Wii Fitness Board: 25 Years In The Making

Wii Fitness, and more specifically the Balance Board peripheral, isn't quite as new and revolutionary as Nintendo would like you to believe. In fact, the idea goes back two and a half decades.

Way back in 1982 Amiga released a balance board peripheral called the Joyboard (pictured to the right). It was, as you'd expect, far less sophisticated than the Wii's Balance Board. Rather than pressure controls, the peripheral had the four directional latches of a joystick on the bottom of the board, basically making it a joystick you could stand on. Theoretically, that made the board usable in conjunction with any joystick-using game.

Naturally enough, Wii Fitness will feature a skiing game that use the Balance Board. As serendipity would have it, the first and only game released specifically for the Joyboard was Mogul Maniac, also a skiing game.

Alas, the Joyboard never took off and went the way of the dinosaurs, but SPOnG's sure that somewhere out there are some thoroughly gratified former Amiga developers.

You can read more about Wii Fitness on SPOnG's dedicated game page.

^{Source: Water Cooler Games}