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Nintendo - Warp Piped, Retro Collected

Thanks to the Warp Pipe Project for their announcement that they've released a Windows alpha of their GameCube tunnelling software, which allows previously LAN-only games such as Kirby Air Ride and the forthcoming Mario Kart: Double Dash to be played over the Internet. The site will post the Linux alpha soon, but warns that all versions of the utility are unoptimized: "Be advised that half frame rate was attained by two people with a fairly good connection and not much in between." Elsewhere, Nintendo are ramping up the Japanese version of Club Nintendo with exclusive merchandise for frequent game buyers, detailed at IGN Cube, and including exclusive T-shirts, posters, and soundtracks, but not yet the amazing-looking Famicom/NES 20th Anniversary calendar recently acquired at Nokonoko.net.

6 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Phony Calendar? by illuminata · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sword of Mana (June) and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (December) are upcoming GBA titles. Unless this is blatant advertising, why the hell would they put these two titles in something like this?

    So, is the calendar a fake Nintendo product, or can it be confirmed that it was produced by Nintendo? I'm not trying to be accusatory, I honestly want to know the answer.

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    1. Re:Phony Calendar? by mattwolfewvu · · Score: 3, Informative

      Just a guess, but perhaps those were the games from which he sent in the seals. (BTW, FF:CC is a NGC title with GBA connectivity.)

      --
      "I think that when you become a Republican, you don't get to score any more." -- Butt-head
    2. Re:Phony Calendar? by JAYOYAYOYAYO · · Score: 2, Interesting

      what kind of guess is that? do you mean if someone sent in the seals from different games then those games would have their own calendar page instead? c'mon, use youre head.

    3. Re:Phony Calendar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      First, this calendar was produced for the Japanese market as a promotional item. That's in the very article. And yes, it was produced by Nintendo.

      Second, the Japanese versions of both Sword of Mana and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles have already been released in Japan, and the calendar month pages on which they are featured do not indicate their actual release dates in any non-Japanese regions (in case you were wondering for some reason). The U.S. release dates for both games, for example, are much earlier than as indicated.

      As I understand it, this was just a way for Nintendo to get some Square presence in the calendar. Square was a major part of the Nintendo world until the end of the SNES era, and Nintendo is simply acknowledging this. This would be particularly important in Japan, where exposure of the fact that Square is actively supporting Nintendo platforms could be very influential.

      Why wouldn't they include design elements from actual old-school Square games that were released for Nintendo platforms? Well, maybe it has to do with the fact that Sony still maintains a degree of control (not total, thus Square's GBA and GCN support), and many of these older games have been re-released on Sony and Bandai systems. The first Seiken Densetsu (which has been upgraded and released for the GBA as Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu) is one game that has never been re-released for a non-Nintendo system, and FF Crystal Chronicles is, as everybody knows, a GameCube-exclusive title.

      BTW, yeah, there are other Square-on-Nintendo games that have never been re-released, but the two that were selected are clearly most representative of the most popular series to come out of Square, and they have both been released exclusively on Nintendo platforms, traditionally and recently.

      And there you have it, you confused little mofos! Whee!

    4. Re:Phony Calendar? by StocDred · · Score: 3, Funny
      How about this: It's Nintendo's damn calendar, they'll put whatever they want into it. If they want to include a couple of new titles alongside all the classic NES stuff, then that's what they'll do. It IS a promotional giveaway, so guess what, it promotes.

      The real mystery is why you idiots have your panties all bunched up about it.

  2. GPL Problem ! by diablero · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since I asked in their forums about GPL licence and source code ( http://www.warppipe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122 ) :
    - they changed licence in sourceforge summary.
    - they did another binary to download with a proprietary licence.

    You can download the .exe with GPL licence at :
    http://diablero.free.fr/warppipe/warppipe_full. exe

    Original GPL .exe md5sum : 5b1e80abb3db65703089317401cec041
    New .exe md5sum : 8e12abcc22b427bd6da2175ea3329edd

    --
    -- Et Dieu dit "M-x lumiere" et la lumiere fut. --