Wii can handle more than four Wiimotes?

Geek alert! This story requires a little knowledge of the binary number system, which in turn gives way to the final conclusion of what appears to be the sole definition of the Nintendo Wii as a “party” device. In a rather unorthodox application of the Wii remote, blogger Kuefler’s friends Jeff and Mark connected a Wiimote to a Mac for a “lightsaber simulator” session.

Now what Kuefler noticed is that once interfaced with a Mac, the Wiimote’s four LED indicators displayed a very peculiar pattern: the second and fourth light were lit, while the first and third were left off. As soon as he pointed it out, he contacted Mark to have him replicate the results they had with the Jeff’s Wiimote and discovered a broad selection of combinations.

Now considering that “on” and “off” represents 1 and 0 respectively, you can have 15 LED combinations, each one representing one Wiimote interfaced. That’s everything from 0-0-0-1 to 1-1-1-1. You wouldn’t really consider 0-0-0-0 as a combination since that reflects the “off” and “un-interfaced” state.

We do understand that the Wii, like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, signals either LED 1 through LED 4 as common indications that you can only have up to four Wiimotes connected at anytime. But because the Wiimote also displays a capability to represent connections in a binary representation, could the Wii also handle such a scheme?

Because if it does, then the Wii’s fifteen Wiimote connection will definitely bat Sony‘s SIXAXIS controller’s seven controller scheme out of the ball park. And if Nintendo had designed the Wiimote with this factor in mind, then we think calling the new-gen console as a “party” device warrants an Understatement of the Year Award.

Via Game Influence

Geek alert! This story requires a little knowledge of the binary number system, which in turn gives way to the final conclusion of what appears to be the sole definition of the Nintendo Wii as a “party” device. In a rather unorthodox application of the Wii remote, blogger Kuefler’s friends Jeff and Mark connected a Wiimote to a Mac for a “lightsaber simulator” session.

Now what Kuefler noticed is that once interfaced with a Mac, the Wiimote’s four LED indicators displayed a very peculiar pattern: the second and fourth light were lit, while the first and third were left off. As soon as he pointed it out, he contacted Mark to have him replicate the results they had with the Jeff’s Wiimote and discovered a broad selection of combinations.

Now considering that “on” and “off” represents 1 and 0 respectively, you can have 15 LED combinations, each one representing one Wiimote interfaced. That’s everything from 0-0-0-1 to 1-1-1-1. You wouldn’t really consider 0-0-0-0 as a combination since that reflects the “off” and “un-interfaced” state.

We do understand that the Wii, like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, signals either LED 1 through LED 4 as common indications that you can only have up to four Wiimotes connected at anytime. But because the Wiimote also displays a capability to represent connections in a binary representation, could the Wii also handle such a scheme?

Because if it does, then the Wii’s fifteen Wiimote connection will definitely bat Sony‘s SIXAXIS controller’s seven controller scheme out of the ball park. And if Nintendo had designed the Wiimote with this factor in mind, then we think calling the new-gen console as a “party” device warrants an Understatement of the Year Award.

Via Game Influence