Kentia Hall always has the coolest stuff. Some might look upon it as the downcast edge of the industry, but each year seems to prove that wrong. As an example, while wandering around the event floor, I came across an exhibit for a neat little gadget called the “Ultimate Game Chair”.

Naturally we’ve all seen this kind of gimmick before, and usually I’ve overlooked them – but something about this peripheral drew me in for a closer look. To be specific, the “Ultimate Game Chair”, as it is called, consists of an elaborate, extra-comfy gaming chair, a headrest, 12 vibration motors which are “synchronized to video game action”, has integrated stereo speakers, USB ports for custom controllers, and – best of all – can handle gaming on the PS2, Xbox, and PC. Suffice it to say, this looks like quite a nifty toy for the kind of gamers out there who own no less than two copies of Steel Battalion (*cough*) and like showing off their gaming hardware. The representative manning the booth had a copy of Medal of Honor running (“Pacific Assault” I’m pretty sure), which was set up to run through a scripted level where you man a PT boat and try to shoot down incoming planes in the middle of a fierce naval battle.

In this case, the Xbox version of the game was running, and this was augmented by a custom Xbox controller split up in half, with one analogue stick to each side – this way I could rest my arms on the arm-rests , and then grip the two controller segments comfortably as if playing some kind of fancy flight-sim. Actually, I would’ve preferred to try a game like Ace Combat 5 or one of the Mechwarrior games more than anything using this kind of setup, but Medal of Honor’s PT boat mission served great for demo purposes. Firing the mounted machine gun turret not only yielded a satisfying auditory *thump* *thump* *thump*, but the chair’s vibration motors also kicked in to add to the effect, making for some very intense gameplay.

Some concerns I had however involved the manner in which the controls were set up. Specifically, the hand-grips where the two controller “handles” are placed are in themselves flexible, making me instinctively move them to try and get the game to react – however, the flexibility is only for comfort purposes, and all input needs to be done through the actual controllers. In addition, while this setup can indeed be used for PC functionality, the vibration options and extra functions will need to be enabled on a specific driver level and will probably depend on game compatibility as well. In addition, the setup is expected to run about $150-$200 for the basic version of the chair (with no integrated controllers – just a comfy seat and ports to plug in your own setup), with the premium bundle running upwards of $600-plus for the fully decked out edition of the chair.

If given the opportunity for a more thorough preview of this chair in a PC-based environment running some of my favorite sims, I might just be tempted to start diverting cash from my “Get a Pontiac Firebird” fund to get one of these. Currently however, the Ultimate Game Chair still looks like quite a cool gimmick, and anybody interested in decking out their deluxe gaming configuration with one of these can learn more about their upcoming versions of the chair at www.ultimategamechair.com . - Dave VanDyke.