Nintendo

A Rockville technology company took on Japanese gaming giant Nintendo yesterday, saying it filed patent-infringement complaints with two federal agencies asking that U.S. importation of the popular Wii video game system be halted. Hillcrest Labs, which licenses a technology to manufacturers that use it to make motion controls for digital media, said it filed a lawsuit in a Maryland U.S. District Court alleging that components of Nintendo's Wii game systems infringe upon four of its intellectual property patents.

SEATTLE -- In an unprecedented move for the U.S. marketplace, Nintendo will let another hardware maker -- Sony -- sell Super Nintendo systems.Nintendo, the dominant maker of video games, and Sony, the consumer electronics giant, announced they are collaborating on a system to link computer compact discs with TV sets.Sony will market a machine, tentatively called Play Station, combining a Super Nintendo cartridge player with a compact-disc drive and advanced microprocessor. Nintendo will sell a compact disc drive, also equipped with the microprocessor, which plugs into its cartridge system.

Nintendo of America Inc., the distributor of Nintendo video games, has agreed to give $25 million in coupons to consumers nationwide and pay $3 million in cash to settle a price-fixing case initiated by investigators in Maryland and New York.Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., said today that some 200,000 Marylanders who bought Nintendo 8-bit consoles between June 1, 1988 and Dec. 31, 1990, will be entitled to $5 coupons that will be good toward the purchase of Nintendo games, the most popular of which are the "Mario Brothers" games.

With the release of the next-generation Game Cube, Nintendo has one eye on the past and one on the future, hoping to entice video game players in the here and now. Nintendo's entry in the three-way "console war" with Sony and newcomer Microsoft oozes familiarity, though it offers features never before seen from the company that revived a home video game industry that had collapsed in the early 1980s. Nintendo, after all, is synonymous with franchises such as Super Mario Bros., Metroid and Zelda that every game player knows, and the Game Cube itself shows off the company's tradition of colorful and thoughtful design.

Wii're all sold out. Legions of shoppers are getting the message nearly everywhere they look for Nintendo Co.'s video game console. Even though it ramped up production capacity twice this year, Nintendo isn't meeting demand for the Wii, which has been on the market for more than a year and is, somehow, this season's hottest hard-to-find gift. Nintendo executives said the Japanese company had thought its production schedule -- about 1.8 million consoles a month -- would be sufficient.

IN MY HOUSE, we are mounting a new campaign against the cult of Nintendo.Just the other day I stumbled onto four members of the cult (my 14-year-old and three fellow disciples) kneeling in front of the TV playing "StreetFighter II."As they stared slack-jawed at the screen, fingers flying over the controllers, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to envision the four of them on the staff of the Yale Law Review, or in medical school, or working on the Mars Project for NASA someday.But the vision wouldn't come.

Video games have evolved to become a staple in the entertainment industry, and the success of Sony and Nintendo has created a feeding frenzy among peripheral producers. InterAct Accessories Inc., a Hunt Valley company that describes itself as parasitic, is taking the biggest bites.Run by its founder and president, Todd S. Hays, the 7-year-old company makes accessories such as joysticks and controllers for Playstation, Nintendo 64 and Sega game consoles. The company describes its products with such phrases as "infinite health and endless ammo" and "giant fire buttons you can pound on!"

Jean Tyrrell wanted to find activities that would allow students in the autism program at Patterson Mill Middle/High School to be more physically active during the school day. After researching some ideas, Tyrrell said she purchased a Nintendo Wii video game console with a grant that she received. "The kids really like Wii," said Tyrrell, a physical-education teacher. "And I think it's great. It gives the children with autism an age-appropriate leisure activity to do." Since the game was purchased, the children have all learned to play it, said Carolyn Trovinger, who teaches the middle school autism program.

Sunday, and for years afterward, thousands of parents will cringe reflexively at a simple declarative sentence uttered by a comical animated man: "It's me, Mario!"Yes, the rotund little plumber is back to step on enemies and collect gold coins, but he's also the standard bearer of a new Nintendo video game system that will likely be one of the most asked-for items this holiday season. Nintendo 64 is a powerful descendant of the Nintendo Entertainment System and SuperNintendo game consoles that lurk under television sets in more than 20 million U.S. households.

Parents can breathe a sigh of relief now that they don't have to lend their expensive digital cameras to their kids anymore.The new Nintendo Game Boy Camera is the Swiss pocket knife of digital cameras: an inexpensive, kid-friendly device with a number of cool functions. All you have to do is stick the camera into the back of a Game Boy hand-held video game player and start shooting pictures.Once you've shelled out $49 for the camera, you can take and store up to 30 digital images. If you want to shoot a photo after the 30th shot, you'll need to delete one of your old photos.