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The story of the Wii Balance Board

There is now a little over a month since Wii Fit was released in the U.S. and although the response the game have been mixed, in general, was a great success, proving once again why Nintendo continues to dominate the video game market. In the period preceding the launch of Wii Fit, the machine Nintendo's marketing was in full swing and the buzz surrounding the game has been phenomenal, but what many people seem to lose was the real innovation behind the game, namely Wii Balance Board.

Described by some as a glorified bathroom scale, this amazing device is as revolutionary as the Wii Remote was when it became underway, and as the Wii Remote, Microsoft and Sony will catch up as they try to do the same functionality of their consoles. When the excitement falls Wii Fit will be the Wii Balance Board which is to recall that the device has been game to the next level.

But there is a whole story behind this piece, apparently simple kit has been months to develop and has seen many prototypes of shapes and sizes before becoming the board is thin white lies comfortable in the halls of the world.

A Miyamoto-san scale

Before we can understand the logic of the Balance Board needs to step back to understand the original vision that led the need for such a device. This vision was Thanks for Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's senior managing director.

As the driving force behind games like Nintendogs and Pikmin, Shigeru developed a reputation for creating games based on their personal hobbies. Wii Fit is no exception as the original concept for the game is requesting self-weighing and recording their weight on a daily basis. This led to the initiation of a project entitled "Health Pack", which later became Wii Fit.

From the beginning, the challenge is how to take something as simple as weighing yourself, something that he liked, but many consider trivial, and transform it into a activity that would be fun for the whole family. This proved a major challenge for the development team at one point, was about to be broken.

Two scales are better than one

Progress was slow in the game until a developer uses two scales, after watching sumo wrestlers use two weighing scales and the team realized that it was very fun trying to balance the same in both. It was then that balance measurement became the focus of Wii Fit and team began to consider using balance exercises as a way to keep fit.

Initial discussions with the scale of the manufacturers have received little support and the team soon realized they develop their own device. It would also be more functional than the usual level so the idea developed to measure the balance in four points. At this stage, the team began to realize that this could be more than one scale, but actually a game interface

Circles, squares and octagons

Once the general balance board concept has been decided and will consist of four sensors, work began on Understanding of the optimal and the size of the board and how it communicates with the Wii console. This proved to be a long process of trial and error and a constant battle between cost and ease of use.

the first prototypes of the board were circular, octagonal and square, and even in a moment, but it soon became clear that these forms have been very difficult especially when the review exercises such as pumps. Again, the solution was Miyamoto who realized that the position an individual before Training was to be with their feet on the width of the shoulders if it is decided that the advice to be more rectangular.

The second major challenge is deciding how Balance Board to communicate with the Wii console. At first, to reduce costs, it was decided that the Wii Balance Board actually connect to the Wii Remote to quickly regarded as too much pain and abandoned the idea. Finally, it was decided to reconstruct part wireless Wii remote from scratch to create a wireless module that could be incorporated into the card.

Once these two major obstacles have been overcome then becomes a process of refining the design, ensuring that the jury was not strong enough to defend and he was sure of use. The end result was the revolutionary new device we see today.

What's next for Wii Balance Board?

Several members of the team developing the Wii Balance Board has admitted that at first, she never understood really Shigeru Miyamoto's vision for such a device. shape but the Council adopted, began to see more than a simple accessory that could weigh players. Even before that Wii Fit was released worldwide, we talk about internal WiiWare titles as possible and even the possibility of a Nintendo Balance Board version in 1080? Snowboard.

Fortunately for fans of Wii Balance Board, developers such as Namco, Ubisoft and EA Sports have already committed to the release of exciting new titles in 2008. Of In fact, Namco skiing was available with the release of Wii Fit. Games like EA Skate It and Shaun White Snowboarding has been confirmed and more games in the works. One thing is certain is that Nintendo's latest innovation, the Wii Balance Board, has a bright future.

About the Author

Martin is a recent Nintendo convert and a big fan of the Wii Balance Board.

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