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Nintendo patents new handheld tech

The Mario Factory files a patent in the US for a portable gaming system that is controlled by tilt and movement.

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Everything looks familiar so far...
Everything looks familiar so far...

The latest video game-related patent to turn up at the US patent office shows images of a portable which detects when it is moved or tilted. The images accompanying the patent show a handheld that looks not unlike an original Game Boy, although such images are for illustration purposes only and are often not reflective of the final hardware.

The motion-sensing handheld patent was filed on March 30, (published on the Web site on August 2) and explains the handheld's new controller system, "Simulation refers to game control for analogously representing a change caused in the actual space in a form of a game-space state change, based on at least one of an amount and a direction of a tilt, movement or impact applied to the housing."

It continues, "Game control includes the case of simulation on a state change of the game space itself and the case of simulation of an indirect effect upon another object caused due to a change in state of the game space."

Highly scientific diagram of hitting the machine.
Highly scientific diagram of hitting the machine.

The patent comes with 75 pages of drawings showing how the portable could register movement from left to right, tilt, and some kind of "impact" on the case.

Nintendo's official comment is, "We file hundreds of patents every year--this is just one of them."

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