How Nintendo Revolution Works

Imagine that you are one of the major video console manufacturers in the world. Everyone in the industry is selling approximately the same thing -- a console containing the processor along with a two-handed game controller. If you are in last place, what are you going to do to stand out?
One way to create a splash would be to totally blow out the amount of processor and graphics firepower. The problem is that both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 have already staked out the high ground here. They have bleeding-edge multi-core chips.
So Nintendo took a different and far riskier path. First, it chose the codename "Revolution" for its new game console. Then the company set a big goal -- to dramatically improve the interface for video games. With this strategy, Nintendo built an amazing amount of hype around its innovative controller for the Revolution.
In this article, we'll take a close look at Nintendo's new console and interface. We'll also learn what makes the Revolution so incredibly different from other next-generation consoles and discuss some of the rumors and speculation about this prototype.
Changing the Interface
Photo courtesy HowStuffWorks ShopperNintendo GameCube controllerIf you look at the controllers for the Xbox, the Playstation 2 and the GameCube, you'll notice that they are nearly identical. You hold them in two hands and use your thumbs to control the in-game action with buttons, D-pads and joysticks. Your index fingers pull triggers that shoot guns and perform other functions. The controllers for the upcoming Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles appear to offer more of the same.
There are two ways to look at the similarity between these controllers. Are they are identical because the design has been honed to perfection and there is no room for improvement? That is what happened, for example, with the car steering wheel. All cars have steering wheels, and they have all had steering wheels for nearly a century.
The other approach is think about controllers in a completely different way -- a way that can revolutionize gameplay.
Nintendo took the latter approach: Its designers got outside of the box and innovated. When you first see the new Revolution controller, it appears a little ridiculous. It looks like the remote control for a TV and it has no joystick. But the initial reviews have been good, and it actually makes sense once you understand the design principles.
The key to this very different controller is on the inside...
Gyroscopes to the RescueThe key to Nintendo's new game interface lies inside the controller. Instead of using a joystick to control the game, the primary control is the controller itself. The controller contains solid-state accelerometers and gyroscopes that let it sense:
Tilting and rotation up and down
Tilting and rotation left and right
Rotation along the main axis (as with a screwdriver)
Acceleration up and down
Acceleration left and right
Acceleration toward the screen and away The surprising thing is that you can create an accurate and natural user interface this way.
Photo courtesy Nintendo of America, IncThe controller from all angles
At this early stage, Nintendo has several demos that let people experience the new controller. In one demo players shoot at an object on the screen. You simply point the controller at the target and fire. It is completely natural. In another demo you fly an airplane. You simply move the controller in the way you want the plane to move, and the plane on the screen moves. It is easy to do sharp turns, barrel rolls and loops.
In other demos the controller acts like a stick. The controller manipulates an on-screen fishing pole, an on-screen drum stick or an on-screen fly swatter.
Photo courtesyNintendo of America, IncThe controller in actionThere are at least four advantages to this approach:
Controller use seems to be completely intuitive, meaning that anyone can use it almost immediately -- there's no learning curve or fumbling as with joysticks.
The controller is very fast. You can move from one side of the screen to the other with a quick flick of the wrist.
The controller is very accurate: Things respond exactly as you expect.
The controller lends itself naturally to new game-playing paradigms. Playing a sword-fighting or fishing game with a joystick is clunky. Playing it with a controller that can be swung like a sword or a fishing pole is completely natural.
In the next section we'll discuss some variations on this controller.
VariationsThe system is not quite as pure as the previous description would lead you to believe: In many games you need the ability to aim and control more than one thing at a time. For example, in any first-person-shooter game, you will want to shot while running. This means that you must be able to aim the gun and simultaneously move your character. The Nintendo Revolution system has two ways to handle this problem.
Photo courtesy Nintendo of America, IncController with attached "nunchuk-style" analog unit
The preferred way is to attach a separate joystick pod to the controller. You hold the controller in one hand and the joystick in the other. In a first-person shooter game, the controller controls the gun and the joystick controls the running. The second possibility is to add a standard game controller. These add-ons attach to the controller using a special socket built into the butt of the controller. You can see a projection of what this may look like here.
Powering the Console
Rumored Features
The ability to play DVD movies
The ability to connect to the Internet using a Cat-5 cable or a WiFi connection
The controller will connect to the console wirelessly using Bluetooth
The console will connect to both TVs and computer monitors Although the internals of the console are still up in the air, enough information has been announced or inferred to build a fairly accurate view of what the Nintendo console will probably have inside.
Nintendo has taken an interesting approach. Instead of trying to compete with the multi-core chips in the Xbox 360 and the PS3, Nintendo is instead focusing on building a console that is "more power-efficient, quieter and faster to start" [ref]. Nintendo is going on the assumption that you don't necessarily need the biggest, fastest processor to create engaging games.
Nintendo will be using what appears to be a regular 2.5 GHz PowerPC chip as the CPU. The chip is made by IBM and will have 512MB of RAM on board. The main benefit of this approach is that it will make game development easy. Programmers are quite familiar with the software development process on a "normal" CPU. In contrast, many developers have stated that development on the 6-core or 7-core CPUs in the Xbox 360 and PS3 will be quite challenging.

The graphics processor will use an ATI chipset running at 600Mhz and connected to 256 MB of RAM. It will also have 32 shader pipelines -- 16 fewer than the Xbox 360. However, the Nintendo GPU is rumored to run at 500 million triangles per second (100 million sustained) -- roughly equivalent to the Xbox 360. It will also be able to handle 50 billion shader operations per second, which is about the same as the 360 as well.
The Nintendo console is also rumored to have a PPU -- a physics processing unit. This would be a first in the console wars. A PPU is a custom processor for handling physics calculations (in the same way that the GPU is a custom processor for handling graphics calculations). Physics calculations include things like collision detection and the modeling of complex objects like moving hair and clothes. Having a PPU would offload all of these calculations from the CPU.
If Nintendo pulls it off, the Revolution console will have all the firepower of Xbox 360 and much simpler architecture that makes life easier for software developers.
The system is set to launch sometime in the first half of 2006 with a projected price point of $199 or less.
Next we'll see how the Revolution will stack up to its predecessor, the Nintendo GameCube.
GameCube vs. RevolutionThe Nintendo GameCube was released in September of 2001. The Revolution will come out about four years later. It is interesting to compare the two systems and see just how much can change in 48 months:
Nintendo of America, Inc
The GameCube has a single-threaded PowerPC processor running at 485 MHZ. The Revolution's dual-threaded processor running at 2.5 GHZ should be at least 10 times faster.
The GameCube has 24 MB of RAM. The Revolution will have about 20 times more RAM with 512 MB.
The video card in the GameCube has 16 MB of video RAM, while the Revolution has 256 MB, or 16 times more.
The graphics card in the GameCube runs at 162 MHZ. In the Revolution it runs at 600 MHZ, about four times faster.
The GameCube is able to paint about 20 million polygons per second. The Revolution will be able to create over 100 million per second and they will be realistically shaded.
Unlike the GameCube, the Revolution will be able to play DVDs.
The Revolution will also using completely redesigned wireless game controller.
For more information about the Nintendo Revolution and related topics, check out the links on the next page.
Lots More Information
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More Great Links

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IGN's Nintendo Revolution FAQ
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