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Nintendo Reconfirms Wii Shipments
Gamasutra has Nintendo's 're-confirmation' that they're going to try to ship 6 Million units by the end of March 2007. If you're looking forward to Nintendo's new-gen console, their upcoming media event on September 14th may have just what you're looking for. The article also has a few details on upcoming accessories. From the article: "Although the price and release date of the Wii console and controller is not likely to be revealed until worldwide press events on September 14th and 15th, the Gamestop website lists a number of peripherals for release on November 1st. Included on the site is a Wii 'Controller Glove' for $9.99, a 'HD Premium Component Cable' for $59.99 and a 'S-Video Premium AV Cable' for $39.99." Relatedly, 1up has the news that Castlevania's creator is warming to the Wii. This will result in Belmont-related adventures for the Wii, one would hope.
Could this be a next-generation Power Glove? If so, Nintendo for the win!
In other news, I go to hell for even thinking about some AO rated games and that preported controller glove!
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I really think Wii is shaping up to be a good console, granted it will not be the next Xbox 360, but honestly, I think the uniquness of it will be it's selling point. I think they may have filled some of the features of the controller and glove to show more dramatic effects, but it still is very new and unique. The Price may not have been announced, but honestly, they have said before that it would be cheap, so we can expect hopefully less then $200 U.S. which would make it a big seller for christmas. In my god honest opinion, the problem with MS and Sony is they are trying to cram too much power too quickly, so all the new Xbox games look great, but from what i hear, they are a lot shorter then the standard game, or have less fetures. But we know the Wii will never compare to the Xbox or sony, and I say good, this will mean we will see more user oriented games, rather then computer oriented games.
N. A. Stuart
One would expect a lowest common demoninator cable to come with the box, and then fancier cables to be purchasable...
Unless of course one of your main selling points to the system was the high definition drive on it which would require a higher priced cable to get full utilization out of.. Of course nobody would do that, right?
Back on topic... I look forward to the glove, Especially with some of the potential combinations of glove + Wiimote. (i.e. KotR style game where you would have a glove to do force power gestures with your left hand while light sabering with your right. Possible geekgasm territory there.)
I would also really love to see some of the possibilities of a "DS as remote controller" options. Imagine football games where you could practice, create your playbook, store your playbook on your DS, then go to a friends house and play him with your DS as your coaches clipboard.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
Note that the prices and accessories listed are from Gamestop's website. They are not official in either regard and are likely just placeholder information until we have official details. They're also pricing most of the games at $60 IIRC, even though Nintendo explicitly said their games would remain at the $50 mark.
1980's? I thought component cables only came out a few years ago? You might be thinking of composite? I'd be shocked if Wii didn't ship with at least composite cables.
Apple: 2006-09-12
Nintendo: 2006-09-14
Also, does anyone know if my Gameucbe component cable work with the Wii? After all, Nintendo used the same S-video cable for the SNES, N64 and Gamecube.
Well, S-video doesn't transmit 480p at all. It carries NTSC signals (sometimes, incorrectly, referred to as "480i"). It looks significantly better than most composite connections and marginally worse than an NTSC component connection. 480p via component trumps any NTSC signal, and then 480p via DVI/HDMI would usually be a bit better than that.
Anyway, $60 for a component connection is ridiculous ($30-40 has been bad enough). That's the sort of thing that could make me go from buying the Wii at launch (it would be my first time doing so) to waiting until the price comes down. I'm certainly not going to go back to NTSC if the console is capable of 480p. Fortunately for people without digital TVs (and Nintendo), it won't matter to them.
If the Wii is released for $599 ... I think it will fail. Despite the historical giant crabs, real-time weapon change and Ridge Racer.
Anyway, $60 for a component connection is ridiculous ($30-40 has been bad enough). That's the sort of thing that could make me go from buying the Wii at launch (it would be my first time doing so) to waiting until the price comes down. I'm certainly not going to go back to NTSC if the console is capable of 480p. Fortunately for people without digital TVs (and Nintendo), it won't matter to them.
Kinda makes you wonder how the XBOX crowd feels like when they're asked to pay $100+ for the wifi adapter to make their system wifi'able. Think about it, that's half the (not yet announced) price of the Wii! And yes, the Wii will have wifi built in! To people who say the xbox360 isn't that expensive when you include all peripherals and things, I say blah.
Anyways.
If you RTFA, you'll notice these peripherals are all 3rd party ones. So I wouldn't worry quite yet. Sept. 14th is gearing up to be the big day we find out just about every missing details about the new system. (Price, date, peripherals, etc)
That's a week away. For the record, I can't friggin' wait
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
'HD Premium Component Cable' for $59.99 and a 'S-Video Premium AV Cable' for $39.99."
... and the day after launch you will be able to buy 3rd party cables for $10 each on eBay.
Does anyone *serourls buy into* this cable bullshit? Who spends > $20 on a piece of wire?
Kid 1: Man, my parents promised me this PS3 thing and now they say I have to wait until April 2007! And I can't even afford the games for it, plus most of them are those lame FPS and Sports games - nothing fun ...
Kid 2: Yeah, well my parents said if my first mid-term report card has 3.0 or better, they're buying me a Wii first thing in October - and with the money they're saving, they'll let my buy ten games that I want, in every gaming genre there is!
Kid 1: Dude! You're getting a Wii! Way to go!
[kids high five Kid 2]
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
No. NTSC is entirely interlaced. It's an analog video standard of [about] 60 interlaced fields per second with each frame (or two fields together) consisting of 484 scan lines (there are actually more lines transmitted, but the extras are used for things like sync, closed captioning, etc.). "480p," on the other hand, is a part of the ATSC digital standard and it is either [progressive] 640x480 in 4:3 or 704x480 in 16:9. Those resolutions can also be interlaced (hence, "480i") in the digital standard, but it's not a "standard" resolution being used by anyone.
To break it down real world style, it's like this: Let's say you're hooking up an Xbox with component cables. If you hook it up in this fashion to an analog NTSC television you'll be able to get the highest-quality analog, interlaced NTSC picture possible - it will not be either 480i or 480p. If you hook it up to a digital television (and make the appropriate selections in the Xbox's configuration menus), the Xbox can transmit a 480p (or 720p or 1080i, depending on the capabilities of the software and the TV) signal over the component cables. If you hook up via S-video or composite, you'll be entirely restricted to an analog signal no matter the TV (though most digital TVs upconvert NTSC signals to 480p for display).
On S-video versus composite: Yes, the separation of S-video provides an improved picture over composite, but it can also depend on the "comb filter" in the particular TV (more expensive analog TVs can make composite connections look better, sometimes as good as S-video). The main advantage of S-video is that there is less "color bleeding" which provides a sharper picture.
As to your comment about perhaps getting a TV with component inputs, you should really only upgrade if you're planning to go digital. Upgrading from S-video to component in analog is just not very cost effective for the [relatively] small improvement in picture quality.
My bet was a "skin", or a cover of some sort. 10 bucks sounds about right for a controller cover.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.