Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 112)

Trigger Happy
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player must use her whole body to control the game. It
consists of actually dancing, on a pressure-sensitive
floormat, in time to pumping techno music blaring from
the speakers. The screen simply shows a bunch of
symbols floating downward, and they correspond to
squares on the floormat that must be hit by the feet at
exactly the right moment. This speedy techno version
of Twister provokes the thought that the best
videogame interfaces are indeed those that are most
intuitive (an idea that will crop up later in another
context). No one needs to learn how to stamp on the
floor, just as no one needs to learn how to turn a
steering wheel or shoot a play gun.
In general, cybernetic developments will always
increase the possibilities of closer and more
pleasurable interaction with a videogame. In just the
same way that a motor-industry journalist might say
one car “feels” nicer to drive than another, there is a
particular pleasure to be had simply from engaging in
a responsive control system, whether in videogames
or in real life. It is no accident, then, that Nintendo’s
Shigeru Miyamoto, widely regarded as the “God of
videogames” (in Jeremy Smith’s phrase), not only
designs software but actually designs the controllers