Sega Activator

Photo by SegaRetro.org 

                                                                           

Motion controlled gaming. We've covered that before (I'm getting Wii bowling ball flash backs), but this is different! The Sega Activator was released in 1993, and billed as the perfect martial arts simulator for the little street fighter in your life who wants to kick things in the face. By waving your arms and legs you could make the characters move on the screen. If you ever wanted to feel like you were in a life or death fight, then this is for you!

The ring of false promises would be placed on the floor, and hooked up to your Genesis. Despite it being marketed for fighting games, it's compatible with most games. Sadly, it was not as precise as a normal controller, so it was useless for basically every fighting game, as they provide quick and precise inputs. The device actually used lasers that erupted (presumably from the depths of heck) from it to sense movement. If a laser hit a non flat surface, like a fan, then it would disrupt the signal. as you probably guessed, no one bought it (which is likely why we're covering it) for the reasons above, and after a few months it was discontinued. Surprisingly, a refined version of the Activator was used for an arcade game based on the anime Dragon Ball Z, and was way better then this.

   The Activator may have been a failure, but it laced the gravely path for basically every crappy 3rd party Wii controller. whether its a good or bad thing is for you to decide...