DS Motion

[Skeithex]

Keen eyes at Siliconera have spotted a new trademark registered by Nintendo of Japan: the "DS Houi Sensor Card." "Houi" in Japanese means "direction," so one may deduce that the Houi Sensor Card is a cartridge that recognizes motion.

A motion-sensor in a cartridge is nothing new; homebrew developers have had the opportunity to build DS games into one unofficially for more than a year now. Activision even offered up an official means with last year's Tony Hawk's Motion, but that was through the use of a GBA slot-compatible peripheral.

With the forthcoming Nintendo DSi system omitting the GBA slot, Nintendo's options for DS peripherals are limited, so a accelerometer chip built right into the cartridge seems like the best course of action. In fact, rumors were heard back at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2008 that Activision's motion control DS plans may have to be adjusted to accommodate the potential of losing the GBA cartridge slot in future DS iterations.

Of course, the better course of action would have been to simply insert motion chipsets in the final Nintendo DSi hardware. But hey, we didn't build the thing.

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[froggyboy604]

sounds sort of similar to the ipod touch or phone, wiimote. I agree they should make the motion chip internal because I see it getting lost or stolen ver easily.

The GBA card for the DS sounds like a cooler idea.

[Skeithex]

sounds sort of similar to the ipod touch or phone, wiimote. I agree they should make the motion chip internal because I see it getting lost or stolen ver easily.

The GBA card for the DS sounds like a cooler idea.

yes, it does sound like a great idea.

[froggyboy604]

I agree, I hope it does not require too much motion to move your character around since the DS is sometimes played on cars, trains, and places where movement is limited.