Technomaly » nintendo

Black Wii Coming May 9

J. Matthew Zoss — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:56:33 +0000

Do you have a Wii? You do, huh? Well, do you have a black one? No? Better get on that. Nintendo’s living room-dominating Wii will be available in black starting May 9. The new bundle will be priced at $200, the same price as the current white Wii. However, the new edition will come with both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, as well as a Wii Remote with the Wii Motion Plus add-on and Nunchuck. If you’re one of the nine people who doesn’t yet have a Wii, this is the bundle we’d recommend.

Nintendo Announces 3D Gaming Handheld

J. Matthew Zoss — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:18:14 +0000

In a surprising move, Nintendo announced today that the company will be releasing a new handheld platform sometime before the end of March 2011. More information will be revealed in a few months at the annual Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), but we know the primary selling point of the system already: 3D gaming.

Currently called the “Nintendo 3DS” the new platform is an entirely new hardware line, although it will be backwards compatible with software from both the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi handhelds. Nintendo claims that 3D glasses will not be required to experience 3D on the device. Few other details have been revealed, other than that it will also feature two screens and both forward-facing and backwards-facing cameras like the DSi. Additional speculation about the device from tech site Engadget suggest that it may also have an iPod-like tilt sensor and higher resolution screens than previous DS systems.

After the success of Avatar and the advent of 3D televisions, it looks like 3D technology is here to stay. It’s unclear how Nintendo will offer up 3D without glasses, but their recent track record of innovation has earned them the benefit of the doubt for now. Let’s just hope this turns out better than the company’s previous attempt at 3D gaming, the Virtual Boy.

Source: BusinessWeek

Nintendo Enters The E-Book Game…Sortof

Asterios Kokkinos — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:00:02 +0000

Recently, Nintendo announced the launch of a new product, the DSi XL, a Nintendo DS that boasts a screen that’s 93% larger than the previous model. It’ll launch in late March, and with it comes some more fun news: one of the first carts for the new system will be an e-book.

To be fair, it’s 100 e-books crammed together onto one cart called “100 Classic Books,” which will include entries from Shakespeare and Dickens.

Does this mark the entrant of a new competitor to the e-book reading crown? Well, not exactly – Nintendo Marketing VP Cammie Dunaway has announced that the company “has no plans” to compete with the big boys like the Amazon Kindle or the soon to be released iPad. That, and the DSi XL won’t use the same “e-ink” display scheme as a lot of e-book readers, which would mean eyestrain enters into the equation.

Still, it’s pretty cool that Nintendo’s putting out a game that’s actually one hundred books. Now if only any of them were playable…two player WiFi The Tempest, anyone?

Source & Photo Source: Christian Science Monitor

Nintendo History, in Keychain Form

J. Matthew Zoss — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:00:40 +0000

I think we’ve reached the point where it’s socially acceptable to accessorize with video game stuff. At least, that’s what I like to tell myself. The TakaraTomy corporation seems to think so too. The company is launching a new line of keychains that celebrate an important milestone in the history of Nintendo: Game & Watch. These small LCD handhelds were each an individual game as well as a clock, hence the name. If you take a close look at a Game & Watch unit, you can see hints of Nintendo products to come.

The keychain recreations will feature solar-powered clocks, but no playable game, which is a total drag. However, they look cool and will be available for the reasonable price of around $11 this March.

Story and Image Via Kotaku.

Steampunk Game Boy Makes 80s Kids Feel Really Old

Geoffrey Golden — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:49:27 +0000

It feels like it’s been a long time since Nintendo dropped the “Game Boy” line in favor of the multi-screened DS, but still… it hasn’t been this long.

Check out this detailed hack by Thretris, which takes the classic Game Boy, released in 1989, and adds a whole bunch of sprockets, gears and gold paint. The result is a Victorian-looking portable gaming system for steampunk folks. It’s what Jules Verne’s Game Boy would look like, though thankfully he never had one. Otherwise, instead of writing science fiction novels, he would have obsessed over beating Bugs Bunny’s Crazy Castle. In that alternative universe, Jules Verne and I have a lot in common. (In case you’re wondering, it’s Earth-8456.)

As the title implies, the Victorian Game Boy makes me feel pretty old. I was a little kid when I begged for a Game Boy to be my only Christmas present ever. Now I’m an adult and the Game Boy is so old, it’s being made to look like a Victorian gadget. What’s next? A steam powered Teddy Ruxbin? Well, I suppose my old pet rock actually could have been invented in the stone age.

Source: Dvice

Photo Source: Techfemina