Patent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/se
arch-adv.htm&r=2&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=ptxt&S1=Nintendo.ASNM.&OS=AN/Nintendo&RS=AN/Nint
endo

http://www.revolutionreport.com/articles/read/198

New Patent Details Virtual Console Interface?
by Shawn White & Terrell Chambers (11/26/05)

Revolution Report recently came across a patent filed by Nintendo which
may possibly be related to the Virtual Console function of the
company's next-generation console, code-named Revolution.

The patent in question is rather long-winded, but a summary of the key
points and how they could relate to Virtual Console have been provided
below (Note: "Figures" relate to respective images presented towards
bottom):

The patent refers to a series of emulator programs, meaning that should
this patent refer to Virtual Console, the "first game machine" (which
we assume refers to Revolution) has no dedicated hardware for Virtual
Console titles. (Figure 4)

According to the images and descriptions provided within the patent,
when deciding to play and/or download a title, the player will select
the game by platform or franchise. Also, for games existing without a
definite franchise, the patent indicates an "other" tab to select from
that may accommodate those particular titles. (Figure 9)

When choosing a game, the player will apparently click once to bring up
a screen displaying an outline of the game which uses animations, still
pictures, a sentence description and/or sounds, and then click again to
confirm the selection. (Figure 18)

Particular downloaded games will prompt the player to choose a number
of displayed characters before engaging in gameplay, perhaps even
characters that might not be normally attributed to that particular
game. This notion coincides with what Nintendo President Satoru Iwata
said back in June, stating that Nintendo is "doing several experiments,
including working with the original Super Mario Bros.," and that "the
game itself and the gameplay shall be identical, but the look will be
different; it's possible that with Revolution, we may be able to see
the old games with new looks." (Figure 22)

According to the patent, this technology will allow for older game
programs to be supplied to the player at a low cost without the added
burden of program-implanting costs for the game program maker. However,
the patent in question does not further specify the exact meaning of
"low cost."

For the NES and SNES consoles, those "extremely low in capability," the
Revolution's CPU has the capacity to handle the processing of the
downloaded game without the involvement of the GPU.
No unnecessary re-coding is required to get downloadable games to work
with this technology, according to the patent.

Please keep in mind that while there is a possibility that this may be
a patent for the Virtual Console service in Nintendo's next-generation
console, it can not be determined if this type of technology will be
implemented in the service or if Nintendo will opt to go in a different
direction.