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Wii Hours
 Nintendo’s new game system is one of the most anticipated in recent years, and not just because gamers are eager to make fun of its ridiculous name. It’s called the Wii, which is pronounced “whee,” but the name is the only goofy thing about it. Other than that, it’s pure style and ingenuity.
The Wii features an elegant console and, of course, the Internet connectivity that’s essential for today’s gaming systems. More important, however, are the developments within the controllers, which far exceed their predecessors. The Wii’s wireless controller can be used with one or two hands and is completely motion sensitive, meaning that your hands’ movements are translated directly into game action, whether you’re playing golf or tennis, racing a car, or trying to keep Mario alive. The new controllers can point, vibrate, make sounds, and consume time like no other device. ($249.99; nintendo.com)
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Out of the Box
Most gamers thought the Xbox 360 was a pretty cool piece of hardware. But now Microsoft will be upping the ante, offering an external HD DVD player as an accessory to complement the standard DVD player already included in the system. Like the competing Blu-ray format, HD DVD players display movies in ultrahigh definition, with huge-resolution numbers perfect for the latest hi-def televisions. ($199.99; xbox.com)
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To Your Stations
 Sony claims the latest version of its gaming console, the Playstation 3, out next month, will “change the nature of gaming and entertainment forever.” Influence on that scale takes serious doodads, and Sony has done its best to stuff as much as possible inside, including Blu-ray compatibility, four USB ports, an HDMI interface for all-digital audio and video, a 20GB or 60GB hard drive, and (in the 60GB version) WiFi. Will the PS3 change the world? Maybe not. Will it be fun? Probably. ($499 for 20GB, $599 for 60GB; playstation.com)
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The Way It Works:
How Does Nintendo’s New Game Controller Work?
The gaming world is excited about Nintendo’s Wii system (see page 25), and most of that excitement is centered around the motion-controlled hand controls. “It’s the headline of the year for the gaming industry,” reports the Game Feed (thegamefeed.com), one of the zillions of Web sites that track the industry. Even competitor Sony is excited about the controllers, so much so that it added its own version to the new PS3 system. That a device exists that can track the motion of your hand and sense where you’re pointing it is cool. How it works is even cooler.
The technology behind — or actually, inside — Nintendo’s Wii includes an infrared sensor and an accelerometer, and they work together to tell the console where your hand is.
The sensor is just like the ones that have been hiding in your TV remote all these years. Nintendo’s, however, includes a sensor bar that is placed under your television. On this bar are two infrared detectors. When you point the game controller at the TV, the detectors on the bar calculate the direction you’re pointing it in by measuring the difference in the amount of time it takes for the signal to arrive at the different sensors.
That information is combined with information from the accelerometer, which measures acceleration of the controller with a tiny weight resting on what is basically a miniature scale. The accelerometer in the Wii remote can measure movement on three axes: up and down, left and right, and forward and backward. (Accelerometers are also used in technology that’s a little less fun, like the deployment of airbags, and hard disk protection technology.)
All that information is then sent to the console using Bluetooth radio technology, which also allows the console to distinguish between each player’s controllers. — B.U.
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Photographs by: Brian Urkevic
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