4 ms·

I am going to be impressed if this pans out. On the surface, it looks like some of the toys may be more reliable than others - they really need to have skillfu

I am going to be impressed if this pans out. On the surface, it looks like some of the toys may be more reliable than others - they really need to have skillful designers and coders to be able to pick up particular keys of the piano (I assume they don't have much to work with apart from vibrations). The second part is that they are just complicated to make and not as robust as dedicated toys. Piano, or the foot pedals are examples - how many days of use until they fall apart? Will Nintendo fight copycats who provide cheap replacements? Even if they gett all of the above wrong, I will forgive them if there will be a way to adapt or design your own gizmos and make them work without being an approved developer - this really does look like a great way to learn hacking.

anfractuosity 9y ago
I was really curious about how the piano example works too, apparently it uses a camera in the controller - "The right Joy-Con’s motion IR camera reads the back of each key in order to tell the piano which note to play. " http://time.com/5106363/nintendo-switch-labo-toy-cons/ http://time.com/5106363/nintendo-switch-labo-toy-cons/ It does seem a really interesting system, look forward to hearing more about it!
- vvanders 9y ago
  Yeah, pretty darn clever. With a camera you can do rotary encoders and all sorts of other awesome tricks too. Nintendo really seems to be hitting their stride with the switch.
- photojosh 9y ago
  I always wondered what that IR plastic bit on the controller was all about... not enough to actually go research it though. Hah.
joezydeco 9y ago
Will Nintendo fight copycats who provide cheap replacements? You've already purchased the console and software - and Nintendo doesn't sell either at a loss. The cardboard is a trivial part of the picture. Kids could also just cut another pattern out of their own boxes, and I bet Nintendo would love to see kids doing that.
- qiqing 9y ago
  +1. Besides, cardboard replacements still stimulate demand for more genuine Switches and games.
mcphage 9y ago
> how many days of use until they fall apart? Well, it's cardboard, so you just tape or glue it back together. Or tape another layer of paper or cardboard on top. > Will Nintendo fight copycats who provide cheap replacements? You're paying for the software, not the cardboard.
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  > You're paying for the software, not the cardboard. Indeed. $60 is a standard Nintendo game price. As far as people buying Switch games are concerned, it's free cardboard.
ReverseCold 9y ago
> I will forgive them if there will be a way to adapt or design your own gizmos and make them work without being an approved developer We are really really close to homebrew on switch (which will let you do this). Get a console 3.0.2 or lower, which currently have the full stack (TrustZone, Kernel, Userland, all of it) pwned. Libraries exist to interface with joycon input as well. We're just waiting on public tooling. It's probably not what you're asking for (Mario Maker Style) - but it's doable.
- Nullabillity 9y ago
  Or stop buying devices that try to lock you out and force you into this cat-and-mouse game.
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  What about game archival? (Think redump.org, not piracy). Is there access to the SD card to pull title updates too? I wonder whether I should buy a second switch to backup all my titles. There is a disaster coming to game collecting and retro gaming in the next few years. When the servers for updates go, there's going to be a lot of incomplete games around.
  - ReverseCold 9y ago
    There's access to everything, (full kernel takeover), and there's TrustZone takeover too (think Intel ME).
oliyoung 9y ago
> how many days of use until they fall apart? it's cardboard, it doesn't matter but yeah, the killer move will be software support to make your own, and it might take over the damn world (says the father of several small human children)
jeeva 9y ago
https://twitter.com/nintendolife/status/953941301023707138 https://twitter.com/nintendolife/status/953941301023707138 > Nintendo Life: Nintendo Will Freely Provide Cardboard Design Patterns For Labo https://t.co/jGmyE4CZTR https://t.co/jGmyE4CZTR
- LocalH 9y ago
  Link was updated. Apparently, they're not.
fish44 9y ago
Likely the cardboardiness is to encourage people to copy it - the software is where they make money surely?

anfractuosity 9y ago

I was really curious about how the piano example works too, apparently it uses a camera in the controller - "The right Joy-Con’s motion IR camera reads the back of each key in order to tell the piano which note to play. " http://time.com/5106363/nintendo-switch-labo-toy-cons/ http://time.com/5106363/nintendo-switch-labo-toy-cons/ It does seem a really interesting system, look forward to hearing more about it!

vvanders 9y ago
Yeah, pretty darn clever. With a camera you can do rotary encoders and all sorts of other awesome tricks too. Nintendo really seems to be hitting their stride with the switch.
photojosh 9y ago
I always wondered what that IR plastic bit on the controller was all about... not enough to actually go research it though. Hah.

joezydeco 9y ago

Will Nintendo fight copycats who provide cheap replacements? You've already purchased the console and software - and Nintendo doesn't sell either at a loss. The cardboard is a trivial part of the picture. Kids could also just cut another pattern out of their own boxes, and I bet Nintendo would love to see kids doing that.

qiqing 9y ago
+1. Besides, cardboard replacements still stimulate demand for more genuine Switches and games.

mcphage 9y ago

> how many days of use until they fall apart? Well, it's cardboard, so you just tape or glue it back together. Or tape another layer of paper or cardboard on top. > Will Nintendo fight copycats who provide cheap replacements? You're paying for the software, not the cardboard.

ReverseCold 9y ago
> You're paying for the software, not the cardboard. Indeed. $60 is a standard Nintendo game price. As far as people buying Switch games are concerned, it's free cardboard.

ReverseCold 9y ago

> I will forgive them if there will be a way to adapt or design your own gizmos and make them work without being an approved developer We are really really close to homebrew on switch (which will let you do this). Get a console 3.0.2 or lower, which currently have the full stack (TrustZone, Kernel, Userland, all of it) pwned. Libraries exist to interface with joycon input as well. We're just waiting on public tooling. It's probably not what you're asking for (Mario Maker Style) - but it's doable.

Nullabillity 9y ago
Or stop buying devices that try to lock you out and force you into this cat-and-mouse game.
voltagex_ 9y ago
What about game archival? (Think redump.org, not piracy). Is there access to the SD card to pull title updates too? I wonder whether I should buy a second switch to backup all my titles. There is a disaster coming to game collecting and retro gaming in the next few years. When the servers for updates go, there's going to be a lot of incomplete games around.
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  There's access to everything, (full kernel takeover), and there's TrustZone takeover too (think Intel ME).

oliyoung 9y ago

> how many days of use until they fall apart? it's cardboard, it doesn't matter but yeah, the killer move will be software support to make your own, and it might take over the damn world (says the father of several small human children)

jeeva 9y ago

https://twitter.com/nintendolife/status/953941301023707138 https://twitter.com/nintendolife/status/953941301023707138 > Nintendo Life: Nintendo Will Freely Provide Cardboard Design Patterns For Labo https://t.co/jGmyE4CZTR https://t.co/jGmyE4CZTR

LocalH 9y ago
Link was updated. Apparently, they're not.

fish44 9y ago

Likely the cardboardiness is to encourage people to copy it - the software is where they make money surely?