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Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

iCard Provides Real-Time Racing Info On GBA 21

Posted by simoniker from the better-than-sewing-machine dept.
garfnodie writes "A company has started offering for rent or purchase a device, called iCard, which, when hooked up the Nintendo Game Boy Advance can give you real-time information about your favorite racers at popular car racing events, such as National Hot Rod Association(NHRA) or Le Mans. The official iCard site has more information." Although this interesting idea debuted a couple of months back, press coverage on it seems to have been light.
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iCard Provides Real-Time Racing Info On GBA More

iCard Provides Real-Time Racing Info On GBA

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  • Racing? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Senator Bozo ( 792063 )
    Personally I don't think the target democraphic of the Gameboy Advance are avid fans of the 2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. I'd be very surprised if they sold more than 5000 of these things.
    • Maybe not, but I bet the kids of those that go to these events are the target market for the GBA.

      • Maybe not, but I bet the kids of those that go to these events are the target market for the GBA.

        Did you see how much they cost? The card costs $199.99 to purchase. How many kids have that kind of money? How many parents are going to buy their kids a GBA accessory that they use a couple times a year?

        But, like it says on the page, the other option is renting. It's too bad they don't mention the potential cost of renting it for the weekend, as that would make or break it. It could work out if it were ch
        • The parents buy the card and borrow the GBA from their kids.

          It's not that hard to figure out ;->
        • It could work out if it were cheap- the kids bring their GBA, and dad looks along during the race. Bring their GameBoys to do what? Not play games on them?! "Hey Dad, check this out, that record just jumped up two spots. How do you say his name again?" Though, I do applaud the company for finding an affordable solution to add to a consumer device that has a huge installed user base. What I would have done, if I was an executive in the company, is R&D a CF, Memory Stick, and SD card version of these
        • huh? two fucking hundred dollars??????

          why not use the money for a modern cellphone and in addition to racing news get fucking everything slightly news related wherever you are..

        • Re:Racing? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by ripler ( 19188 )

          Rental Prices from the linked article:

          "The iCard will be available to rent or purchase at the remaining 2004 NHRA national events. The rental cost will be $10 on Thursday and Friday, and $5 for the Nintendo GameBoy unit to run the iCard System. On Saturday and Sunday the iCard System is available to rent for $20 with the GameBoy costing $10. Thursday and Friday iCard rentals will be free if a customer brings their own GameBoy unit to the event. The iCard System can be purchased for $129.99 for the Standard

    • You're smoking crack, dude (Score:4, Interesting)

      by nick_danger ( 150058 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:18PM (#9566438)

      I saw one of these in action at Summit Point Racew^h^h^h^h^h Motorsports Park this past weekend. This gizmo provides live T&S just like you get on-line for the pro races. It's really sweet. The club racers (there's a lot of us out there) are buying this up like crazy. It's already being used in FranAm and I'm sure once it proves itself there, it will be adopted for NASCAR and other series. 5000 units? They'll do that the first NASCAR weekend it's used.

      • Only if the range is better than I've seen at the Point.

        The team I crew for has tried for the last three races to use the ICard to track times, etc, but it has *never* gotten past "loading data". The range on the transmitter is lousy, or else the antenna sucks, or maybe both...but it hasn't worked.

        Which is unfortunate, because it's a great idea...just some major techie problems that need fixing.

  • A) How do i take it wardriving?

    B) Can i bring a laptop and broadcast to the cards?
    K, jokes aside, this seems pretty clever but unless they've got 'em tagged, I'd hate to see how many of those GameBoys walk out of the raceways.

    • Rental companies figured out several solutions to that problem many decades ago. a) Demand a deposit. b) Collect information on the renter so that you may ruin their credit at will.

      And yes, even video rental stores run by people like this guy [actsofgord.com] are considered quite authoritative sources by credit companies.

  • It's a shame about Bluetooth... (Score:5, Informative)

    by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <revaaron AT hotmail DOT com> on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @05:36PM (#9564954) Homepage
    For me, this is the kind of stuff that bluetooth was made for.

    For instance: folks that wanted this information could whip out their phone, PDA, laptop, GBA, battery-powered toaster or whatever, look for local data streams, pick "Current Race Info" and have at it. The issue of range could be easily solved by having repeaters and amplified signals. Stuff like this- event or building/region-specific info- could be put on a specific channel for this kind of use.

    In addition to live racing info, you could have stats on the racers, the car, their sponsors, etc. This could be something you had in every sport. When I'm in a movie theater, the signal could carry information on when the movie started and ended, so that the morons in the theater that don't turn off their ring have it done for them. When I'm in a building with which I am not familiar, I couuld get maps. All of these things are doable with current hardware- we just need the software. And while a dozen companies create these kind of solutions, each with their own proprietary protocol, hardware and software, we could have it all with one standard.

    Other folks bring up a good point: how many folks want to buy a GBA and the card to use this way? Even renting just the card (for GBA owners) or the whole unit seems like a stretch, unless the price was very reasonable. But then again, maybe I'm under estimating racing fans, it's not something I am interested in.

    I really wish more phones supported bluetooth. Specifically, the cheap phones, the ones most folks have, the ones that you get free with a plan. That kind of support is needed for it to really take off, IMHO.
    • For me, this is the kind of stuff that bluetooth was made for.

      Uh, no. Bluetooth was made to connect two devices in close proximity, like your phone to a keyboard, headset, another phone, a PDA, etc. It was never intended for wide-area broadcast. It won't work either; too little power and it's not really unicast.

      Wi-Fi, on the other hand, was designed for just this kind of application: lots of bandwidth, unicast, reasonable range. They should make more phones with Wi-Fi!

      But, the sad truth is that ev
  • According to the official website [icardus.com], it looks like pretty much everyone is on board (including the techologically notoriously-slow Indy Racing League), except for Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART).

    Kind of surprising, that, knowing how fast CART usually jumps on technology, especially if it "enhances the fan's experience".

    Should be fun at the next local IRL race, though.

    And since it has to be said: OMG THIS SHOULD BE FUN TO HACK. :p

    • Is CART still around? I thought they went under after all the engine change fiascoes & failed attempts to become F1's minor league.

      They may as well be dead; I don't even think they have a TV deal, which does not bode well for sponsorship of the teams.

      I remember reading an article (in Car and Driver or Road and Track?) a while back which quoted an auto-industry marketdroid: "CART couldn't sell pussy on a troop ship."

  • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Linux Client for USB Version - Help Wanted (Score:4, Interesting)

    by computersareevil ( 244846 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @08:11PM (#9566387)
    I've had personal contact with the principals at iCard in the last month, and they sounded open to the idea of helping the Open Source community build a Linux application for their USB version.

    The USB version connects to a laptop for broader information display and the ability to archive lap times. This is really useful for club racers and pro racing teams. (I'm a club racer [wdcr-scca.org], and this information is invaluable for getting faster.)

    There is currently only a Winders version, with no plans for Linux. They may be willing to share the protocol if we can present a serious development team.

    Anybody interested? slashdot.org :at; stuart5 ;dit: com
  • I used icard at sebring this year. The system was launched a year ago in sebring(february) but it did not work at that event. Starting a month later, all panoz racetracks(including sebring and road atlanta)had icard.

    Review:
    Nice idea but horrible implementation. I found the interface very flawed. Basically, you can get the order of the cars, last lap speed and some details on the car/driver. You can't get a list of lap times, fastest laps or other usefull items. The speed could also use some work. Even thou
  • I was this advertised last year at the Laguna Seca ALMS race, but nobody could tell me where to get one. I was going to try and rent one for the Sears Point (ugh, Infineon Raceway) event in a couple of weekends...

    It just kind of bugs me that it's such a closed system in every regard. With WiFi getting more prolific and the number of devices capable of accessing that, I would have expected the technology to be more accessable. Not a fixed piece of radio hardware built for a Gameboy of all systems. Why

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