OK, so you're probably wondering why you're looking at a picture of a fishing rod controller. It's hard for such an object to be "ahead of its time" when the market's not exactly awash with fishing games today. But while we applaud its virtual fish-reeling abilities, it’s got a totally overlooked feature up its clean white sleeve.
You see, it senses motion. And not just fishing motion - fighting motion too. Load up Soul Calibur and try it. The horizontal and vertical attacks can be triggered with appropriate arm movements, allowing for gameplay very similar to something Wii've seen a lot of recently. Of course, the game wasn't developed with this as a primary feature, so it isn't perfect. But you're looking at a fully functional Wii remote ancestor, some seven years before Nintendo's "revolutionary" controller hit the shelves.
Above: A Wii-mote by any other name? There's real motion-sensing tech in that fishing controller
It's not the only motion sensing peripheral on Dreamcast either. Samba De Amigo 's maracas may have given the game a $80 price tag, but they knew when you were shaking them and how high you were shaking them in relation to the sensor bar on the floor. Sensor bar? Arm waving? All Dreamcast needed was a dearth of badly ported PS2 games with maraca/fishing rod controls shoehorned in and it would still be sold out today*.
*probably
Above: A Wii-mote by any other name? There's realmotion-sensing tech in that fishing controller
It's not the only motion sensing peripheral on Dreamcast either. Samba De Amigo 's maracas may have given the game a$80 price tag, but they knew when you were shaking them and how high you were shaking them in relation to the sensor bar on the floor. Sensor bar? Arm waving? All Dreamcast needed was a dearth of badly ported PS2 games with maraca/fishing rod controls shoehorned in and it would still be sold out today*.
*probably
