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.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
DEEP-STRIKE CAPABILITY: The scenario simulated a PLA drill that turned into an assault on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, with the launchers providing fire support Taiwan yesterday conducted this year’s first military exercises at Longsiang Base in Taichung, demonstrating the newly acquired High Mobility Artillery Rocket System’s (HIMARS) ability to provide fire support and deep-strike capabilities. The scenario simulated an attack on Penghu County, with HIMARS trucks immediately rolling into designated launch areas and firing barrages at the Wangan (望安) and Cimei (七美) islands, simulating the provision of fire support against invading forces. The HIMARS are supposed to “fire and leave,” which would significantly increase personnel and equipment survivability, a military official said. The drill simulated an exercise launched by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern
RSS