![]() You pedal to move your racer and steer with the handlebars. A stationary bicycle with the game controller built into the handlebars, it comes in two sizes (for kids and adults), connects to a PlayStation 2 (with adaptors for other platforms) and works with video racing games. Pedal Power My initiation into exergaming began with the Gamebike from Cateye Fitness. Though it's too early to say whether it will be the hot new thing or a mere blip on the radar, the success or failure of exergaming is likely to rest on two essential questions: Is it fun, and is it exercise? Seeking to put the "active" in "interactive," exergaming - anything from inexpensive video games that get you off the couch to high-end exercise equipment for the commercial fitness market - premiered as a self-identified category barely more than a year ago at the huge International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2005. "Dance Dance Revolution" (known by the less cumbersome "DDR"), introduced by Konami Digital Entertainment as an arcade game in Japan in 1998 and two years later in the United States, was released in a home version for PlayStation in 2001, making "DDR," in the warp-speed world of electronic entertainment, the ancient, if spry, ancestor of the new video-gaming trend dubbed "exergaming." Now my feet are bruised, my shins ache, my child begs piteously for dinner while I mutter, "Just once more, just once more," and I fear I may be in the market for a couple of knee replacements. The next day we added a second dance mat. Then two weeks ago, I got my first try at "Dance Dance Revolution." "It sounds like one of those things you'll play with for a day and never touch again." "Eh," I said dismissively to my 8-year-old. If you don't count a brief and engrossing fascination with "Pong" around Christmas 1975, my general interest in video games could safely be described as nominal and my playing ability worse. ![]() A dance pattern scrolls on the screen, and you have to match it with your feet on the mat. A video game you play not with the usual handheld controller but with a touch-sensitive mat on the floor. Then one day the junior member of the household began clamoring for it. Six weeks ago, I'd never even heard of this game. HELLO, my name is Caroline, and I'm addicted to "Dance Dance Revolution."
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