Nintendo Mod
From Mod Mania
In this new era, many people of different generations especially males are addicted to electronic games. Therefore, manufacturer (like Nintendo) targets at this market trend and persist in seeking new enhancement into its current product. As Daniel said, people have been modifying these products to suit their own needs. Given the reason, it is not surprising that some people create their own company to design hardware and accessories based on the already existing games or movies.
I then researched through the internet for the Nintendo forum community to get an idea of the “hottest stuff” for Wii and found that the latest most discussed accessory for Nintendo Wii is the Power Glove Wiimote Mod. It was originally designed for Nintendo Entertaining System (NES) in 1989. Then, after 2 decades, a Japanese hacker merged Power Glove with Wiimote and has amazed those “Nintendudes”. As seen in Figure 1, there is a portal point on the glove for you to plug the Nunchuck (remote controller) in, the battery compartment is accessed on the underside, and the A and B buttons of the Wiimote are controlled by pressing the thumb and middle-fingers together. However, most of the Nintendudes claimed that Wiimote itself works so much better. The major reason is that Power Glove is not compatible for all games; only a few games were designed specifically for it. On the group forum, they posted their opinions and suggestions to further enhance the functions on the power gloves.
Figure 1: Power Glove Wiimote http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS_87WoJ0j8
On the other hand, Nintendo DS solar charger has been discussed more often than before as the environment protection concerns most of the people nowadays. It is portable and environmentally friendly and can be used without an electrical power source. This small-scaled Solar Recharger, as shown below, provides a simple solution to recharge your Nintendo DS anywhere in the World. It takes 4 hours to recharge in bright sunlight. Besides that, it can use in cloudy conditions as well as in indoor artificial light.
Figure 2: Solar Charger
Another eco-friendly modding of Nintendo product is the solar-powered Nintendo Wii gamestation. From my research on the groups, I found that Nintendo Wii has been voted as the most eco-friendly game console for the lowest consumption of 16 watts while Xbox 360 uses 119 watts and Playstation 3 uses 150 watts which are over 7 times more than Wii console. As seen in Figure 3, it is whole big mobile cart hosting a high-definition TV, Wii console, speaker, solar power panel, inverter and a heavy duty cycled battery. The solar panel is positioned on the top of the mobile cart can be tilted according to the direction of the sun. There is a power gauge in front of the cart to show whether the system is fully charged. The system gives “Nintendudes” an estimated 8 hours of playing time and charging time takes a bit longer than that. These instructional videos and manual (including the materials to make the system) are posted on the forum and there many discussions on how they can further improve on the gamestation or just share how much they like or where they would like to play. Furthermore, modders even push the Wii gamestation to the public and show pass-by how they could soak up the sun without getting rid of their games. Another eco gadget which drove my attention is the ecofriendly Wii-mote and Nunchuck made by natural fibers, hemp. Modders “greened” the product by removing the hard plastic casing and replaced it with 3 kinds of 100% hemp string. The modification does not have any effect on the gaming capabilities of both the devices, which are still playable and work exactly like the plastic counterpart.
Figure 3: Solar Powered Wii
Figure 4: Hemp Wii-mote/Nunchuck
The most popular modding products of Nintendo is changing the custom design of the remotes and hand held devices, in addition to Wii console itself. The original Wii console seems less appealing so gamers suggest endless design possibilities. Modders modified the console cases and added the custom LED light to make it more interesting. Some people even added figurine they like, mostly based on games and movies as I mentioned above. The coolest Wii mod I have seen is both the charitable Wii mod, Super Mario Galaxy themed and Metroid-themed Wii mod as modders contributes 15% of its selling price to Child’s Play Charity if they get it sold out in an auction. On the forum, people do discuss case modding a lot as they want their console to be unique. Normally they will get instructions and advice on the forum from other modders, and gets votes on the modders as feedback. And also, they will post their mods on the forum once they completed.
Star Wars version
Metroid Wii mod
Super Mario Galaxy Limited Edition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Zg81HkW6w
There is a blog called Wiinoob that shows different types of Nintendo modification and a blogroll with links to Nintendo Wii blog and a website called GameDaily. The administrators have their own rules to make sure that the members do not post anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory on the forum. Also, they are not allowed to upload viruses or other malicious code. They must have their own ethics and avoid bully, intimidate, or harass any other members.
In conclusion, there are numerous of gamers out there as long as people still like playing games. This phenomenon stimulates the promptness of the modification of the related product. Hence, from my own opinion, I believe there will be more eco-friendly games product designed in the future and bring the awareness to people. And also, appropriate games can be used as practical education materials to encourage students put more effort on their studies.
Reference:
http://www.geekologie.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=Wii&blog_id=1
