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Nintendo Working On Football Controller

Posted by Soulskill on from the super-madden-brothers-'11 dept.

Siliconera found patent filings from Nintendo for a football controller addon that will work with the Wii. After tucking the Wii Remote into a lateral slot on the football, you slip your hand through a strap so that your fingers touch the Remote's buttons. Then you mimic running and throwing, which is interpreted by the accelerometer. 'The pitch angle and force of the throw determines the trajectory arc of the throw. Side to side motion determines the yaw angle. Pressing buttons on the Wii remote can adjust other options.' The device is described as 'squishy,' so your TV is probably safe, but I'd try it at a friend's house first.

25 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. As a european... by mikael_j · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a european my first thought was "that sounds really dangerous", then I read the whole summary and realized that they were talking about what some people like to refer to as a "handegg" and not an actual football.

    /Mikael

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    1. Re:As a european... by PCRanger · · Score: 2, Funny

      Agreed. I was excited when I read the title, but this is just the fake version of football! Pelting a real football or soccer ball as the Americans call it round the lounge would be much more fun.

  2. slip your hand? by Punto · · Score: 5, Funny

    someone needs to let them know you're not supposed to touch the football with your hands

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    1. Re:slip your hand? by ristonj · · Score: 2, Funny

      Tell that to Diego Maradona.

  3. What's the point by Swizec · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ok this is getting rather ridiculous. What's the point of having such a controller? If you're doing all that running around and stuff anyway, why not just go out and ... you know, do some actual sports?

    Why are they doing all of this and still leaving behind the single best application of the wiimote - swordfights. That's the only place where I can see a benefit from doing sports electronically since it's a lot friendlier to slash at your friends with an electronic sword rather than a real one.

    What's next? Everyone wears a Wiimote-shirt that can read smashing into other players so it can translate said readings into electronic caricatures of the game?

  4. Interesting patent, but... by raving+griff · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...I'm not so sure this design will ever hit market. Nintendo's got a bit of a history for filing patents on applications of the Wii Remote and never following through with them.

  5. What's funny here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is all the defensive Americans marking as Troll anything that highlights the ridiculousness of calling this particular game "Football". As a European, I had exactly the same reaction as another poster: that putting the Wiim-mote inside a football would be dangerous.

    As it transpires, it's not actually a football, but for some twisted reason, it's still called that.

    1. Re:What's funny here... by Swizec · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why's it even called American Football? Far as I can see from over the pond it's just a sissified version of rugby. (armour)

    2. Re:What's funny here... by TheRealSync · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's obviously called football, because you primarily move the ball around by using your foot... eh...

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    3. Re:What's funny here... by EasyTarget · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's a 'marketized' version of rugby.. They have been convinced to wear all the nancy-boy padding for 'safety', but mostly it's so that sports equipment manufacturers can make a mint selling it while giving ad-wankers the maximum amount of logo-space.

      There was once, so I understand, quite an interesting ball sport played in the US. An evolved variant of all the other 'football' type games played round the world. I believe it may even still be played by a small group with just an oval ball and a bunch of shirts/cones/stones to mark out a pitch and a sense of sportsmanship.

      But the commercial/educational variant of it has morphed into a mockery of a sport which exists solely as a vehicle for advertising, sportsware sales and pay-per-view.

      Ah.. In fact it's just like soccer then.. ;-)

      --
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    4. Re:What's funny here... by mwvdlee · · Score: 2, Informative

      you primarily move the ball by running with it, falling down, getting up and running with it and falling down, maybe throwing it occasionally and eventually, if you didn't do very well, there might be a kick in there.

      I can see from your comment, you don't quite understand the concept of american football. Let me just expand your comment to make it more accurate.

      you primarily watch halfnaked girls do splits whilst waiving pompons, move the ball by running with it, take a 5 minute break, falling down, take a 5 minute break, getting up, take a 5 minute break, and running with it, take a 5 minute break, and falling down, take a half our break and watch some pornographical half-time show, maybe throwing it and taking 5 minute breaks occasionally and eventually, after a 5 minute break, if you didn't do very well, there might be a kick in there followed by a 5 minute break and half-naked girls again.

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    5. Re:What's funny here... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All pro sports are like that. It is most disgusting in the case of the olympics, where if you want to drink a beverage not sold on the grounds (even as an athlete) you have to cover up the label, and there are sharp restrictions on media; you cannot share any photos or video clips. Your memories belong to the olympic committee! Every time someone brings up the olympics I go off on a rant like this, which may be why I have so few friends :) But then, I don't have to hear about how amazing the fucking olympics are, either. Greece should start a new-old olympic games, but it was associated with nudity and Greece is always trying to escape its association with buttfuckery.

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    6. Re:What's funny here... by LanMan04 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Good thing Slashdot is a European site...oh wait.

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    7. Re:What's funny here... by Stupendoussteve · · Score: 2, Informative

      Gridiron football is descended from rugby, American football is just the particular gridiron football rules used in the US, as is Canadian football in Canada.

      Rugby union and rugby league are also played in the US separately, the US even has the gold medal from the last time union was played at the olympics.

    8. Re:What's funny here... by T.E.D. · · Score: 3, Informative

      all the defensive Americans marking as Troll anything that highlights the ridiculousness of calling this particular game "Football"

      This is a website run in America by a bunch of friends from Wisconsin. It can be expected that it will use American spellings and American terms for things.

      So any post placed here complaining about the American terms used by the Americans running the site will be controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant and/or off-topic, with the inevitable result of provoking other users into an emotional or disciplinary response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. It turns out this is the exact definition of a Troll

      So sue the mods for definition of character.

    9. Re:What's funny here... by coolmoose25 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have to say that as an American, I'm amused by the European bias with regard to the name "Football"... While I agree that the "world" plays soccer (American for "football"), the notion that it is the ONLY game that should be called football is ludicrous. The only reason the "world" plays "football" is because you busy Europeans seeded the "world" with colonies, so they call it the same thing you do. OTOH, Americans are not the only ones who have a different game called "football"... Canadians have a very similar version to American football, and while the differences are greater, Australian Rules Football is also another variant... I have not, as yet, read the disparaging remarks about either of those "football" sports. Perhaps the Wikipedia entry on the word football would be useful to you English speaking Europeans... And don't even get me started on the whole ZEE verses ZED controversy...

      "The word "football", when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one of those described above. Because of this, much friendly controversy has occurred over the term football, primarily because it is used in different ways in different parts of the English-speaking world. Most often, the word "football" is used to refer to the code of football that is considered dominant within a particular region. So, effectively, what the word "football" means usually depends on where one says it."

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    10. Re:What's funny here... by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Is all the defensive Americans marking as Troll anything that highlights the ridiculousness of calling this particular game "Football". As a European, I had exactly the same reaction as another poster: that putting the Wiim-mote inside a football would be dangerous.

      As it transpires, it's not actually a football, but for some twisted reason, it's still called that.

      The Brits also invented a football game where the ball is mostly thrown and seldom kicked with the foot. It was called Rugby, which split into Rugby Union and Rugby League, but both games are still called Rugby Football.

      Football games aren't so-called because of the kicking action, of the seven or so flavours of football in this world only one of them predominantly uses the foot to deliver the ball. The 'foot' in 'football' comes from the fact that these games are descended from pastimes that were played by the peasants 'on foot' as opposed to the games that were played by the nobles on horseback.

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  6. As an American... by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I used to read European news sites and blogs, and wonder why they would write the word "football" when they meant "soccer." Then I reminded myself that I was reading a European news site or blog, and I would feel really, really foolish. But that was years ago, and I've become much more cosmopolitan now.

    1. Re:As an American... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's called "football" in the entire world. Only people from the USA call it "soccer".

      Understanding etymology? You fail it!

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:As an American... by Deag · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What happens in your little corner does not equal the entire world.

      Soccer is commonly used in countries with more than one code of football to distinguish it.

      In Ireland we use soccer most of the time as football could mean soccer or gaelic football.

  7. Smart by boliboboli · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One of the key rules of business is to know your market opportunities and cater to the larger segment. Clearly football has become the biggest and most popular sport in the US(sorry baseball) and they are going after a huge demographic by catering to them. Being a big football fan myself who doesn't own a wii, but like the idea of my kids playing football someday, I may purchase one so we can play when we can't go outside and use the real thing.

  8. Attention, non-Americans! by Megane · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please replace all references to "football" in the summary with "throwball".

    Thank you for your patience.

    Now a proper footy game for the Wii, that would be interesting. Maybe they could strap a Wiimote to each leg or something.

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    1. Re:Attention, non-Americans! by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

      From your linked page: Since the sport barely requires you to use your feet.

      I wonder how do the players move, do they float or something?

      OK, they use their feet, and the sport involves a ball. This is why sports like tennis and golf should also be called "football".

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  9. Wii Sports Resort - Swordplay by AlpineR · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why are they doing all of this and still leaving behind the single best application of the wiimote - swordfights.

    There's a popular new game called Wii Sports Resort that uses a position-sensitive controller add-on to simulate several sports. One of them is Swordplay. You can jab, slice, and block your friend or computer characters. There's even a Nerf sword you can stick the controller into if you want to feel a little more dorky.

  10. Amy: by tyler.willard · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Wow! I could swear I was really playing virtual skeeball!"