Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Hiroshi Yoshino

Masato Ibuki

Yoshitaka Yasumoto

Kenji Nishida

Keizo Ohta

Kenichi Sugino

Teruki Murakawa

Soichi Yamamoto

Patrick Y Law

Robert A Drebin

Mark M Leather

Ryuji Umezu

Eric Demers

Martin Hollis

Kazuki Hirose

Matthew Komsthoeft

Yutaka Iijima

K Michael Ockenden

A portable, handheld game console includes a main body incorporating a touch-sensitive display screen and a variety of input devices. The input devices can include shoulder buttons located on a peripheral side surface of the main body, as well as input devices located on the main body adjacent the touch-sensitive display screen.

Game console

An example portable, handheld game console includes a main body incorporating a first display screen, and a cover body incorporating a second display screen. The main body is hingedly connected to the cover body along adjacent forward and rearward edges, respectively, such that the cover body is movable between closed and open positions. The main body is provided with a plurality of control buttons and a pair of game card slots for receiving game cards of different dimensions. One of the game cards is substantially square and comprises a substantially flat card body having a plurality of electrically conductive terminal strips adjacent the forward edge. One of the side edges of the card has a single continuous step configuration along substantially the entire length dimension of the card. A first notch is formed in a first forward corner of the card where the forward edge meets the other of the pair of side edges and a second notch is formed along the other of the pair of side edges, between the forward and rearward edges.

Game console and memory card

An example portable, handheld game console includes a main body incorporating a first display screen, and a cover body incorporating a second display screen. The main body is hingedly connected to the cover body along adjacent forward and rearward edges, respectively, such that the cover body is movable between closed and open positions. The main body is provided with a plurality of control buttons and a pair of game card slots for receiving game cards of different dimensions.

A portable, handheld game console includes a main body incorporating a first display screen, and a cover body incorporating a second display screen. The main body is hingedly connected to the cover body along adjacent forward and rearward edges, respectively, such that the cover body is movable between a closed and open positions. The main body is provided with a plurality of control buttons and a pair of game card slots for receiving game cards of different dimensions. One of the game cards is substantially square and comprises a substantially flat card body having a plurality of electrically conductive terminal strips adjacent the forward edge. One of the side edges of the card has a single continuous step configuration along substantially the entire length dimension of the card. A first notch is formed in a first forward corner of the card where the forward edge meets the other of the pair of side edges and a second notch is formed along the other of the pair of side edges, between the forward and rearward edges.

A portable game system includes two display screens, at least one of which is touch-sensitive. A memory card or other device is selectively connectable to the portable game system via in insertable connection port.

Memory card for a game console

A portable game system includes two display screens, at least one of which is touch-sensitive. A memory card is selectively connectable to the portable game system.

Game console and emulator for the game console

In each odd-numbered frame, a game image generated by a three-dimensional image processing unitis supplied to a first LCD, and then a game image identical to the generated game image is stored in a first VRAM. Also, a two-dimensional image processing unitsupplies the game image stored in the immediately-preceding even-numbered frame in a second VRAMto a second LCD. On the other hand, in each even-numbered frame, a game image generated by the three-dimensional image processing unitis supplied to the first LCD, and then a game image identical to the generated game image is stored in the second VRAM. Also, the two-dimensional image processing unitsupplies the game image stored in the immediately-preceding odd-numbered frame in the first VRAMto the first LCD. With this, in a portable game machine including two display units, different three-dimensional game images can be simultaneously displayed by a single three-dimensional image processing unit on the two display units without flicker on the display screens.

Portable game machine and computer-readable recording medium

Game console connector and emulator for the game console

A graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. Logical combination of N alpha compares can be used to provide a wide range of imaging effects including but not limited to cartoon outlining.

Method and apparatus for providing logical combination of N alpha operations within a graphics system

In a 3D computer graphics system such as a 3D home video game console, efficient techniques for generating non-photorealistic effects such as cartoon outlining involve generating and displaying border lines at object edges based on contents of a pixel memory. Some techniques use depth (Z) values to determine which pixels are located at object edges, and selectively blend border coloration into those pixels which are then displayed. Object edges are located by comparing pixel depth values with neighboring pixel depth values (e.g., calculating a &ldquo;distance&rdquo; value based on the absolute values of the distance(s) between a pixel's depth and depths of neighboring pixels). A desired border line color is blended into the pixel's color value based on the calculated distance value. In one particular example, the distance value is used to calculate a pixel Alpha value which is then used to control the amount of border color that is blended into the pixel color. The Alpha value may be modulated by pixel depth. Other techniques may cause object portions with identification values stored in frame buffer locations normally used to store Alpha values. These ID values can be used to identify object portion intersections for applying a border line color to.

Method and apparatus for providing non-photorealistic cartoon outlining within a 3D videographics system

A graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. Textured surfaces are created using indirect texture tiling. A set of direct and indirect texture coordinates are defined. The indirect coordinates are used in an indirect lookup operation in an indirect tile index map to obtain tile select offsets. The offsets are used to modify the direct texture coordinates, and the modified texture coordinates are then used to obtain a texture tile from a tile definitions map. The selected tile is then displayed. In another embodiment, the offsets are biased and combined with the direct texture coordinates to produce a second set of modified texture coordinates. The second set is used to obtain a second texture tile from the tile definitions map. The two selected tiles are then blended together to provide a synthetic texture tile having a pseudo-3D effect.

Method and apparatus for texture tiling in a graphics system

A graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. Full-scene shadow mapping can be performed by having the lighting hardware calculate distance using a distance attenuation function. If more precision is desirable, texture coordinate generating hardware can be used to calculate texture coordinates that index into a ramp texture lookup storing precision distance values. A unique ramp texture providing redundant values can be used to eliminate ramp texture lookup errors.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Yoshitaka Yasumoto