Games rest thumbs with switch to drums

Drums, hand signals and cell phones are just a few of the ways gamers will play video games as the industry tries to wean people away from mashing buttons on a control pad.

At the opening of the Electronics Entertainment Expo, the video game industry's main exposition, gamers at Nintendo's booth were dancing in step to its upcoming "Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix" and thumping on the bongos to play "Donkey Konga 2" on its GameCube console.

Since the advent of Atari's "Pong" more than three decades ago, the game industry has grown into a medium that has made an icon out of the intensely focused teenager sitting on a couch, in front of a television, his thumbs a blur as he whacks buttons on a controller.

On the show floor, game fans could play virtual table tennis by just swinging their arms.

But that's changing--not necessarily because mashing on a controller is bad for you, but because game makers realize there can be a more entertaining variety of ways for players to interact with a game.

"I think we will see a lot more games that people can interact with in much more personal ways, in much more direct ways, than with a controller and a set of wires coming out of it," said Doug Lowenstein, president of the industry trade group behind the annual E3 in Los Angeles this week.

Game fans are already familiar with beyond-button arcade games. They dance to Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution" and strum an electronic guitar to play "GuitarFreaks," for instance.

Arcade games also simulate flying and race on simulated snowboards, cars and bicycles. Game companies want to bring that excitement and action to the living room.

Hitting a virtual punching bag
At E3, designers were promoting their newest gadgets in full force, hoping to entice users to spend more than what they would ordinarily pay for a gaming console and library.

Konami showed its "Beatmania" music title while Playlogic had people sitting behind the steering wheel in a race car seat to try out its new "World Racing 2" game.

Sony demonstrated EyeToy, which debuted in 2003. EyeToy is a tiny camera mounted to the top of a TV screen that tracks a user's hand and arm movements. Gamers can paint, toss boulders and navigate without ever touching a controller.

On the show floor, game fans could play virtual table tennis by just swinging their arms, or punch the air repeatedly to hit a virtual punching bag.

The first significant departure from the idea of a home console came in the handheld gaming machines mass-produced by Nintendo in the early 1980s, featuring "Donkey Kong" and "Mario" characters on monochrome LCD screens.

Then Nintendo scored a huge hit in 1989 with its Game Boy handheld game player, which untethered users.

Nintendo continues that tradition as its latest handheld, Nintendo DS, takes advantage of a first-of-its kind touch screen, to introduce completely new games such as "Nintendogs," which allows users to raise a virtual puppy, and "Electroplankton," which lets users create their own rhythms.

The Japanese company has not yet given details on how its next-generation console will be played, but President Satoru Iwata hinted at its news conference that it would mark a break from the way games have been played in the past.

"It's not about what you will be playing, but how you will play," Iwata said.

Story Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.