NeoRacer and Island Worlds

The NeoRacer pedal controller has been upgraded since my previous roundup and now can interact with just about anything: Xbox, GameCube, Playstation, PS2 or PC.

What is it? A compact, portable exercise bike controller (with adjustable magnetic resistance) which you can use to control forward motion in your favorite videogame while you use a standard joystick to control everything else.

In addition to letting you play games such as Crazy Taxi, what else can you do with this sort of controller? 3D Innovations is developing a "cyber-fitness" PC application called Island Worlds. Ahem:

Island Worlds is a cyber-fitness software application that runs on your PC. With Island Worlds you can

• Explore 3D worlds alone using a stationary bike, treadmill, stair-stepper or any other form of stationary fitness equipment.
  
• Explore worlds with others over the internet. This requires interactive fitness equipment. Presently the NeoRacer, GameBike, GameBike Pro and Recumbent GameBike Pro interact with Island Worlds. The GameRunner will be supported in the near future.
  
• Directly speak with your cyber fitness partners using voice chat.
  
• Create and customize your own worlds in minutes using our World Editor.
  
• Add your own music to your worlds.

The initial screenshots don't wow me but it's still in beta and they seem to be hoping for a flood of user-generated content to make the space compelling. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, you can get the controller here for $209.

(Or $129 if you don't need to control a videogame and just want to use it as a standalone exercise bike, but where's the fun in that?)

UPDATE: I overstated the price; Fixed.