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Time With The Revolution
IGN managed to get their hands on a Revolution Developer's Kit, and have put up a tantalizing hands-on impressions article. Folks who are very much looking forward to Nintendo's entrance into the next-gen war may find things of interest here. From the article: "One thing is crystal clear from the controller-based development kits, though: Revolution will definitely operate as an extension of the GameCube hardware. These preliminary kits include only a wired Revolution controller, a wired nunchuck attachment and a wired motion bar, which some studios have labeled the 'wand.' So the obvious question is, how can developers possibly hope to test any of this gear out? The answer is simple: the controller and its attachments plug into existing GameCube development hardware."
Just because Nintendo made a low-cost controller dev kit by interfacing their new controller technology to their existing hardware doesn't mean that you can infer that the Revolution will be built on Gamecube hardware. All you can infer is that Nintendo has possibly made their prototype Revolution controller a derivative so that current Gamecube developers can explore the new controller paradigm without having to either buy, or wait, for the new Revolution dev kits.
Isn't the Revolution going to be backwards compatible with GC games?
Now that I think of it, what format are Revolution games going to be in? Certainly they won't use the mini-discs again.
Yup, it's going to be a sweet gaming system to play
Dance Dance Revolution Ultima
Star Wars: Jedi Academy Training
any interactive FPS (especially if they shoot back and you have a blink target vest)
and Katamari: We Meant It, You Must Roll!
[game names all examples, yes I own Konami stock and they have plans to do fun things for the Revolution, it's called disclosure]
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"IGN managed to get their hands on a Revolution Developer's Kit, and have put up a tantalizing hands-on impressions article."
no...they go their hands on a Controller Kit, not a Developer's Kit. This kit was basically just to let developers know what kind of controller they'd be using when developing for the Revolution. That way they can start brainstorming now about possible titles that can utilize the controller while working with hardware they're already familiar with...
Nintendo made the controller available to game studios so they could start thinking about how to use it to develop games. Given that the controller is (by far) the most important change in Revolution, it's also the most important thing for studios to come to grips with.
"Oh, and it's also five times as powerful as the GameCube" is also important, but not necessarily something that studios need to experience firsthand at this particular stage of the game. That will come when the hardware is ready. At this point Nintendo is (quite sensibly) concentrating on getting the controller right, because if that doesn't fly, the whole concept is shot.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
I was under the impression that the spacial recognition sensors were two distinct items placed at certain paces from the TV. However, one stationary bar (with the sensors on either end) makes a lot more sense, as you don't have to worry as much about calibration. It would then be a question of where it is in relation to the TV. (On the floor in front of, on top of the TV, right below the TV, etc.)
Where are our pictures? All we have is a promotional side-by-side and an 'artists rendition'. If they went hands on, why not snap a few pictures, even if the tools aren't the final versions? I suppose they could have gotten some developer's janitor to let them in late at night to play with these (and didn't want to blow his cover), but the article is kind of worthless without pictures. "We got some prototypes. They don't plug into the actual hardware, we couldn't do anything with them, and we have no pictures." The only useful piece of information, IMO, was the size in relation to the GCN controller. (And even then, didn't they get a chance to go hands on with it back at E3 '05? Unless major changes happened, they should already know the relative sizes then, right?)
...until I see it actually being used in games. Until then, it's a cool idea with absolutely no proof of how well or badly it works, and everything else anyone says is just uninformed speculation (from people who haven't played a game with it) or hype (from people who are developing a game with it).
Game dev and music blog
The dev kits they saw were old. According to Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo VP of Sales) there have been 3 different revisions of the Rev dev kit so far. They are:
1) A GameCube console with a wired Revolution controller attached
2) Similar to the above, but with a few minor tweaks, and boosted CPU power
3) Wireless controllers, more complete hardware
A fourth dev kit is expected soon that will be 90-95% of the finished product. So whatever they saw, if it had wired controllers, it's already out of date.
Think of the possibilities. Nintendo may open a whole new genre of x-rated games.
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
"Should be interesting to play with but I think that Microsoft and Sony are going to put Nintendo out of biz with the next gen consules. "
Considering how expensive the XBOX 360 is, I suppose in a weird Harry Potter'esque way I could see people running out of money before they could buy any Nintendo products.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
don't you mean dance dance revolution Revolution?
"People seem to be in a fevor pitch about the Revolution and PS3, one has to wonder what is going to happen to the Xbox 360. Only a little more than a million have been sold and almost all of the big name games for the console have better pc versions of its games coming out."
Replace "XBox 360" with "Nintendo DS", "Revolution and PS3" with "PSP", and "pc" with "console", and you're getting pretty close to the general feelings of the DS when it launched.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
that is what microsofts problem is, they made a PC into a Console, what Microsoft needs to do is try and get games to be truely exclusive to the system, no more PC releases of a game (or atleast try to get a years worth of exclusivity that way people don't say "I'll get the PC version").
Sony & Nintendo have games that would be alittle hard to play with a keyboard and mouse, Microsoft has to many games that could easily be played with a keyboard and mouse (and in some cases play BETTER with a keyboard and mouse).
now I wouldn't count Microsoft out just yet but they did pick a bad time to release the 360 (no one was ready for it, not even microsoft), game publishers are losing money on it, microsoft is losing money on it and everyone who want's one is having a hard time getting one. If they had just waited to start making the system now and release it this winter they would of been in a much better standing (cause you know Sony is going to wait till the last possible minute to start manufacturing PS3's which will result in a massive shortage just like Miscrosoft with the 360) and it will give whomever decides to make a system EASY to make (aka Nintendo) a major advantage cause they can make them in no time cause it's not filled with tons of crap people propably could careless about.
when the PS3 and Revolution comes out Microsoft will have a hard time if they are still having trouble making the 360, Nintendo though might have the advantage, you KNOW there is going to be a shortage of PS3's when it's released (that's a given, after the PS2 that is the trend they will go) and if Microsoft is in the same boat they are in now (problems making the 360) then Nintendo will be the only one there easily for parents to pick up during the holiday season.
Which is why this article is so worthless.
"Uh, we agreed not to take pictues, but, like, it's 'surprisingly' smaller than we expected. So, you know, in case you didn't see all those pictures at E3 showing it being held by hands, this article might be worth a shit".
But since it's about the Revo and they use the term "hands-on", every gaming blog in the Universe has to link to it and give IGN undeserved ad revenue.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
Just because an IPaq can't do these things doesn't mean the PSP not a PDA. It's just the PSP is a powerful PDA that just happens to play games.
. it's not doing too well against two of the same machine. (In Japan)
I take that back, the PSP is not a PDA, it's just an emulator for the SNES that happens to have PDA functionality. There are so few games for the PSP it's not even funny...and given the sales data from http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=6110..
Thats shows how old I am - I saw that headline and immediately thought that Morris Day was getting back together with Prince!.
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
IGN used it already, about 7 months ago. They found it to be quite responsive, although they were only working with tests and what seemed to be an alpha version of Metroid Prime 3, but they were quite impressed with it.
http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651275p1.html
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve