A compact box that's already inexpensive to produce (and continuously remains in greater demand than supply can keep up with) may not cry out for revision, but there are a few bits that can be nipped and tucked to enhance the appeal and value of the Wii. This week Revolutionary goes Revisionary.

The first thing on the operating table is the internal storage. We've written countless times of the hassles in swapping downloaded games and channels to and from an SD card, so naturally, that's something we'd like to see addressed. 2GB is a nice round number which shouldn't add more than a few cents to the bill of materials for the Wii. With the price of flash memory falling at such an alarming rate, we'd expect that, if any part of the Wii were to be technically altered during this generation, it would be the integrated flash memory. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the storage limitations are something they are looking into, so perhaps this will be the solution for new console buyers.

Many of you contended that Nintendo could resolve the problem by simply "unlocking" the SD card slot and allowing us to play games and downloaded content directly from it. I'd argue that Nintendo wouldn't do that when it could also open up more doors to piracy, and they have another marketing prospect to capitalize on. But should they feel so generous, we'd gladly welcome being able to use the SD cards we already have in a new Wii. That includes the cards with greater than 2GB capacity that aren't supported in the current console.

Any mid-cycle Wii upgrades would have to be limited to secondary functions that wouldn't affect the playing of existing games or alienate the existing user base. We can't really expect a faster GPU and more RAM, unless they are there to facilitate new non-essential functions. We shouldn't be required to have the Wii 1.5 to play Pikmin Wii, because the 1.0 version doesn't have enough RAM. But if Wii 1.5 ships with a DVD Movie Channel, it wouldn't be wrong to include any additional hardware or software necessary for playing DVDs in the revision.

In our fantasy Wii 1.5, the front of the console would trade in clicky buttons for touch-sensitive, capacitive ones. Like on the PS3, the power button would be multifunctional. Touching the power "button" while the system is powered off or in standby mode will turn it on. Holding it while in standby mode will power it off (and disable WiiConnect24). Touching it while powered on will reset it, and holding the button will put it in standby mode. I think we can all agree that touching is good.

On the aesthetics side, a sleeker chassis is what I'd like to see. While minimalism was apparently central to the original design theme, it wouldn't take a windtunnel study to show areas where it can do with some streamlining. The flimsy Gamecube port covers should be replaced with something sturdier. If the whole case is made of slightly transparent plastic, we can still see those ports when the flap is up. And even though the front flap covering the SD card slot and sync button doesn't hold up as poorly, I just don't see a need to keep it.

Click for larger image

Like Mario shot from a cannon, we've blown the corners off this baby. Rounded edges give it a more unique profile which won't be easily mistaken for your computer's DVD burner. Okay, so I borrowed a little from Apple's design school, but the big Wii logo on the side helps promote the brand when guests are drawn in by the hypnotic blue glow of the disc slot.

And when they ask, "Does it come in black?" you can respond with a resounding "YES!" The first time we ever saw the Wii (back when it was still going by the "Revolution" codename), it was housed in a sexy black casing. In the world of home theater appliances, the brilliant white gleam of our 1.0 Wii sticks out like a sore thumb. Black just goes with everything, and Wesley Snipes says to always bet on it.

Up to this point, this has just been a wish list. What's guaranteed to happen before the end of the cycle is a reduction in price and maybe a new SKU or two. The most likely candidate for bundling in a package to sit on store shelves alongside the Wii Sports-bundled SKU is Wii Fit.

Replacing the Nunchuk and Wii Sports pack-ins with a Balance Board and Wii Fit could enhance the appeal for a new demographic. The cute Miis and perceived competitive rooting of Wii Sports may not be for everyone, so the solemnity of Wii Fit could be the Trojan horse that makes the Wii platform attractive to more of those people who are still turned off by a games machine.

If they've already dropped the price of the current SKU, ($199 is the sweet spot, but $229 may be more likely) by the time they're ready to sell this bundle, I'd estimate a Wii Fit-bundled Wii to go for $279. Otherwise, $299 would be still be a good deal. In all sincerity, if Nintendo were to release a refresh Wii that is anything like the package I've outlined above, I'd buy it in a heartbeat and give the one I've got to a friend or family member whom I'd hope could be converted into a gamer.

What types of upgrades or enhancements would it take to get you to buy another Wii? How about your friends and family members that haven't been pulled over to the light side yet? What do you feel could be done to the system to get them to part with their hard-earned jack and bring one home? Scroll down and leave a comment for discussion.

Every other week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. We've got our hopes up for some new announcements regarding hardware at E3, not least of which is a supplemental storage device. To see why we're waiting for Nintendo to throw the storage-starved a bone, take a look at Revolutionary: Wii can has hard drive?

Every other week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

If you're smitten with the Virtual Console, one thing we're sure you aren't in love with is having to swap games between an SD card and your Wii's internal memory, or even worse -- deleting games to be re-downloaded later. WiiWare is on its way and it's hard to imagine My Life as a King demeaning itself to share its estate with less noble games. And certainly not with it bringing microtransactions to the royal ball. And wouldn't it be dandy if some of our multiplatform ports had somewhere to store that downloadable content that everyone is raving about on other consoles?

We want need more storage, and some of you have gathered to plead with Nintendo to sell a Wii Hard Drive. It appears that your cries just fall on deaf ears because they seem hardly driven to provide one. In this edition of Revolutionary, we'll examine why Wii can't have a hard drive.

Being a Nintendo fan means you've grown accustomed to waiting. You waited an eternity for their pioneering portable to evolve a backlit color screen. You endured an extra generation of cartridge-based gaming. And even now, you accept life in standard definition whilst holding onto a thread of belief that some day, Nintendo will go high def. So why is it that people are so willing to believe that Nintendo's on the verge of announcing a Wii Hard Drive when it's the standard choice for storage this generation? In accordance with tradition, it would have to come no earlier than next generation, if ever.

The reason why Nintendo is so profitable is because they take few risks in marketing products, and when they do go forth in delivering something new, it's after exhaustive research and calculation. A cursory analysis would show that a hard drive does not jibe with Nintendo's usual methods of operation. The two biggest marks against a hard drive are cost and fragility.

Take a look at the Xbox 360's hard drive upgrades. There's a huge difference in price between the hard drives they sell and the standard retail prices of the 20GB and 120GB hard drives that their products are based around. The difference in prices can't be entirely attributed to the enclosure that the Xbox 360 hard drives are packaged in. Microsoft wants to make a profit on the sale of peripherals, so they sell them at a higher price than it costs to market them. Nintendo would be no different, except they would not want to sell a product at such a high cost that the consumer has to call into question the value of it. Selling a 20GB hard drive at $90 is not as easy as selling Wii Fit, because we look at Wii Fit and say, "Well, it comes with a game and a controller." And it's unlikely that Nintendo would be looking to go with a 20GB hard drive, because manufacturing of drives at such low capacity is dwindling, and it's giving rise to rumors that the 20GB Xbox 360 bundled and accessory hard drives are going to be phased out and replaced with 60GB packages. If Nintendo went with that capacity, there would be higher costs and less profit.

Spinning platters and sliding read/write heads can cause a hard drive to wear out, even when data isn't being written or read from it. Flash memory, like the Wii's internal storage and the SD cards it also supports, has a finite number of reads and writes before ultimate failure, but the Wii usually copies saves and game data from the flash memory to RAM in limited accesses, instead of streaming the data as we would expect from a hard drive. We can count on the Wii's internal flash memory lasting a lot longer than the battery backups in NES cartridges, though the same might not be true of a hard drive.

Having to provide a warranty for portable hard drives, which may be easily damaged by a bump, fall, or just plain negligent treatment, would also affect the bottom line and make Nintendo resistant to marketing anything with this technology. It doesn't take much of a jolt to make the moving read/write heads grind into the spinning platters and cause an EPIC FAIL on any further attempts to access that part of the hard drive.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 are a little safer because the hard drive is attached to or installed inside the console. Shock can be distributed through the body of the whole console, and reduce the potential for damaging the drive. A USB cable tether doesn't provide much support to an external hard drive, but it might just yank the console down with it when falling off a precarious perch. Also, those systems don't have quite the reputation as our Wii for livening parties. All the mishaps that could happen from packing the hard drive for transport, or setting it up with altered judgment would have to be considered. So, why even go with a hard drive when there's a more suitable alternative?

The logical assumption is that Nintendo will follow course and just stick to flash storage. Not even in the highest densities available to consumers would it provide the "bottomless pit" of storage that a moderate capacity hard drive could, but that may be all part of their marketing strategy. Silly as we consumers are, we're more likely to buy one 8GB drive today for $59 and another a year from now than to buy that 20GB hard drive for $89, which we'd never have to upgrade again. There's added appeal in the flash drives for being small enough to poke out of a USB port with room enough for another. In contrast, even the smallest hard drives are bigger than a common flash-based thumb drive.

Why haven't they gone this route yet? Again, profit margins would probably be the primary consideration. If Nintendo waits a bit longer while production costs of flash memory continue to decrease, they can make more money selling them. All the while, demand for the product will increase as they continue to sell Virtual Console games and WiiWare.

Doesn't work in Wii, but we can dream

This generation, Nintendo has bundled a game with every major piece of hardware. Wii Play comes with a Wiimote, Link's Crossbow Training is packed in with the Zapper, Mario Kart Wii will have the Wii Wheel, and Wii Fit will introduce the Balance Board. If Nintendo were to introduce a high-capacity, re-writeable storage medium, what could they possibly develop to showcase it? Well, they could re-tread tracks laid by their stillborn project, the 64DD. We haven't heard anything about a new Mario Paint, F-Zero, or the Wii-grown Zelda game, and each of those series has seen content developed for it on the 64DD with its internet connectivity and re-writable storage. And how about Pilotwings with downloadable expansion packs for additional aircraft, events, and areas to fly in?

How much would you be willing to spend for a Nintendo-certified flash drive on which you could run downloaded games and applications directly? How much storage would be enough to suit your desires, and what would you hope to do be able to do with it? Does flash seem like the best bet to you, or do you believe it's a hard drive or nothing? Be sure to drop a comment for discussion.

Every (other) week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Segueing from last edition's topic: you've just built a sick Smash Bros. Brawl level, and you're ready to share it with the world. You upload it to your website and throw up some pics from the game's handy built-in photo mode. Everybody can see your creation without needing to first go through the trouble of downloading the level, putting it on an SD card, and loading it up on their Wii. Of course, your level looks like so much fun, they won't be able to resist trying it for themselves. But what if, like so many other games, there was no photo mode? How would you display your masterpiece? Or maybe seeing a still pic isn't enough to really sell the dynamics and spirit of your build. Then what? Read on as we delve into the art of video capture and photo composition -- for games!

We've all had a gaming moment that we wish we could share with others. Verbally recounting the story of a miraculous victory or unbelievable defeat just doesn't have the same impact as actually seeing it. Or how about when you made your first Mii and told everybody that it looked "just like you." Anybody who's ever seen a Mii would have a tough time believing that these simplistic charicatures could be anyone's spitting image, yet seeing is believing.

The best images and videos I've personally produced have come from direct capture methods. Connecting my console to a TV tuner/video capture card, USB capture device, or even the video input on the back of my video card has netted me crisper, more colorful images than pointing a camera at the screen. It's much easier to go that route, too, as the picture generally doesn't need much (if any) further processing, except perhaps to crop off black bars surrounding the screen.

Once, I even connected the output of one computer to the input of another to get some clear gameplay footage and lessen the number of editing steps I'd have to go through when compositing some camera footage of my hands working the controller.

Barring direct capture, a digital video camera is going to give you the best quality for editing. DVD-R, hard disk drive, flash memory-based, digital video cassette, CCD, 3CCD, CMOS, SD, or HD -- there's a ton of options to choose from and covering each of those in depth is beyond the scope of this primer. But any of those choices will produce video that's higher resolution than what is displayed on YouTube. So if that's your ultimate goal, you pretty much can't go wrong with any dedicated digital video camera.

Web cams, on the other hand, can vary greatly in specs and image quality, but even mega cheap ones can produce acceptable results under the right circumstances and with a bit of editing. I bet you can't pick out which videos I've shot with a used $5 PlayStation 2 EyeToy.

For still pics, you can go with a digital camera, or kick it old school with a film camera and a photo scanner. Some would argue film is king, but for my money (and time), digital cameras rule.

Some digital video cameras support still picture shooting, but be advised: the quality of these photos is pretty shoddy compared to dedicated still cameras. You can also hook up a camera to some video capture hardware, which may be your best bet if the hardware lags too much to game while viewing what you're recording. Your camera won't mind if Mario moves a little sluggishly in response to your controls, but you sure will when you jump into a black hole for the 80th time straight.

If all you've got is a cell phone camera, I don't know what to tell you. As much as I love my iPhone, there's no denying that photography belongs on the top of the list of features they threw in as an afterthought, and in my experience, that seems to be the case with most cell phone cameras. As with anything, there are exceptions, but even those can't compare to even a "Wal-mart Special" dedicated digital camera.

We seldom take a photo or shoot a video that wouldn't benefit from some touching up or editing. The image may be too bright or too dark. Sounds may be too soft or too loud. There may be extra stuff in frame that doesn't need to be shown, or some captioning or diagrams may be necessary to point out objects of interest. Both Windows PCs and Macs come with video editors, and while the tools and features aren't as comprehensive as a thousand-dollar editing suite, it's enough to get your toes wet cutting clips together, adjusting the image quality, dubbing commentary, overlaying music, and throwing on captions and titles.

Use of "gateway editors" can lead to an addiction that must be fed with more potent packages. Avid Xpress, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro don't come cheap, but they are so robust and powerful that they are industry standards used by the big boys. If you want to do a simple capture with minor editing, VirtualDub or one of its forks may be all you need to capture and cut together a video. If you're of the Ed Wood school of filmmaking, where first take is all it takes, YouTube lets you upload live feeds from a web cam. I've tried it out a couple of times myself, but if you want to see how I get down in Rock Band, you'll have to pay up.

Photo editing can be less time consuming, if all you want to do is crop a pic or try to enhance the visibility. With a few minutes tooling in your "photochopping" application of choice, a blurry smear of pixels can oftentimes be made to resemble the image you wanted to preserve.

Note: Results not typical

People who don't already have experience with photo or video editing applications usually feel overwhelmed by all the palettes, plugins, filters, fonts, effects, and tools at laid out before them. Even for a seasoned Photoshop veteran, the open source alternative looks at first glance like too much to learn. Go into it with a goal of what you want your finished product to look like, and the steps to getting there can be just a Google search away. Just playing around with it is the best way to learn the ins and outs of many editing programs, and some of the most impressive projects are done through experimental methods which may not have any prior documentation.

Prepping for a shoot is very important. "Garbage-In-Garbage-Out" is what we say in the graphics world when we have material that is too low quality to be made pretty. There're lots of things which, if ignored, can make your material uneditable garbage. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when prepping for a shoot:

Steady the camera
A tripod's your friend if you don't have a surface to sit your camera on. Even if you do have a surface, a smaller tripod may help you in positioning the camera optimally.

When a tripod isn't handy or is just not feasible, I've found that I can stabilize the camera by holding it close to my chest and holding my breath. That's just for photos, though. Neither myself, nor Wii Fanboy will be held responsible for any injury or brain damage resulting from holding your breath during a 30 minute video shoot of a Subspace Emissary bout.

Lighting
Flash reflects off of glossy screens, or washes out the picture on non-reflective ones, so turn your flash off. While you're at it, turn off any lights directly in view of the camera, behind, or to the side the screen. If turning off the lights isn't an option (Wii-ing in the dark can be dangerous), try to angle yourself so lights aren't reflecting off the screen.

Focus
Your web cam probably has a focus ring around the lens. Use it! What's the point of making a video or taking a picture when you can't make out what you're looking at?

If you're using a video camera, turn on manual focus. The same way your eyes are tricked into perceiving depth on a flat screen, your camera can also be fooled. You don't want it trying to decide what objects on screen it should focus on, because then it's blurring out everything else. Turn off the auto focus and adjust the lens so that the whole screen is sharp and clear in your view. (I've gotta remember to listen to my own advice on this one, because I forgot to do it for the video below.)

Sound
If using a microphone, try testing your TV at different volumes to find the sweet spot where it's loud enough, but not so loud that it's noisy or garbled. A microphone is essential if you want to provide commentary or just capture reactions from players and spectators in realtime. If you're going to edit the video later, you can always throw on voiceover at that time, too.

Some cameras have a line-in or microphone jack, and that can be used to record audio directly from the console, but the sound a console outputs may be too loud for the microphone input, and just make things too noisy. In that case, outputting from your TV (with the volume lowered) is a handy feature if your TV is sporting a set of output jacks.

Pick the right screen
By this I mean choose a display technology that's suitable for photographing. CRT televisions, even big screen projecting ones, don't hold up well to photographing or videoing. The constantly redrawing of the image, line by line leads to rolling black bars, flickering, and other visual artifacts which often can't be fixed in post. If it's at all an option, hook your console up to an LCD, plasma, LCOS, or DLP screen for shoots. My best photos were taken on an LCD monitor because the anti-glare coating eliminates reflections and there's no other display artifacts to fret over.

PC gamers have simple tools like FRAPS and GameCam for capturing video, and often times if they want to grab screenshot, it's as easy as hitting PrintScreen or a dedicated key pre-configured by the game's developer.

On the console side, we're rarely given the tools to record gameplay or take screenshots to share with others. While most racing games at least let you save ghost data and replays, and sometimes even enter a photo mode, there are few examples outside of that genre. Halo 3 set the bar pretty high in this respect by automatically saving replays for gamers to later watch from any perspective they can place their virtual camera. Smash Bros. Brawl followed suit with replay saves and a freely moveable 3D camera for screen grabs. We hold onto hope that, like stage builders and character creation, photo modes and replay saving become staples in games of the future. Where would we be if we thought "next gen" ended at upgrading graphics? There's no reason why we should rest at adding online functions or evolving controls.

If you haven't got top-of-the-line camera equipment or a 4-year degree in digital arts, don't be discouraged. As Wii fans, we're not the sort to let looks or presentation get in the way of enjoying the content or the vision. If I hadn't started out with the jankiest of ghetto setups, I wouldn't be here writing this for you now. A 15-year old VHS camcorder plugged into a DVD recorder, whose discs had to be ripped and transcoded before editing in Windows Movie Maker was what got me into video editing, a YouTube addiction, and writing about the GlovePIE scripts I was so eager to show off.

If you've shot any amazing gaming videos, have a photo of a cool Mii to show off, or have a story of a gaming moment you wish you could have "caught on tape," please share it with us in the comments.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Custom level creation in console games has come a long way. It used to be, if you wanted to share a track that you built in Excitebike, you had to invite friends over to play your creation on your cartridge, until you powered off your NES and the track was lost forever. Nowadays our levels can be saved to internal storage, and shared by removable media, or across the internet to survive for posterity.

It's a feature that's fully supported by all consoles this generation, and big games are highlighting it amongst their bullet points. System sellers like Halo 3, LittleBigPlanet, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl are trojan-horsing the concept of custom level creation into the consciousness of the console-consuming collective. Former Sony exec Phil Harrison popularized the term "Game 3.0," but we'll be taking a look at how it is playing out on Nintendo's platform.

The first title to support WiiConnect24 did so in the form of custom level sharing. Elebits lets players do what everyone wants to do in a sandbox: create something to destroy in a fantastic spectacle. With a rigid body physics engine in place and a first person perspective, Elebits fills your sandbox with lifesized virtual toys to throw around and have collide with each other. Some really interesting things could be done with this editor in the hands of anyone with a youthful imagination, and the "fun with physics" element can sometimes surpass the main campaign in games which rely so heavily on it. The biggest problem with Elebits' level sharing is that you and most of your Wii-owning friends know probably didn't buy the game. Not much to share, and too few people to share it with.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl, on the other hand, you likely have in your collection of Wii games, so you and your buddies can easily send and receive custom arenas via WiiConnect24, or by SD card sneakernet. Brawl doesn't provide you with a lot of backdrops or building blocks to work with, but what's there is enough to recreate stages from prior Smash Bros. games, fabricate pixel-graphic inspired battlegrounds, or come up with original designs to throw down upon. The ease with which these levels can be shared has given rise to communities and websites dedicated to sharing them. The fact that levels can be stored to SD cards means they can be transferred to PCs, and shared on the ol' worldwide web. Game 3.0 meets Web 2.0.

Though the initial selection of stage-building materials is slim pickin's, dedicated architects will find their selection expanding as the number of stages under their hat increases. In addition to the huge assortment of default songs, music tracks that are unlocked by achieving certain gameplay goals will also become available for linking to custom stages.

Guess what movie scene is being recreated here

While we're of mixed opinions on Stephen Spielberg's BOOM BLOX, there's no denying its appeal to our childish desires to create stuff for ultimate wrecking. With physics perhaps more sophisticated than Elebits, it'll be interesting to see how dominoes fall when they're composed of explosive materials and corrosive chemicals. BOOM BLOX's editor even supports placement of computer-controlled characters to affect or be affected by what's going on in the environment. To make the sharing element relevant, you're going to have to convince your DO NOT WANTing friends to pick up the game, too.

Blast Works is something we can all get behind. Where BOOM BLOX is, at present, of questionable worth, Blast Works is exploding at the seams with value. There will be several games and game types to choose from on the disc, so there ought to be something to please any fan of shmups. Plus, having a level editor so robust that the game's designers even use it to create all of the levels it ships with, it raises the bar for what we want and expect from a game ... (3.0). PC gamers have long known this satisfaction, and with all the necessary hardware components in place, there's no reason why this generation's console gamers should receive anything less from editing tools.

We hope to see some of the less favorable trends of this generation give way to positively evolutionary ones like level editing and user-side content creation. Maybe Nintendo will even see fit to revisit some of their 64DD plans on a more capable console. The world (outside of Japan) is long overdue for a 3D update to Mario Paint. What games would you like to be playing, building, and sharing content for? Let us hear (figuratively, of course) it in the comments.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

The rhythm gaming genre, while relatively young, is already on the verge of becoming stale. Hitting buttons in time with a visual cue only remains as fresh as the accompanying song. But there's a new game that's set to turn the genre on its ear and destroy your preconceived notions of what a rhythm game can be. Today we'll be giving Audiosurf the GlovePIE treatment.

A few weeks ago I expressed my disdain for wipEout XL, which I had been playing to test its worthiness as a comparative platform for the Wiimote versus the SIXAXIS. It's admittedly a good game, but my experience with it at the time had been anything but. For a few months prior to the showdown, I was building a script for the game to demonstrate one of my favorite aspects of the Wii controller design. The script was to feature several different control methods that could be automatically selected by just holding the controller a certain way or plugging in a Nunchuk or Classic Controller.

Well, the PC version of wipEout XL, being old, does not run very well on today's machines. The already-fast game plays at hyper speeds on a modern machine and real Jedi reflexes are needed to control it. So I completely wiped it out of consideration for scripting, and suspended work on those projects which involved that game. And then came Audiosurf - a game that, at its core, is the embodiment of the "have it your way" sensibilities I wanted to express with my multifunctional script, and at the same time, it incorporates the high speed thrill ride dips and dives of a futuristic racer like wipEout.

Audiosurf lets you load up your own music, which the game analyzes to build levels. That alone is not an entirely novel idea, but the twist comes from the puzzle-style gameplay. The tracks are littered with colored blocks for you to collect and arrange, until they disappear and you're rewarded with points. It's a simple concept that's been the basis for countless great puzzle games, but the musical element dictates the placement of the pieces and the tempo of the music sets the speed at which the game runs.

At first I wanted to try controlling the game with just the IR sensor pushing the virtual mouse cursor. But the game is designed in such a way that miniscule flicks of the mouse can slide your ship from one side of the track to the other. I could have designed an IR script to accomodate for that, but I also wanted to keep the full range of mouse motion available for navigating menus and clicking on the pop-up dialogs that give you tips in the tutorial levels. So what I ultimately decided on was to have the IR sensor control the mouse pointer's full range, and limit the mouse range on the other controls.

var.MinXRes = (Screen.Width * .45)
var.MaxXRes = (Screen.Width * .55)
If (Wiimote.HasNunchuk = False) or Nunchuk.ZButton
// Mouse movement
If Wiimote.PointerVisible
(Mouse.X /2) = Wiimote.PointerX
(Mouse.Y /2) = Wiimote.PointerY
Else
Mouse.CursorPosX = smooth(MapRange(Wiimote.GX,1,-1,var.MinXRes,var.MaxXRes))
Mouse.Y = smooth(MapRange(Wiimote.GY,-.5,.5,1,-1))
EndIf
Else
Mouse.CursorPosX = smooth(MapRange(Nunchuk.JoyX,-1,1,var.MinXRes,var.MaxXRes))
Mouse.Y = smooth(MapRange(Nunchuk.JoyY,-1,1,0,1))
EndIf

Fewer than twenty lines of code gives us three ways to control the mouse pointer, which controls your "car" in the game. A couple more lines could add in Classic Controller support, which might even work well for Audiosurf's "Double Vision" mode. But we'll save that for another Revolutionary.

// Mouse Buttons
If Wiimote.A
Mouse.LeftButton = True
Else
Mouse.LeftButton = False
EndIf
If Wiimote.B
Mouse.RightButton = True
Else
Mouse.RightButton = False
EndIf
Key.Space = Wiimote.Home //Help
Key.Escape = Wiimote.Minus //Options
Key.Enter = Wiimote.Plus //Enter
Wiimote.Rumble = Wiimote.B //Rumble when firing
Shift + P + I + E = Wiimote.Two //Stops script running

My inspiration for this project came from using my iPhone. It, like the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, has an internal accelerometer for detecting tilt and motion, and the iPhone's iPod interface can change from a standard media player interface to the Cover Flow interface by just rotating the device. Around the time that I realized the brilliance of this simple trick, I was working on a script for Star Fox 2, and thought it would be neat if I could change from my Excite Truck style of Arwing control to a more natural joystick style of control when transforming my ship to the landwalker mode. Titles with varied gameplay are made all the more interesting with adaptable controls, but if transitioning between control methods initiates the change in gameplay style-- that's another degree of coolness.

Imagine a Rogue Squadron game in which you point your Remote at the screen to pilot your X-Wing in pursuit or evasion, and turning the Remote sideways "locks S-foils in attack mode" and gives you finer motion controls for banking and rolling. There are so many possibilities to explore, and I'll be exploring some of them in future GlovePIE scripts.

If you've got ideas for a game that might benefit from a control conversion, let us know in the comments.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Fans of Midway's Ready 2 Rumble Boxing series are no doubt anticipating the spiritual successor in EA's Facebreaker. When you're madly swinging Wiimote and Nunchuk in abuse of cartoony pugilists, you probably won't give any thought to how you could have been doing this nearly a decade ago. While our Nintendo allegiance may make it easy to dismiss claims that the Wii concept was outright "stolen," in Iwata's own admission, it was built from technologies already in existence. And some of those technologies had even used for gaming prior to the Wii. Read on as we examine how the Wii carries on a legacy of hardware past and dreams cast.

GBA Tilt Cartridge
Though one might not expect it from a portable, the Gameboy Advance saw its share of alternative controllers, but in many cases, they were built directly into the cartridges. Boktai had its light sensor, and games like WarioWare: Twisted and Yoshi: Topsy Turvy made use of a tilt-sensing gyro. Nintendo also included the gyro in Kirby: Tilt 'n' Tumble, but the shipping version of the game was scaled back greatly in scope from its original concept.

Konami Viper
This arcade architecture was used for several motion-sensing games, as well as traditionally-controlled ones. One that I'd seen in a few arcades, but never played (for fear of looking like a fool) was Tsurugi: The Sword. Gamers wishing to play out their saber-wielding Star Wars fantasies ought to seek out this cabinet if you can't wait any longer to unleash the Force. Other notables on the system were Mocap Boxing and Police 24/7. If you're a fan of any of those series, we'll gladly sign your petitions for Konami to port them to the Wii.

Dreamcast
Many of us hardcore Wii Fanboys were once hardcore Dreamcast Fanboys. Our closets are filled with peripherals and game-enhancing gadgets that could now be summed up in functionality with a Wii Remote. Naturally, franchises like Sega Bass Fishing are now making their way to the Wii, but it may come as a surprise that its old fishing rod controller could be used for other games. The Dreamcast fishing rod featured an accelerometer, so that you're line casting motions and jerking motions would translate to the same action in-game. Because the rod remapped standard Dreamcast controller inputs, it could also be used in other games such as Virtua Tennis 2.

This alternative use was not advertised at the time, but had it been, the Wii might not have been looked at as such an original concept. Imagine how differently history may have unfolded if Sega would have played up motion-sensing controllers all those years ago.

Specs: Two Dreamcasts taped together

Another former Dreamcast exclusive now on its way to Wii, Samba de Amigo had maraca controllers that could detect in which direction they were being shaken. The upcoming Wii sequel looks to use the accelerometers in the Remote and Nunchuk to replicate those controllers, albeit without the tactile feedback of the beans rattling inside. Expect 3rd party controller add-ons soon after the game ships.

TrackIR
In addition to the SIXAXIS, GlovePIE .30 brought in support for the TrackIR head-tracking system. With the first version of the device having been released in 2001, the TrackIR method of head tracking beat Spielberg's to market by seven years! It works by placing an infrared camera on or near your screen, and an IR source on your person, in a reversed perspective to the Wiimote/Sensor Bar setup.

It's similar in concept to Johnny Chung Lee's Wii Desktop VR, and he may have taken inspiration from that product, given that he mentions others using IR LEDs mounted on the bill of a baseball cap, as is demonstrated in the TrackIR demonstration.

No matter the inspirations of the Wii, its impact on gaming has been worth far greater than the sum of its parts. It really wasn't the controller that led to the early demise of the Dreamcast, so much as poor marketing, company mismanagement, and fierce competition. The unprecedented success of the Wii and the more cautious management means that we don't have to fear our beloved Wii being relegated to bargain bins and fire sales any time soon. It won't fall into obscurity and be that once-hot console you forgot about, only to be reminded of when watching re-runs of MTV Cribs.

But if by some extremely remote chance, it were to be end-of-lined sooner rather than later, what features would you like to see scavenged for use in the coming generations?

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Some of you may have wanted to see the Wiimote and SIXAXIS dropped on an island with explosive collars around their necks, forced to fight a deathmatch, but Battle Royale this is not. Nintendo and Sony would happily accept you placing both consoles in your entertainment center, because they offer up different experiences. Getting a DVD player doesn't require the discontinuation of cable TV service, nor does it render your iPod obsolete. But they are similar in that they are gaming input devices, so there will naturally be some overlap in possible applications. It's for that reason we're interested in seeing which controller is better at what. So with no further ado: Round 2. Fight!

I was browsing through downloadable game demos looking for candidates to use in the test. Specifically, I was searching for a flight simulator to help determine which is the better motion-sensing controller for that type of game, when I came across the newly released Journeys of the Dragon Rider. It's a low-budget production; the antithesis of Lair, in all ways save for theme. I'd already thrown together a basic accelerometer-based mousing script for the SIXAXIS, and thought it would at least be good for a laugh to try the game out with that. With no tailoring at all, I found out that it worked, and worked well.

I went back and adjusted with the sensitivity to make the dragon respond to more subtle movements, then I added in game-specific controls and threw in a few extra lines of code for Wiimote compatibility, and commenced with the comparison.

Z = Sixaxis.L1 or Wiimote.Left //Slow down
X = Sixaxis.R1 or Wiimote.Right //Speed up
//Menu controls
Escape = Any.Select
Enter = Any.Start

Mouse.LeftButton = Sixaxis.R2 or Wiimote.Two //Fireball
Mouse.RightButton = Sixaxis.L2 or Wiimote.One //Increase altitude

//Set initial coordinates for mouse cursor to center of screen
If !var.init
mouse.CursorPosX = (screen.Width/2)
mouse.CursorPosY = (screen.Height/2)
var.init = True
EndIf

//Assign dimensions to contain mouse movement within
var.MinXRes = -Screen.Width
var.MaxXRes = Screen.Width

var.MinYRes = -Screen.Height
var.MaxYRes = Screen.Height

//If no Wii Remote inputs are returned, the SIXAXIS will move the mouse pointer
If Wiimote.Pitch > .1 or < -.1
FakeMouse.DirectInputX = smooth(MapRange(Wiimote.SmoothPitch,-360,360,var.MinXRes,var.MaxXRes))
FakeMouse.DirectInputY = smooth(MapRange(Wiimote.SmoothRoll,-360,360,var.MinYRes,var.MaxYRes))
Else
FakeMouse.DirectInputX = smooth(MapRange(Sixaxis.SmoothRoll,-360,360,var.MinXRes,var.MaxXRes))
FakeMouse.DirectInputY = smooth(MapRange(Sixaxis.SmoothPitch,360,-360,var.MinYRes,var.MaxYRes))
EndIf

Shift + P + I + E = Any.Home //stop script

It would seem that I've done in a weekend what a big-budgeted team couldn't achieve with more than a year's development time. It's is possible to ride a dragon into battle with a SIXAXIS as your virtual reigns. And it's just as easy with a Wii Remote! Perhaps Factor 5 will map some of those waggle-triggered controls to the abundance of buttons on the SIXAXIS and leave the motion controls to just steering the beast the next time they revisit this new IP.

Neither controller exhibited a clear advantage in the way its accelerometer processed my movements, however, this comparison has made apparent to me an issue that I may have overlooked in the past. Brief losses of connection or a hiccup in the communication between the Wii Remote and my Bluetooth adapter seems to be causing some erratic behavior, which is evidenced by the camera view going wonky at times. It may look like I intentionally added the frame stutters in the video to coincide with the beat of the music, but that's actually the Bluetooth communication glitch throwing my view around. Being that the SIXAXIS is (in this instance) connected and transmitting data via USB, it doesn't exhibit such behavior, and it's all the more unsettling to know that the Bluetooth chip in my USB adapter is the same model incorporated in Wii consoles. It should be noted that Windows drivers or any number of other things could be the cause of the communication hiccups, and if it is indeed a hardware problem, the SIXAXIS may not be immune to it, being that the preferred connection for that controller is also Bluetooth wireless.

Finding no palpable difference between the motion-sensing capabilities of the two controllers' accelerometers, I decided to pit the Yaw-sensing gyro of the SIXAXIS against the IR sensor of the Wii Remote. Both features are exclusive to their respective controller, potentially giving unique advantages in particular circumstances.

I wanted to focus strictly on X-axis movement, the specialty of the SIXAXIS gyro, so I went searching for a Space Invaders or Breakout clone to play. I found several different ones, which were fun and varied takes on the Space Invaders and Breakout formulas, but I couldn't suppress my desire to show something visually arresting, and none of those clones qualified. I really wanted something colorful and rich in pixel shader goodness like Plasma Pong, so after finding nothing suitable that controlled on the X-axis, I pivoted my monitor and video camera 90° clockwise and swapped around the axis controls in my scripts. I wanted Plasma Pong, so I got Plasma Pong.

//Get initial Gyro value
If !var.init
var.SRGi = Sixaxis.RawGyro
var.init = True
EndIf

//Move mouse horizontally on 90-degree pivoted screen using SIXAXIS gyro
If Mouse.DirectInputY > (Mouse.DirectInputY - (var.SRGi+15))
Mouse.DirectInputY = (Mouse.DirectInputY + (Sixaxis.RawGyro -var.SRGi))
Else
Mouse.DirectInputY = Mouse.DirectInputY
EndIf

//Move mouse vertically on 90-degree pivoted screen using SIXAXIS accelerometer
Mouse.CursorPosX = MapRange(Sixaxis.SmoothPitch, 50,-40, 0,Screen.Width)

//Mouse Buttons
Mouse.LeftButton = Sixaxis.R2
Mouse.RightButton = Sixaxis.L2

Shift + P + I + E = Any.Home //Stop script running

Being that the hardware used for these controls is completely different in the respective controllers, I made separate scripts for the SIXAXIS gyro and the Wiimote IR sensor. The Wiimote script is a slightly modified version of Carl Kenner's IR mouse script included in the GlovePIE .30 download.

var.ButtonFreezeTime = 250ms
var.PointerBump = KeepDown(Pressed(wiimote.A),var.ButtonFreezeTime) or KeepDown(Pressed(wiimote.B),var.ButtonFreezeTime)
Wiimote.Led1 = True
Mouse.X = MapRange(Wiimote.PointerY, 0,1, -1,1)
Mouse.Y = MapRange(Wiimote.PointerX, 1,0, -1,1)

// Mouse Buttons
mouse.LeftButton = Wiimote.B and KeepDown(Wiimote.PointerVisible,0.5s)
mouse.RightButton = Wiimote.A and KeepDown(Wiimote.PointerVisible,0.5s)

Shift + P + I + E = Any.Home //Stop script running

Scripting and testing the mouse controls with yaw made me realize that the SIXAXIS gyro could conceivably be used in conjunction with the accelerometer to control an on-screen pointer, like in many Wii games. My script was far from perfect in that application, but it was good enough to play Plasma Pong with and could likely be refined to a state surpassing the purely accelerometer-based mousing scripts written for the Wiimote. It's a shame, though, that the SIXAXIS has no functional equivalent to the yaw gyro on its Z-axis, which could be used to control a pointer on the screen's Y-axis. The inherent inertial effects of movement on the SIXAXIS give it a feel that's closer to a trackball or traditional ball mouse than the Wiimote's usual proportional pointing. But unlike a trackball or mouse, there's no way to instantly "stop the ball rolling," as you can with those devices.

The Wii Remote's IR sensor and accelerometer allows for more precise control than is possible with the gyro and accelerometer of the SIXAXIS. But that's not to say that the SIXAXIS is "garbage." I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the SIXAXIS in the games and applications I tested, many of which were not shown here. These two controllers are designed to appeal to different demographics, and function differently in games, but the flexibility and upgradeability of this generation's controllers means they can be adapted to incorporate new features.

The SIXAXIS doesn't ship with an IR sensor, but its mini-USB port is in the ideal location for such an add-on to be attached, and an infrared emitting "sensor bar" could be powered by a USB port on the PS3 console. Likewise, a shell, housing gyros for inertial sensing, could slip over the Wiimote and plug into its expansion port, giving it the functionality of a SIXAXIS.

"But, don't add-ons not sell all that well?" Typically, no, but then multimedia-focused consoles hadn't sold well, either ... until this generation. If the Wii's success has taught us anything, it's that consumer tastes change. Five years ago, it would have been considered a ridiculous notion to ask gamers to pay to drive cars which could otherwise be unlocked through the course of gameplay. And before the Wii, there was no market for performance-hindering cosmetic controller adornments.

Perhaps if the Playstation Eye were to make its way into enough homes, it could be used to detect programmed flickering light patterns of the LEDs on the front of SIXAXIS controllers, and essentially turn the controller into a moving Sensor Bar and the PS3 into a stationary visible-light sensor; a reversed Wiimote + Sensor Bar sort of setup.

In summation, there's great "next gen" technology in both the SIXAXIS and the Wii Remote, but it exists for naught if the developers don't challenge themselves and take chances on creating unique ways to use them. The dread we have of waggle-laden minigame collections on our Wiis could just as easily translate to botched epic waggle-fests on the PS3.

If Round 2 has not sated your bloodlust, I'm still open to suggestions for more games to match these controllers against each other. Just don't suggest wipEout XL. I scripted for and played that game to death already (off camera) and one SIXAXIS died as a result (of my frustration).

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

So you've tuned in to Revolutionary expecting to see the dramatic conclusion of the Controller Showdown. Well, as I was evaluating games to use in the matchup, I found myself revisiting old scripts I'd put aside, and building new scripts for games which wouldn't be fit to judge the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote and SIXAXIS. I realized that because of the recently updated build of GlovePIE, my passion for scripting has been re-ignited!

You see, the latest version of GlovePIE supports the SIXAXIS, Xbox 360 control pad, and standard PC control pads, on top the already robust support for Wii Remotes and attachments. There's also a new function which allows you to easily write scripts for any and all of these controllers universally. So, before we commence with Round 2, let's take a look at the GlovePIE update that will figure heavily in the big battle.

Reading through the preliminary documentation that comes with GlovePIE, I was reminded of some old features I'd forgotten about, and discovered some nifty new ones, too. With the Any device, multiple controllers can be scripted for without writing their names specifically. It's a catch-all that doesn't quite cover everything at this point (accelerometer control is in the works), but it does make for simpler scripts.

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
Back in '99, I plunked a mint's worth of quarters into this arcade stand-up between classes, and almost ended up late to class on more than a few occasions. I honed what meager Third-Striking skills I have in the arcades and on a 3rd party Dreamcast pad with six face buttons, so I don't find either the Classic Controller or the SIXAXIS to be particularly well-suited to playing Street Fighter games. But like Alien Hominid, any use of a controller could be considered an improvement over the default keyboard layout, and as a Third Strike junkie (in recovery), GlovePIE helps take the edge off when my Dreamcast is out of reach.

A lightning-quick fighting game needs fast reactions, and both the USB-wired SIXAXIS and the Bluetooth-paired Classic Controller are up to the job with no noticeable lag. I'm not doing many of my favored combos because the shoulder buttons don't get much consideration in the heat of a fight. However, I was surprised that I could pull off Akuma's super fireball in the air, which requires inputting a jump, two fireball motions, and a button press in less than half a second.

With GlovePIE, I can also write macros to mimic a sequence of button presses with just one. In other words, "Instant fireballs, just add punch!"

Up = Any.Up
Down = Any.Down
Left = Any.Left
Right = Any.Right

A = Any.Square
S = Any.Triangle
D = Any.R1
Z = Any.Cross
X = Any.Circle
C = Any.L1

Key.1 = Any.Start
Key.5 = Any.Select

Shift + P + I + E = Any.Home //Quit running script

/*Left-facing fireball motion mapped to Sixaxis.L2 or Classic.L*/
If Any.L2
Down = True
wait 30ms
Left = True
wait 30ms
Down = False
wait 30ms
Left = False
EndIf

/*Right-facing fireball motion mapped to Sixaxis.R2 or Classic.R*/
If Any.R2
press(Down)
wait 30ms
press(Right)
release(Down)
wait 30ms
release(Right)
EndIf

And in the spirit of good will, I thought I'd have the Wiimote and SIXAXIS LEDs blink in unison. This only works when the Classic Controller is plugged in, because I needed to contain this code in an If loop with an "always true" condition so it wouldn't affect the timing of the controls.

If Wiimote.HasClassic
Sixaxis.LEDs = 1
Wiimote.LEDs = 8
wait .5s
Sixaxis.LEDs = 8
Wiimote.LEDs = 1
wait .5s
EndIf

Portal
I've fallen victim to Portal-mania. Like so many others, I didn't know what to think of the game before its release. The artistically sterile environments, the seeming lack of enemies, and the anti-weapon which is your primary tool for interaction and defense just doesn't do much to stir up anticipation. After the game received numerous awards and acclaim from reviewers and gamers alike, the hype machine kicked into gear and I bought into that hype. To the uninitiated, Companion Cube plushes seem like a bit too much falderal, but for Portal-jumpers, the "character" quickly becomes as endearing as Yoshi.

Portal is more of a puzzle/platform game than a traditional first person shooter, and as such, it plays perfectly well on consoles with traditional controllers, and by extension, the Wii Classic Controller. I had always wanted to make a FPS script for the Classic Controller, but got a little tripped up on the code for emulating the mouse pointer. I put the script on the back burner for a while until I found the snippet I needed (thanks SuperTrunksZ!), and it was just in time for me to try the Portal: First Slice demo with my SIXAXIS and Classic Controller. Bear in mind, this is a puzzle game, and the enjoyment is all in figuring it out on your own. If you haven't played Portal before, this video may contain spoilers. Also note, just prior to shooting this video, I accidentally broke the bit of code that gives the left stick pseudo-analog control, and I had to resort to using the D-pads on the respective controllers. Rest assured, the left stick works in the final version of the script.

Mouse.LeftButton = Classic.R or XInput.RightTrigger or Sixaxis.R2 //Primary weapon
Mouse.RightButton = Classic.L or XInput.LeftTrigger or Sixaxis.L2 //Secondary weapon
Space = Any.Cross //Jump
E = Any.Square //Use
Ctrl = Classic.ZL or Any.L3 //Crouch
A = Any.Left
S = Any.Down
D = Any.Right
W = Any.Up
Shift + P + I + E = Any.Home

//Joystick movement
If Any.Joy1Y > 0.6
S = True
Wait 1ms
S = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1Y > 0.4 and < 0.6
S = True
Wait 10ms
S = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1Y > 0.2 and < 0.4
S = True
Wait 35ms
S = False
EndIf

If Any.Joy1Y < -0.6
W = True
Wait 1ms
W = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1Y < -0.4 and > -0.6
W = True
Wait 10ms
W = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1Y < -0.2 and > -0.4
W = True
Wait 35ms
W = False
EndIf

If Any.Joy1X < -0.6
A = True
Wait 1ms
A = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1X < -0.4 and > -0.6
A = True
Wait 10ms
A = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1X < -0.2 and > -0.4
A = True
Wait 35ms
A = False
EndIf

If Any.Joy1X > 0.6
D = True
Wait 1ms
D = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1X > 0.4 and < 0.6
D = True
Wait 10ms
D = False
EndIf
If Any.Joy1X > 0.2 and < 0.4
D = True
Wait 35ms
D = False
EndIf

//Joystick aiming
If Any.Joy2X < -0.2 or Any.Joy2X > 0.2
Mouse.DirectInputX = Mouse.DirectInputX + (30)*(Any.Joy2X)
EndIf

If Any.Joy2Y < -0.2 or Any.Joy2Y > 0.2
Mouse.DirectInputY = Mouse.DirectInputY + (30)*(Any.Joy2Y)
EndIf
If you've ever desired to have analog triggers on your Wii Nunchuk, that's probably not going to happen any time soon, but through GlovePIE it's possible to use the SIXAXIS as a light-weight alternative. Using an Xbox 360 controller will also work (albeit, sans accelerometer), with support for vibration scripting potentially adding another element to the immersiveness of gameplay. Now everybody start hounding Carl Kenner to include direct support for the DualShock 3.

Although this segue wasn't intended to be part of the comparison, I feel I should say something about my preference. I still don't like the Classic Controller. I don't like the DualShock-derived design of the SIXAXIS either, but I find it to be more ergonomic than the Classic Controller. The prongs on the bottom of the SIXAXIS don't conform to human palms very well, but they at least do something to enhance the stability of the controller when you're feverishly work the shoulder buttons. Of course, I'd rather have six face buttons to play my Street Fighter games and ignore the shoulders outright, but whadayagunnado?

Next time (for sure) we'll be bringing you the exciting conclusion of the controller showdown, and although we've already got a few games lined up, suggestions are still welcome. Scroll down and drop a comment to tell us what you would like to see played with motion controls on the SIXAXIS and Wii Remote.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

Nintendo has recently been accused by a former game developer of copying the idea for the Wii's central point of interest, but whether or not Nintendo took inspiration from this industrious engineer is not the topic of today's Revolutionary. There have been many motion-based game controllers to precede the Wiimote, but none have been so well-received that they can pull double duty as the gearworks of a money printing machine. For the Playstation 3, Sony took a page from Nintendo's playbook and ran with it, so we'll be putting the SIXAXIS through its paces to see how it measures up.

Ergonomics, price, and aesthetics won't be judged in this battle (although the PS3's controller might win some extra points if it were a more versatile form baton). What's of the utmost concern is the potential for fun gaming experiences. Anything that enhances or impedes the controller in this respect is relevant. While it won't be entirely objective, we'll at least try to be semi-scientific in our judging methods.

Sadly, the PS3's Blu-ray remote doesn't have an accelerometer

Connectivity
Both controllers are Bluetooth wireless, but the SIXAXIS can also be connected by USB cable. In theory (but not necessarily in practice - more on this next time), that would make the SIXAXIS easier to hook up and use on a PC. Unlike the wireless Xbox 360 controller, the SIXAXIS will transmit data across the USB cable as well as receive power when you connect it. Sony uses this feature to pair controllers to consoles, in the chance you have multiple PS3s within range of each other (as is the case in my household). The console and the controller will know each other through their unique Bluetooth MAC addresses and not try respond to someone else's gear. On occasion (read: at the worst possible times) the SIXAXIS randomly stops transmitting to the console for a moment and then resumes transmission (after you've thrown it across the room in frustration).

The Wii Remote does not at this time have any sort of wired interface for connecting the controller, and as such there is no standardized way to charge the Li-Ion battery it doesn't come with. There aren't any widespread reports of connectivity issues, but I've personally had my Remotes turn off during heated games of Wii Sports. Hard centripetal forces make the batteries push away from the contact terminals, which has led to a few unintentional bunts as I've scrambled to get the Remote turned back on between pitches. A 3rd party rechargeable battery pack has a tighter fit in the compartment, and resolves that issue.

Rumble
In my first encounter with the Wii, I was handed a Remote and Nunchuk and felt a little jolt as the pointer moved across the screen and bumped across Mario's body in the Super Mario Galaxy demo at E3'06. I instantly decided that motion controls needed haptic feedback. My short experience with the Wii made me less enthusiastic about working my way back to the PS3 booth to get my hands on the SIXAXIS, because I already knew there'd be something missing.

Though the SIXAXIS ships with no rumble motors, it's got a vibration-equipped successor on the way in the form of the DUALSHOCK 3. It's already available in Japan, and is scheduled for release in other territories some time this year. Older games like Heavenly Sword are being patched via PSN, and new titles like Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune are shipping with support already built in, but for now only Japanese gamers and impatient importers know what it's like to feel rumble in the jungle.

Impatience has its virtues

Attachments
Every Nintendo home console has had an expansion port, and two generations ago, the Nintendo 64 pioneered controller expansion. Now with the Wii, Nintendo can finally claim that one of their expansion ports is living up to its full potential. The Nunchuk, Classic Controller, and Guitar utilize the processing and transmission abilities of the Wiimote to keep costs down.

The PSP has the same type of USB mini-connector as the SIXAXIS, so it's not hard to imagine it having attachments built to enhance its functionality in a similar manner. As it currently stands, however, that plug is only used for connecting the PS3 to the controller.

IR Pointer
The great distinction between the Wii Remote and just about every other motion-based gaming interface lies behind that little black window on the front of the controller. The IR sensor and Sensor Bar aren't entirely unique in the gaming world, but when combined with the accelerometer, they make possible a greater degree of accuracy and define the Wiimote as a more versatile controller.

Motion sensing
The Wii Remote detects motion on only 5 axes, but no matter how you're holding the controller, those axes can still register some amount of movement and affect gameplay. The SIXAXIS has, in addition to the 5-axis accelerometer, a gyro for sensing motion on the yaw axis. Having a yaw sensor (which would only be useful when the Wiimote is held flat with the A button toward the sky) may have been considered a needless expense, because the shape of the Wii Remote allows it to be held and used in different orientations. The SIXAXIS, on the other hand, is designed to pretty much always be held flat, so developers would be more likely to find value in yaw sensing. Unless Nintendo takes a de-evolutionary step backwards in shaping the Wii controller's successor, I wouldn't expect them to include a yaw-specific controller next time around, either. It just seems a better fit for controllers that have limited grip orientations ... so maybe a DS2 could have it.

Speaker
With the exception of a game mode in a title which not very many people care a whole lot about, the Wiimote speaker hasn't proven to be a necessary component for gameplay. There is a great amount of potential for anything that brings more sensory feedback to the controller, but in the case of the Wiimote speaker, the hardware might not be developed enough. The limited bandwidth of Bluetooth and the tiny, tinny speaker just don't produce great sound. And we really can't knock Sony for failing to follow suit here.

Going to the scorecards it looks like it's a draw on Connectivity, and Speaker, while the Wiimote comes out on top with wins in the Rumble, IR pointer, and Attachments categories, and the SIXAXIS still puts up a fight with its Motion sensing advantage.

In the first year, when the Wii was trying to prove itself as a contender, gamers debated over what qualified a console as "next gen." Now, with the Wii strutting its stuff as the undisputed champion of the stores, the argument has proven to be of no importance (not that its resolution was ever high up on the UN's agenda or anything). Consumers have decided that the Wii is at least "next gen enough" to warrant a purchase, and the Xbox 360, which technically stands in stark contrast to the Wii, must also be considered "next gen enough," seeing as it's taking the #2 spot in worldwide sales. The PS3 pairs a next gen controller with next gen processor specs, but developer apprehension and the high price of entry keep it trailing behind.

In Round 2 we'll be running some actual numbers and testing the Wiimote and SIXAXIS against each other with GlovePIE scripts to determine which one takes the title with a technical knockout. If you've got any suggestions for PC games you'd like to see the used in the testing, please let us know in the comments.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

It is the year 2008 and we've all got jet packs to carry us from our front door to the flying car in our driveway. Our friends can leave us telepathic thoughtmails when we're summering in seclusion on the dark side of the moon. Skynet fought back and the treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobots' home planet of Cybertron. Everyone is basking in the realer-than-reality goodness of their HD television sets. Wait a minute ... scratch that last bit. Not everyone's got an HDTV or even a DTV, so that broadcast switchover to digital transmission that the FCC mandated for the years leading up to 2007 wound up getting postponed until 2009.

Nintendo engineers are patting themselves on the back (no doubt with fat stacks of cash) for predicting the relatively slow transition to HD, which allowed them to keep production costs down on the little white wonder. It's a point of contention to some, but seniors, girlfriends, your parents, and most Wii fanboys aren't giving it a lot of thought. Many people aren't even aware that it's not an HD console, so this edition of Revolutionary is intended to clear up any misunderstandings about the Wii's resolution ... -ary.

As a gamer and technology enthusiast, I've written more than my fair share of words in debates and forum discussions over what is HD, how HD is it, or who's dropping the ball in making the transition, but it's taken me at least a generation's worth of maturing to realize that at the end of the day, none of it matters much. Being high definition isn't the key ingredient to make a game wonderful, and being standard (or enhanced) definition doesn't turn one into trash. So instead of pontificating on how much better the Wii could have been as an HD console, I'll just lay out the facts and try to inform the unknowing of what they should expect from this HD war draft dodger. Now, I don't know about you, but the last edition of Revolutionary had enough ranting to tide me over for a good long while.

The optimal Wii configuration would have the console set to widescreen 480p and connected to a 16:9 widescreen EDTV. That's right -- EDTV beats HDTV for displaying the Wii's wares. Why's that, you ask? Well, the higher resolution of an HDTV requires some scaling to be done to make the image stretch across every pixel of the screen. Because most HDTVs don't scale at an even ratio, images upscaled from a lower resolution source often appear blurry in comparison to material displayed at the screen's native resolution. Some TVs have good quality hardware scalers that don't futz up the process too much, and some display technologies (CRT) take to scaling better than others (LCD). But when comparing televisions of decent quality, it's often agreed that standard or enhanced definition material looks better on an equivalent screen, as opposed to on a high definition one.

Some displays will let you show content at its native resolution, and depending on the game and the size of your screen, you may find that it's a better option. If your setup is anything like mine, you might prefer to run certain types of games at the smaller native resolution because the screen is otherwise too large to take in all the action at once.

The problem that most of us face, regardless of console, display technology, or screen size, is that not every game is made to fit the specs of your setup. Without even venturing into the heavily-chummed, shark-infested waters of HD classification, we have several different formats to consider.

480i
This resolution is classified as SDTV. Chances are, if you're rockin' a ~$50 Walmart set, it can only accept a 480i input. Some SDTVs draw frames progressively, but that's a can of worms I'm not going to open this week. If your games are being rendered for 480i output, it's effectively drawing half as many pixels per frame as a 480p game. Sometimes the reduced overhead will be used to improve image quality with fillrate-hungry particles or memory-munching frame buffer effects. But not every game is made with image quality and performance optimization at the top of the priorities list, and we end up with bittersweet 480i vices like Metal Slug Anthology.

480p
EDTV is basically any resolution between SDTV and HDTV, and even though it's the same number of pixels per frame as SDTV, the Wii's 480p mode falls under this classification. The difference is that all the pixels of of the frame are refreshed in one pass, whereas an SDTV signal, the frame is drawn in two passes composed of alternative horizontal lines.

Widescreen
A fixed-pixel, widescreen, EDTV display such as a plasma TV might have a screen resolution of 852x480. The Wii, even when set to widescreen 16:9 mode, tops out at 640x480. The way it works is to increase the field of view to a wider degree, and the display does the work of stretching the image to the intended proportions. So those 852x480 plasmas are also doing a bit of scaling, but it's at least confined to just the horizontal plane.

Sometimes the term "widescreen" is used to describe a picture that is actually "letterboxed." An example of this is the Gamecube version of Resident Evil 4. With black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, the Gamecube didn't have to render a full frame of pixels, so the developers were able to redistribute the console's power to make the graphics stunningly impressive. The Wii Edition of Resident Evil 4 is what we think of as a proper anamorphic widescreen image, and the extra taped on Gamecube is made to draw in the rest of the screen.

Keep in mind, when you connect your Wii to a 4:3 screen, as most SDTVs and some EDTVs and HDTVs are, you'll need to set it to back to 4:3 mode, or your normally short and stocky plumbers will look more like their lanky younger brothers wearing the wrong hue of dungarees.

If you've got an EDTV or an HDTV, you'll need a set of component cables to output a 480p signal. The option to output at 480p won't even be selectable without component cables. Be aware that not all TVs which have component inputs will accept a 480p signal, and if you set your Wii to 480p while connected to one such TV, you may have to swap back to composite or SVHS cables to see the screen again and set it back to 480i.

As complicated as things are on the SD side of the resolution spectrum, it's at least as bad on the HD end. When you're bowling the next frame with your elderly, Wii-loving relatives, ask them if the transition from black & white television to color was this bewildering. If you don't find any of this confusing, tell us if television standard omniscience is as burdensome to one's social life as we'd expect. And if you just don't care about resolutions, cable types, or aspect ratios, you too are welcome to let us know in the comments.

This feature is regularly scheduled to appear on a Tuesday, but due to the holiday shuffle, it's gone up a day late. My apologies go out to anyone who needed their Revolutionary fix on time. Thank you for your support, and we hope you'll keep watching this space to see some bold and exciting things being done on our favorite gaming console and with its innovative controllers.

Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.

The holidays are a time of giving and love, and it's high time we give the Wii a little bit of tough love. I've thrown criticisms at the console and the big N more than a couple of times, and so far, it looks like most of my gripes are being addressed. This time I'm picking nits for the most stubborn issues many of us are hoping to see rectified, but seem to be on the bottom of the power players' to-do lists.

With games up to the quality standard of Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Resident Evil 4, it's easy to forget there's anything wrong with the Wii. But I'm taking some time off from the nearly perfect games to scrutinize and deliver up a list of complaints. Of course, I'm only doing this because we love the Wii so much and want to see the most made of its enormous potential.

10. The waiting game
Some things never change. Nintendo is well known for family friendliness, extremely polished games, and designing hardware that prints money, but they're also known for delays. Chances are, if you own something made by Nintendo, you didn't get it on the date it was first scheduled to be on the store shelves. In most cases, it's worth the wait for Nintendo to put on the extra coat of perfect, but even knowing that doesn't make the wait any easier. Smash Bros., I'm talkin' to you!

9. Franchises MIA
Nintendo has been accused time and again of "putting on a red light" for some of their popular characters and franchises. Even this generation, they've squeezed Mario into a red dress a few times, while it has left us puzzled to find that other IPs have seemed to put away their makeup. </Roxanne> We're not sure why there hasn't been any word of a new Pilot Wings, Wave Race, Pikmin, Punch-Out, or Star Fox when those gametypes are so ideally suited for a retrofit to the Wii's unique controls.

There's also a lot of portable franchises that are ripe for a crossover. We know that the DS stylus and Wii pointer are fairly similar analogs of each other, since this has been proven by Brain Age, Trauma Center, and Wario Ware, but where's the Nintendogs, Elite Beat Agents, and Nintendogs? You can keep your fingers crossed for a chance to paint on Kirby's cursed canvas with your Wiimote, but don't hold your breath.

8. Graphics
Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Zack & Wiki, and No More Heroes sport graphics and gameplay styles that make it easy to forget how unevenly matched the specs of the Wii are against other now-gen consoles. But those games are merely exceptions to the rule. The majority of Wii games have graphics that make the PS2's first generation stuff look prettier than the prom queen by comparison. Bad graphics don't necessarily ruin a game, because we're still loving Guitar Hero III -- despite the fact that it's an obvious port of the PS2's assets (which don't even look good by that platform's standards). Which brings me to my next point ...

7. Cash-ins
To think, we used to believe it would be a good thing for Wii development to be so cheap and easy that just about anyone could make games for it. Then along came Ninjabread Man to show us why not everyone should be allowed the privilege. Yet, as Guitar Hero III shows, it's not just the small developers who are trying to make a fast buck with the least amount of effort. Evidently, they sent the QC team home early on that one.

6. Shells
I don't need them, so I should be able to ignore them, right? No. I'm constantly getting asked by friends and associates if they'd need to get the racket/bat/club attachments to play Wii Sports. The sad part is that there are plenty of people out there that don't have a Wii fanboy to steer them clear of those worthless purchases, and their folly feeds the beast. Wouldn't you rather see games or useful peripherals filling that shelf space?

5. Storage
It didn't take long for the Wii's internal 512MB of flash memory to fill up. Starting out, it seemed like a bottomless well with the lightweight offerings of the early NES, SNES, Genesis, and TG-16 lineup, but how things have changed. With games that originally appeared on CDs now beaming through the air into your Virtual Console, it's become apparent that we need more storage.

Nintendo's stance on this is that we can always delete and re-download games, but that's hardly an elegant solution. At times, even small games can take ages to download from the Wii Shop, and if your console is away from an internet connection, you won't be downloading anything. The simplest thing would be letting us back up our downloaded games onto SD cards and swap them back to internal memory when it's time to play. At least that would make the iPod excuse