We have already covered various aspects of Nintendo’s peripherals from Nintendo’s Laser Guns to the infamous Power Glove. In part two of Nintendo’s peripherals, we examine devices from the Roll ‘n Rocker to the Wii U’s controller.

The Roll ‘n Rocker

In 1989 the company LJN develops the Roll ‘n Rocker for the NES. The Roll ‘n Rocker is a balance board with a ball on the bottom. The Roll ‘n Rocker works by plugging the NES Controller to the Roll ‘n Rocker. The A, B, and Start buttons are used on the controller while the Roll ‘n Rocker is used as a glorified D-Pad. That is all the Roll ‘n Rocker is good for. With shoddy controls, poor functionality, and only a 100lbs weight limit, the Roll ‘n Rocker is one of the most useless peripherals for the NES.

R.O.B.

Jumping back to 1985, Nintendo introduces the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) to Japan and North America. R.O.B is one of Nintendo’s most intriguing inventions even today. R.O.B. is an interactive robo buddy that the user is able to interact with on various games that came out for R.O.B.

The two games that came out for R.O.B. are “Gyromyte” and “Stack-up”. Both games require R.O.B. to do various tasks in order for the user to progress through the game. R.O.B. may be primitive at best, but he functions well. Though there are not too many other games released for R.O.B., he still is a predominant player in the gaming revival back in the videogame saturation of 1983.

Nintendo up to Today

With the many different peripherals on the NES, Nintendo is continuing to focus on new means of gameplay, and a lot of what they have today seem to be variations of their past projects. For the Nintendo 64 (N64) and the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo tries two different voice recognition gameplay with “Hey You Pikachu” on the N64 and “Odama” on the GameCube.

Though both work better than their Laser Scope counterpart, they both suffer from command issues and are panned greatly for that. As for the Wii Speak, its only function is to communicate with other gamers.

As part of a new focus to get its gamers healthy, Nintendo introduces the Wii Balance board with the Wii Fit. The Wii Balance Board shares a strikingly similar function with the Roll ‘n Rocker, except the Wii Balance Board actually works and offers a lot more features that the Roll n’ Rocker cannot do.

The biggest development to come from Nintendo is the Wiimote (Wii Remote). From what seems like a combination of the NES Zapper and the Power Glove, the Wiimote masters functionality as well as gives gamers a completely unique gaming experience that no other developer is able to offer.

This leads to the possibility that the Power Glove was probably to advanced for its time and also shows that Nintendo had the technology back then, but needed time to perfect it before it could be a viable function as a gaming device.

Currently known as the Wii U Controller, the WiiPad a combination of an iPad with a basic gaming controller. Its style is very similar to the DS’ base and functions just like it. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo’s WiiPad will function once the Wii U officially comes out to the public Winter of 2012. Nintendo has certainly come a long way through the years and still continues to push gaming to the limit in how people play games.

To classics like the Nintendo Zapper, which to this day the only thing the Zapper is not able to shoot is the dog from Duck Hunt, and the abysmal failures of the Roll ‘n Rocker, which only accomplished making games unplayable, Nintendo stood up to their mistakes and flaunted their triumphs. It will be interesting to see what others successes and possible failures Nintendo will come up with in their future of video game peripherals.

Image Courtesy of   Barone Firenze / Shutterstock.com

The article Evolution of Nintendo’s Peripherals: Power Glove to WiiPad Part 2 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The Nintendo Company is known for experimenting with different means of gameplay and coming up with the next big thing in interactive gameplay. With so many different types of games to choose from, Nintendo wants to introduce to gamers many different ways to play these games. What better way to examine Nintendo’s methods of gameplay than to look into its evolution from the experimental phase of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to the more professionally established peripherals of Nintendo’s later systems.

Nintendo Laser Guns

One of the Nintendo’s first peripherals, and probably most famous one, was the NES Zapper. The NES Zapper came out in 1985 with “Duck Hunt”, but could also work on various games that used the shooting gallery type function. The way the Zapper works is when the user pulls the trigger on the Zapper, it causes the entire screen to go black for a split second, except for the target area, which flashes white. By doing this, the sensor in the gun reads the white area and if a shootable object is caught in the white block, it would register as a hit.

Back in the day it was seen as a marvelous technical advancement, and even today the game Duck Hunt is still seen as a must-play classic with the NES Zapper, though the Zapper’s function can only work on CRT display TVs and cannot work on LCD or Plasma TVs.

In 1992 Nintendo came out with the Super Scope for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The Super Scope is about twice as large as the NES Zapper and functions a little differently by shooting out an ’0′ signal as it reads the various 1’s and 0’s that shoot through the TV signals. With this, the game retrieves the data to acknowledge the target position of the Super Scope and is then able to register a hit or a miss. But like the Zapper, the Super Scope can only work on CRT display TVs.

The Laser Scope, developed by Konami for the NES, is a device that the player wears like a headset. The Laser Scope is one of the first peripherals that introduces voice activated commands for gameplay. The Laser Scope includes a laser guided crosshair, which sits just above the user’s right eye, and a microphone attached to the left earphone.

The laser crosshair works just like the NES Zapper, but instead of pulling a trigger, the user merely has to say “Fire.” The issue with the Laser Scope is that it picks up any sound and causes the device to misfire. The device is big, clunky, and does not function the way it is intended to work. The Laser Scope came out in 1990 with the game Laser Invasion.

The Power Glove

In pop culture the Power Glove is seen at the butt of many jokes as well as a popular internet meme. As most of its critics discuss the Power Glove, they always refer back to the 1989 movie “The Wizard” and deliberately misquote the line “It’s so bad” when referring to the Power Glove, mainly because the Power Glove is in fact “so bad.”

Licensed by Nintendo, but developed by Abrams Gentile Entertainment, the Power Glove is intended to be one of the first interactive motion sensor games, in which the user’s hand was the controller. The Power Gloves works by having the user enter an input code found on the forearm of the controller.

This code is used to set the control system to designated games. Once the controller is “linked” to the game, the user’s hand movements are registered for gameplay. One of the games designed specifically for the Power Glove is “Super Glove Ball,” in which the user throws balls to destroy walls.

The Power Glove itself became an utter failure. The controls are unresponsive and it is almost impossible to get the device to function properly. Power Glove, now, is merely used as a glorified NES controller, since the controller buttons are also built on the forearm.

Part two will continue on Nintendo’s development from the Roll ‘n Rocker to the Wii U’s controller system.

Image Courtesy of   Barone Firenze / Shutterstock.com

The article Evolution of Nintendo’s Peripherals: Power Glove to WiiPad Part 1 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The 10th year of the annual Anime Boston Convention has come to a close, and it was the con’s biggest year yet (despite the fact that PAX East was going on at exactly the same time.) For Toonari Post,  here’s what happened on the third day including some final impressions of the con overall.

The third day had even less of a crowd than Friday, but there were still a few hundred cheerful people walking around, in and out of costumes, getting their pictures taken, and buying some last-minute merch from the Dealer’s Hall and Artists’ Alley.

The Closing Ceremonies were the main draw for Sunday con-goers, and the lines started forming an hour before the auditorium doors opened at 3pm. There was a skit at the beginning with A-chan and B-kun, the con mascots, followed by a recognition of the volunteers who had been with and helped make the con for the past 10 years.

While the names and pictures of the 10-year volunteers displayed on the projectors, the Gotta Catch ‘em All song from Pokemon began playing, and partway through, everyone started to sing along. There were some guest speakers and videos and finally the Japanese and other guests came out and walked up and down the catwalk to applause.

Before the Closing Ceremonies though, we managed to steal some time in the gaming room down the hall. Here, there were eight retro consoles set up, ranging from Atari to N64. For the first time we really got to sit down and play with, and talk to, some of the other con-goers. It’s amazing how a convention can facilitate such a level of spontaneous friendship between strangers.

We sat down next to a young guy playing Tetris Attack for the SNES and started a two-player game. As we played, almost everyone that walked by us stopped and commented on the game, how it should have had a tournament at the con, how they hadn’t played it in ages but still remembered it from childhood. When we finished with ‘Bomberman,’ we moved on to the next open console.

Next up was ‘Super Bomberman.’ We spent some time and had some fun learning what the special feature of each stage was (and usually got ourselves killed in the process). Ultimately we lost to the computer each time, but we had such a good time playing with one another that it didn’t really matter. As we played, we also extolled the virtues of these old single-button games, where the focus is on strategy, without any complicated controls to get in the way of the goal.

After that, we went over to the N64, which at that moment had no game in it. Fortunately, a girl came over shortly after with a bag of her own N64 games and a group formed to play some classic 4-player games: Mario Kart 64, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, and so on. Everyone was so genial, it was like being amongst a group of my own friends.

We also managed to get to a few panels, most of them led by guests of the con, rather than staff. They were people who cared passionately about the subjects they wanted to speak about, such as the guy who led the Tokusatsu panel on Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and (briefly) kaiju such as Godzilla.

He and his friend, who came in a very detailed and convincing Kamen Rider costume, seemed to know the series as deeply and intimately as anyone could. As he spoke about the individual Super Sentai rangers, he did their poses and spoke their names in the deep, dramatic sort of Japanese you hear in those shows.

He had watched all the series, even if they weren’t subtitled, and seemed to identify more with Japan than North America when he spoke. I was also amazed at how vocal the fan-base of these series were. One of the girls in the audience began heckling him when he slighted her favorite season of Kamen Rider; and when prompted, part of the crowd would call out something in Japanese and do a gesture associated with one character or another.

For a first-time visitor to the Anime Boston convention, it sort of had a feeling of Disney World. Kids and adults would come and take pictures with their favorite mascots, visit all the attractions, then go back to the hotel at night. The only difference, though it’s a major one, is that everything at AB comes from the fans themselves. There is very little industry support, aside from the guests and occasional Funimation or Viz panel.

The cumulative effect is that Anime Boston is much more a “community” than big industry conventions like PAX. You may come for the first time wondering what you’ll find–what do you do at an anime convention, watch videos all day?–, and realize you’ve found a community. This is especially true if you’re in high school and have a hard time making friends there. The con is a place where it’s hard for anyone to take themselves too seriously, and the barriers between people come down.

Whether you are into tabletop games like D&D and Magic: The Gathering, or video games, or cosplay, or steampunk, or dancing, or anything else geeky, there is a community at Anime Boston waiting to welcome you like an old friend.

Image Courtesy of   pullip_junk

The article Anime Boston 2012: Day Three – Finishing Strong appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.