Nintendo considered a 'Mario Phone'

News

Stuart O'Brien Feb 7 2007, 3:45pm

Details have emerged of a games phone patent that was filed by Nintendo back in 2001 and finally granted in June last year.

Digital World Tokyo reports that the design was filed with the US Patent Office by Saturo Okada, Nintendo's GM for research and engineering.

The design for an 'electronic apparatus having game and telephone functions' included two processors, one for the phone and the other to power the games.

Okado is the man behind Nintendo's wildly successful GBA and DS handheld consoles, so it's reasonable to assume that the idea for a games phone was quite a serious one.

The likes of Nokia probably won't be quaking in their boots just yet though - a phone designed six years ago is unlikely to cut the mustard in today's market.

Still, it does revive the question of whether Nintendo's games will ever make it onto phones. Certainly the fan boys (and girls) would love it, but when you have a portable games device like the DS that's laying waste to all before it, you can see why the House of Mario is in no rush.