IOM: IAN BOGOST’S GURU MEDITATION COMES TO IPHONE
In what he describes as the first ever simultaneous game release on both the Atari 2600 and iPhone, developer, author and researcher Ian Bogost (the producer behind the previously mentioned airport security game Jetset) has released Guru Meditation to the App Store, a portable version of his “zen meditation game.”
The background: the game was originally developed for an obscure ‘Joyboard’ peripheral for the Atari 2600 — the retro-tech equivalent of the Wii’s Balance Board — which, instead of using the controller for an action game, required the player to sit as still as possible on the board. Remain motionless and your guru score rises, move a muscle and you crash back to the ground and start again.
The iPhone version of the game does precisely the same, only requires the player to hold the device in both hands, and uses the mic as well: in this version, you have to remain silent as well as motionless.
It’s a cute and clever idea for sure, but it is curiously effective to concentrate as hard as you can to remain still, and, Bogost notes, takes the one device that excels at distraction — with email, texts, twitter, and calls — and turns it into the precise opposite.
Learn more about the idea behind the game — and its limited edition Atari 2600 equivalent, and find the game on the App Store here.
Guru Meditation — a medititation game for Atari VCS and iPhone [Ian Bogost, iTunes link]
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