Chapter 9: Off-Machine Exercises
From "How to Master the Video Games"
by Tom Hirschfeld
Copyright 1981 Norfolk Publishing Corp.
Published by Bantam Books, New York


        Physical adeptness is essential to implementing your strategies. In 
your spare time, you and a friend can work on improving hand-eye coordination, 
peripheral vision, finger strength, and tempo control. The exercises can be 
enjoyably challenging and will sharpen skills just as effectively as the 
first few quarters you put into a game you want to learn. They should be 
adjusted to the player's abilities and needs.

        When playing arcade games for any amount of time, remember to keep 
your back and neck relaxed but straight, thus avoidlng stiffness and cricks. 

Hands            
        
        You will accomplish wonders by training your hands to react as quickly 
as possible to visual stimuli. 

Exercise: have your friend drop a pen from various heights, from four to 
seven feet. Stand a foot away and keep your right hand at your side until you 
see the pen drop: then, reach and catch it before it hits the ground (see 
diagram). The different heights are necessary to prevent your relying more on 
reflex than on actual coordination. When you have made ten clean catches in a 
row with each hand, let your friend try.

Eyes

        Some games use sound effscts to warn the player of danger: a topnotch 
player, however, must also be alert to the slightest flicker or movement in 
any part of the screen and be able to analyze all visual data without 
shifting focus.
      
Exercise: have your friend stand three feet from you at about two o'clock.
Stare straight ahead while he holds up a random number of fingers: call out 
how many you see. If you are correct on the first try, have your friend move 
more and more to your right side, until you make a wrong guess. He should then
maintain this position. Keeping your head and eyes straight ahead, try to 
concentrate enough to answer correctly five times in a row. Repeat the 
exercise on your left side, then switch with him. 

        This exerclse is designed to strengthen and hone your natural 
peripheral vision. Often, what you see "out of the corner of your eye" can
mean life or death on screen.
      
Fingers

        Anyone who has played games using button controls knows how essential
digital skill can be. Fingers must be strong and limber, since sustained play 
produces pain and slowness in the joints of unprepared fingers.
      
Exercise: wrap the fingers of your right hand tightly around a pen. Then 
extend the foreflnger and begin to rotate it clockwise around a doorknob. You 
should start slowly, at about 30 revolutions per minute (rpm), retaining your 
grip on the pen and keeping you wrist as stationary as possible. Try never to
touch the doorknob and never to wander more than half an inch from it (see
diagram).

        If your finger hurts slightly, it should: the muscles are being 
stretched and loosened. Now accelerate the rotations to 60 rpm. If you can 
hold your orbit for one minute. you are doing well. 

        Now alternate between clockwise and counterclockwise motion, starting 
slowly and increasing speed each time. Finally, repeat the entire process 
with your left hand.

        Pulling each finger back as far as it will go and keeping it there
for ten seconds before playing will loosen a different, but also important,
set of muscles. Since one quarter can buy you hours of play, you should 
stretch your finger muscles before beginning any session, to be sure that 
cramps and pains will not hamper your enjoyment. 

Tempo

        Advanced play in all video games requires a firm command of timing: 
often this mastery involves the ability to fall into various rhythms inherent 
to the games. Two examples are the move-stop-shoot rhythm so crucial in SPACE 
INVADERS-type games, and the thrust-turn-shoot rhythm of most ASTEROIDS-type 
games (see Chapter 3).

Exercise: try to tap a pen on a table at intervals of exactly one second for 
30 seconds, having a friend time you. Once you have accomplished that, move 
up to intervals of two seconds for a minute, then of three seconds for a 
minute and a half, and so on. Intervals of seven seconds are the most 
difficult you are likely to need for developing sufficient rhythmic skill. 


[Scanned and edited by Dennis Brown -- dgbrown (at) pixesthesia (dot) com]