was Eternal Champions, not a bad fighter IMO, but it didn't really suit this technology.
For those not familiar with it, I'll explain my understanding of it (wikipedia has a bad description):
It was an octagonal ring that you plugged together, and stood in the middle of. Each side of the octagon is a panel that sends some sort of beam towards the ceiling and comes back down to it's sensor. You break the beam by sticking a body part out over the sensor and it activates the button. Now, from what I remember it detected if you broke it low or high, meaning that if you stuck your leg out, it would be different from sticking your arm out, effectively reading punches and kicks as two different button presses.
Now, to move your character, you had to stick your arm out right or left to move your fighter right or left, iirc. The octagon had it's north, south, west and east panels detect movement (ie. was your d-pad), and the diagonal sides corresponded to buttons.
You could play Sonic with it, or any Genesis game, it was cumbersome and as a result frustrating, but you could have some fun with it.
SEGA tried promoting games like Mortal Kombat and such to be games that could be played with it.
But if they had games similar to Samba de Amigo, or some sort of racer, or perhaps a dancing game...my guess is that it could have taken off. It all really boils down to customizing a game to make use of it. Something SEGA never did.
A custom baseball game could have been neat, or a simple exercise game. Boxing would have made sense...SEGA should have made software customized to the peripheral, rather than expecting gamers to use this for current games that never considered the technology.
Anyways, all this does is reaffirm an old saying of mine...SEGA was quite often ahead of it's time. Add this to the list of devices that ultimately led to their demise (because they started losing focus and introduced too many new technologies to the market too quickly).
SEGA spread themselves thin on all of these hardware endeavors, that they weren't able to provide enough custom software for each. With the Genesis, Pico, Game Gear, 32X, Sega CD, Sega CD/32X combo, their arcade boards, and SEGA Channel all existing at a the same time and all requiring software...it's easy to see why the Activator took a back seat to all of these things.
