Tony Hawk Ride's board powered by dual accelerometers, imagination

By Christopher Grant

We still don't know much about Tony Hawk Ride's board-shaped peripheral. Things like "How much will it cost?" (GameStop indicates that it won't be cheap) or "How does it work?" While clearly powered, in part, by your "imagination," a recent video from USA Today (found after the break) adds some technological jargon to that list of ingredients: dual accelerometers. Says developer Robomodo's Josh Tsui:

"Inside are two accelerometers, and that gives us our tilting for navigation, our lifting on either side for doing things like ollies and nollies, and then it also gives us rotation. One accelerometer will give us the tilting and the lift, but having two of them allows us to read two different settings, two different rotations so that this way it allows us this type of skating mechanic. That's something that a lot of peripherals have never done before, is the rotation and the popping."

So, basically what Mr. Tsui is trying to tell you, in a very circuitous fashion, is that your vintage Top Skater arcade cabinet has finally been outgunned. Oh, and that you – as the owner of a vintage Top Skate arcade cabinet – are a relic from an ancient time ... a simple time when simple people were content to enjoy simple skateboarding peripherals.

[Thanks, Markus]

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