Motion slickness

“Bubble wrap is fun,” says Katsuya Nakagawa, one of Nintendo’s founding fathers. “Our genes and DNA are programmed to crush bubble wrap. As the creators of games we are always seeking such simplicity.”

Digital bubble wrap? “Exactly. In the past, games were all about increasing the difficulty: then you stop. Arcade game machines needed this set up, because otherwise you would be playing a machine for a long time with only one coin. Now we are in an entirely new era.”
With the days of grubby-fingered urchins spending their weekends in gaming arcades behind us, the games industry is in a state of flux. The Pac-Mans and Space Invaders have given way to an all-inclusive interactive experience – for the old and young, male and female alike. Nakagawa, president and CEO of a company called SSD, is in Dublin to promote his new Xavix games system. Featuring motion-sensor techology, the console is connected to the TV via A/V: plug in the game cartridge and Bob’s your dad’s brother.
Each game comes with a peripheral. Nakagawa is set up in the Four Season’s Hotel and offers forth a plastic-looking golf club. “Take a swing,” he says. After a quick practice mode, in which the club’s trajectory is perfectly translated to the TV screen, the ball is struck up the fairway. XaviXGolf includes a bunch of different modes: Exhibition, Tournament, and 10-Shot. The latter dares players to score a hole-in-one. The game is instinctive and entertaining, but Xavix’s graphics are far from state of the art. What’s more, the market competition from consoles like the Nintendo Wii, and applications like Sony’s EyeToy is immense. Can Xavix cut the mustard in today’s cut-throat games industry?
The fact that Nakagawa was present at the birth of that same industry, says a lot about Xavix’s aspirations. He comes from a background in electronics engineering and entered a fledgling Nintendo in the late 1970’s. “I did some game development at the beginning stages of the arcade game machine business,” he says. “I designed the circuitry for arcade game machines and worked on the first incarnations of Donkey Kong and Super Mario.
“Later, I used this technology to make computer chips and graphics chips. I used it to implement the first Nintendo home console machine. In Japan it was called the Family Computer; in the US, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Back then, there was no difference between software and hardware. Software was programmed by hardware engineers. There were no specialists in graphics or sound.”
Nakagawa left Nintendo in 1995, around the time when the company was finishing development of its N64 console. He professes that he still “loves” Nintendo, but grew disillusioned with the medium itself. “The main purpose of a game is to kill time, but life is limited and time is part of your life. So killing time means killing your life. A good game is one that is addictive – one that, when you have started, you cannot stop. Sometimes, I have to ask someone to turn off the switch for me. For young kids, it’s almost impossible.”
So he brought to SSD a philosophy: to create games that would enhance life. The industry itself has risen in tandem with this belief: the notion of lifestyle gaming has taken off with gusto. From the DS’s massively successful Brain Training series, to the Wii’s physical requirements, gaming has slipped the net of geekdom to become something much more inclusive.
So Xavix features an arsenal of “exercise” games: Bowling, Baseball, Bass Fishing, and Tennis, each with their own peripheral attachments. Most are clearly aimed at the fitness market, as the games have been created with consultation from cardiologists and sports doctors. The Xavix Lifestyle Manager, for example, consists of a scale that communicates your weight data to the television, offering ways to get trim. The console also has a fitness suite, endorsed by martial arts champ Jackie Chan. The J-MAT offers slovenly gamers an aerobic workout, with Chan himself barking instructions from the screen. Chan also has a boxing game for Xavix with peripheral gloves. Jane Fonda Workouts on VHS are now consigned to the dustbin of history!
Nakagawa admits that trying to take on the might of the games industry would be madness, so Xavix is tiptoeing down non-traditional channels: the technology has been implemented in the fields of medical care, homecare and education. And the future? How might this technology mould and change human interaction in fifty years time? “The possibilities are limitless,” he says. “Perhaps we can create a simulator that creates a teenage version of yourself. Or perhaps a person who has passed away. During your lifetime you can make a database, so in the future your ancestors can talk with you. It’s feasible. It’s sort of virtual.”
Whatever happens, he says, he will continue creating universal products that appeal to all facets of humanity. “We must always try and find a special essence in human behaviour and use it to implement products. Crushing bubble wrap is fun whoever you are, and wherever you might come from.”