D-BOX Technologies is a company that designs products which add motion experience into home entertainment. These products have been mainly aimed at home cinema, supporting DVDs and Blu-Rays (you may have seen a D-BOX Motion Code logo on the back cover of some Blu-Ray movies).
This technology also supports gaming, which is the reason why I acquired a SRP-120 Motion Platform. The D-BOX web site lists 3 games that are supported (rFactor, Lunar Championship Racing and Flight Simulator X) but more games are supported on the installation disc bundled with the system:
A press release was also released this week announcing the support of the upcoming Need for Speed Undercover game from Electronic Arts. Also, while browsing the web I noticed that the D-BOX Motion Code logo is on the front page of the official Nitro Stunt Racing web site. I guess we can also expect upcoming support for this game.
The SRP-120 comes with a free Motion Gaming Controller. As you can see on the pictures, it is well packed (the white box is the Motion Controller and the brown box is the SRP-120 Platform). I started with the Motion Controller. As you can see, it includes the Motion Controller itself, a USB cable, a power supply and an installation disc.
The installation is quite easy as you may expect:
- Insert the installation disc into your CD/DVD-Rom drive to install the drivers and software
- Connect the Motion Controller to your computer using the provided USB cable
- Connect the power cable to your Motion Controller
The next step is to build the SRP-120 Platform. As you can see in the following pictures, everything needed is included, even the tools to assemble the platform.
Finally the most interesting component is probably the actuator control module. This module contains 2 electrical motors used to make the platform vibrate and move. There are no hydrolics involved, this is one of the reasons why this system is very interesting for a regular gamer like myself. I won't need to do extra maintenance and I won't have to smell oil every time I use my computer. Basically, the 2 white parts on both sides of the module will rest on the ground and will make the whole platform go up and down. As you can see in the second picture, the connections are quite simple: you plug the power coord into the top connector and you plug the CAT5 cable (the grey cable shown in the previous picture) into the "KineLink" port (there are two ports, I am not sure why but I tried both ports and it worked). The other end of the KineLink cable is plugged into the Motion Controller (see the previous pictures) in any of the A, B, C or D port. From what I have been told, you could plug 4 SRP-120 platforms into 1 Motion Controller to have the 4 platforms move at the same time.
The next step is to build the platform. It can be easily customized to fit your needs. A plan is provided and based on the actual size of the seat you want to use, there are multiple ways to assemble it. As you can see in the second picture below, the seat will rest on the four "square" components. You don't even need to use these "squares" since you could use some wood for example and build yourself a nice platform. I might do this later as it would allow me to have my pedals (from my wheel gaming controller) directly on the platform so that they also move and vibrate. With the plan and the tools provided, building the platform is quite easy. Unfortunately, I still experienced a minor problem building it. I had some problems inserting the front right "square" component. It was too tight and I could not make it go all the way into the front structure. I had to use a small hammer to make it fit.
The last step is to move your chair on the platform and enjoy your new gaming experience! As you can see in the second picture, you can easily move back your "favorite motion seat", leave the platform there and use your "working chair" when you are done playing games. Depending on the chair that you want to use, you can also always leave it on the platform even if you are not playing a game. I would recommended using a seat that is not too stuffed as you will lose some vibration intensity.
The D-BOX SRP-120 Motion Platform is a very interesting product for any gamer and movie enthousiasts. It also supports over 800 movie titles (DVDs and Blu-Rays). Unfortunately, while the SRP-120 platform supports it, you still need another motion controller if you want to experience motion when watching movies as the Gaming Motion Controller doesn't support movies.
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