At Retro Gamer magazine, Freelance games journalist, Craig Vaughan has published a special - recounting the Konix multisystem. Craig Vaughan in the past has written an extensive article charting the life of the Konix games chair commenting on its “ingenious morphing design” and how it “was literally years ahead of its time, with only Nintendo's Wii, some 17 years on, showing any inkling toward similar innovation.”

 

Coinciding with this publication in Retro Gamer magazine – we’re taking a brief moment to recap, in our blog, the two directors of Product Partners’ involvement in the development of the Konix Games Chair.

 

Whilst at Level Six design consultants Stephen Gallichan and Paul Neal Designed the Konix games chair. From their point of view, this was an exercise to design, develop and deliver a working rig in 6 weeks.

The design process began with conceptualising the gaming chair:

Fig 01: Basic chair

Once the concept had been refined and a chosen form and function decided, it was time to produce a rig.

All-hands-to-the-deck is an understatement. The chair development was a team effort, from the first concept sketch to loading it into the van to deliver to Wales. This was a ‘smoke and mirrors’ exercise; the electric motors were Bosch electric drills with the handles cut off, the ‘plastic panels’ were made of wood and painted, the chair was a re-upholstered aftermarket car-seat and the chair pivot was a top ball-joint from the suspension of a Mk4 Ford Cortina!

 

 Fig 06: Ball joint

In 6 weeks we really didn’t have time to consider or deliberate alternatives; we made decisions, went for it and hoped it would work when it was assembled and it did, sort of!

Video 01: This video documents part of the assembly of the working rig

The first chair was a working test-rig, it proved the concept was feasible and more importantly; gave Konix the publicity it required when launched at Olympia.

 

 Fig 08: The Konix gaminig chair on display at Olympia

What might have been:

Concept designed surrounding the planned peripheral Konix multisystem products:

These hand rendered illustrations are a real celebration of traditional presentation techniques:

Concepts for a steering joystick console:

 

 Concepts for a gun:

 

To Find out more about Paul Neal, Stephen Gallichan and Product Partners; please follow this link to the main website: http://www.productpartners.co.uk/

To find out more about the Konix multi system or Mark Campbell please visit:  http://www.konixmultisystem.co.uk/index.php

Find out more information about retro gaming’s publication – or interested in retro games visit their website: http://www.retrogamer.net/

 

Check out the new FX sport Promotional video, showcasing their wireless mp3 player.

Take a look at the Fx-Sport website for more information: http://www.fx-sport.co.uk/