This is a prototype for a larger concept, entitled Nintendo Amusement Park. The final version is quite complex, so we are making a few simple prototypes to solicit help for the future. The end goal is a human size amusement park enviroment which uses different types of mechanical technology to give a participant the feeling of being Mario in a game of Super Mario Brothers.

This includes special jumping power, combined with a series of challenges that the user can only pass by exploring and harnessing that jumping power. This includes obstacles to jump over, pits to jump across, moving platforms to land on and ride, and enemies to jump on or avoid.

The jumping power would be provided by an intelligent winch mounted on a two axis crane in the ceiling. It would work similarly to the types used for Hollywood stunts. I have personally seen two of these in action.

This early prototype uses a small trampoline and a bungee cord and harness rigged to the ceiling to let the user begin exploring the sensation of augmented jumping power. These new powers are combined with challenges for the user to overcome by practicing and mastering their new abilities.

We are calling this new type of interaction 'physically augmented reality.'

For the show, we will only be presenting our concept for the real park, equipment (bungees, harnesses, costumes, set pieces), video and stills of our prototype, and documentation about our process. WE WILL NOT ACTUALLY BE HANGING PEOPLE FROM THE ITP CEILINGS.

I have been interested in video game physics models as examples of interactive learning since I was a child. The challenge of understanding a game's rules, and then working within those rules to complete some objects (or make up your own), is fascinating, and video game design has always been at the cutting edge of interaction design.

I am also interested in sports and activities that challenge our bodies natural sense of space and time. Skateboarding, snowboarding, motorcycle racing, and the like all have an element of skill involved that relates to divorcing oneself from being a human on the ground moving at human speed, and instead are challenges based on mastering physics that we have no innate understanding of.

A great example of this is something I discovered for myself over 10 years ago: when a person jumps the equivalent of their own body height (i.e. their feet are where their head normally is) they begin to flap their arms like a bird. This happens with all novice snowboarders once they reach that level, and is an example of the dividing line between our autonomous nervous system and active nervous system that I am interested in exploring.

The genesis for this project comes from two specific things.

First, the video game Super Mario 64. This was the first 3D version of Mario, and the flagship title for the Nintendo 64. By all critical and sales metrics, it was a smash hit. But for me personally, it was almost a direct brain to virtual world connection. When playing the game, I experienced a bit of synesthesia when certain things happend to my Mario avatar. Falling of cliffs, sliding around corners, and even jumping on trampolines in the game all actually made my stomach get light in real life. Many other people I have spoken to have had similar feelings, and we have all been thinking that it's time to stop letting the avatars have all the fun and do it ourselves!

The second motivator is from a purely functional perspective. When I was in middle school I attended NASA's Space Camp, where I got to experience the Moon Gravity Chair. It does just what it says, and makes one feel 1/6th their natural weight. The feeling of being able to jump over large object was so amazing, that I've never forgotten it.

Anyone with an interest in video games, adventure sports, or just the concept of physically augmented reality. We have already had interest from a broad cross section of peer and outsiders, gamers and non.

Use of the final version (that will require funding from a company such as Disney or Nintendo):

The user arrives at an amusement park, gets training on how the Magical Mario Winch is used, they are strapped into a harness, connected to the winch, and are send off to bound around the levels of Mario that have been constructed in real space.

Use of the prototype (which has already happened, will happen again before the show, and could possibly even happen at the studio we are renting on the days of the show but at an earlier time, but cannot actually happen in the floor): The user is strapped into a parachute harness, bungees are attached to a motorized trellis in the ceiling, and the trellis is raised until the users feet just touch the ground. They are left to explore the 'bounce space' for a few minutes, and are then tasked with a few challenges (jump over an object, hit an object high in the air, avoid an object moving on the ground).

Use of our booth at the show: The user will be enticed by Mario themed characters and backdrops, and will be able to view our video of the prototyping, our 30 second fake commercial for the Nintendo Amusement Park, our equipment, our 3D model of what the final park would look like, and would be able to take away a copy of our proposal and explanation paper.

Bungees, crash pads, a parachute harness, and rock climbing equipment! For the show we would be using LCD displays, posters, and foamcore props.

We have lots of video of prototyping that we will be editing and presenting in Big Games on Tuesday the 25th, but for the final video we will be shooting will full costumes and set pieces on May 2nd and editing and titleing that for the show. Then end goal of the video something that can be mistaken for an actual 30 second commercial for Nintendo Amusement Park from Japan.

We knew going into this that we would have a problem using a fixed attachment point in the ceiling truss. We would like to have a track that the attachment point can slide in, but they are many hundreds of dollars, are too heavy to move around by people, and need to be semi-permanently mounted.

With a fixed point we are faced with a vector problem: the farther a user moves away from the fixed point horizontally, the more it pulls them back. This makes it hard to have an interaction that takes place over a long distance, which is a goal of the final version.

This constraint led us to redesign some of the elements of the game to match what was possible and fun. For instance, we added a new challenge which is basically "avoid something moving underneath you" which arose out of neccessity.

We also learned, by testing and by making a simple physics model, that a user of a certain weight can only get a certain amount of bounce out of a system with a fixed height ceiling. changing a user's weight will change the frequency of their bounce, but not the amplitude. This should mean that all users have an equal chance of completing the same goals.

And we didn't break any people!