DS Motion Pak

[shaunj66]

DS Motion Pak

New slot 2 tilt sensor









The team that brought us the original NDS Motion card are soon going to release a slot 2 variation of the device, a choice they perhaps should have taken initially. This slot 2 motion card should prove a tad more useful for homebrew developments than the original slot 1 device.
The motion sensing device contains an accelerometer and gyroscope, which adds full motion sensing functionality to the DS similar to that of the Nintendo Wii.

The DS Motion Card and DS Motion Pak are revolutionary motion sensors for the DS and DS Lite handheld gaming systems. They each contain a 3-axis accelerometer and a single-axis gyroscope, and plug into the DS to enable full motion sensing on the DS and the DS lite.



They are the first tri-axis accelerometers that can be used for homebrew DS development, and the first accelerometer/gyroscope combinations available for handheld gaming.

The NDS motion pak should be released soon.

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[superrob]

Nice news!!
Maybe ill buy one when they come out

*EDIT* FIRST

 

[Spikey]

While interesting... I don't think anything amazing or must have will come out of it... which is kinda sad...

 

[OrR]

Well, I already find the marble labyrinth game quite amazing, even though it's very simple. It needs to be made into a full game! There are other interesting developments, for example Mental Pong and the game where you have to rotate three objects which is kind of insane. The tech demos already prove that there is a lot of potential and I'm sure at least some of it will be used in the future.

@ Shaun's comment: The Motion Card and Motion Pak are both necessary because many people still use slot 2 flashcards and will continue to do so. Back when the Motion Card was made half a year ago, the slot 1 flashcards were just starting to become useful. They are still a quite recent development.
Both devices will work on the same games and are fully compatible. (Well, old demos/games have to be recompiled, first.)

 

[Louse76]

What needs to happen is Nintendo putting one out. Then we could see integration with Wii Games which would be...

wait for it...

AWESOME!!!

 

[imgod22222]

I find it strange the the bottom pins are totally bare, with no casing, and that it is a single-axis gyroscope. The wiimote has 3: twist, yaw, and pitch. And yes, both of them have 3 axis accelerometers. The plastic casing is lite-sized, but the PCB is Phat-sized... :/

 

[Verocity]

Mm That thing looks shexy.

 

[moose3]

Only bad thing is I do not see the device selling many units until there is a really killer app released first, and that may take a while for someone to get that fully motivated in such a project without more units sold so users can take advantage of the program. Unless there is space on the pcb to add more components... combine this with the EZ-V 3 in 1 expansion pack, and you then get the 'wow' factor of one small add-on component giving you so many options and abilities.

 

[MaHe]

Umm, do not want to burst your bubble, but there's no team behind DS Motion Pak/Card. Only one, single person ...

 

[imgod22222]

Anyways, worst case scenario they could probably stack two PCBs in the case, and connect them with a ribboncable, like they did in one of the lite-sized flascharts that accepted microSD. I THINK it was the G6 lite.

 

[funem]

Funny enough I think the slot 2 device for homebrew would probably be the norm as most people these days would be using a slot one card for the DS games. The smart money would be on the first people to integrate the mechanism into a slot one card like the R4 or M3.

 

[frawdee]

you want a killer app ey? check out DSaber young padawan.

 

[Deleted_11405]

maybe its from the man himself but he forgot to integrate:wario ware twisted (!good thing its seems available now!) amazing how such things run when thinking about it

 

[imgod22222]

Yeah, but for slot 1 cards, its hard to fit all the components onto one PCB, even using front and back, because You need a certain thickness PCB or it won't fit in the DS and stuff that goes on the back need to be extremely small, or have no 'height' so it can fit in the DS card casing.

 

[A Divine Unicorn]

i'm sorry, but i just don't see any point to the lightsaber DS thing. you swing your DS and it makes lightsaber sounds... why not just buy a lightsaber at toys R us and that way you get the sounds AND actually hitting stuff with it... and it's probably cheaper.

 

[Ben_j]

What with the accelerometer ? I don't think it's going to be useful. Except for a game like :

"Throw your DS as hard as you can on a wall ! 1 point per km/h when it hits the wall !"

 

[sipoon]

Have you even tried Wario:Ware twisted ?
My goodness, the rumble and the motion sensing were a perfect match, much much better than anything on a console
I was quite puzzled that they did the accelerometer thing as a one-off for the GBA,
i was hoping there would be an expansion pack for the DS with rumble/motionsensing,
I guess at least this is something

 

[jonny_eh]

First person to get Kirby's Tilt and Tumble to work with this through Goomba wins a prize! I still play that game on my gameboy colour (it doesn't work with the GBA SP, since the slot is on the bottom)

 

[bugmenot52]

What with the accelerometer ? I don't think it's going to be useful. Except for a game like :

"Throw your DS as hard as you can on a wall ! 1 point per km/h when it hits the wall !"

Did you know that all the tilt sensing of the Wiimote comes from a 3-axis accellerometer? The Wiimote does not have a gyroscope.

Except for when the pointing functionality is active, all of the movement detection the wiimote does is from a 3-axis accelerometer.

So the accelerometer in this can be used the same way. Image a racing game where steering can be accomplished by tilting the DS left or right by a little bit. (Full steering should probably be achieved with only a 30 degree tilt or so, to keep the game playable). Things like that... I would still be more excited about the whole thing if this was an official option pak, as it seems unlikely any commercial games will ever use this.

 

[Sweater Fish Del]

I find it strange the the bottom pins are totally bare, with no casing, and that it is a single-axis gyroscope. The wiimote has 3: twist, yaw, and pitch. And yes, both of them have 3 axis accelerometers. The plastic casing is lite-sized, but the PCB is Phat-sized... :/

You'll notice that the cartridge design is basically the same as NeoFlash's NEO2 carts. I'm pretty sure NeoFlash is manufacturing these carts for KiethE, who did the original design. They also market a version of his original slot-1 Motion Card with additional features like nopass and just enough space for a homebrew game. It's too bad in my opinion, since NeoFlash is a shit company who I won't deal with, but I bought his original self distributed card as soon as it came out, so I don't need another one.

As for the gyroscopes, these kits all use the same off-the-shelf chip which contains three accelerometers and one gyroscope all built in. Keith says that this chip was the best choice when he considered physical size and cost as well as offered features. Depending on how the system is held, you can get yaw and pitch detection by using the accelerometers and gravity anyway. This technique is used in the marble maze game that someone already mentioned.


...word is bondage...