3D displays are getting quite a bit of buzz lately thanks to their inclusion in just about every piece of technology that sees fit. In the gaming world the Nintendo 3DS has largely popularized the technology thanks to its glasses-free 3D display and if you’ve played with one you’ll know that the results are quite stunning. But, wouldn’t it be nice if you could just whip up a peripheral that would give any display glasses-free 3D capabilities? It seems that perhaps there has as Big Head Games has just announced a clear film that, when applied to a device like an iPad or iPhone, makes for a glasses-free 3D effect.
Unfortunately there isn’t more information about this peripheral but here’s to hoping it isn’t an April Fool’s Joke.
Now a days, Guitar Hero is pretty much a household name, if you find a home console with some kids in the house chances are a plastic guitar won’t be far. And, if you’ve followed the franchise you’ll know that the peripherals are manufactured by Red Octane but that wasn’t always so. In the beginning MadCatz was signed on to do the deed before pulling out.
What’s even worse, MadCatz actually paid $300,000 to get out of the contract only to go on and see the series generate millions of dollars worth of revenue.
Oh well, at least they have a million different FightSticks coming out, right?
via joystiq
After the success of MadCatz‘ Street Figher IV Fight Stick they have been hard at work producing just about every kind of arcade stick you could shake a stick at (ha..ha).
Anyways, today at Comic-Con they had the above controller on display, a Tatsunoko vs Capcom themed Fight Stick. Sure, it may have the same hardware as the Street Fighter IV Fight Stick (you know, the one that was notorious for breaking) with some Tatsunoko vs Capcom artwork slapped on top. But it’s the novelty that counts, right?
No word on pricing or availability but considering Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars is expected to drop for the Wii towards the end of this year, you can probably expect it then.
via Destructoid
Earlier this week we learned that a game called Band Hero would be making its way to consoles at some point in the future. However, there was no talk about a portable version of the game. But let’s be real now, it’s Activision, they have to leave no stone unturned.
Enter, Band Hero DS which is exactly what you woudl expect, Band Hero for the Nintendo DS. The game will be developed by Activision owned Vicarious Visions and will come bundled with a guitar peripheral along with a never before seen drum peripheral.
For gamers who liked the previous Guitar Hero DS games, this is for you. As for the rest of you, move along.
via Kotaku
A few days ago we were shown the updated guitar controller that would be bundled with Guitar Hero 5 and today Activision shows us yet another peripheral, the drums.
There’s not much to say about this set besides the fact that it’s, well, a drum controller. Although, it will apparantly allow for use with 2 kick pedals if you’re into that kind of thing.
Guitar Hero 5 will be made available for the Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Xbox 360 and Wii on September 1st, 2009.
via Joystiq
They might have decided that the peripheral wasn’t worth integrating into their recent FPS title The Conduit but High Voltage admit that they’ve been messing around with the Wii MotionPlus and see a lot of untapped potential in it: “Whenever you see new equipment and tools to play with, that just opens up the door for all kinds of creative new ideas. I’m sure we’ll see in the next year some really cool stuff coming out on the Wii that could only work with Wii MotionPlus.”
This all comes from the mouth of producer Cameron Rains, with Rains adding that since in these early stages of the peripheral most companies are focusing on sports related titles we have yet to see the full potential of the device. That’s a pretty no-brainer statement of course, since it’s rare that any gaming system or new peripheral/control scheme is executed perfectly in its first few offerings.
In an industry where boasts and gigantic egos are fairly common it’s refreshing to see that Rains doesn’t follow it up with a claim that they’ll be the ones to deliver on it.
Sony has recently announced that they will be expanding their licensing program thus allowing more third party manufacturers the ability to produce pretty much anything they want for the PSP, PS2 or PS3.
Apparantly if a company decides to enter the licensing program they will have to comply with “qualifying SCE standards and requirements” after which they will be given the technical knowledge behind creating Playstation products. Of course they also get to slap the Official Licensed Product logo onto their products.
Read (Joystiq)
We first heard about the Wireless Xbox 360 Microphone back in the beginning of April when Microsoft unveiled some new Lips DLC.
Well, it seems that Microsoft has again set their sights on the wireless mic as they have said the peripheral, which is compatible with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Lips, and even Disney Sign It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year, will ship to retail this fall.
The Wireless Microphone is expected to cost $49.99. Hey, you didn’t think a Microsoft developed product would be cheap, did you?
Read (Ripten)
What you see above was recently introduced by Nintendo during their E3 presentation, the Wii Vitality Sensor.
What this peripheral essentially is, is a heart rate monitor that you attach to the bottom of the Wii controller just like you would the Nunchuk attachment. Nintendo says this attachment will “expand the appeal of video games” and sense a players pulse along with “a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world.”
So, exactly waht they will be using this attachment for? Not a clue but knowing Nintendo they will probably come up with something good.
Read (Kotaku)
At E3 Iron Will Technologies is unveiling an innovation of theirs that’ll bring many gamers back down memory lane to a time of bad haircuts, ripped-up jeans and Fred Savage. In his classic film The Wizard where he attempts to get a young video game prodigy to a gaming competition. One of the most tense scenes involved one of the antagonists unleashing one of the most bizarre yet desirable peripherals of the early gaming world: the Power Glove.
It was intended to translate a gamers hand movements into control inputs, but due to its imprecision and lack of dedicated games it didn’t really catch on, and was regarded as a gimmick, but the concept has remained popular. Films like Minority Report, Johnny Mnemonic and others have showed extreme fascination with the concept of controlling a computer via hand inputs.
The Peregrine is an attempt by Iron Will to bring this generally science-fiction concept into real life. MMOs and RTS games are notorious for complex control schemes that require endless numbers of key shortcuts for success and to fumble one in the midst of a raid or skirmish can destroy your slim chance of victory. The Peregrine promises to offer over thirty key shortcuts by tapping your thumb to various points on your fingers. Of course the control options are customizable and luckily for those prone to long, long gaming sessions the sensor disconnects and the glove itself is washable.
