How to Actually Have Fun With the Tony Hawk Ride Controller

[John Funk]

How to Actually Have Fun With the Tony Hawk Ride Controller

As it turns out, the Tony Hawk Ride controller makes a better real-life skateboard than it does a videogame peripheral.


A quick recap: Tony Hawk Ride was supposed to be one of Activision's hot new properties for holiday 2009, packaged with a skateboard-shaped balance board that ostensibly let players immerse themselves in the action instead of just hitting buttons.

Unfortunately, the game frustration [http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/tonyhawkride?q=tony%20hawk%20ride].

Rather than keep a useless hunk of plastic just lying around their house with a below-average game, a group of actual skateboarders decided to have fun with it: They decided to turn the Ride skateboard into a real skateboard, and that's the video you see here.

The verdict? It works surprisingly well. "The board ... is real and surprisingly sturdy," said the filmmakers in a comment on the YouTube video. "To those that wished it broke at the end, we tried and because it held up we decided to keep it."

So if you've ever wanted to turn a piece of technology into a skateboard, go with the Ride controller rather than the iPad [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100559-iPad-Gets-Modded-Into-a-High-Tech-Skateboard] - it's cheaper, too!

(Via MTV Multiplayer [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/06/23/how-to-have-fun-with-the-tony-hawk-ride-skateboard-controller/])

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[Dr. wonderful]

Ouch.

He did better just making a skateboard.

 

[Jark212]

Those kids are pretty cleaver...

 

[razer17]

I am fairly sure I saw this over a week ago. Just saying. Still pretty awesome though.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Part with the cop was great...

 

[Jack and Calumon]

What's next? Real Instruments and Rock Band? Oh wait, that was done already... and is being done for next game! Fantastic. Next we'll have Dj Hero being a REAL MIXING TOOL!

Calumon: Wow, that policeman was confuzzled!

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Wow, they made what is essentially a skateboard without wheels into.......a skateboard. With wheels.

Spoiler

 

[Dogstile]

That policeman made me laugh so hard

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

I liked it up until the part where they started trashing actually useful stuff, like the 360 itself.

 

[Jared]

Looks like can make something outta nothing! Thats pretty cool! heh...got some use!

 

[Slaanax]

The only thing more impressive if it still worked somehow at the end as a controller.

 

[DanDeFool]

That's impressive.

Perhaps less so when you consider that the trucks support more of the loads applied to a skateboard than the board itself, but still a pretty interesting idea.

 

[Nova5]

As a former skater (knee injury did me in), that's awesome. This is way better than that 'will it shred' crap those two dudes did with an iPad.

 

[jpakaferrari]

Those kids were smarter than the cop. He was so confused and they answered so convincingly that it was just a video game and not a skateboard. It wasn't even real, none of it was real. That cop must have thought he was dreaming and he should wake up soon. Classic lying to cops.

edit: wow post above me really really unnecessary. I have seen porn before but was slightly taken aback to look up to see a penis.

OT Once this cop hassled us a little about playing baseball late at night with the lights on at the field. But fortunately as he pulled up we had just been leaving. So he wasn't mad, but he told us about how some people complained that the lights had been on at 2am before (which they had it was us then too). We acted shocked and said we had never seen people up there that late. He laughed and agreed with us that he had been working that beat for 2 years and had never seen such a thing. He drove off with us snickering to ourselves. good times.

 

[soren7550]

That is one sweet skateboard. 8]

 

[dochmbi]

Why do they always use this weird round lens distortion thing in skateboarding videos? What is it anyway that causes that effect?

 

[AgentBJ09]

Makes me sad that I sold my old trucks. I might have been able to get this deck from work.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Why do they always use this weird round lens distortion thing in skateboarding videos? What is it anyway that causes that effect?

Fisheye lens

The main reason for using the fisheye is that you it gives you a view of the whole stunt.. you see the boarder coming and going. Sure, it's distorted, but the skating world long ago decided this was the preferred way of viewing skating trick. Think about shooting it head-on... you'll miss many details from any angle that you'll see underneath. But if you're shooting from under a rail or fence or something, you need the extreme wide angle of a fisheye to shoot that close to the action.