Difference between revisions of "Wii Remote"

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Around this time about three years ago, I’d finally gotten my enough money for a Wii. When I got home from Wal-Mart and opened my front door, I was greeted with a small reddish-orange present with a crimson red bow sitting on my coffee table with the tag simply reading: “Merry Christmas.” I figured it was my brother who left it, as he’s good at sneaking into my house and often does things like this. (Which worries me for more than one reason.) I promptly opened it up to find a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was pretty new at the time so I was excited to try it for myself. I’d played a bit at my brother’s house, but I hadn’t gotten too far into the game, just a couple levels. I unboxed my Wii and started plugging it in. The first thing I noticed was that the Wiimote was red while the Wii itself was white. I shrugged it off and simply thought it was an awesome error at the packaging plant, although I hadn’t heard of any red Wiimotes before. After I plugged in my Wii, I started the setup process such as the console name and stuff. Everything went smoothly until I got to the part where I made a Mii. When I started, it didn’t use the default Mii that I knew you started out with from experience at my brother’s. It looked like a depressed young man with a 5-o’-clock shadow. I’ve re-created said Mii as best as I could remember using an online app. Whenever I tried to change a setting on the Mii, the body part would pop onto the face like normal, and then slide off after about five seconds to revert the Mii back to the default starting Mii. I tried fighting it for about five minutes before I gave up and decided to go again later. After I got done with the Mii, I decided to try out New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I put the disk in, but the Wii immediately spat it back out again. It did it again, and kept on spitting it out until I put it in the third time, where it made a screeching noise for a couple seconds before finally accepting it. I heard a few beeps, then the menu icon for it popped up like normal. When I went to click on it to start my game, I noticed that my pointer said “P2” on it instead of “P1.” For some reason, this sent a small shiver down my spine. Ignoring it, I went to click on the icon and start my game already. I clicked on the disk channel icon and the animation played like normal, except it was noticeably skipping frames and normally cheerful tune that usually plays was missing and instead was made up of beeps from the Wii itself, followed by another short screeching noise. I know that Wiis normally shouldn’t screech, or beep for that matter, but the game was working pretty fine so I doubted I would be able to get a refund unless it actually broke to the point that it was unplayable. Keeping that in mind, I clicked on the “play” button. The “Wear your wrist strap” screen came up, except there wasn’t a hand in the picture. Just a red Wiimote. After about three seconds I hit the A button to start the game, and the title screen came up. For some reason, everything in the title screen was exactly how it should be, except for the word “Wii” in the title, which was red. I hit the 2 button to start the game, and the save file screen came up. I selected a new file as usual. The story intro played as usual, except the cake was really glitchy. It would blink in and out of existence, flash to a different texture, and then turn red before the Koopalings jumped out. When they threw it onto Peach, my Wii let out a loud, 5-second beep, followed by small sparks from the Wiimote, and the game froze as the cake landed. After a few seconds, the screen turned black and the words “The game disk could not be red. Please read the Wii instruction manual for more info.” I got upset because my game broke, but also slightly relieved because now I could return it. I took out the disk to survey the damage. At first it didn’t eject very far, just where I could barely see it. Then it shot out and went three feet from the Wii, leaving behind a small trail of red liquid, presumably blood. When I picked up the disk, the first thing that I noticed was that it was hot. Really hot. I dropped it on the floor, where it then bounced three times before landing face-up and burning a circle into my carpet. Then I noticed that the label of the game had the word “HELP” scratched in it. I wanted to pick it up, but it was still pretty hot. I called my brother up to ask him if he knew anything about this, but he said that he hasn’t given me the game yet, and was actually on his way to deliver it in a reddish-orange package with a crimson red bow on top. At that point my phone lost connection, and my Wii started to beep and vibrate violently. Sparks shot out of the disk drive, and the lights on the Wiimote started flickering really fast and bright. After about three seconds, it just stopped as fast as it began. The speaker on the Wiimote started to make a quiet noise. I picked it up and listened closely, and it sounded like a man whispering. I listened for a solid thirty seconds, but I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. Suddenly I heard him scream loudly for a few seconds then it went quiet. After a while he finally spoke up and said, “Oh god somebody help, please help before he comes aga-“ then everything just shut off like nothing happened. The Wiimote turned off, the game disk cooled down, my phone got reception again. Then my Wii turned itself on, and went straight to the Wii Menu. I had a message on the message board from the Mii from earlier. It simply said “Leave us alone.” I unplugged my Wii, took everything, the Wii, the cords, the manuals, the game, everything, and put them in a box and went out to my car. I drove out to the beach, ran over the box with my car a few times, then tossed it over the dock. I didn’t care about the refund anymore, I just wanted it to be gone. I can still hear the scream every time I close my eyes, and haven’t picked up a Wiimote since. I tried emailing Nintendo customer service, but unsurprisingly, they didn’t believe me.
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The '''Wii Remote''' is the Wii's primary controller. Many development revisions of it exist, and its development history is one of the most well-known parts of the Wii's overall development history, starting out as a project separate from the Wii itself.
  
 
== Versions ==
 
== Versions ==
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[[File:V09Sample74.png|thumb|200px|right|One of the two released images of the V-09. Front view.]]
 
[[File:V09Sample74.png|thumb|200px|right|One of the two released images of the V-09. Front view.]]
  
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The V-09 is the earliest Wii Remote revision which is known to have been in the possession of private collectors. It is unknown exactly when it was created or distributed to third-party developers, but it is most likely one of the earliest Wii Remote revisions distributed to third parties based on its physical appearance. The V-09 which was obtained by a private collector is marked as "Sample 74", indicating that these were likely produced in very small quantities.  
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The V-09 is a prototype controller device for the GameCube; specifically early [[Dolphin Development Hardware|DDH]] units, due to the RJ-45 connector. It may be an early Wii Remote prototype, which if so would make it the earliest prototype known to exist. It has a very different appearance from other Nintendo hardware, and no board photos are available to indicate who designed it, so it's unclear if Nintendo actually made it or if it was produced by another GameCube developer licensee.
  
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The V-09 uses RJ45 jacks to connect to a console, and as such, it is only compatible with [[Dolphin Development Hardware]] models which have this type of controller input. Since later DDH units have controller inputs identical to those found on a retail GameCube, this may indicate that this controller model is extremely old, possibly predating many of the other concepts for the Wii Remote which have been shown publicly. There are rumors that Nintendo distributed motion controller prototypes to third party studios such as Factor 5 years before work was begun on the Wii, and due to the V-09's connector style and prototypical appearance, it is possible that this is a controller model from that era which was distributed to Nintendo's top third-party partners for evaluation purposes.
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There are rumours that Factor 5 tested prototype motion controllers with their early GameCube titles during development. This would line up with this controller having a connector for early (1999-2001 or so) DDH units.
  
 
=== Dev Tool/UI Tool Version 1 ===
 
=== Dev Tool/UI Tool Version 1 ===
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* Dev Tool V3.1
 
* Dev Tool V3.1
  
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* Dev Tool V4 (black remote similar to final but with cosmetic changes)
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* Dev Tool V4 (black remote similar to final but with cosmetic changes. Has pause and select (represented by an arrow) buttons instead of +/-. It's the only piece of prototype Wii hardware which is somewhat common, having appeared multiple times on eBay and Yahoo Japan; it's possible that unlike most prototype hardware, Nintendo didn't ask for these back.)
  
 
* RD3 (seemingly identical to final except for technical changes)
 
* RD3 (seemingly identical to final except for technical changes)

Latest revision as of 22:59, 26 October 2022

The Wii Remote is the Wii's primary controller. Many development revisions of it exist, and its development history is one of the most well-known parts of the Wii's overall development history, starting out as a project separate from the Wii itself.

Versions

V-09

One of the two released images of the V-09. Front view.

The V-09 is a prototype controller device for the GameCube; specifically early DDH units, due to the RJ-45 connector. It may be an early Wii Remote prototype, which if so would make it the earliest prototype known to exist. It has a very different appearance from other Nintendo hardware, and no board photos are available to indicate who designed it, so it's unclear if Nintendo actually made it or if it was produced by another GameCube developer licensee.

There are rumours that Factor 5 tested prototype motion controllers with their early GameCube titles during development. This would line up with this controller having a connector for early (1999-2001 or so) DDH units.

Dev Tool/UI Tool Version 1

This is the first known controller in the "Dev Tool"/"UI Tool" series, a series of prototype controllers which were distributed by Nintendo to third-party developers from July 2005 to mid-2006. Being the first model in the series, this version of the controller was distributed starting in July 2005.

Little is known about this particular model, however, the Prototype Revolution SDK includes a document which lists some details about this controller in order to differentiate it from later models. The Dev Tool Version 1 package for third parties apparently included a remote prototype controller (officially called Game Remote Control, or "GRC") connecting over the GameCube memory card port, an adapter for the GameCube controller port to a memory card slot to connect the GRC to the controller port, and "TV Markers". TV Markers were an early version of the Sensor Bar; instead of using a single bar, two marker units were placed at an equal distance from each other on top of or at the bottom of the TV.

Some Version 1 TV markers were marked "Long distance"; this type of marker performed poorly and had to be returned to Nintendo for replacement.

Dev Tool/UI Tool Version 2

Version 2 of the Dev Tool series was distributed starting in August 2005. It is unknown how exactly it differed from Version 1, and very little information is available on it. All that is known is that the TV marker units and GameCube connection were the same as that of Version 1.

Tokyo Game Show 2005 Remote

Official promotional image of the TGS 2005 Wii Remote.

The Tokyo Game Show 2005 Wii Remote was shown at the September 2005 Tokyo Game Show, in between the release of the Dev Tool Version 2 and Version 3. Its buttons match those of Version 3, plus an added power button and a different extension controller port type. It is unknown if this version of the remote as shown at the show was actually functional or not. While Wii game demos were present at the show, they were demonstrated privately, and as such it is unknown which controller they used. Overall, the TGS 2005 remote seems to be a "retail-spec" version of the Dev Tool Version 2/3.

Dev Tool WB

Possible image of the Dev Tool WB from a Wii developer presentation.

The Dev Tool WB is a remote which is only known due to being mentioned in an SDK document. It was reportedly available in gray and white colours, and was wireless (with "WB" likely standing for "WaveBird", indicating that the controller used the GameCube WaveBird RF adapter for wireless communication). It is unknown exactly when this remote was distributed, and if it was distributed to third-party developers or not; however, it is likely that it was distributed to some developers as it was mentioned in a public SDK document. The Dev Tool WB may have been the demonstration version of the remote used at the aforementioned private game demos in late 2005.

A presentation present in additional documents related to the Wii SDK includes a picture of a man holding a pre-final Wii Remote with a white facade and black buttons; this may be the Dev Tool WB due to its colour matching the Dev Tool WB but its appearance not matching any other remote.

Dev Tool/UI Tool Version 3

Dev Tool V3 kit sold at auction in 2018.

The Dev Tool V3 was distributed starting in November 2005. The leaked Prototype Revolution SDK is for the Dev Tool V3; as such, detailed documents on its operation and setup are available, as well as libraries for the Dolphin SDK. The Dev Tool V3 connects to a GameCube development kit via the standard controller port, and is the first known prototype controller package to include Nunchuk support. The extension port on the Dev Tool V3 is a phone-style port, rather than the custom port present on the final or the custom port present on the TGS 2005 controller. The controller's button layout is seemingly identical to that of the TGS controller, minus the power button. The two lower buttons (which on the final remote are 1 and 2) are marked as "a" and "b".

Other versions

Dev Tool V4 sold on eBay in 2019.

Other prototype versions of the Wii Remote include:

  • Prototype revisions seen in various images
  • Dev Tool V3.1
  • Dev Tool V4 (black remote similar to final but with cosmetic changes. Has pause and select (represented by an arrow) buttons instead of +/-. It's the only piece of prototype Wii hardware which is somewhat common, having appeared multiple times on eBay and Yahoo Japan; it's possible that unlike most prototype hardware, Nintendo didn't ask for these back.)
  • RD3 (seemingly identical to final except for technical changes)


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