Ben Heck’s multi-system retro controller

Using a build idea from the element14 Community, Ben takes an ESP8266 module and creates the ultimate all-in-one retro gaming controller for the Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive / Genesis and Nintendo Entertainment System. To get the digital signals from the buttons across the wireless transmission to the receiver, Ben will have to use shift registers such as the 74HC595 to combine the bits into a data stream. It’s not all straightforward, though: Felix steps in to help with LUA scripting and the team hits a snag with the programming. Fortunately, designing the enclosure is a lot simpler thanks to Autodesk Fusion 360. After a lot of testing, soldering and taking apart a Sega controller, the team creates a controller of wonder. Which consoles would you control? Would you design it any differently? Suggest a build on the element14 Community.

The Nintendo Switch reportedly has a multitouch screen

We have plenty of questions about the Nintendo Switch, but one of the most pressing is: Does it have a touchscreen? During the three-minute teaser, no-one ever swipes, taps or prods the main unit, leading to speculation about its capabilities. Well, according to Eurogamer, the hardware does indeed support grubby fingers. The Switch is reportedly rocking a 6.2-inch, 720p capacitive multitouch display — a first for the company, which has relied on basic resistive touchscreens until now. What’s unclear is that how will affect the Switch’s docked mode, which covers the display entirely. Lots of alternate control schemes? Possibly.

Nintendo isn’t offering clarification on a potential touchscreen just yet. A spokesperson provided the following statement to Engadget: “We have nothing to announce on this topic. We will make additional announcements about the Nintendo Switch hardware later, before the launch of the product.”

It makes sense, however, for Nintendo to keep some of these finer details to itself. The Switch is an ambitious piece of hardware — for its initial unveiling, it was wise of the company to focus on its portability and removable JoyCon controllers. Nintendo wanted to sell the overall concept, and how it might fit into your life, rather than explain every single component choice. For now, that’s okay. As for the touchscreen — we should get more details in January, when the house of Mario takes another stab at selling the world on its new, console-meets-portable dream.

Jessica Conditt contributed to this report.

Via: The Verge

Source: Eurogamer

Nintendo teases more Switch details for a January livestream

Nintendo has gone on record saying that last week’s tease of the Switch was the last we’d hear of the new console this year. Well, the gaming juggernaut isn’t holding additional details hostage for too long after 2017 starts. Come January 12th, the company will host a livestream offering further details ahead of the system’s release in March. Smart money (and Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki) says we’ll hear price, software lineup and launch date. There are a few more details too, with Nintendo saying (Japanese) that the event, dubbed Nintendo Switch Event 2017, will take place at Tokyo’s Big Site, with two days of public demos to follow.

Learn more about Nintendo’s new home gaming system at the Nintendo Switch Presentation, streamed LIVE on Jan. 12 https://t.co/0c7gOJasA2 pic.twitter.com/5aR7MBH2C5

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 27, 2016

Nintendo: To hold Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 on Jan 12. It includes 1) price, 2) software lineup and 3) launch date https://t.co/TtZbz5hs0g

— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 27, 2016

Source: Nintendo (Twitter), Takashi Mochizuki (Twitter), Nintendo (Japanese)

Nintendo expects to sell 2 million Switches in the first month

While Nintendo’s earnings didn’t look so good this quarter, President and CEO Tatsumi Kimishima apparently has a rosy outlook for the launch of his company’s next-gen Switch portable console. According to the Wall Street Journal Tokyo correspondent Takashi Mochizuki, Nintendo plans to ship 2 million Switch consoles when it goes on sale in March 2017.

Nintendo CEO says current FY financial guidance assumes 2 million units of Switch to be shipped this fiscal year ending in March

— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 26, 2016

Although we don’t have a firm March release date yet, the bulk of that 2 million figure will likely be made up of pre-order sales. For comparison’s sake, Sony had 1 million pre-orders for the PS4 and shipped another 1 million units at launch in the US alone. The original Wii was likewise a hot seller off the bat and even the Wii U moved over two million units in the US and Japan during its first six weeks in late 2012 — although Nintendo eventually fell way short of its plan to sell 100 million.

Via: Gamasutra

Source: Takashi Mochizuki/Twitter

Nintendo loses less money, but Switch can’t come fast enough

Nintendo’s latest financial report is more dour reading for console gaming. While the company saw sales of 74.8 billion yen ($718.86 million), up since last quarter, it has to contend with an operating loss of 813 million yen ($7.8 million) over the last three months. Well, at least it’s a smaller loss than the last quarter. It sold 1,770,000 3DSes and 349,000 Wii U home consoles. In fact, Nintendo almost doubled the number of 3DS consoles it sold compared to Q1. 3DS software sales — and this is before the launch of a highly anticipated new Pokemon title — was a highlight, with over 10 million games sold. Pokemon Omega and Alpha and Kirby Planet Robot both sold over a million copies, respectively. On the Wii U, Nintendo sold just 3.6 million titles; a decrease for the a console that simply hasn’t caught your imagination.

Nintendo can thank its sale of the Seattle Mariners for even gloomier financial reading — it helped to boost its income for the quarter. Mentions of Pokemon Go are conspicuously absent in the financial report, but Nintendo says it earned 12 billion yen from affiliate companies, including Niantic Labs that made the smartphone game.

The company notes in its own report that Wii U hardware sales down over 50 percent since the same period last year. In the company’s words: “There were no hit titles this period to compare with Splatoon and Super Mario Maker last year.” Well, that’s just sad.

At this point, it’s fascinating to see the gap between both Nintendo’s home consoles and its portables compared to the generation that came before it. The Wii U has now sold 13.36 million units, but in its lifetime, the Wii sold almost 102 million units. Likewise, while the 3DS might be a hit in comparison to the poor Wii U, compared to the DS, hardware sales aren’t even half as good: 61.6 million versus 154 million. The 3DS is now over five years old.

Source: Nintendo

Nintendo Switch won’t play Wii U discs and 3DS cartridges

Nintendo might have crushed some fans’ dreams with its Famitsu interview. The company told the popular Japanese gaming magazine that its upcoming hybrid console won’t be able to play Wii U discs or 3DS cartridges. It’s unclear if the Switch won’t be able to run digital games either, but if you were hoping to play your favorite 3DS titles on a 50-inch screen just for the heck of it, you may want to temper your expectations.

The gaming titan also clarified that the Switch is a brand new platform and not a direct successor to either the Wii U or the 3DS. According to a Reddit thread, someone asked a representative during the Nintendo Investor Relations’ Q&A if the console is replacing the 3DS. The rep reportedly answered that the company is still considering releasing a separate 3DS successor at a later date.*

Nintendo might have been merely trying to cover all the bases. By saying the Switch is not a direct 3DS successor, the company can release one without losing face if the hybrid ends up flopping like the Wii U. But it could also be seriously considering a new standalone handheld console, which is fantastic news for those immune to the hybrid’s charms.

*Update: This article stated earlier that the rep said Nintendo has plans to release a 3DS successor. However, Engadget’s Japan Editor (Mat Smith) said his answer’s exact translation is “We’re still considering a separate successor to the 3DS.” We can’t confirm the identity of Reddit’s source, however, and Nintendo still hasn’t gotten back to us with more details about the console, so take this with a grain of salt.

Source: Famitsu

With the Switch, Nintendo could make controllers great again

There was a no more exciting time to be a peripheral fan than 1999. For me, someone who loved the custom controls of the arcades, the Dreamcast was a fantasy. Its Visual Memory Unit (VMU) was a memory card with a screen that slotted into the controller — and a micro console in its own right. Games like Power Stone and Seaman let you load mini games onto the VMU to play on the go, but more interesting was its dual-screen potential.

The VMU could display information, like your health in Resident Evil or plays in NFL 2K, right on your controller. These features were ahead of their time — it wasn’t until the Wii U GamePad came along that we saw a company go all-in on dual-screen gaming (the DS and its successors don’t really perform the same task). But the VMU was only the beginning of Sega’s plan to expand the Dreamcast.

There was the Dreamcast Gun, a wired light gun that let you slide in a VMU or Jump Pack (for rumble support) into the top. There was the microphone attachment that slotted in underneath the VMU in your controller to let you talk to the weird fish-with-a-face virtual pet in Seaman.

Then there were the standalone peripherals. Who can forget the Sega Fishing Controller, which as well as making Sega Bass Fishing incredible, also acted as a Wii-like motion controller in Virtua Tennis and Soul Calibur? Not to mention Typing of the Dead‘s keyboard, Samba De Amigo’s maracas and Virtual On’s twin sticks.

For context, the Dreamcast was on sale for less than two and a half years worldwide, and just a year and a half in the West. The number of accessories, the number of innovative ideas realized in that time, is just ridiculous.

With Sega’s hardware days long behind it, Nintendo took up some of the slack. The Wii had add-ons for the Wiimote, including an analog nunchuck, a MotionPlus sensor pack and a “Classic Controller.” There were also peripherals that integrated a Wiimote slot into their design — namely a steering wheel and a gun — as well the standalone Balance Board for Wii Fit. Oh, and somewhat serendipitously, there was a maracas shell for the Wiimote to play Samba De Amigo.

That innovation in peripherals all-but died with the Wii U, though. The GamePad was certainly innovative in itself, but its all-in-one nature killed any chance for peripherals that weren’t Amiibos. But there’s a chance peripherals could return in a big way with Nintendo’s latest console, the Switch. A portable tablet with slide-on “Joy-Con” controllers, it takes the modular spirit of the VMU and applies it to the system as a whole. And a Switch concept by one artist, posted on Twitter and highlighted by Polygon, truly impresses me.

Ryan Salamanda imagines a world of add-ons that slide onto the right side of the main tablet to “augment” the controls. There’s a Yokai Watch attachment complete with a spinning disc and light-up button. There’s a Pokemon Snap add-on with zoom dial and shutter key. There’s even one with a fishing reel, as well as an attachment that mimics a GameCube controller. Salamanda’s vision of what was then known as the “NX” was that, for certain games, you’d be able to buy the game packaged with a custom controller.

It’s a great idea. The Dreamcast brought the magic of arcades into a 15-year-old me’s bedroom. The Switch detailed by Salamanda would let me bring that excitement with me wherever I went. Would I feel stupid frantically spinning a wheel on a bus? Sure. But I want it so bad, nonetheless.

I’ve been arguing on and off with my colleague Nick Summers all morning about whether this is a good idea. His point is that peripherals are great because they look and feel like a complete object. “Even the craziest of Joy-Cons can’t hide the fact you’re holding a 7-inch screen,” he says. That’s valid, but I feel like the need to make that complete object has stopped many companies from doing so. By producing small, focused add-ons, perhaps based around a reference design, Nintendo and its partners could make these peripherals happen for a much lower cost than producing one-off, standalone accessories. And if that’s what it takes for me to return, after 15 bass-less years, to that feeling of reeling in a giant fish, it’ll all be worth it.

Images of Sega peripherals from Sega Retro.

Via: Polygon

Source: Ryan Salamanda (Twitter)