"Back in our day, we played the Wii by candlelight."

Well that was fun. Hardly a week ago we still believed in Santa Clause and that magickal properties lay within the Wii sensor bar. Now it turns out that not only was NORAD lying to us all this time, but the Wii sensor bar can be replaced by a couple of candles without throwing off our Zelda spin attack one bit. Those brave souls over at Joystiq dusted off their candelabra to give it a shot, after rumors of such doings emerged on the internets, and it appears that those rumors were not exaggerated. Of course, having a couple of candles obstructing the screen isn't quite an optimal Wii-ing situation, but it's always good to know that instead of reading a book by candlelight when the power goes out, we can just fire up our Wii and... wait. Damn. Well, it's kind of cool anyways. Peep the video after the break.

[Rohit Kapur @ Nov 27th 2006 12:44PM]

So if Nintendo runs short of sensor bars, they can just back in a couple of candles in the Wii boxes and call them "Limited Edition"!

[Whynot @ Nov 27th 2006 12:45PM]

Hypothetic scenario: Someone throws the Wii remote on the candles, the strap breaks, the candles fall on the carpet, carpet takes fire, house burns, Nintendo blamed because the strap was to thin

[Brandon @ Nov 27th 2006 12:52PM]

What CAN'T be used as a sensor bar?

[Dan Arbaugh @ Nov 27th 2006 12:56PM]

Well, not to nitpick or anything, but you could still do the spin attack with the sensor bar at all, as it is trigged by the nun-chuck being shaken left to right.

Back to more Zelda.

[Dan Arbaugh @ Nov 27th 2006 12:57PM]

Whoops, I meant "withOUT the sensor bar at all".

[Jeff @ Nov 27th 2006 1:12PM]

If I had a Wii, I'd love to go home and test this. There are four candles across the top of my television right now anyway. We put them up there to watch.. uhm.. what was it? Right, The Mothman Prophecies. Anyway, yeah, they're still up there. I should get someone to bring me a Wii, light 'em up, and test this out! =)

[Matt B @ Nov 27th 2006 1:13PM]

I hope someone tries flares.

[Chris @ Nov 27th 2006 1:53PM]

What can't be used as a Wii sensor bar? Anything that doesn't emmit a IR signal.

[Mayor McCheese @ Nov 27th 2006 1:32PM]

This fall we saw the release of the mighty Sony PS3 (it's so big in size that it makes the original X-Box look compact) and surprisingly 80% - 90% of them all went up on ebay. I'm not surprised as there are not any games titles that scream "you must own me". And of the one good game released, Resistance: Fall of Man, it was shocking to learn that it only displays in 720p (in order to keep framerate smooth) and not the 1080p that Sony pushed in everyones face against the MS X-Box 360.

Also released was the Microsoft X-Box 360 HD-DVD drive and surprisingly next to the more popular Blu-Ray the same movie on HD-DVD in 1080p looks like true High Definition that we are expecting. The same can not be said of the Blu-Ray movies as they are grainy and pixelated when shown in 1080p.

The Nintendo Wii soon followed the release of the Sony PS3, two days later, and NintenTards as they are called, flocked to swoop up the promised by Nintendo plenty of available Wii's at N.A. launch. But surprisingly less than promissed was to be found at retail locations. While many retail stores had silent raffles a day before in order to avoid the Wal-Mart craze of last year. The few fortunate ones that did receive their Wii's seemed much less excited and pleased once they finally had a chance to take their Wii for a spin. Many excuses keep flowing from the Nintendo-faithful spouting for their beloved $250.00 Gamecube with Wii-Tard controller.

[jdillingham @ Nov 27th 2006 2:46PM]

You need to relax dude. Nothing is worth getting that worked up about. Look how much you wrote only to call some fanboys "wii-tards".

[Mr K @ Nov 27th 2006 1:37PM]

Cool. But does the remote not need to be calibrated against the light source and given the wax melts and the flame lowers surely it becomes more difficult with time?

On second thoughts this could be a really easy way to limit your kids' play.

[mycintosh @ Nov 27th 2006 1:44PM]

But dont throw your WII controller againts the candles!

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/27/wiimote-launches-through-window-insurance-coverage-questionable/

greets,

mycintosh
http://mycintosh.com

[Mr. Mario @ Nov 27th 2006 1:53PM]

Does anyone know if you can spread apart the two infrared sources (aka make the new "sensor" longer) and have it work? Or can the Wii-mote only triangulate when the infrared sources are like only a foot apart??? anyone?

[Johnny @ Nov 27th 2006 2:07PM]

A week ago you still believed in an old Tim Allen movie?

[Jason @ Nov 27th 2006 2:29PM]

I'm sure that if the IR emitters are different lengths apart, there wouldn't be a problem. Just adjust the sensitivity, since the remote uses the points to triangulate distance anyway. The sensitivity adjustments compensate for the varying distances from the screen.

[narco @ Nov 27th 2006 2:12PM]

Even though I know it'll work just as well as the sensor bar (and I'll probably only do it once), I still feel compelled to give it a try.

Fishes,
narco.

By the way -- if you like Joy Division and the Wii, I made this:
http://joydivisionwii.ytmnd.com/

[Benry @ Nov 27th 2006 2:31PM]

I would think that this has something to do with initializing the light sensors in the sensor bar. If there is a high level of ambient light, or light shining directly into the sensor bar at initialization, anytime light goes well below this threshold, the sensors cannot pick up controller light. As long as you don't have a great amount of light shining directly into the sensor bar at anytime during play, this shouldn't be a problem. This is the same problem with thermocouples, and the reason that there exists CJC circuits. I'm probably wrong though.

[leeeevy @ Nov 27th 2006 2:31PM]

so then since the wii sensor bar isnt actually sending and info back to the wii just drawing power from it can you plug it into an open usb port on your comp and run it that way? (dont have a wii so i might be asking a really dumb question sorry if it is so)

[Christopher @ Nov 27th 2006 3:55PM]

No. The connector is not USB.

[leeeevy @ Nov 27th 2006 2:34PM]

oops! meant to say "...isnt actually sending ANY info..." not "sending and info" now i really do feel stupid...its def time for me to switch to that keyboard with no letters on it lol....whatsitcalled? das keyboard or somethin

[adorna @ Nov 27th 2006 3:33PM]

how cool ist that. I really want to test this out..

[- @ Nov 27th 2006 3:36PM]

Haha, I'm a dumbass. I didn't read the article or have my volume up and I thought the Zelda character swung the sword with such force, it blew out the candles. :D

[slowerpig81 @ Nov 27th 2006 5:22PM]

oh, i see. so the sensor bar doesnt sense, it just gives out light for the controller to read. Right. BTW, the sensor bar plug is a new plug made by nintendo, but i bet if you ripped it open and figured out the power for the LEDs, you might be able to run it off USB.

[some person @ Nov 27th 2006 5:39PM]

that's fake, did you see that "point wiimote to screen" thing? also, i saw a tv remote next to the guy playing the game

[adessmith @ Nov 27th 2006 9:22PM]

Uhhh.. Yes, I did see the "point the remote at the screen" text...
It only did that after blowing out the candles... (With no light source the wii thinks the wi-mote is not pointed in the direction of the screen.)

The TV remote beside the kid proves nothing. In order to utilize a remote instead of the sensor bar you have to have at least 2 of them with someone HOLDING DOWN A BUTTON ON EACH and more importantly they have to be FACING THE wi-remote...

This is not exactally magic. Why shouldnt we believe it works?

On a side note, did you notice how dim the lighting was. I bet if you turned the lights up it would wash out the candle light and would no longer work.

[sr @ Nov 27th 2006 9:23PM]

Uh yeah buddy. Most of us are too busy playing Zelda to sit and pontificate about the market prognosis for the Wii and what to call buyers of the other two systems.

[Tom Gabriele @ Nov 28th 2006 12:47AM]

dear. god. if those overzealous buffoons cant hold onto the wiimote, then god save us when they start playing with fire.

[Shignami @ Nov 28th 2006 1:32PM]

i wanna try this, but im a little wary of putting candles too close to my plasma tv

anyway, i wanna know if you could use something like your body as an IR transmitter, mabey if you lay down and soaked your feet in hot water first, then aimed through your feet....

[jstiles85 @ Jun 30th 2008 12:04PM]

well if you just want to "play" with it, put the candles elsewhere to test the effect.

[Nova @ Nov 28th 2006 3:55PM]

lol, wii' sensor bar is... owned. Why not trying a flashlight or maybe a digital camera could work...

[Nova @ Nov 28th 2006 4:00PM]

I think now we can realize that wii's futurist concept gameplay isn't that incredible. I tried wii sport and I said: ok, we just have to move a little bit the remote and that's it.

[Taylor @ Dec 12th 2006 8:54PM]

"What can't be used as a Wii sensor bar? Anything that doesn't emmit a IR signal."

Candles radiate heat. Heat radiation is infrared radiation. Therefore, you could probably use a radiator heater and it would work.

[jside @ Dec 15th 2006 8:11PM]

OK, so this is a pretty cool hack. But from a couple of comments here and those heard around the office, people think this somehow makes the Wii control system low tech. Sure it's lame to call it a sensor bar if there aren't any sensor in it. It just means all the smarts are in the Wiimote. Again, this is a cool hack. But until you can play Wii Sports boxing with two hand-held candles, it doesn't really reflect anything bad in the Nintendo engineering.