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Nintendo Ressurecting Classic NES Games to the GBA
The Pi-Guy writes "It seems contradictory to Big N's massive anti-emulation stance to introduce the GBA as an emulator itself! An official N press release states that there will be "full classic NES games for download to the GBA"." Probably not so much Duck Hunt, but it sure
would be sweet to get SMB3 on my GBA. Then I could go blind!
GBA = Game Boy Advance
SMB3 = Super Mario Bros 3
They aren't against emulation. They are against people other than Nintendo providing the emulation.
I have been pwned because my
There are many excellent NES emulators already available for the GBA - most noteably PocketNES. I wonder if Nintendo will take an aggressive stance against these kinds of developers, and NES ROM trading in general?
2002-06-15 04:12:58 Nintendo to use GameCube to transfer NES games to GBA (articles,games) (accepted)
Thanks Taco!! I forgot to add the spelling error into my article.
Bring back RC Pro Am, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and I'll buy a GBA.
Nintendo has confirmed that SMB3 is coming to GBA and since Super Mario Advance 3 is going to be Yoshi's Island perhaps it will be Super Mario Advance 4? I've also read that in Animal Crossing they are going to include Excitebike and some other game which escapes me right now.
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right A B A B Select Start
I can't think of any other game that wasted more of my youth other than perhaps Pac Man. I'd definately buy a GBA if I could play good old regular Contra on it.
Duris MUD - The best pkill MUD. Ever.
what the crap are you talking about. SMB3 was the last mario for the NES. The third generation gaming platform from Nintendo (barring GB, GBC, pGB, and GBA) is the n64.
They already have one - it's not official, but it is there. Everyone's favorite HK reseller, Lik-Sang will be selling pre-modded GBAs with the afterburner kit built-in.
Have fun!
--pi
They're anti-theft.
Those classic NES games are their IP. Granted, they're years old and not that many people have the systems to play them on anymore, but actions like this show that they're still commercially viable.
The problem with emulators is that of the ROM. ROMs can be distributed anywhere and everywhere, over file-sharing devices, eMail, and ftp warez sites. Due to the widespread theft of games in this manner, it's understandable that Nintendo doesn't support emulators.
From Nintendo's standpoint (which is quite legal), emulators encourage theft. They are accessories to the piracy of their IP, and I for one support their stance.
It's their games. They should be able to decide how to licence and distribute them.
Dragging people kicking and screaming into reality since 1996.
it makes sense. the justification of most people using roms/abandonware is that software companies are no longer making money from those titles, and it is hard or impossible to buy them, so they pirate the rom instead. nintendo on the other hand IS still making money off of those games (just not those particularly old builds) by re-releasing them for GBA.
In a perfect world there would be a GBA game that had about every NES game there ever was. It could use a microdrive to store all of them. I have a rom collection with allmost all of the nintendo games and its about 500megs. :(
But I know this is impossible due to licensing reasons
Hacker Media
When it comes to old game ROMs, and related things like this I have to wonder...
Were the games back then really good or not? By todays standards, will they still be entertaining for any length of time?
I know everyone has great memories of older games, but is that because we played them when we were kids (in my case at least), or were they really decent? I remember wasting many hours playing Mike Tyson punchout on NES. By todays standards, that game was a joke. Punch left, punch right, uppercut, dodge.
I guess it all comes down to how much will they charge per game, and is it worth it for the time you will spend in front of them now.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
i played alot of roms on ultraHLE, so if you are saying that roms were never released you were wrong. my wife and i played a ton of mario64 on my PC. i don't understand your meaning. If you mean that the UltraHLE guys never distributed roms, you would be right, but i never saw the nesticle guys passing out roms either, or genecyst (maybe the same guy), or any other emulator for that matter.
At least one gaming company supports classic gaming.
While Sony and Microsoft are trying to battle against each other with their powerful graphics, Nintendo are making games that are targeted for their fans.
Super Smash Brothers catered for all Nintendo fans and so are upcoming Metroid Prime and Mario Sunshine (which seems to be more gameplay focused then graphic focused).
And now this... I applaud Nintendo for making such a good choice of not letting the past die.
The games are downloadable to the GBA, yes. But that's only after you unlock them playing another game, Animal Crossing (known as Animal Forest + in Japan) for the Gamecube. Now, there's something you have to understand about Animal Crossing: 95% of people will not like this game. Imagine The Sims crossing with the talking animals found in Disney movies. That's a hint of what Animal Crossing is all about. You play the game for literally months before you can save up enough money to buy yourself a decent house, and winning NES games is purely luck-of-the-draw.
I've talked to people in Japan who have been playing the game literally for months, and they just won their first Famicom (Japan's version of the NES) game. And it's not like they play it for a day, then pick it up next week. No, no, the game continues even when you're not playing it, using the Gamecube's internal clock. The game knows when certain things happen (raffles, sales, etc) and will not let you jump in to play them later.
Also, the NES games are stored in local RAM on the GBA. Once you power it down, you're done. You gotta reload the game from your Gamecube.
Take a deep breath and relax...
When they say ``download full classic NES games to the Game Boy Advance'' they mean ``Download a port of an NES or SNES game from the GameCube Animal Crossing game to the GBA''. This has been covered in most of the console gaming publications, print and web.
Nintendo is not shipping a general NES emulator for the GBA. They are producing GC games that can use the GBA as an intelligent peripheral capable of disconnected use. Animal Crossing isn't the first game with this type of GC/GBA connectivity
So unless taco is planning on playing through the GC version of Animal Crossing, he will
have to go blind the old fashioned way....
Probably not so much Duck Hunt, but it sure would be sweet to get SMB3 on my GBA. Then I could go blind!
I think it's too much time spent in your room alone that's causing that one.
I am so glad to see this story. For years I have been telling people that the old games were better. They may not have been as graphically beautiful as today's games or have the audio fidelity, but they were more fun. Think of how many countless hours you spent playing the original Legend of Zelda. Back then most of us didn't have the Internet (or even knew what it was) so solving parts of the game was even more challenging. No web sites to go to for a hint, no people on AIM/IRC to ask. It was a big deal when you learned you could blow a whistle to open the lake to expose stairs to the seventh dungeon.
:)
I actually lucked out and found a guy on eBay selling newly-built 72-pin connectors for the original NES and it worked like magic. Spent days playing Kung Fu, Contra, Gauntlet, Double Dragon, Bionic Commanod, MegaMan, Ikari Warriors, etc.
I think another thing people overlook is that due to the constraints of these older console systems, game developers had to be as optimal as possible and they did everything in assembly. Zelda and Metroid, as complex as they were for games, they took up like 700k worth of code each. Far cry from that 1.6 gigs of drive space Diablo 2 takes up
--Jon
Well, I just managed to spend 6 straight hours playing The Legend of Zelda yesterday (and an hour trying to beat Mike Tyson the day before). I think gameplay mechanics, creativity and replay value were all *much* better/higher in the days of the Nintendo. Same holds true for the arcade games of the "old days". Going to an arcade you could find really fun games that you *wanted* to play instead of a bunch of expensive eye candy that has to lure you into playing.
And for the record, even by today's standards the gameplay of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is not a joke. Maybe the graphics, but video games are still all about reflexes and skill (see any good FPS), not how many buttons/moves are involved in playing the game.
Of course, they shouldn't be able to prohibit emulators, which don't violate copyright, from being written. What they should be able to crack down on is the on-line distribution of copyrighted material.
This isn't entirely a joke.
The review of Naked Lesbian Tennis for the NES.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Yeah, these games were not that good. So what. Baby Boomers indulge in pointless nostalgia all the time. Witness the success of various sixties-themed diners and fast-food restaurants. If playing these games for thair nostalgia value provides enjoyment -fun!- then who cares if the games are good or not? Besides, you gotta admit Marble Madness on a handheld system would be cool.
I'm the stranger...posting to
The game mentioned in the article:
http://www.nintendo.com/games/gamepage/gamepage_m
...looks very interesting and innovative, in both a gameplay and a graphics sense. No idea how downloadable NES games integrate into the "Animal Crossing" world though -- maybe the Animals all play old-school NES?
~jeff
This is a feature in Animal Forest + in Japan. You can play various old NES games that you find throughout the game. For the port to America (called Animal Crossing) they are instead allowing you to link up to the GBA and play the NES games on there (I believe there will be more NES games available to play in the American version). In the Japanese version you just played the NES games on the TV, not the GBA.
Animal Forest + has been out in Japan for a while and this has been known about for a while. I doubt it will be very popular over here since it's a very different type of game, but in Japan the game is pretty popular. Still, it's one of the games I'm looking forward to most (call me sucker for cutie-cutie Japanese games that are unique to all the "me too" games out there).
.... I don't think we should be slamming Nintendo. I'd gladly pay a one time cost of a few dollars to play SMB3 or the original Metroid on my GBA.
One "S". Two "R"s. Good editing, folks.
On GameFAQs, that someone compiled of the actual games you will be able to earn in Animal Crossing. Keep in mind the game is only out in Japan, and Nintendo is messing with which games to offer Americans
In:
Donkey Kong
Excitebike
Punchout!
Ice Climber
Pinball
Baseball
Unsure:
Balloon Fight
Super Mario Brothers
Tennis
The Legend of Zelda
Mario Bros.
Donkey Kong 3
Donkey Kong Jr.
Golf
Clu Clu Land
Clu Clu Land Disk Version
Low Chance of Making it:
Donkey Kong Jr Math
Wario's Woods
Out:
Gomokunarabe
Mahjong
So, while there are some good games on there, they are the REALLY 1st gen NES games, with not a lot of depth. I loved pinball and excitebike as much as the next kid, but they are "play an hour and get sick of it games" to me at least. (i think the NES got a little better with time Especially when it game to sports games).
I have my doubts about whether they would actually release Super Mario Bros. or Zelda, seems like it would be smarter to hold onto those for a future GBA release.
Too bad they couldn't get the cooperation of the 3rd parties on this. I would have loved to earn Mega Man 1-6 and maybe some RPG's. (i know, thats unreasonable.)
Mario Bros. (NON-super) should make a great (albeit simple) GBA game.
That's like saying it is contradictory to tell your wife not to go around having sex with random men, and then wanting to have sex with her yourself.
Anyone else miss the days when to be a technonerd or geek, you had to be smart enough to make simple inferences, such as that Nintendo's anti-emulation stance is not actually against emulation as a technology, but rather against certain uses of emulation? What the hell has happened to the nerd/geek population?
I'd kill to play Populous on the GBA. Now if someone could get me the name of the person I have to kill to make this happen, that'd be fantastic.
My Journal
I spent about three hours playing Yoshi's Island on the SNES this morning, and I had just popped it in to make sure my SNES was still working and to see what my save games were like.
I can honestly say the game still plays wonderfully, and dispite the fact that Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was largely ignored because of it's poorly timed release (just around the end of the SNES lifespan) I can honestly say this game in every way is classic Mario fun.
As for even older games, I have recently had quite a bit of fun with the original Legend of Zelda, and a few really obscure titles such as Snake Rattle and Roll, Life-Force, and Blaster Master.
So yes, some of the older games are STILL great fun today. This doesn't go for all of the games, but there are some gems that even though they don't live up to what we expect from games today, they're still classics.
On another topic -- have you noticed that if something is done artistically, it continues to look good even when it's medium becomes obsolete?
A great example of this is the original Super Mario Brothers game. The music is just barely polyphonic and there aren't any more than 8 colors on the whole screen at any given time but hte game is still presentable and playable. It just LOOKS good, even given the limitations of the platform.
It just goes back to the simple rules of art. Video games are, after all, just art. Interactive Art.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
Super Mario 3 is not out. Super Mario World is out. Super Mario 3 was the last SMB game for the NES. Super Mario World was the first SMB game for the SNES. They are different games. If you want to give Super Mario World a number, it would be Super Mario 4.
Why not try out a game that you've never played before and test it for yourself? Personally, I was only recently introduced to some NES, SNES, and Neo Geo games that I missed via emulation, and I think a lot of them have been really ingenius and a lot of fun.
You're forgetting one, Super Mario Brothers, The lost levels. While in the US this was on released for the SNES on a multi-game pack cart (with the other three SMB games, and Mario Bros, another NES game), it was released for the Famicom in japan.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
uhh, Ms. Pacman, nuff said.
Well I don't know about you, but me and a bunch of friends pulled out the original NES and the 50+ games we have for the system a few months back... And the games are still as fun. Remember back then the graphics were rather shitty (I can say that cause they said it on Cop Drama
Remember: Good graphics != good games. Stuff from the old days is just as fun as it was when we were kids, and maybe a bit more so since we don't usually lose our temper as quickly as we did back then.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
Johnny? Are you okay, you've been in there for a while. You aren't playing with your GBA are you?
NO MOM!
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Why don't they just alleviate the confusion by calling it by its real name, "Doku Doku Panic"?
mark
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
When I flew to the states a few months back, there were a selction of Gameboy colour games that passenegrs could play to relieve the boredom. The machines that these run on are actually PCs, and the words 'Copyright Nintendo' were clearly visible on a text mode screen for a fraction of a second as the emulator loaded.
You forgot to mention Virtual Boy. God, I love reminding Nintendo-lovers about THAT mistake. It was as bad as Sega CD, 32X and Saturn combined!
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
If you're a big fan of Sensible Soccer, why not sign the petition to get it ported to the GBA?
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