My Post to the Gizmodo article
Hello fellow gamers, Wiiheads, modders, hackers,
I am the proud dad of the WiiMote Horse Riders.
To begin I would like to thank everyone that has commented on this ‘Wii’ little project. Your discussions on this topic have been fascinating to follow. Never in a million years did we expect to generate this much interest in project put together in 10-15 minutes.
My boys and I check, youtube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=cBV8lx5qUv4) the original place of posting, and now Gizmodo, most every night to see “How many hits do we have now, daddy?”
We enjoy the positive comments, “That’s awesome”, “that’s so freakin’ awesome”, “No freaking way!!! That’s awesome!!!” from MohamedLikeme, Daubo & aramanx respectivly. We started to see a pattern fairly quickly.
Some of our favorite quotes are:
“esta loco…” — dknerygar,
“Seriously, that is the single most awesome thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life…. (I do lead a sheltered life)” — zorblaz
I do have have to say that one of the comments did upset my son. THOMASKR wrote , “one more thing: smart family, bad accents.” my non-horse riding son replies with. “I was just excited and relaxed and was talking funny, that was mean”. But in the end, no harm done, he’s already over it (I think).
Now to clear up some inaccuracies regarding this video. Or to be more precise, the re-packaging of this video. Let me address the introduction of this video as posted on gizmodo.com by Glumbert.
“These kids are little future modders, using household objects to take their gaming to the next level, and we salute them.”
YES – my kids are very bright and are pretty inventive, and we return your salute, but
NO – They did not come up with this on there own. Though it does make a great story.
“By simply attaching a Wiimote to the back of a rocking horse, they’ve created some sort of crazy horse/motorcycle arcade game …”
NO - The game is not a hybrid horsecycle, it’s a hybrid horsemobile, Horse/Automobile Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
“…in their own basement.”
NO – “It’s not in our basement, It’s in our den. “That guy is craaaaaazzzzy to think it’s in our basement”. Quote by My Non-Wiihorse riding son.
“Sure, you have no access to the buttons and it only works on the kind of mediocre game that requires only the most basic of controller-twisting, but it does look like fun.”
TRUE – The buttons and the remote are not right in front of you, that would spoil the illusion that you were actually riding on a horse, duh. We couldn’t have that so we taped them to the horse’s hind quarters.
but FALSE in the sense that – We DO have access to the buttons. We just turn around and hit the “A” button to change the view OR the “SomeotherbuttonthatIcan’trememberexactlywhichone” button to pause the game, but why would you want to do either?
and the final comment from [Glumbert]
“And the little dude’s got an admirable amount of control over his vehicle. Ride on, young modders.”
TRUE, TRUE HOW ENTIRELY TRUE. - My Wiihorse riding son replies “Did you hear what he said daddy? He said ‘How ADMIRABLE (this word is drawn out) my control of the horse was!’ ”
“Yes, I think he was talking about how well you were able to control the car WITH the horse.” I replied
“WHATEVER! ……he says I WAS FREAKIN’ AWESOME .”
I wonder where he picked up that wonderful phrase!? (See positive comments above).
Thank you Glumber, for this post. And Gizmodo for this forum. And especially to the forum members for your wonderful support and comments.
EQUIPMENT USED:
Laptop (XP)
Blue Tooth Adapter
WiiMote
GlovePie (Software in between the Wiimote and the application).
A quick How-To summary:
Buy, Beg, Borrow Steal a Spring Horse
Install Blue tooth adapter HW/SW
Sync WiiMote with PC
Affix WiiMote to Horse (I used painter’s tape to hind quarter’s (See 00:27 in video)
Install GlovePie
Load joystick script in GlovePie (included in GlovePie)
Load Need for Speed (PC Game)
-
Config controls in NFS by moving the horse when assigning keys for:
accelerate
brake
left
right
Hook up to Large Display (Optional but preferable)
Move Furniture out of the way
Start Game
Lean forward, Elbows in, hands tightly gripping handle
Have Fun (Mandatory)
Shoot Video (Obligatory)
Post your video (Receive Glory)
Note: I will post a detailed how-to at the first available opportunity.
(Not sure when that will be. Our lives are so full other other fun stuff that it’s hard to find time.
To illustrate the truth in that statement above, ponder this:
My boy’s and I have only rode the WiiMote Horse one time. It was just by change that I caught it on video, camera was at hand as I was getting ready to go the in-laws for Thanksgiving. This was the first and only time that we have had a chance to ride “Silver”, the horse’s name. So forgive me If it takes a day or two to post the full procedure.)
One last thing. My brother-in-law used to race flat track. He has a cool looking yellow flat track cycle sitting in his garage, as it has for the last 10 years or so. I am going to try to talk him into letting me ‘borrow’ it for the creation of a motorcycle simulator. I’m thinking MotoGP 2007? So if anyone is willing to help me fabricate a frame to go around this bike, and/or has some really big springs laying about, I would appreciate an email or im.
Humbly yours,
Mark, the WiiMoteRider’s Dad
Contact information can be found at http://wiimotehorse.tumblr.com
7 months ago