Controlling a game on a mobile phone is often a bigger challenge than the game itself — with tiny buttons that are close together, playing a game can be cumbersome and inaccurate. Therefore, designers always have to adapt the games to the keyboard of mobile phones, which naturally limits the possibilities.

WiiRider is a motorcycle game that is controlled with the Nintendo WiiMote - connected to a S60 phone!

For gaming consoles, dedicated gaming hardware makes it possible to play complex and involving games. One of the most recent examples is the success of the Nintendo Wii. Its wireless Bluetooth controller includes great features, like motion sensors. Therefore, many projects have already tried to use it for many other things — e.g. for controlling a roboter.

WiiConnect / WiiRider is a student project by Alexander Erifiu and Mario Grammer (developed at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg), which now enables you to use the controller with your S60 phone.

WiiConnect is a Bluetooth-"driver" for S60 phones. It allows using the features of the Wiimote, including the 3D accelerometer and rumble functionality. WiiConnect is very easy to use — activate Bluetooth on your phone, start the driver and you’re connected to the Wiimote. This application offers the data of the WiiMote to other applications through an internal socket connection.

WiiRider is a motorcycle game, based on Java ME. The controls simulate driving with a motorcycle on a country road. You have to hold the Wiimote like the handlebar of a motorcycle. To accelerate, you symbolically open the throttle by turning the controller. Moving left or right is equally controlled by your motion – you do not have to press any buttons to play the game. To make the game more challenging, you have to evade several obstacles like cows and pigs, but you should try to collect petrol cans to fill up your energy. The goal of the game is to keep up as long as possible!

The services could also be used by other games, of course it would be great to see more games use the Wii controller using this new project. The new N-Gage platform does also looks very promising - let's hope that it will contain games that make innovative use of the mobile phone features like the camera (remember Mozzies from Siemens Mobile?) or acceleration sensors.

You can download WiiConnect / WiiRider for free from symbianresources.com - the zip-file also includes the source code of the WiiRider Java-game, so that you can develop your own games using WiiConnect!