July 9, 2003
Play Interfaces
Perhaps it’s obvious to say, but the arcade still had it all over any other public context when it comes to interface innovation. Except perhaps the more elaborate setups at science museums and in interactive art installations.
For example, it may not be obvious in my last post, but the interface for that game is a real drum, not the tap pads of DDR or of the Western-style drum games. The drum in this game can make a range of sounds as players hit it on the main surface, on the rim, with different degrees of pressure, and so on. The way you play the drum makes a difference both on the level of music and on the level of gameplay. That’s why I stopped to take a picture of it.
I also stopped to take a picture of this direct-manipulation coffee cup (the text on it reads “Drink me. Drive me.”). The cup is part of a network racing game of a pretty standard sort — except for the interface.
I encountered this game at MeSci (the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation). It’s a driving game that teaches kids about interface — there’s a horse on the screen that you control with physical reigns, a car you control with a steering wheel, a UFO you control with a joystick, the direct-manipulation coffee cup, and a synthesizer keyboard that moves forward when you play notes toward the center and turns when you play notes at the edges. These are networked together, racing through a model of the museum from an over-the-shoulder perspective.
MeSci also has some interesting displays. One is a giant globe, covered with LEDs, which when I was there was being used to show data-driven animations of the earth’s recent climate conditions. Another was their “CABIN for All” — an inexpensive CAVE-like display employing relatively standard PCs and polarization (rather than shutter lenses).
July 9th, 2003 at 10:51 am
Except perhaps the more elaborate setups at science museums and in interactive art installations.
It’s interesting that you say interactive art installations have more interesting and sophisticated interfaces than arcade games (or pheraps games in genral). I find that the interaction design in games is far ahead of most new media art. By “interaction design” I include not just the design of the physical interface, but also what effects your interaction has. While new media art may in general engage more sophisticated concepts than most games, in the realm of interaction per se, I think games as a class beats new media hands down.
July 10th, 2003 at 6:14 am
Actually, I just meant that science museums and interactive installations sometimes have very elaborate setups – beyond what would be possible in a commercial arcade. For example, MeSci also has a huge “physical model of the internet” that people interact with by placing little balls as data packets that move along metal rails from simulated computer to simulated computer, passing them along until they reach their destinations. Pachinko can get pretty elaborate, but I think this sort of thing is still beyond that. As, say, are some of the more elaborate setups by people like Jeffrey Shaw or Simon Penny or…
July 14th, 2003 at 5:37 pm
as long as you dont start talking about Boong-ga Boong-ga …