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Nintendo Confirms Original Downloads for the Wii
The Computer and Videogames site touched base with Nintendo in the wake of an interview with a game company in Game Informer magazine, to check up on their plans for original content on the Wii. A marketing director from Hudson Entertainment stated in GI that the Wii would feature a new games channel for downloadable games, and CVG wanted to follow up on the claim. Nintendo's response was that while they haven't decided on the specific method by which they'll be offering the games online, downloadable original content is definitely in the cards for the console's future. No timeframe was given for this content, but it is reassuring to have this piece of the Wii puzzle reaffirmed by the company.
...when the legend of zelda: link to the past is on the VC now!!! (news channel is also available.)
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
"A marketing director from Hudson Entertainment stated in GI that the Wii would feature a new games channel for downloadable games,"
How frickin sweet would it be to have a nice new 2D* version of Bomberman for the Wii?!
* Or a tastefully done 3D like Bomberman fight that manages to keep the 2D elements in tact. Anything but Bomberman 64 style play.
Allowing for downloadable original content for the Wii always seemed more a matter of "When" rather than a matter of "If". I wonder how accessible development kits will be for those interested in getting involved with this stuff. Moreover, I'd be interested to see what sort of breakdown pops up in indie games between traditional control schemes, and going the motion-sensitive route. In any case, I'm pretty excited to see what sort of fresh projects start popping up on the Wii in the future, and how they will compare and contrast to that available for download on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Original content? Who knows!
Nintendo has always suggested that original online content would be distributed through the Virtual Console; in fact they commented that it would allow games like "Tetris" to be viable (from a development perspective) again.
Actually playing games online? Who knows!
It has been confirmed that Pokemon Battle Revolution and Battalion Wars are both online games produced by Nintendo, and that the necessary libriaries have been made available to third party developers.
News/weather channels? 480p is all you get!
That doesn't seem to bother the people who are buying Wiis at a rate of 3 to 4 times that of the PS3.
News/weather channels? 480p is all you get!
Yeah, because I really need HD to get my weather forcast. "Damnit, I can't tell if that Partly Cloudy icon is a cumulus or stratus cloud!"
The enemies of Democracy are
Seeing as the Virtual Console doesn't offer any games that really make proper use of the intuitive controls of the Wiimote, I would think that many non-gamers would brush it off as irrelevant. Seriously, your gramps may love Wii bowling, but I don't think R-Type is going to work for him. However, with original content, it's time for Nintendo to get their wheels rolling on some things that will attract the non-gamer crowd. There's load of possibilities. All of these board and puzzle games can be readily exploited and actually make more sense to some people who use a Wiimote.
OTOH, I see more online multiplayer titles as a smart move. The console is lacking the online support it needs ATM, and I think some original titles could help give it a much needed boost. There is a lot of potential, so let's see if Nintendo does the right things with it.
For some very cool free content (games!) for the Wii, Opera internet browsers should bookmark this place: WiiFii.net . It's a very cool second home with a bunch of flash games (including that cool SLED game) playable through the Opera browser.
My plea to Sega is the following: You, Sega (SegaSoft) needs to update and release a WiiConnect24-capable and local multi-player capable version of the classic game Rocket Jockey for the Wii.
The control system alone is PERFECT for the Wiimote's balancing act, not to mention the kicking surf guitar soundtrack and classic retro style.
Please let Sega know about this perfect game that they already own. I'm on the verge of starting a letter writing campaign.
Nothing at all. However if they introduced a Bomberman where you could import Mii's and play up to 8 players localy (using 4 remotes, and 4 GC controllers) I'd buy it in a second.
If it was online... The world would unite, and sing a song in perfect harmony.
There is still the important question of where are these downloadable games going to go? The internal memory isn't much to work with, and has basically eliminated any chance of getting Wii game demos via download, at least I see it that way.
Nothing can directly be accessed from a sd card aside from photos, which either tells me that there are no big plans for the download service, or a hdd is planned for release in the future.
are you cirrus?
always mosh clockwise
I used Windows as an example of an open platform on which one can demonstrate skills using GCC and a graphics API to develop video games. The others are Mac OS X and Linux, but due to the smaller market share, it is more difficult to recover expenses through donations or registrations if a developer does not port a product to Windows.
You can use your garage (I used my basement).What you say contradicts Nintendo's stated policy: "an authorized developer must have a stable business organization with secure office facilities, equipment, personnel and financial resources in order to insure the security of Nintendo proprietary information and in order to ensure an effective environment for working with Nintendo and/or its licensees. Home offices do not meet this requirement" (my emphasis). Are you permitted to disclose details of how you were able to work around this restriction?
Did some research on my own, what I found is this (somebody who actually has a Wii feel free to correct me):
Wii itself has 512MB flash RAM and ~2100 free blocks.
A 2GB SD Kart provides ~16384 free blocks.
F-Zero is 99 blocks large.
DonkeyKong is 19 blocks large.
This means that one block is 128kbytes large and in turn it means that the Wii reserves around half its Flash content for non-user stuff (firmware and such). If that block size is correct it means that F-Zero is 12MB large while the plain ROM dump should only be around 1MB. From this it looks like the Wii can only hold around 20 SNES titles.