darkSpyro

I wish Toys for Bob would stop making a new freaking portal every year.

I wish they'd make a single portal that would cover all the games. I'm tired of having 4 different portals.

I'd be more than willing to spend money on a new portal if it was compatible with all the previous games.

Are you listening TFB???

No, they're not listening.

Because they browse the Skylanders section for that :U Well, at least Activision Customer Support does that sometimes. If the devs even check the forums(which is not a good thing to do as dev etiquette goes), it's there.
Oh,and TFB only made a new portal now. You can thank Vicarious Visions for the Swap Force Portal. You kinda need to update the software to be able to have new gimmicks(since the Swap Force count as 2 characters,and the Giants/SSA portal could only read up to 2,meaning it needed to be updated to 4; likewise the Traptanium Portal was made to have a speaker for the Villains).

The problem with giants/spyros adv portal is that magnets caused interference.. So when swap force came out, they HAD to make a new portal for swappers to work correctly. And of course, trap team needed a trap slot.. It's all the gimmicks that keep us needing new portals, and yes, it's getting annoying, but whatever

There was also the character issue I mentioned. Because of the upgrade paths, Swappers count as two characters at once,and it wouldn't be very nice to the fans to be able to only use one of them at a time. Too bad they didn't take advantage of that to have 4-player PVP or something.

Quote: INTIMIDAT3R

I'd be more than willing to spend money on a new portal if it was compatible with all the previous games.

You can use the Trap Team portal in previous games.

Quote: newkill

Quote: INTIMIDAT3R

I'd be more than willing to spend money on a new portal if it was compatible with all the previous games.

You can use the Trap Team portal in previous games.

This. I'm not sure what you're complaining about. All portals work for previous games, so you don't have to keep the other portals around, if you don't want to. Right now, we're only using the Swap Force portal. When we get Trap Team, we'll only use it. We've been using the old ones for display in my son's room. But if you'd rather not keep them around, you don't have to.

Quote: skylander_chaos

The problem with giants/spyros adv portal is that magnets caused interference.. So when swap force came out, they HAD to make a new portal for swappers to work correctly. And of course, trap team needed a trap slot.. It's all the gimmicks that keep us needing new portals, and yes, it's getting annoying, but whatever

Actually I remember reading that the reason for a needing a new portal in Swap Force is because the first SSA/Giants portal could only read up to a maximum of three NFC tags at a time (i.e., up to two figures plus one adventure pack/magical item/sidekick). When Swap Force came out, they needed it to read a maximum of five tags (i.e., up to four tags when using two swappers, two for each top/bottom, plus the additional magical item/sidekick).

It makes since since the 3DS version of Swap Force can use an old 3DS portal just fine and there is no issue with the magnets when scanning in a swapper.

Original portal reads 4 items. Swap force and later read 8 items.

Magnets had nothing to do with it.

^ interesting, thanks for the info, as it makes total sense

every updated portal works for all games.
in fact, they all work, however in TT, you can't play as a villain if you don't have the right portal.... but, i think you know that.

@goldenrushducks, can you back that up? Have you tried a Swap Force or Giants portal in TT and had it work?

Swap Force portal in STT

@Skylander_chaos, yeah. As expected, thanks for the screen shot

To clear the matter up once and for all.

In the exact opposite way to the "new" figures, the Portals are BACKWARDS compatible only. Newer ones work with older games.
Figures are forwards compatible only, older ones being supported in newer games.

So old figure in new game = yes. New figure in old game = no.
but
Old portal in new game = no while new portal in old game = yes!

I hope that is clear.

Pyrofer is correct. The only caveat are the 3DS portals. Any 3DS portal is compatible with any 3DS Skylanders game.

I've been using the same 3DS SSA portal for all four games.

Quote: Dahvoo

Pyrofer is correct. The only caveat are the 3DS portals. Any 3DS portal is compatible with any 3DS Skylanders game.

I've been using the same 3DS SSA portal for all four games.

Even for trap team the prior ones work on 3ds? Just no trap usage?

Quote: INTIMIDAT3R

I wish Toys for Bob would stop making a new freaking portal every year.

I wish they'd make a single portal that would cover all the games. I'm tired of having 4 different portals.

I'd be more than willing to spend money on a new portal if it was compatible with all the previous games.

Are you listening TFB???

This is the best laugh I've had in a while. thanks for that!

@Skylanders Dad

Correct, even for 3DS Trap Team you can use any 3DS portal.

In case you didn't know, the 3DS Trap Team game doesn't use traps at all and comes packed with an old SSA/Giants portal. Only 3DS Swap Force game came with a cosmetically different 3DS portal made to look like a smaller Swap Force portal from the consoles.

I appreciate the info about the portals y'all.

I'm putting away my other 3 portals after work this morning.

I hope the next 3DS won't need a portal as NFC is built in (and it can read the skylanders).

mantez, have you had confirmation that it CAN read Skylanders?

I have "reasons" to believe it unlikely that the built in NFC on the 3DS or WiiU will ever be used to read Skylanders.
There will probably always be a portal.

I have proof that the Wii U game pad can read skylanders and even activate light core affects. If you own Pokémon ruble U for the Wii U there is an extra option to scan in any objet with an NFC chip in the to summon a random helper pokemon (this was used in japan with RFC train tickets) the game will read skylanders, infinity, and amiibos too. When scanning my light core they even light up. (also there as a article for skylanders giants wii U that activision published that said they were asked buy Nintendo they wonted to use the wii U built in RFC scanner with that game, but they replied that they wanted to use the portal as it makes it seem more like bringing the toys to life, and less like scanning them and putting them to the side.

Quote: Pyrofer

mantez, have you had confirmation that it CAN read Skylanders?

I have "reasons" to believe it unlikely that the built in NFC on the 3DS or WiiU will ever be used to read Skylanders.
There will probably always be a portal.

Yes. I put a skylander on mine while playing with the Amiibo settings and it can read the chip and just gives you this is not an Amiibo error. There will always be a portal because of the old 3ds.

I didn't say the scanners were not capable of reading the chips in Skylanders.
I just said Activision will not use them for such.
Due to the nature of the 3DS game it's a lot more possible as you don't keep the figure on the portal for the whole time anyway, but for the WiiU they have zero interest in doing so.

The Wii U Gamepad can't read Skylanders!

The reason why is because the Gamepad uses a NFC controller chip from Broadcom which fully follows the NFC Forum's protocols, the Mifare compatible chip in the Skylanders don't and need a NXP controller to be read. The Brodcom chip can however read the UID of the Skylander chip and be recognized by the controller but can't read (or write) any of the data on the chip. If the 3DS also uses a Broadcom controller, which is likely but I haven't found any info about it, it won't read Skylanders either!

Quote: Dahvoo

Pyrofer is correct. The only caveat are the 3DS portals. Any 3DS portal is compatible with any 3DS Skylanders game.

I've been using the same 3DS SSA portal for all four games.

Okay I was wondering this.... Because I saw a used copy Giants (3DS) and I was wondering this. Next time I see one I will buy it.

One topic: I'm tired of it to. After Trap Team I'm think I'll be done with Skylanders. (Said that after Swap Force, takes it back and is probably gonna get it it for Christmas.)