Taking gaming into the real world

Former Homepage Editor

UpdatedSat, September 12, 2015 at 3:00 PM UTC

Playing video games and enjoying the outdoors don't have to be mutually exclusive. Various creative minds have come up with ways to take gaming into real-world environments. Why chill at the crib when you could be out driving a real-life Mario Kart or letting hadoukens fly at Burning Man? We've highlighted just a few of these pioneering projects this week, so head to the gallery for a look at the gaming experiences you've missed by staying home.

In 2010, Garnet Hertz and his Concept Lab developed a mixed reality version of the arcade classic *Out Run,* which uses actual roads for the game course. The vehicle's chassis is from an electric golf cart, but everything else is from the original cabinet, including the bucket seat, steering wheel and pedals. Cameras on the front converted real terrain into 8-bit on-screen versions for you to navigate. You can learn more about the project and see it in action on Hertz's website.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are just one of many sports teams using projections to hype up pre-game periods and intermissions, but you rarely see a take on Nintendo classics. Before the team's Eastern Conference finals earlier this year, they projected a re-tooled version of *Blades of Steel*, which was deftly titled *Bolts of Steel* (get it?). What you're seeing here is a mockup version, but one hockey fan managed to catch some of the actual rink-side action.

Toronto-based Site 3 coLaboratory has been playing with fire for years, so it's only fitting that it would make its way to the Burning Man festival to ply its trade. After a successful Kickstarter in 2012, the crew built a flame-based "Charcade" on the playa, offering a variety of fiery arcade thrills. The standout at the event was *Super Street Fire*. Live contestants donned motion-tracking wearables and attempted to perform successful combinations of movements that would trigger bursts of flames. Hadouken!

[Image: Site 3 Fire Arts]

More than a decade before Microsoft's HoloLens appeared, Adrian Cheok and his team from the National University of Singapore's Mixed Reality Lab developed *Human Pacman*. In this augmented reality game, one player could be Pac-Man and others could step into the role of Ghosts. Players made their way around a 230-square-foot area donning GPS trackers, augmented reality headsets and chunky packs full of WiFi-connected gear. Game features, like the round yellow "cookies," were overlaid onto the real-world course.

Earlier this year, though, all you needed was a bit of luck along with a Bud Light and you could've gotten treated to a more action-packed version.

If you don't feel like donning augmented reality goggles, you can still take to the streets to play *Ingress* by Google's Niantic Labs. This AR game centers on Portals scattered throughout cities across the globe, which you view on your mobile device. You hack, defend and take ownership of locations, while gathering necessary gear to play by using geolocation to make your way around.

1 / 5

Out Run

In 2010, Garnet Hertz and his Concept Lab developed a mixed reality version of the arcade classic Out Run, which uses actual roads for the game course. The vehicle's chassis is from an electric golf cart, but everything else is from the original cabinet, including the bucket seat, steering wheel and pedals. Cameras on the front converted real terrain into 8-bit on-screen versions for you to navigate. You can learn more about the project and see it in action on Hertz's website.

About our ads

Trending:

Taking gaming into the real world

Out Run

Follow Us