Nintendo could be looking to produce a Gameboy phone following the issuing of their patent for an 'electronic apparatus having game and telephone functions'.
The patent is for A game and a mobile phone type electronic apparatus comprising:
a game CPU which executes a game related process;
a phone CPU which executes a phone related process;
a play key to play a game;
an interruption key to initiate an interruption of said game;
a key register to which first information is set in response to an operation of said play key and second information is set in response to an operation of said interruption key;
wherein said game related process includes a game process to play said game when said first information is set into said key register and an interruption process to interrupt said game process when said second information is set into said key register; and
said phone related process includes a setting process to set said second information into said key register when an incoming phone call is detected.
All a lot of gobbledegook, but basically it's a phone with Gameboy functionality. The patent was originally filed five years ago and has taken this long to be issued so it's not known whether Nintendo will still be looking to produce this type of handset. Although, a handset like the touchscreen Nintendo DS, with phone functionality could put Nintendo back up on top.
a game CPU which executes a game related process;
a phone CPU which executes a phone related process;
a play key to play a game;
an interruption key to initiate an interruption of said game;
a key register to which first information is set in response to an operation of said play key and second information is set in response to an operation of said interruption key;
wherein said game related process includes a game process to play said game when said first information is set into said key register and an interruption process to interrupt said game process when said second information is set into said key register; and
said phone related process includes a setting process to set said second information into said key register when an incoming phone call is detected.
All a lot of gobbledegook, but basically it's a phone with Gameboy functionality. The patent was originally filed five years ago and has taken this long to be issued so it's not known whether Nintendo will still be looking to produce this type of handset. Although, a handset like the touchscreen Nintendo DS, with phone functionality could put Nintendo back up on top.