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Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
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Home » Nintendo Wii

Is anyone else having trouble with the Nyko Charge Station Wii?

Submitted by on July 17, 2009 – 5:57 pm7 Comments

One of the many shortsighted decisions Nintendo made at the Wii launch was making the controllers run on AA batteries. A pair of batteries last long enough for around 24 hours of gaming time. This is not a particularly short time, but the fact that we found ourselves chucking out a pair of batteries as often as every week or so was a little disconcerting. It wasn’t long before Nyko saw this as an opportunity and provided the Charge Station Wii, which is a docking station with replacement rechargable cells for a pair of Wii Remotes. It wasn’t perfect, with some issues making a connection to the batteries for charging and some other issues that eventually worked out, but when I reviewed it back in June 2007, I recommended it.

Now that it’s about two years old, it’s driving me crazy. While it makes a connection to the charger quickly and easily, it won’t fully charge the batteries. I will frequently remove the controllers from the charger only to find that the “charged” light is lying to me. There will only be 1/4 to 1/2 charge in the battery. Today was the final straw. I own three Wii Remotes, and while two of them were in the charger, none of them had enough of a charge for me to finish a round of Punch-Out!!. I’m guessing what’s happened is “memory effect,” where batteries that have been recharged many times will lose the ability to hold a full charge. Weren’t we supposed to be past that technological limitation years ago?

Looks like I’m going back to AAs.

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  • InfinityDevil

    Two years for rechargable batteries under heavy use is probably about it from what I've read, even with NiMH batteries.

    Even so I'm sure they've far more than paid for themselves several times over as opposed to oridnary AA batteries.

    Can you buy the packs separately?

  • dubost

    Same happens to me. But it doesn't botter me that much… If the charger 'lies' to me, I just put the controller back onto it after playing. I'd rather have to recharge my wiimotes after every single playthrough than needing to buy new batteries every two weeks.
    Though that doesn't happens. Sometimes the wiimote doesn't recharge completely, but most of the time it does.

    Sure, it's a shame the charger doesn't work properly anymore. Nevertheless, it's better than not being able to charge my wiimotes at all (thanks, Nintendo! :-/ )

  • StephenJMunn

    Yes, you can, and they're pretty cheap too, at about six dollars. You're right, they've probably just run out of life.

  • StephenJMunn

    You're right. I'm going to try picking up another battery pack and see if it performs properly. They're not very expensive, so it's worth a try.

  • StephenJMunn

    Yes, you can, and they're pretty cheap too, at about six dollars. You're right, they've probably just run out of life.

  • StephenJMunn

    You're right. I'm going to try picking up another battery pack and see if it performs properly. They're not very expensive, so it's worth a try.

  • Blue

    I had the exact same problem. First one battery pack and now the other.

    I too have switched to regular batteries. I am waiting for the ‘next-gen’ charger that has no specific charge ‘points’. It is the only thing I have asked my wife for for my birthday so it should be coming soon.

    I figure it will be easier for the kids to make the ‘connection’. A problem we had with the Nyko when the straps got in the way.

    Does anyone still use the straps? Mine are all gone.