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[thefro]

This seems like a great idea, especially if it's designed and implemented correctly to where you can still use the wheel as an analog trigger essentially.

Should be an improvement over the current trigger/shoulder button setup.

 

[wild wild rice]

A few other mildly interesting things.







It seems like it functions in a similar way to a mouse wheel...but with things such as inertia continuing to make the wheel turn and the previously mentioned motorised component....it may feel quite different.

Could be interesting, especially with how good Nintendo is with giving the feel of momentum in a lot of their games.

 

[DizzyCrow]

I quite like that, hope it helps kill the second screen.

 

[Mpl90]

I quite like that, hope it helps kill the second screen.

That lurid second screen! Grrr, why is still here?!? It ruins my life, I tell ya! Someone please kill it with fire, otherwise my life won't be good. How can I live peacefully and be in love with someone else if that bastard is still into my fucking handheld. Let it rot in hell for good, come on!!!!!111!!!

 

[L Thammy]

What I learned from this thread:

1. Legalese is unreadable to normal humans
2. When confronted by scary words, people will just just give up and look at the pictures instead

 

[Crazyorloco]

I'll be the outlier...I hope this is able to make phone calls and text.

The wheel button sounds like it could be fun to use. It would definitely bring some interesting gameplay.

 

[TheMoon]

What I learned from this thread:

1. Legalese is unreadable to normal humans
2. When confronted by scary words, people will just just give up and look at the pictures instead

You had to come to this thread to learn that?

 

[Josh5890]

Two face buttons is really throwing me off, but that's Nintendo for you.

Hopefully they have something cool cooked up

 

[J@hranimo]

What I learned from this thread:

1. Legalese is unreadable to normal humans
2. When confronted by scary words, people will just just give up and look at the pictures instead

Two face buttons is really throwing me off, but that's Nintendo for you.

Hopefully they have something cool cooked up

Lol.

This is a really intriguing concept. Scrollable shoulder buttons sounds...great. Like damn! The NX reveal is really going to be something.

 

[mrlion]

A Gamepad that is smaller than Wii U's? Although the Wii U gamepad in itself is not bad, it g3ets pretty uncomfortable after holding it for like 3-4 hours.

 

[10k]

Going the way of the vita I see. Capacitive touchscreen with multitouch. One 540p screen with gamepad like ergonomics most likely. Or this could be the NX console controller.

 

[Servbot24]

How is a controller with a small screen 100$? I'm pretty sure not even the Wii U Gamepad was THAT expensive to make.

Considering the resolution of the Wii U's screen, it is already very small by today's standards. 854x480. That's smaller than 3.5" iPhone screens from 5 years ago.

If Nintendo wants to shake the cheap image of the WiiU, they would absolutely need a better screen.

 

[Graphics Horse]

Going the way of the vita I see. Capacitive touchscreen with multitouch. One 540p screen with gamepad like ergonomics most likely. Or this could be the NX console controller.

It says it's a handheld sysem in the example, but the mention of it having an external terminal raised my eyebrows.

 

[BratmanDu]

So the second screen is like, your phone, or tv if you're at home?

 

[10k]

It says it's a handheld sysem in the example, but the mention of it having an external terminal raised my eyebrows.

External terminal may be an IR blaster.

 

[UltimaWeapon]

lol what

this is 100% compatible with the current style of shoulder layout
just put the scrollies in place of the bumpers and done



Patent mentions that it could be configured as either a scroll wheel that scrolls infinitely, like a mouse, or one that just scrolls 180deg. I think that's just Nintendo leaving some room for experimentation in, but I actually would prefer an 180deg scroller with a spring, so you can just "hold down" the scroller in a direction instead of having to move your finger again and again. Would make "lean" control options more intuitive without sacrificing menu scrolling.

Hmm I suppose I never thought of it that way. Good point.

 

[TheMoon]

So the second screen is like, your phone, or tv if you're at home?

pls read thread

 

[Gaspard]

So here's my thoughts on console NX backwards compatibility:

NX will come in two forms, a handheld with a single screen and a base console with Wii U Pro Controller-esque controller.

The home console itself is backwards compatible with all Wii U titles IF:

a) You sync it with a Wii U Gamepad
b) You sync it with the single screen handheld NX and use it as a Gamepad controller

The console itself is backwards compatible with Wii U titles that have no consequence without the gamepad (DKC:TF is the best example of this).

I'd say it's a win-win for NX handheld promotion and not cutting ties with the Wii U userbase.

 

[Anth0ny]

New Wii U

 

[RibMan]

Weird! With the exception of the stick placement, the illustration looks nearly identical to an old mock-up I did for design class.

 

[Vena]

Scrolling wheel just makes me think of MonHun item selection.

 

[RibMan]

Apologies for the double-post, on mobile:

A Gamepad that is smaller than Wii U's? Although the Wii U gamepad in itself is not bad, it g3ets pretty uncomfortable after holding it for like 3-4 hours.

Imagine holding a chunkier iPhone 4S (sideways) with a good weight distribution and a great texture on the handles. It can really help reduce the uncomfortability.

 

[Harlock]

Maybe they are doing patent of obvious and old hardware just to keep safe from patent trolls.

 

[Ceadeus]

I said à year earlier Nintendo probably were going to introduce a gamepad update.

I think I was on the good track and I would be very happy by this.

 

[daakusedo]

One way or another, I'm sure there will be a touch screen usable for the home console, be it wiiu gamepad compatibility, a new smaller gamepad, using the handheld or all of this combined, just for things like splatoon, mario maker and miiverse.
And obviously I want the wind waker hd experience to continue with new zeldas.

 

[jeffers]

Going deeper into the patent brings up some interesting things-
So they could use wheels, trackballs or touch panels for shoulder buttons in this patent.

More-
So potentially, vibration and a form of force feedback could be included in the wheels.

A few other mildly interesting things.
It seems like it functions in a similar way to a mouse wheel...but with things such as inertia continuing to make the wheel turn and the previously mentioned motorised component....it may feel quite different.

good finds. Didnt fancy reading those pages of block text But yeah it seems way more versatile than I thought.

edit: like people saying leaning. if theres a motor you could actually make the wheel feel springy, would make a really tight feeling mechanic.

 

[TheMoon]

Maybe they are doing patent of obvious and old hardware just to keep safe from patent trolls.

They're doing it because that's completely normal and they've always done it this way. They even still use Wiimote mockups when doing patent illustrations for things regarding motion control devices.

 

[ChaosZeroX]

As long as that's a handheld gaming system. Please don't make another home console with a tablet style controller.

Agreed. I really hope they don't go the tablet controller route. I love my Wii U, but hate the gamepad. Its why I use a Pro controller when I can.

 

[Plinko]

I can see this being used in a number of ways. Rotating those wheels that make the level spin on Captain Toad. Cycling through menu items/weapons. Direct force-feedback on a trigger for games like CoD/Splatoon.

Lots of great possibilities here.

 

[pinkurocket]

I love a good scroll wheel, I've been missing them on devices for audio and such. It seems like an interesting choice for shoulder buttons, will they be able to provide enough grip? It definitely provides a unique input that might be really handy in games using a controller. Scrolling through stuff, I'm in for it.

 

[Trevelyan9999]

Sorry guys, someone explain the "external terminal" I'm not understanding this part.

 

[Alebrije]

Hope is nothing related with WiiU , but I see Nintendo calling project NX the WiiUs.

 

[Galava]

I can see this being used in a number of ways. Rotating those wheels that make the level spin on Captain Toad. Cycling through menu items/weapons. Direct force-feedback on a trigger for games like CoD/Splatoon.

Lots of great possibilities here.

Click left trigger to aim, scroll right trigger to zoom (sniper for example) and click to shoot. Anything with adjustable zoom. I like it.

 

[Graphics Horse]

I can see this being used in a number of ways. Rotating those wheels that make the level spin on Captain Toad. Cycling through menu items/weapons. Direct force-feedback on a trigger for games like CoD/Splatoon.

Lots of great possibilities here.

Holding multiple items in MK could make a big comeback.

 

[L Thammy]

Just going to quote some sections that I find interesting. I'm not a lawyer, so I have no idea if I'm interpreting them correctly, but whatever.

The hand-held game apparatus 10 includes an LCD 21. The LCD 21 is provided near the center of the front surface of the hand-held game apparatus 10. Furthermore, the hand-held game apparatus 10 includes a touch panel 22 on the screen of the LCD 21. In the present embodiment, the touch panel 22 is a resistive film type touch panel. However, the touch panel is not limited to the resistive film type touch panel, and any type of touch panel, such as electrostatic capacitance type, may be used. The touch panel 22 may be of single touch type or multiple touch type.

The wheel type operation section 24 will be described in more detail. Each of the left wheel 24L and the right wheel 24R is a switch which is capable of being rotationally operated in the right-left direction as seen from the front of the housing 20 (in the right-left direction in (a) of FIG. 1). That is, each of these wheels is rotatable about an axis which is substantially perpendicular to the front surface of the housing 20. In other words, the direction of the rotation can be regarded as a direction along movement of the index finger which is made when (each joint of) the index finger is bent. Specifically, each wheel is a switch which includes a disk-shaped component allowed to be rotated in the right-left direction with the index finger of the user and is capable of detecting the rotation of the component. In the present embodiment, as a rotation sensor (rotation detection section) for rotation detection, an optical rotary encoder is used. The rotation sensor is not limited to this, and may be any sensor as long as it is capable of detecting rotation. In the present embodiment, the wheel portion of the wheel type operation section 24 is configured to be endlessly rotatable as long as rotation continues to be applied thereto. Thus, the wheel portion of the wheel type operation section 24 is configured to continue to rotate to some extent due to inertia caused by rotation of the wheel portion, even after the finger is separated from the wheel type operation section 24. In another embodiment, the wheel type operation section 24 is not limited to such a configuration which enables endless rotation, and, for example, may be configured such that the wheel portion is rotatable only 180 degrees.

In addition, although not shown, the hand-held game apparatus 10 also includes a power button, a wireless communication section, and an external terminal.

In the embodiment described above, the wheel type operation sections 24 which rotate planarly (that is, rotate a disk) are taken as an example. Instead of each wheel type operation section 24 described above, for example, a trackball may be provided. In such a case as well, various operations are enabled to be performed by operating the trackball with the index finger. In addition, instead of each wheel type operation section 24, a small-size touch sensor (touch panel) may be disposed.

In the embodiment described above, the case with the hand-held game apparatus is taken as an example. However, the configuration described above is applicable to general operation apparatuses such as a game controller connectable to a stationary game apparatus or the like. In addition, in the embodiment described above, the hand-held game apparatus 10 which is operated while being held with both hands is taken as an example. However, the configuration described above is applicable to, for example, an operation apparatus which is configured to be held with one hand. In this case, the operation apparatus is operated with either the right hand or the left hand. Thus, only the one wheel type operation section 24 and the one analog operation section 23 described above need to be provided. The analog operation section 23 only needs to be disposed at a position which the thumb reaches in a state where the operation apparatus is held with one hand, and the wheel type operation section 24 only needs to be disposed at a position which the index finger reaches in this state.

In another embodiment, into each wheel type operation section 24 described above, a motor-controlled mechanism may be incorporated. That is, the wheel type operation section 24 may be configured such that rotation of the wheel (disk) portion (the wheel 241 in FIG. 5) is controlled by a motor (the manual rotating operation and pressing operation described in the above embodiment can also be used in combination). FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram of a hand-held game apparatus having such a configuration. In addition to the configuration shown in FIG. 6, the wheel type operation section further includes a motor 30. The motor 30 is configured to be able to rotate the above wheel by driving thereof. In addition, the motor 30 is electrically connected to the processor 11 and is configured to be controllable on the basis of an instruction from the processor 11. That is, the motor 30 is configured to be controllable via software.

The patent also mentions several examples how how these wheels can be used:

As an example of an operation and a process for which the wheel type operation section 24 is used, when a screen scroll operation is performed, a scroll speed can be adjusted by using both the left wheel 24L and the right wheel 24R. For example, the scroll speed is set as “1” when either one of the right wheel 24R or the left wheel 24L is rotationally operated. A process of further increasing the scroll speed is enabled, such as doubling the scroll speed by, when either one of the right wheel 24R or the left wheel 24L is rotationally operated, also rotationally operating the other wheel. In addition, a process of increasing the scroll speed in accordance with the sum of the amounts of rotation of both wheels is also enabled. Thus, for example, a case is assumed where the user views a vertically long screen while vertically scrolling the screen. If the user desires to slowly view the screen (the user desires to slowly scroll the screen), the user simply needs to rotationally operate only either one wheel. On the other hand, if the user desires to skip to a lower portion (the user desires to quickly scroll the screen to the lower portion), the user is allowed to scroll the screen at a high speed by rotationally operating both of the wheel type operation sections. This can increase the convenience of the user.

As another example, an operation (rotating+pressing operation) is enabled in which, while either one of the wheel type operation sections 24 is rotationally operated, the other wheel type operation section 24 is pressed. In the case where each wheel type operation section 24 is used for the screen scroll operation as described above, when, while the screen is scrolled by rotationally operating either one of the wheel type operation sections 24, the other wheel type operation section 24 is pressed, for example, it is also possible to perform a process of doubling the scroll speed, decreasing the scroll speed (a braking function), or temporarily stopping the scrolling while the other wheel type operation section 24 is pressed.

The wheel type operation sections 24 may be assigned different functions, respectively. For example, screen scrolling is performed by rotationally operating the left wheel 24L, and enlargement or reduction of the screen, a font, or the like is performed by rotationally operating the right wheel 24R.

In another embodiment, into each wheel type operation section 24 described above, a motor-controlled mechanism may be incorporated. That is, the wheel type operation section 24 may be configured such that rotation of the wheel (disk) portion (the wheel 241 in FIG. 5) is controlled by a motor (the manual rotating operation and pressing operation described in the above embodiment can also be used in combination). FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram of a hand-held game apparatus having such a configuration. In addition to the configuration shown in FIG. 6, the wheel type operation section further includes a motor 30. The motor 30 is configured to be able to rotate the above wheel by driving thereof. In addition, the motor 30 is electrically connected to the processor 11 and is configured to be controllable on the basis of an instruction from the processor 11. That is, the motor 30 is configured to be controllable via software.

The last one seems kind of interesting. If I'm reading it right, then it sounds like the wheels can start spinning out of your control if something happens in game. I'm getting Psycho Mantis flashbacks.

 

[TheMoon]

Hope is nothing related with WiiU , but I see Nintendo calling project NX the WiiUs.

How would this be Wii U related. The thing is 3 years old. Makes less than zero sense.

 

[Übermatik]

They are clickable. It says so in the patent. There's even an image of the mechanism.

Apologies, I meant Gamecube style clickable, where they're pressure sensitive too. If that's what the patent means, then even better.

 

[thefro]

I'm pretty confident we won't have another "Wii U"-type branding scenario.

Kimishima has lived in the US for 20 years, is fluent in English and is the one who would have gotten the negative feedback from NOA on the Wii U's name.

 

[El Sabroso]

So L and R are like mouse scrolls ?

 

[Caffeine]

scroll wheel shoulders thats next gen it really is smart though holy shit.

 

[massoluk]

Clickable Mouse Wheel as L/R button sounds.... like something that should have been thought off and done ages ago. WTF, how did I never thought of this.

 

[Koozek]

How has no one thought of scrollable shoulder buttons yet, this sounds cool Probably one of those small Nintendo additions that could become standard in other consoles.
Now combine that with back grip buttons like on the Steam controller to further reduce the need to move your thumb off the sticks to the face-buttons in FPS games. Though, that would work better with normal dual-grip controllers than with a pad like this.

 

[Kirye]

I really do hope they end up keeping the tablet controller in some way, even as an optional controller for backwards compatibility. It's just so comfortable and I love off-tv. This new version looks pretty cool too.

 

[Mesoian]

Kind of looks like a phone shell.

That would be fascinating.

 

[wild wild rice]

How has no one thought of scrollable shoulder buttons yet, this sounds cool Probably one of those small Nintendo additions that could become standard in other consoles.
Now combine that with back grip buttons like on the Steam controller to further reduce the need to move your thumb off the sticks to the face-buttons in FPS games. Though, that would work better with normal dual-grip controllers than with a pad like this.

I look forward to scrollable shoulder buttons on my PS5 and XBTWO.

 

[TheMoon]

So L and R are like mouse scrolls ?

that's kinda the gist of it, yes.

 

[Silent_Ocarina]

I swear GAF was talking about scrolling shoulder buttons when the Steam controller was being discussed. Maybe I'm mixing it up with something else. Anyway, I'm curious at how Nintendo will use this. I think I prefer spring-loaded scroll wheels as opposed to mouse wheels that can scroll indefinitely, so I wonder how they will use it.

 

[RAWi]

Integrating a mouse wheel into a controller? Sound nice. This can help to manage aim in a shooter, also move through things faster, change of weapons, telescope, some kind of magnifying glass, perhaps it could help to give a flashlight different lights and be able to change it with the wheel in a more natural way.

Possibilities. I am all for it.

 

[TheMoon]

I swear GAF was talking about scrolling shoulder buttons when the Steam controller was being discussed. Maybe I'm mixing it up with something else. Anyway, I'm curious at how Nintendo will use this. I think I prefer spring-loaded scroll wheels as opposed to mouse wheels that can scroll indefinitely, so I wonder how they will use it.

This is a patent, not a feature announcement. There are patents for tons of things that never get used.

Like the horsebag.

 

[Koozek]

This is a patent, not a feature announcement. There are patents for tons of things that never get used.

Like the horsebag.

Lol.