Wiimote history 101, circa 1993
Over at the MobyGames forums, bungleboss recounted how he was going through old magazines one day, and then found an image that was uncannily familiar – and not to mention popular – in our time. And there it was: top-notch, ultra-modern technology from 1993, when some bright Nintendo engineer had the idea that people would like to play their video games in planes and their hotel rooms, too. Whether the engineer’s idea was correct or not, we’re not entirely sure, but we do know that a whole line of Game Boys came around sometime later, and that the design of the terminal lives on in the 2006 Nintendo Wii’s Wiimote.
At a time when mobile phones weren’t particularly mobile yet since some were still the size and weight of bricks, this nifty piece of equipment, the Nintendo Gateway, may have been every kid’s dream travelling companion at the time. However, 13 years later, one trait still got passed on to the modern Wiimote: it can still be mistaken for a TV remote control. Oh well.
Though some people may accuse the present-day Nintendo designers of plagiarism, I personally find it to be a rather pleasant homage to the literal grand-daddy of Wiimotes everywhere.
Over at the MobyGames forums, bungleboss recounted how he was going through old magazines one day, and then found an image that was uncannily familiar – and not to mention popular – in our time. And there it was: top-notch, ultra-modern technology from 1993, when some bright Nintendo engineer had the idea that people would like to play their video games in planes and their hotel rooms, too. Whether the engineer’s idea was correct or not, we’re not entirely sure, but we do know that a whole line of Game Boys came around sometime later, and that the design of the terminal lives on in the 2006 Nintendo Wii’s Wiimote.
At a time when mobile phones weren’t particularly mobile yet since some were still the size and weight of bricks, this nifty piece of equipment, the Nintendo Gateway, may have been every kid’s dream travelling companion at the time. However, 13 years later, one trait still got passed on to the modern Wiimote: it can still be mistaken for a TV remote control. Oh well.
Though some people may accuse the present-day Nintendo designers of plagiarism, I personally find it to be a rather pleasant homage to the literal grand-daddy of Wiimotes everywhere.