Wii Controller Function and Components - Research Paper Example

Wii Controller Function and Components Introduction Nintendo has been in the gaming industry for over 100 years now and it has proven itself as one of the best gaming console providers in the world. The main reason that differentiates Nintendo among others is the technology evolutions. Nintendo research and development center constantly strives to bring innovative and captivating gaming platforms for the gamers. Over the years Nintendo has been able to keep its tradition of fantastic games alive and with the strategies that Nintendo has been working on; the competitors like Sony and Microsoft would take about decades more to lead the race in gaming industry. This paper will discuss the evolution history of Nintendo and how things shape up in the gaming industry. Nintendo’s Wii is considered to be another revolution in the gaming industry, the trends that it has created for the others to follow has great historical background. Nintendo’s most famous game till date remains Super Mario Bros. Different versions in Mario Bros category have been launched by Nintendo which include Mario Kart, Mario Baseball, Mario Golf etc. In every gaming console that Nintendo has developed Super Mario Bros. has been launched as their primary game. Nintendo has always focused on games that are non-violent, although there are many companies that are generating revenues through violent games, but still Nintendo has kept its focus on non-violent games even for adults as well (Diskin, 2004). Historical Changes in Nintendo Nintendo first started in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, and since then the company presidency is in the hands of the family. Fusajiro Yamauchi’s great grandson is the current president of the company. Initially the company in 1889 started as a small business in the city of Kyoto, Japan. The first game manufactured by Nintendo was “Hanafuda” which was a card game. Fortunately the game got hit and in 1902 the same game was exported to other parts of the world as well. In the mid of 1975, Nintendo with Mitsubishi Electric started a joint venture by manufacturing microprocessor based video game system. This was a new revolution in the gaming industry, and soon in 1977 the video game systems were manufactured for home as well. This concept got instant hit and due to high scale production the company had to categorize its production as coin system games and home user games. In 1980 Nintendo America, their other branch was started where it developed a hit game named Donkey Kong. In 1985 Nintendo developed Super Mario Bros which has been the most famous game of Nintendo till date. However in 1996 Nintendo jumped out of gaming console specifications and launched first 64-bit processor based gaming console named Nintendo 64. The gaming industry had been growing rapidly at this time and the right time launch of Nintendo 64 allowed the company to generate great profits. In 2001 Nintendo launched GameCube, which due to high level of competition was not able to penetrate the gaming market. However the company soon realized that they need to go beyond conventional gaming in order to capture the market, therefore in 2006 Nintendo came up with the revolutionary gaming console named “Wii”. Evolution of Wii Nintendo kept its tradition of brining out innovation in their products, and moving beyond the limit of conventional controller gaming to more realistic game play. The evolutionary design of Wii allowed gamers to play interactively through Wii controllers. In many parts of the world there was a huge concern about people gaining so much weight, therefore when Nintendo developed Wii controller they had a huge segment to target, and they could easily replace the previous button pushing gaming with an interactive and near to real life gaming, where players would exercise while playing games as well. Wii is a revolution in one-on-one gaming where players not only enjoy gaming but due to higher level of friendliness in the game, Wii has positive social impact as well. It was a good fortune again for Wii because at the time of launch of Wii, the direct competitors like Microsoft and Sony had some technical problems in their gaming consoles of Playstation 3 and Xbox. The sales grew rapidly and with the games like Legend of Zenda, Mario Bros., Boxing and other sporting games people had great fun while playing these games (Bruyn, Leman, Michiel, Frank and Dirk, 2008). The Wii Remote control is very different from the conventional game pad. This is because players do not have to push buttons to play; rather they have rackets for playing tennis and boxing gloves for arm wrestling and similarly footpads for dancing which provides high level of entertainment for all. Electrical Specifications The main component of Wii has a size of about 2" x 2" x 9" which is equal to 3 DVD cases. The processor is made by IBM which is called PowerPC. The graphics engine embed in Wii by ATI, distinguishes its game appearance from others. The game has 512MB Flash memory that helps in smooth running of game; however external memory card is used for its storage. For the wireless technology the game comes with built in Wi-Fi to connect to different users and to the Nintendo server through Internet, whereas Bluetooth technology is used to wirelessly connect up to 16 players at a time. USB-Ethernet port is also provided from where the users can directly connect Wii to the Internet through Ethernet cable. And for video output options the game has S-Video output with 480 pixel and 16:9 widescreen capabilities for hi-definition video graphics. There is no DVD playback option in the console; however some patches are available to play DVD. Another good feature that Wii has is the backward compatibility. The GameCube games, memory cards and controllers can be used in Wii as well. So it is a cost saving option as well for the users. The processor “PowerPC” is based on IBMs Broadway processor which is made with a 90nm SOI, CMOS technology processing capability, having a clock rate of 729 MHz. The graphics engine is also 90nm CMOS processor with a clock rate of 243 MHz. The internal memory is 24MB and 1T-SRAM is integrated into the graphics engines with an external memory of 64 MB GDDR3 (SDRAM) technologies. Therefore the total package of main memory is 88MB out of which 3MB is embedded with GPU texture memory and frame buffer (Schlömer, Poppinga, Henze and Boll, 2008). As for the storage they built in memory is 512MB (NAND technology) flash, whereas it also has expansion options of SD and SDHC memory card that can hold up to 32 GB of space. The main component has built in rating system as well that uses BBFC, CERO, ACB and USK technology to identify the rating of games. And for the video output with 480p PAL/NTSC output the system is capable of supporting composite video through providing NTSC and RGB SCART. With the standard 4:3 screen the game also has support for 16:9 widescreen as well. Having Dolby ProLogic-II capability for sound and built in speakers in the controllers for audio output. The power consumption is 18 watts when the game is switched on and 9.6 watts on standby if the WiiConnect24 is on standby as well. However if the WiiConnect 24 is off then the power consumption is reduced to 13 Watts during standby. The Wii Remote is the most exciting part of Wii, because it revolutionizes the gaming concept through cordless, motion-controlled remote that knows how the player is moving hands or body and according to the movement the game senses the player and interprets within the game. The game requires standard AA batteries pair that runs for 30 hours under full use and 60 hours on standby. 16 Players can simultaneously connect to the game out of which 10 will be in standard mode and 6 in time mode through Bluetooth to enjoy the game. There is an optional USB port as well to use keyboard as message board while using Wii Shop Channels and Internet. The Wi-Fi vendor is Mitsumi with model DWM-W004 having capability of 802.11b and 802.11g Wi-Fi capabilities (Schou and Gardner, 2007). Balance board The Wii Balance Board resembles to a body scale that has a white top which is plain and a light gray bottom. The Balance Board concept brought by Wii is entirely new to the gaming industry and it provides great entertainment to the players when they use it. The internal circuitry of the balance board comprises two main circuits, where one is the Bluetooth circuit and the other one is the pressure sensor circuit. The pressure sensor is capable of sensing from 20 grams of weight to 140 Kg. The power source for the balance board is from four AA batteries that collectively make about 6V, and with these fully charged batteries balance board can give about 60 hours of usage. The board actually works on the technology of pressure sensors. The sensitivity of the pressure sensor can be varied according to the usage, which allows user to adjust the balance board with their liking. Bluetooth technology is used in order to connect the sensor with the main component; however the company recommends using the sensor barefooted because otherwise the board is not properly gripped and this can be very dangerous and even can result in injury as well. Nintendo has been able to produce another exceptional gaming revolution through Wii. The games in Wii do not only have positive impact on the brain as well, but with the capability of body movement the users can also be benefited physically since their body will be exercising while playing. The facility to play 16 players at a time is another different gaming experience that gaming industry has witnessed. And with Nintendo always trying to focus on non-violent and friendly games the game is sure to generate great profits for the company in the coming years as well. Work Cited Bruyn, Leen, Marc Leman, Demey Michiel, Desmet Frank and Moelants Dirk. "Measuring and Quantifying the Impact of Social Interaction on Listeners' Movement to Music." 2008. 14 Dec. 2010. Diskin, Patrick. "Nintendo Entertainment System Documentation." Aug. 2004. 14 Dec. 2010. Schou, Torben and Gardner, Henry. "A Wii remote, a game engine, five sensor bars and a virtual reality theatre." 19th Australasian conference. 2007. 14 Dec. 2010. Schlömer, Thomas, Benjamin Poppinga, Niels Henze and Susanne Boll. "Gesture recognition with a Wii controller." 2008. 14 Dec. 2010. Read More