"I'm not sure here, where we are, is real at all. This feels like a game to me. And you, you're beginning to feel a bit like a game character."
Ted Pikul
eXistenZ (1999)

In 1999, David Cronenberg wrote and directed a mind-bending vision of gaming in the 21st century. Reality and hyper-reality merged into one as the characters in eXistenZ are "jacked in" to a game through bioports which interface with their spinal cords.

Plugging directly into the senses, the game provides the ultimate in virtual reality, with game sequences barely distinguishable from actual events.

And while games peripherals are still a long way from the kind of bioactive interface which would enable Cronenberg's vision to become reality, each new release hallows an increasingly immersive gaming experience.

The current generation of games devices have certainly embraced the experiential aspect of gaming, as the gamer demographic extends from preschoolers to thirty-somethings and beyond. The latest in games hardware melds with the entertainment environment, interacting with the television, and stereo to create a more holistic gaming experience.

"The Xbox was designed with entertainment convergence in mind," explains Alan Bowman, regional director of Xbox Australia. "The device plays a huge role in brining gaming in to mainstream entertainment. You can play your own music on CD during the game, and play DVD movies as well."

However, the push towards entertainment system integration hasn't taken away from the core need to provide a great gaming experience; rather, it has combined an ever-widening spiral of console flexibility and peripheral options with significant improvements in sound technology and visual quality.

And when it comes to games-focussed hardware and peripherals, the message is clear and the goal is universal: more realism, more feedback, and every higher interaction between player and game.

According to Andrew Carter, vice president of development at Melbourne-based games developer Infogrames, there have been three defining moments in the development of games hardware and peripherals.

"The first was the development of the archaic joysticks, and the Atari 2600 game console that came in the late seventies, because they enabled a much greater level of interaction with the movement of the game," Carter says. "Then Nintendo invented a thing called the Joypad, which is still the basis of what people were using on their PlayStation."

According to Carter, the Joypad was revolutionary for the time because it was the first peripheral games device which was easy to use and comfortable to hold, and essentially set the standard for games devices still in use today.

"The third step was the Nintendo 64 analogue controller," Carter says. "For the first time games could go beyond stop and start, because the controller actually interacted with the game in proportion to how much force was used."

However, Carter is sceptical as to whether gamers will see another quantum leap in the form factor of games peripherals.

"Maybe the form is almost perfect," Carter says. "Sony didn't change the controller on the PlayStation 2, and the GameCube controller isn't a million miles away from the Sony controller. The shape is good and people are used to it so I don't believe it will change all that much."

Fads, phases and funky new peripherals

While some versions of the two-handed, thumb and finger controller have carved an important niche for themselves in the games peripheral market, there are other notable peripherals on the market which are showing promise.

No discussion of games peripherals is complete without referring to the role played by the steering wheel. While other game-specific peripherals come and go, the popularity and diversity of driving games has ensured its enduring success. In its latest incarnation, the force feedback steering wheel created by companies like Logitech has sparked a revival of interest in racing games.

"Hardware development is all about adding to the experience," says James McKinlay, Australian public relations and promotions manager for games publisher Electronic Arts. "With these wheels you can actually feel the feedback, you can feel the vehicle hugging the corner like you would a normal car. Add to that surround sound from the stereo system, and you can feel your heart pounding as you feel it all around you."

However, McKinlay points out that further development of peripherals has to be consumer-driven, easy to use, and price-point-conscious.

"The VR helmets provided a great game experience, but they were never at the price point where people could buy into them," McKinlay says.

Infogrames' Carter says the key driver of a successful peripheral is the number of games to which the device can be made applicable.

"As soon as you step away from controllers that work on lots and lots of games, and beginning to get more niche you have problems keeping up a market," Carter says, pointing to a Maraca set which came with a game by the name of Samba del Amigo, and boxing gloves with built-in motion sensors. "These things work in arcade games, but they don't make good consumer products when they add up to AU$200 to the price of a game."

However, some niche peripherals have proved to be creeper products, starting slowly but finding markets improved when the games associated with them found an audience.

According to Patrick Lagana, product manager for hardware and peripherals at Sony computer entertainment Australia, the Dance Mat originally brought out for Konami's Dance Dance Revolution, didn't take off in Australia until a more culturally appropriate game hit the market.

"It began to take off when we brought out a game featuring Britney Spears," Lagana says. "Prior to this, the games were really aimed for the Japanese market, but with the right product here it began to sell."

Lagana believes interactive devices which require physical as well as mental exertion will become increasingly the norm in the games peripherals market place.

"There's no reason why a games developer can't create a game to help you to lose weight, and do exercise using a dance mat or some other device," Lagana says. "When you're exercising with a video there is very little feedback, whereas a game can measure your movement and your pulse and respond to what you are doing."

More immediately however, Lagana points to a series of devices designed to capture sound and movement.

"The headset peripheral comes bundled with Socom US Navy Seals, and allows you to communicate with the other players in your team," Lagana said. "The game also includes voice recognition when you are playing by yourself, so that the computer generated characters react to words you speak into the headset."

Similarly, Microsoft aims to extend the gaming experience to voice, and plans to release a live controller with a head set and microphone in November this year.

Sony is also releasing a motion capture device called the iToy, which will allow users to mime using a wand in Harry Potter, practice martial arts in fighting games, or battle with light sabres in science fiction titles.

These new peripherals may well break through the two dimensional barrier which Andrew Carter portrays as the next frontier of games development.

"There are still no controllers that allow you to move things in 3D space ... all the games give you is two planes."

Online gaming hits high gear, almost

While peripherals play an important role the gaming experience, console vendors have focussed on the components inside their boxes in an attempt to future proof their offerings.

One of the key features currently touted is broadband connectivity, and the ability to play networked games over the Internet.

The idea of online gaming is by no means a new concept. Way back in the dark ages of game technology, Atari was the first to offer gaming over a phone line. Arguably before its time, Sega's Saturn console was the first to be released with an inbuilt modem, and Sega also shifted its focus to games publishing and arcade game hardware before networked gaming took off.

While Nintendo is holding back, claiming the market is not yet ready for broadband gaming, Sony and Microsoft are both investing in marketing the technology.

While Microsoft has taken the liberty of building a broadband connector directly into the console, Sony's Lagana says that uptake for the broadband adapter for the PlayStation 2 has been quite strong.

"Online gaming is going to be an important part of the gaming experience in the future," says Microsoft's Bowman. "With the Xbox you can just plug and go when the broadband services become more widely available."

In fact the slow uptake of online gaming continues to puzzle industry pundits.

"It surprises me how slow the uptake on online games has been so far. It is still a specialist thing," Infogrames' Carter says.

However, with broadband offerings becoming increasingly affordable in the Australian marketplace, vendors are expecting the uptake to increase significantly during the next twelve months.

Microsoft is also touting its built-in hard drive for the increased functionality it provides.

"The hard disk adds to the experience because it is like having a CD stacker in the back of the car when you are playing a game like Project Gotham," Bowman says, pointing out that it will also facilitate downloading games from the Internet. "These products are still in the early stages of a long life cycle."

Also key to future-proofing the technology are the various jacks and ports built into the consoles. While USB, firewire, multiply console and modem ports are increasingly the norm, consumers may have to wait a few years for the installation of bioports.

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