Watch: Failed experiments in motion control, the Sega Activator

Before the Wii remote, Sega tried to get gamers more into the “game” with a full body controller known as the Sega Activator. Players would put the activator mat on a floor and instead of pressing buttons they could control games by hitting infrared beams (sort of like Konami’s Para Para set up). It was pretty worthless for 99% of games out there since you had to keep tripping the beam just to move forward. Also doing motions like the hadoken were nearly impossible. However, there was one game that sort of worked with it, Eternal Champions. Too bad the set up video didn’t feature that, instead it shows a kid playing Streets of Rage with it.