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First Nintendo IQue Reviews
Major Payne writes "I have found two reviews for the exclusively in china released Nintendo IQue Player which is capable of emulating Nintendo64 as well as SNES Games hardwarewise.
English one is located over at Dextrose.com and is a bit more technically advanced than the German one. Both reviews are very detailed though and interesting to read. I also think those two are the world first reviews for this new hardware and there is also some interesting leads on how to hack the device to make it even more interesting to the rest of the world."
That thing looks horrible. It's very cool keeping old tech alive for so many reasons. The games were good, the price can be good now, 10 years later, and it's VERY good to have newer geeks see what was possible on limited hardware
But damn, for a device that's going to sell in the millions, getting the design right first go doesn't cost any extra afterwards.
Games may have a reputation of being just "kids toys" but they don't have to look like a fisher price gadget
With ideas like this, Nintendo's shaky position in the console game world will be strengthened. Look for them to follow this up with a version that places Original 8-Bit Nintendo games, which is just what the gaming world is clamoring for.
Saving up for a PSX? Forget it. Nintendo is the future of the gaming world.
Somewhat off topic but, I was recently in the mall with a friend when we came up to a small shop thats near the food court. Some shady guy in a suit was running it, and they had 6 TV's with these little game controllers. They boasted a selection of 7200 games, which was amazing. It played just like the real game plays, new controller. What was more interesting was it seemed to have NES, SNES, and ATARI games. I just don't see how thats legal, and even more, how is it legal to sell something for $49.99 with 7 thousand titles?
So does it have a fast-forward button, then? What about saving states? If it can't do either of those, it's useless to me =)
True story.
Um, aren't most N64 games just a tad bigger than that?
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Well someone definately had their thinking cap on when they developed this idea. It'd be interesting to see if Nintendo can port that technology to their current systems sold here in the US. Being able to download a video game onto a blank cartridge for playing might just get me back into gaming. The pricing for the games are outstanding, I'd definately pay $6.00 for a game. These current prices of $40.00+ for just one game though is a definate turn off.
My Thoughts, Kyndig
...was just caramelized.
Is it just me, or does that controller look bigger then an XBOX controller? I mean, I'd enjoy the portability, but I'd like to be able to, you know, move my HANDS after playing some Zelda for a few hours.
Canadian Cynic, canadian politics is less boring than you
I wonder what Garmin will have to say about Nintendo ripping off the name of their existing product...
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
A translated link, using The Fish for the German article is here.
The name is pronounced roughly like "Y que?", that's "So what?" in Spanish.
Cue-in Mitsubishi Pajero and Nissan Laputa jokes...
I unfortunately can't comment on the articles, as one is in German and the other is currently squashed flat by the Slashdot Effect. But I've looked at the iQue and I honestly just do not see the attraction. I mean, for the specific case of the Chinese market it makes a lot of sense, it looks really cool, and it was a neat idea from Nintendo's perspective. But for the rest of the world, I can't understand why people would want one. An iQue is, what, $115-$150? Go on Ebay, you'll consistently find an N64 with something like 12 games for $80 or so and a Super Nintendo with a few games for probably less than $30.
Meanwhile the iQue will not ever be able in the end to play *all* the games for either of these systems, and at the moment it can only play a handful. And as new games are released for the iQue, as I understand how the system works, you will only be able to add them to your memory card if you can somehow get it to China. No?
The N64 controller really sucked, but just having a better controller doesn't seem worth paying lots more money for a much more limited console.
If my commentary here is made obsolete once the linked articles become readable, I apologize.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
For those of you that don't know, Nintendo holds an infamous patent on the D-PAD. (The directional pad). This is the reason, why only on Nintendo gaming pads will you find a prefect cross as the D-PAD. Other systmes will include clumsy circles (X-BOX) or individual buttons (Playstation).
.... its rather interesting to see that the iQue doesn't have the D-PAD .........
Keeping this in mind
Sunny Dubey
PS: Some of you might be thinking: "Hey, the Sega dreamcast had a D-PAD just like the Nintendo ones!". Which isn't true, you just have to flip open the controller to see why that is so.
I didn't know that the entire system was the controller! Snap an LCD screen onto that video-out and you'd have a portible N64/SNES! Of course if they sold that the might cannibalize any market for the GBA in China.
I'd love to own one of these, but alas, not in Chinese. And the controller is a bit clunky as well. But the possibility that it can run SNES games is really cool, and it makes real sense. I'd imagine that it wouldn't cost Nintendo very much to just throw in the entire SNES hardware, though space considerations in the controller would counteract that I suppose.
I wonder if it's possible to buy "dumb" controllers to hook up to it in order to play multiplayer games? Dr. Mario 64 had multiplayer as a primary draw. With just two out ports (one of thise for video), I'd imagine for more than two players you'd need some sort of hub. But that could get expensive if you needed a separate iQue for each player.
On the other hand, it'd make possible interesting games of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, in which not only did each player have his own screen, but his own graphics hardware.
Sorry, but the IQue doesn't 'emulate' an N64. It is an N64, albiet one downsized into a controller and using flash cards instead of cartridges.
In response to other posts: yes, it is switchable to use PAL or NTSC - just solder the correct points on the PCB and you're away. Hopefully though, we won't need to - I would love to see these in shops outside China as a budget games solution, much like those Atari Controller-esque machines. Of course, with much better games...
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
For those of you that don't know, Nintendo holds an infamous patent on the D-PAD
What's the U.S. patent number? It's not listed in the embossed text on the back of my NES controllers, just "Nintendo controller, model no. NES-004, made in Japan", and I don't have my original NES packaging. I need to know the number in order to know when it was filed.
Other systmes will include clumsy circles (X-BOX)
Clumsy? The Microsoft implementation of a circular D-pad may be clumsy, but I've tried several other brands of controllers with a circular D-pad with a cross-shaped raised portion, such as the Gravis GamePad Pro USB, and they weren't as clumsy as you seem to claim.
or individual buttons (Playstation).
(Tepples grabs a PS1 controller.) The PS1 digital pad is actually one piece of plastic, not four like on the WonderSwan. When it's under the player's thumb, the "break" between the four raised portions of the pad feels more like a recessed area than a break because the size of the average player's thumb fills in the gap.
"Hey, the Sega dreamcast had a D-PAD just like the Nintendo ones!". Which isn't true, you just have to flip open the controller
Then how exactly did Sega get away with a + shaped D-pad on the Dreamcast controller? I'm too lazy to take apart my Dreamcast controller at the moment. If you're referring to the fact that the cross juts out from a disc hidden under the plastic housing of the controller, that can't be it. I've taken apart a Super NES controller, an N64 controller, and a Game Boy Advance system, and Nintendo D-pads jut out from discs as well. However, I can see that there are small sloped faces on the inside corners of the plastic of the Dreamcast D-pad. Does that have anything to do with it?
It's cool that people are trying to emulate the N64 but I'll be a lot more impressed when they succeed more brilliantly. Right now I'm too busy playing emulated SNES games on the Xbox (And Wind Waker on my GC) to even get into any emulated N64 games :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Have you seen the tremendous amount of products with Nintendo character brands? Licensed products are all over. Licensing is also a way to generate revenue.
Okay, okay.. I only skimmed the linked article, but I'm wondering how the iQue supports multiplayer games. I didn't see any mention of controller ports on the controller (well, the system) in the article.
Check this out!
Kudos to the moderator(s) who gave this a +1, Insightful. I think your tolerance level for sarcasm has become so high that you don't even know when you read sarcasm anymore.
From page 4 of the article:
The Player, as stated before, is based on N64 Hardware and assembled on very small place using nano technology on a single chip.
does this mean it can make new games out of materials it consumes?
Slashdot is always first predicting who/what is dying...
//obvious
All it takes is one sign that an entity is struggling and WHAM! they're SOOO DEAD!!!
Remember, while there are a lot of smart people on slashdot, there are also a million retarded ones.
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
I think the most important thing about this whole story is that this is probably workable DRM on Nintendo's part.
Write-once chips, downloadable content, closed "player" system. Sounds just like DRM to me. And it goes for super-cheap in China.
I think this is a good idea on Nintedo's part. They make money (using old content that is now "free" to them) and the people in china theoretically get a cool new mini-system. Nintendo breaks into the Chinese market...
Very interesting.
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
What do you mean "start"? Nintendo is probably the most actively anti-emulation video game company out there.
To me a portable video game that requires a TV
is like a car with no wheels.
If I have access to a TV I can just play my console.
I love the N64 + SNES idea though. I'd buy one in a minute if it had a display like the GBA or GP32.
Interestingly, UltraHLE's source was leaked and made available on the internet, so that's not entirely true.
Note that there was a first source leak was a dissasembly, but the second one was clearly workable and real. A group is working on it too for pc, but not sure how it is, haven't tested it.. http://www.ultrahle2064.com
Someone has ported it to the XBOX, which means that they ported it to directX. I suppose you could backport it in reverse yet again, if you really wanted to run it, but there are other emulators around, such as the excellent Project64.
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