Everything old is new again.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/joystiq-tries-out-wii-fit-and-wii-balance-board/

This look familiar to anyone? Any old Commodore/atari geeks out there who have seen this concept?

See, back before Amiga was a computer sold by Commodore, the company that made it was into Atari 2600 peripherals. They made several “innovative” toys that used balance and motion sensing and released several games that used them. One of the more remembered toys they made was this.

http://www.atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&ControllerID=11

They actually had an internal game they called Guru Meditation that they played in house with this controller. This was later immortalized by the Guru Meditation error messages in the AmigaOS.

Nintendo does seem to be doing a good job at cribbing old, rejected, or shelved ideas from the past of video gaming. They work OK now that mass market technology has caught up to the visionaries of the past.