Not a lot of people are going to question Nintendo’s dedication to innovation — everything from the D-Pad to the DS smacks of originality and achievement. That’s why I was surprised when I caught wind of this: the Joyboard for the Atari 2600. The Joyboard was “a joystick platform the player stood on and controlled by shifting bodyweight and staying balanced.” The controller shipped with (and was likely only playable with) the skiing simulator Mogul Maniac.

Suggesting that Nintendo lifted the idea for a balance board form the Atari is ludicrous — that’d be like saying DDR ripped off the Power Pad or the Virtual Boy ripped off that one boat trip I had when I was 8 and had to hose off my shoes at the end of the ride (face it — the VB was made to induce nausea folks.) Still, it goes to show that with all of the ideas floating around out there, some of them are bound to overlap.

Gamasutra

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