What if Dennis Eckersley threw a different pitch to Kirk Gibson in the World Series? Or Eli Manning got sacked before his throw to David Tyree in the Super Bowl?
Technology is on the verge of finding out.
Researchers in Taiwan have discovered a new method to play sports video games that puts you in control of real-life athletes. Scientists at the National Taiwan University in Taipei took the motion controls in Wii Sports Tennis and placed them into real-life events.
New Scientist reports the system, called "Tennis Real Play," can analyze video of actual matches such as Wimbledon, US Open, the Australian Open and the French Open and make them into a playable video game. The technology takes clips of athletes motion and transfers the players over into a controllable character.
Wii Sports is arguably the most successful video game of all-time. As of early this year it topped Super
Mario Bros., Pokeman, Tetris and Duck Hunt for the top spot in history with 47 million copies sold.
Just like Madden Football and other popular sports games, this computerized version can break down the real-life performance of an athlete and transfer that level of success into play.
Taiwan researchers have gamers using the Wii controller to play the game, but thats just temporary. The team of scientists has created a Kinect-controlled version, which will debut at a conference in Arizona later this year.
While the demo version of the technology features tennis stars such as Rafael Nadal and the Williams sisters, the researchers say the new gaming technology can also be used for other sports such as baseball and football.
So in the future, there's a chance fans that don't like how an athlete reacted in a situation can do the whole thing over as the athlete's avatar and take a different path.
No word yet on whether Cubs fans will be able to make Steve Bartman go to the concession stand.
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