Nintendo Co, Japan's second-largest maker of video-game consoles, is asking its liquid-crystal display makers to come up with a better small-sized flat-panel display for the next version of its Game Boy hand-held video-game console.
"Screen quality is everything," Nintendo engineer Tsuyoshi Kiyuna told a group of executives from display panel and component makers at a seminar in Tokyo last week.
"I want you to make a better screen to solve some of the problems we have now," he said.
Display quality is crucial to the success of a hand-held game player, a point Nintendo learned first hand when some users balked at the dark screen the company used in the first version of its Game Boy Advance player.
The Kyoto-based company addressed the complaints by revamping the player as the Game Boy Advance SP with a new, brighter screen lit from the sides.
Screen quality continues to plague Nintendo. One issue yet to be solved in the Game Boy Advance SP, which was released in February, is the presentation of colors. Dust trapped within the screen and accentuated by lighting has also dogged Nintendo.
Even with the better screen, colors still appear with a whitish tinge while black also doesn't display well, Kiyuna said.
Nintendo, which controls about 90 percent of the hand-held game market, hasn't said when it will release a follow-up model to the Game Boy Advance SP.
Besides a screen able to display colors more vibrantly, the company, which also makes the GameCube video-game console, also wants a screen free of dust.
Nintendo is asking panel makers to change the manufacturing process to reduce debris captured within the layers of a display, requesting that newer displays be made in dust-free clean rooms like those in which semiconductors are manufactured.
"The majority of complaints from [Game Boy Advance] SP users is about dust," Kiyuna said. "We want a dust-free screen and users of our next-generation hand-held game machine won't be happy unless we solve these problems."
Nintendo has yet to selected the supplier of LCD panels for its next hand-held console.
The company will decide after studying mockups and business proposals from screen makers.
Sharp Corp, Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, is the sole supplier of LCD panels for Game Boy Advance as well as the Game Boy Advance SP.
One other requirement for the new screen will be that it must consume less or equal power compared with the version used in the Game Boy Advance SP, Kiyuna said.
A Game Boy Advance SP panel consumes about 71 milliwatts of power, he said.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and