Stompin'

Bally Sente was founded in 1984 as a subsidiary of Bally Manufacturing, created specifically to develop arcade games using swappable cartridge-based hardware (the SAC-I system). The company was led by Nolan Bushnell's former colleagues from Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. Stompin' was first shown at the AMOA (Amusement & Music Operators Association) show in fall 1985, with an improved model appearing at the ACME (American Coin Machine Exposition) show in March 1986. The concept was branded as 'floorplay' — Bally's term for foot-operated game interfaces.

The floor controller consisted of nine weight-sensitive pads arranged in a 3×3 matrix. Each pad was supported on a base by resilient foam and activated one of three parallel membrane switches when the player stepped on it, sending a signal to a 9-bit shift register in the game's input interface circuit. The CPU (Motorola 6809 at 1.25 MHz) periodically read this shift register to determine which pads had weight on them. Simultaneously, the CPU wrote to a 24-bit shift register controlling 24 LED light segments arranged in rings around each pad, providing real-time visual feedback at the player's feet. The game unit was a standard Bally Sente SAC-I cabinet with a CRT display, augmented by the floor platform and a handlebar for player stability during rapid stomping.

US Patent 4,720,789 ('Video exercise or game floor controller with position indicating foot pads') was filed October 31, 1985 and granted January 19, 1988. The inventors listed are Roger D. Hector, Nolan K. Bushnell, Howard Delman, Edward Rotberg, and Jon Kinsting. The patent is remarkably forward-looking: it describes not just a game, but an exercise system where 'the processor can be programmed to provide a specific exercise program wherein the video display provides direction for the placement of the operator's feet on the floor controller and the location signals are used by the processor as a measure of success of the operator in following the exercise program.' It even suggests a simplified 3-pad version 'that can be used in an in-place jogging exercise program.'

Stompin' was not a commercial success — the Bally Sente division struggled and was eventually closed. But its core interaction concept — a matrix of foot-operated pads mapped to screen positions with real-time feedback — is the direct ancestor of every dance pad and foot-operated rhythm game controller. Dance Dance Revolution, released by Konami in 1998, used a nearly identical 3×3 pad layout (up/down/left/right arrows). The patent's dual framing as game and exercise apparatus also prefigures the entire exergaming category, from Wii Fit to Ring Fit Adventure. Stompin' is a case study in how a commercial failure can contain a genuinely novel interaction paradigm that takes a decade to find its audience.