Wii on the Big Screen

While everyone else was out celebrating and salivating over the upcoming Wii launch, my heart was full of secret trepidation. Nintendo had all but openly shunned my subspecies, the hardcore gamer with the most ridiculous of audio visual setups, the ten foot projection screen. Surely the Wiimote would sob in despair at such large expanses of pixel real estate. In fact, I was so sure of failure I didn’t even give the Wii an honest try. Instead, I trudged upstairs to woefully connect my Wii to that ancient and archaic device, the 480i CRT television.

My first glimmer of hope occurred when the Wii asked no questions about TV size in their setup menus. My thoughts on the infrared bar had been that it’s some sort of mystical communications device, which passes precise 3d location data back and forth with the Wiimote at an incredible refresh rate. After getting to know the Wii a bit better, I’m now thinking that the infrared bar is more like a mouse pad merely providing a matrix of reference points for the Wiimote. The fact that it works upside down helped lead me to this conclusion.

The deal was sealed yesterday, when Tycho of Penny Arcade fame mentioned his Wii was working on his projection screen albeit in a hokey fashion. I’ll take hokey. In fact, my current wiring situation is bested only by Shelob’s lair in its baffling complexity. I ran the Wii’s precious components back downstairs and began by taping the infrared bar onto the top of my screen. Next, I strung several miles of video cabling, right alongside the VGA wire which had already made the trip for my retired and bestickered Xbox. A few minutes later I was looking at Wii Sports, only bigger. Now I just need to cross my fingers and hope to snag a component cable from Nintendo’s next batch.

The main problem with my current setup is sensitivity. Because the infrared lights are very close together, distance from the screen increases sensitivity. However, games are still very playable, with Wii Sports going from, “yea, this is cool,” to, “look ma, I’m playing tennis!” The downward angle of my projector leaves plenty of room behind my couch to run around and chase virtual tennis balls. Completely unnecessary for gameplay purposes, but heavenly from an immersion standpoint. I’m having barrels of fun with Wii Sports in this new configuration, and I’m hoping Nintendo continues to release titles that get us up off our couches.