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How the Wii Was Born
saintory writes "Ars Technica has an article up looking at how the Wii was born. It's a nice overview of how Nintendo's culture came up with the 'new-gen' system." More from the article: "'Diverging from the road map takes a fair amount of courage,' [Engineer Shiota] said, 'especially when we didn't have a clear image of what we were going to do with this hardware.' However, once he saw the power level reduction (from one-third to as little as one-fourth that of current hardware) he was very excited. Instead of competing on 'how many more times the CPU is going to be faster, how much more memory is going to be on the machine, and how many more polygons can be rendered' he saw Nintendo as being able to do something different and unique."
Interesting article - lots of detail on Nintendo's desire to fit it into a small space, driven, it seems by Iwata.
Which makes me wonder, why they still came up with something that's clearly designed to live vertically. Something with the form factor of the typical DVD player or set-top box would fit in amongst many people's setups even easier than the Wii in its standard orientation.
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Accommodate Students
Maybe its just me but Since I live on Long Island with a company Like LIPA I am actually glad that the wii is going for lower power consumption. Lipa likes to raise rates every couple of months. I also dont mind the remote. It obviously has to be good for sony to have added it to their controller.
It might not be as powerful as the other two offerings but it sure looks better, very sleek and clean.
Well, while the Wii certainly doesn't look like system providing next-gen graphics, I guess the article makes an interesting point though... with development costs of modern games going through the roof, it might make perfect sense to design a simple system (from a hardware perspective) like their new console.
Also, does next-gen necessarily have to mean next-gen graphics? Or does good-enough-graphics with a fresh look on gameplay suffice?
I always wondered... If this thing is going to be plugged in always, and running always, doesn't it consume enormous amounts of power? I've often hear people say that it's better to unplug your tv, stereo, ... when not in use for 'longer periods' (say, the night) because even the smallest of control lights still uses power for no gain. Anyone who has ever done some tests with those power consumption meters? Anyone planning to do it for the Wii?
One CS student VS 893 DOS games: Let's play oldies
Is there anything in TFA that was not already mentioned in NOA's translation of Iwata's interviews?
for Nintendo. They opted away from the childish design of the gamecube, for something more sleek. I can't see this as a bad thing.
Always on, could be good too, but could backfire in our green world.
But a weak CPU, I am pretty sure that developers will always push for a better CPU. One of the ways of measuring a console is to compare those games that run on all three - and this could make the Nintendo look bad, very bad. Risky.
love eachother very much, the daddy console hooks his nunchuck up with the mommy console's wiimote, and that is how a little wii is born!
For those of you who can't get your interview translations fast enough: it seems that Nintendo Europe has been updating theirs faster than NOA.
The interview itself has been posted in pieces over the past few weeks, starting with this segment. It's been ongoing, and it's pretty interesting stuff, if you're into that sort of thing. There was a story posted on Slashdot a week or two ago that mentioned it, even, but it hardly had any replies, so I don't know if that's a sign that no one read it, or what.
Anyway, as I posted on that story back then, among other things, the interview mentions some things that I've seen people here talking about, like the possibility of distributing independent games via the Virtual Console system. They seem to be considering it and possibly in favor of it as high up as Iwata. It goes into a whole lot more detail than the Ars Technica summary does, and the more recent segments talk about some of the software design elements, not just the hardware side of things. Interesting reading.
I don't get how anyone could think going with slower hardware is a GOOD thing, also excusing the Wii's slower hardware using "game development costs" is ridiculous, the cost to develop games will always be changing as game companies look to find cheaper ways to make the latest and greatest games. The fact is if you provide the developers hardware *they will find ways to use it for something* even if that is not graphics!! Exta processing power does not always have to be about graphics... I'm getting a litle tired of the "so the graphicss aren't as good, who cares?" well what about things we don't see "visually" that the game developers use the extra processing power for?
The fact is if the PS2 and Xbox 360 are with $50 of the Wii at Wii's launch you definitely know an extra $50 is not much of a stretch.
Reposting Ars Articles for over 6x10-2 centuries
For the minimal amount of power that pulls per year you are far better off leaving it go rather than wasting time constantly plugging/ unplugging your devices, or wire up a master kill switch so you aren't trading off minimal power savings for productivity loss. Remember you can buy more electricity, you can't buy more more time to live.
Just read the orginal source material. It's more interesting and detailed.
Exactly. About 10% (or more, depending on who you ask) of all "household energy" is used by devices in standby mode. It's not a lot of money for every single household, but it is a lot of energy if you add it up.
As an example, if you use your Xbox for two hours a week and keep it in standby for the rest of the week, it uses more energy in standby than during the two hours you use it - and the only thing you gain from it is that you can turn it on using the remote.
So if you do have devices which keep their settings even if they aren't plugged in (and most devices do), please do unplug them.
Slower hardware isn't a good thing. It's also not a bad thing. It has positive and negative effects. The main negative effect is, of course, that the games won't look as good as on other consoles. Positive effects include cheaper games and more room for smaller games and smaller publishers/developers.
As with everything in life, it's a trade-off.
Yep, and with the Wii, they're changing downwards.
Exactly. And finding and impelmenting those things costs money.
Technically, you're right. In reality, not so much.
Like the crowd in Assassin's Creed? You know, most developers don't invest time in things like these, and even if they do: It's unclear whether it matters. Will the PS3 version be better than the 360 version because the crowd acts less stupidly? I have no idea.
So, what about the things that developers do with the Wii controller? Isn't that a more immediate effect than a crowd that behaves more intelligently?
People are a renewable resource and electricity, at this point in time, is not...
And here it was I thought it had something to do with, "...and this little piggy went wii wii wii all the way home."
For the past few generations, DVD players, VCRs, Stereos and Televisions have been notorious for power drains when turned ``off''. With the exception of high end items, most of these appliances are not being engineered with being green in mind. Instead they're designed with instant gratification in mind and keep things charged up so as to be ``instand on'' when the remote gets hit.
well,the lil game cube could access the frame buffer directly with the processor,and could do multiply add pretty fast
so... why the heck they did not used it to just scan the entire screen once with a Dot product calc to do normal mapping?
its that hard?
After about 2 or 3 years though, you see a big drop in trust. Any video game fan knows what I'm talking about. After the "it'll get better when the second and third gen games come out" and the "those defects are just a fluke, the next batches will be perfect" the market just gets fed up. (And no, I'm not just picking on Sony. The Gamecube was criticized for its lack of good/notable second gen games (remember Mario Sunshine?) and the Xbox/Xbox360 suffered hardware problems for years on and off.)
In the long run, if the company can last that long, gameplay > graphics. Nintendo has long mastered this skill while Sony has never really picked up the ball after 2 systems (remember The Legend of Dragoon?). Microsoft has (arguably) begun to learn (Halo 2 was an unarguable success) but isn't quite there yet (Halo 2, yay! Now what else is there...?)
miyamoto drank lots of beer then took a wicked wii...
They certainly don't look on it as a minor issue. And they're right. Even a little electricity adds up fast when you start talking millions of users, each using dozens of pieces of electronic equipment in "standby" mode.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I remember Mario Sunshine being ridiculously fun...
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
Hmm... nice. I like the fact that the bottom/side vent is essentially blocked off when using the stand.
/. ;)
Anyway, since you seem to know so much about the console that you can refer to others as "truly uninformed", maybe you can answer this question for me.
Will the Wii be able to connect up to a WPA encrypted wireless network or is Nintendo still insisting on using WEP like with the DS? I couldn't find mention of that anywhere.
I can't even find out if the nunchuk part of the controller(s) will be included with the system or if it will be completely optional. How about if the Gamecube controller can be used to play Virtual Console games in lieu of the Classic controller add-on. Can you answer these?
Maybe Im just expecting too much, after all this is
Out of the box the Wii will include a Wii-mote and a nunchuk attachement. If you buy additional controllers, the Wiimote portion and the nunchuk portion will be sold seperately: the Wiimote for $40, the nunchuk for $20.
Here's hoping someone knows the answer to your other questions...
AS blighter mentioned about the nuncuk here is more information about what the Wii package will come with (in the US, at least): the console, wii remote, nunchuk (which plugs into the expansion port of the remote), and wii sports. Also, the Wii has a spot to plug in 4 Gamecube controllers and slots for up to 2 Gamecube memory cards (since the Wii is supposedly 100% backwards compatible with gamecube games... i.e. you can play Wii games or GC games on the same system. Note, the Wii won't work with some of the GC peripherials that plugged into to the odd expansion ports of the GC (for example, the GBA addon for the GC will certainly not work or fit anywhere on the Wii).
People yes, but not this person.
That, or there's a difference between 1,000,000 bytes and 1,048,576 bytes. Most flash drives have about 5 percent of their capacity dedicated to wear leveling. For instance, a "256 MB" CF card will have 256 million bytes for files, folders, and FATs, and about 12.4 million bytes for spare sectors.
> Hmm... nice. I like the fact that the bottom/side vent is essentially blocked off when using the stand.
Didn't you see the hole in the stand for the vent?