Imagine all the great times you could have alone in your basement, sitting on this chair...On second thought, don't.
These days it’s not uncommon for rare games or pieces of gaming hardware to fetch high prices on eBay. Most of the time, these are NES or Atari 2600 games, and usually, there’s a good deal of info out there on a given game, despite its rarity. A recently-launched eBay auction for a Sega Action Chair breaks all these rules. First, it’s a piece of hardware, and not just some kind of rare, special edition console, but a gigantic chair that’s also a controller. Secondly, it’s for the Sega Genesis, a full generation past the NES. Third, and perhaps most interestingly, these are so rare there’s very little info about them. Not even a Wikipedia page! That said, the concept is pretty simple. It’s a chair works as a Sega controller’s D-pad, with buttons in the handles. Leaning forward is “up,” back is “down,” etc. Is this fun? Who knows? Actual fun hasn’t really been an issue in past auctions of classic games, but considering the size of this monster and the absence of an Internet legend surrounding it, it’s not surprising that no one has put in a bid yet. At a $300 opening bid (and a $500 buy-it-now price) it would seem a bargain, but the fact that the winner will need to pick it up in Pennsylvania or arrange for transport themselves probably doesn’t help.
Despite the overall lack of info on these babies (Prior to all the chatter that’s emerged in light of this auction, what little info there was on the Sega Action Chair was found on message boards, many of them in French.), our Google powers have led us to that fountain of wisdom that is old-computers.com, where they’ve got a nice publicity photo and description, as well as a page of the French instructions, both of which make the Action Chair look frighteningly like that metal-framed futon you bought at Wal-Mart in college. Yes, this one. Though it seems from the auction description that the Action Chair is at least much better made and perhaps even more comfortable, it certainly doesn’t look any more fun to assemble, and it doesn’t fold down into a “bed.” Even so, it does come already assembled, so we’re recommending it to any college-bound hipsters in the vicinity of central east Pennsylvania. We challenge you to find a better piece of furniture for playing recommended classic games like After Burner II, Space Harrier II, Super Thunder Blade, Hang-On, Road Rash, and Super Monaco GP. For a real retro action though, try playing NBA Jam or Mortal Kombat on it.
Encyclopedia & Reference Resource