TAKE THAT! From left, Aaron Singh, Shannon Taylor and Thomas Reese demonstrate Makoto last month at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The trio used their hands and feet, but many players use a special staff to attack the Makoto lights.

LIGHTSOUT! Makoto combines exercise, high-tech game By BILL RADFORD THE GAZETTE

Britt Baugh is a man in motion.

With each tone, each light, he acts. He strikes one target with the end of the staff he wields in his two hands, then spins, races to the next target.

Baugh is demonstrating Makoto, a heart-pounding blend of exercise and video-game fun with a touch of "Star Wars." It’s kind of a high-tech version of whack-amole, the old carnival game in which players pound the heads of mechanical moles with a

mallet as they pop out of their holes.

Makoto’s predecessor, Dragon-Sport, has been around for 10 years at the Dragon’s Lair in Glenwood Springs and a few other locations. While on vacation last year in Glenwood Springs, Dave Shaw came across DragonSport and was so impressed he ended up buying the company behind it.

Shaw, the former chief executive officer of a Houston-based computer company, changed DragonSport to Makoto and started a new company, Makoto USA Inc., in Denver.

The word makoto is a very important word to the ancient Samurai," Shaw says. "It means giving everything to your life every single day."

Makoto USA refined the arena’s design (see description above right) and is working to spread the word about what it hopes will become the next big thing. The Makoto sports arena already has found a home with the Colorado Crush, the indoor arena football team, and can be found in dozens of fitness centers, martial-arts studios, arcades and other sites in Colorado and several states across the country.

We’ve got two very distinct markets: what we call the high-energy entertainment market and also the fitness market," Shaw says.

At Laser Quest in Colorado Springs, which has had Makoto for several months, the primary attraction is fun. It’s often a family affair, says

HOW IT WORKS

The Makoto sports arena is a triangle, with a 6-foot tower at each point of the triangle. The player has 32 square feet of space to roam in and "defend." The game can be played individually or with teams of two or three people playing back to back. Targets on each tower, indicated by lights and sounds, activate randomly. The goal is to hit the target from inside the triangle before it goes dark; depending on the level the system is set at, the player has 0.74 seconds to 3 seconds to strike. As soon as one target is hit, another target — sometimes on the same tower, sometimes on another one — activates.

GET YOUR KICKS: Karate student Aaron Singh says playing Makoto provides a great workout — "plus it’s a lot of fun."

CONTACT THE WRITER: (719) 636-0272 or comics@gazette.com

This article is reprinted with the permission of The Gazette Newspaper, Colorado Springs Colorado. Copyright 2003

Stephen Harclerode, the local Laser Quest’s general manager.

”It’s fun to watch the kids play the first time, and then they challenge dad," he says.

Baugh, a Makoto distributor and the owner of Colorado Shotokan Karate Association in Colorado Springs, focuses on the fitness factor.

Makoto provides a regular workout for Baugh, who has two arenas at home. He takes them to various schools, where he teaches karate classes, to give kids a chance to try Makoto.

In my business, we’re always trying to keep kids from just sitting there and playing Nintendo," he says.

Baugh also teaches karate at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

One of his students there, 22-year-old Aaron Singh, played Makoto at Baugh’s house one evening and was instantly enthralled.

At a recent Makoto demonstration at CU-Springs, Singh was a blur as he attacked the targets with his hands and feet instead of a staff.

It’s a great way to develop focus and test speed and reflexes, Singh says. "It basically simulates three opponents around you."

J.T. Anderson, the team chiropractor for the Denver Broncos and the Colorado Crush, introduced the Crush to Makoto. "The players are using it primarily for eye-hand coordination and speed

training," he says.

Some personal clients, meanwhile, work out in the Makoto arena Anderson keeps in a gym in the basement of his home. He uses it for teaching balance and strengthening core muscles such as abdominals and lower-back muscles.

Physical rehabilitation "is a subset of the fitness market" pursued by Makoto USA, Shaw says. He believes it offers a fun alternative to what

rehab patients often consider drudgery.

Makoto USA has cut the price of the arenas by 20 percent, to $8,000 — a price still out of reach for most people. The company is looking at

developing a cheaper home version, "but that’s still a ways away," Shaw cautions.

For more information, visit www.makoto-usa.com or call the company at (303) 766-3971 or Britt Baugh at 391-7841. In Colorado Springs, you can play Makoto at Laser Quest, 1605 N. Academy Blvd., or the Chapel Hills Ice Arena. Cost is $1 for a two-minute round.