HeartBeat Corporation

To do

• Mention the early Personal Trainer/system shell used in promotional material, and get a picture of two up. I'm sure we've got them hosted, but for now, links are here and here.
• There's an early Joey cart in the brochure as well.
• Clarify the exact setup method, and what each individual cable/component does.
• Per a warning card shipped with the system, plugging two Catalyst adapters into a Mega Drive could damage the system.
• Address brand confusion, both from company and its legacy.
• I wrote this a while ago but never sourced it: "Trainer+Catalyst originally being sold together as the "Personal Trainer" (and the Catalyst not having a proper name), and then when sales were poor, removing the systems from the bundles, chopping $100 bucks off the price, and selling it as the Catalyst." and "Personal Trainer price was dropped $100 (to $199.99) by April 95 (was the Catalyst also dropped to $99.99?)"
• Search YouTube for better images of HeartBeat products.
• I believe HeartBeat stuff was priced $XXX.95 each, but verify that.
• Check contemporary NordicTrack catalogues.
• In addition to buying directly through HeartBeat by phone or mail order, their products could also be purchased through the fitness retailer NordicTrack (who in January 1994 was selling the Personal Trainer at $350) and through three Target stores in the Michigan cities of Lansing, Okemon, and Jackson around April 1995.
• HeartBeat Corporation was an official licensee of Electronic Arts.
• HeartBeat's (unused?) company slogan was "It's Serious Fun".
• There was a list of other games the company was producing... I think another+ sports title, a motorcycle racing game, and a few others.
• What are “worldwide applications”? These aren’t planned regions, are they? Says JP patent was actually published, but depending on what Pending means, it was probably just being filed in case the system really took off.
• HeartBeat Corporation was a “partner of NEPA Venture Fund”, meaning their investor and funding source, among other things.
• Polar Technology is Polar Electro, who own a patent on a specific heartrate sensor technology utilized by HeartBeat, and is claimed as such in HeartBeat's patent. And is this a Polar/Steven McIntosh connection?

Articles

• Article.
• Article.
• Article.
• Article.
• Bloomberg article (behind paywall)
• New York Times article (behind paywall)
• Article about company investor

List of company staff

• Adam Benjamin (Product Manager; 1988 to 1994) (personally gives 1991 incorporation as start date)
• Justin Hall-Tipping (President, CEO; 1988 to 1995-05) (personally gives 1991 incorporation as start date)
• Nick Burton (Director of Business Development?; 1988 to 199X)
• Rick Koenig ("Enhancement Programmer"/Programmer; 1993-08 to 1994-04)
• Jon Paul (Chief Financial Officer (interim); 19XX to 199X)
• Scott Goodpaster (?)
• Patricia Males Evanko (?)
• Jeffrey Smith (?)