Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

14 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

    --
    Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
  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

    --

    --
    Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!

  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 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.. ;-)

      --
      "Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
    3. 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.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:What's funny here... by LanMan04 · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

      --
      With the first link, the chain is forged.
    5. 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.

  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.'"
  7. 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.

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  8. 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.