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Nintendo's Wii Storage Solution — SD Cards

Posted by Soulskill on from the 2gb-ought-to-be-enough-for-anybody dept.

Lucas123 writes "After gamers complained for the better part of a year, Nintendo finally came out with a solution to the Wii's lack of storage capacity — a 2GB SD card from which users can execute games, adding to the console's measly 512MB of onboard storage. The card is expected out in the Spring. With the ability to download, the card should allow users to store up to 60 games." This news came out of the same press conference that announced the Nintendo DSi we discussed earlier today. They made a number of other announcements as well, including Gamecube remakes for the Wii, updated to make use of the Wiimote, Club Nintendo coming to North America this year, and the Wii Speak Channel, an online voice chat utility.

79 comments

  1. Lies, Damn Lies, and News Reports by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nintendo finally came out with a solution to the Wii's lack of storage capacity -- a 2GB SD card from which users can execute games

    TFA is a lie. Iwata stated that the solution would be direct download to SD Card + a solution that will allow users to quickly copy from the SD Card to main memory. Early in the morning, the HOPE was that it was a translation issue and Iwata meant the Wii would cache the game in internal memory before running it.

    Unfortunately, Reggie dashed those hopes. He repeated Iwata's solution in plain english. From the Wired article:

    9:21: Instead of dealing with the current hassles of Wii storage, you'll be able to download Wii software from the shopping channel to your SD card, and the process of transferring that software will become "dramatically easier."

    So don't believe everything you read. Half the stuff coming out of these press conferences is pure malarky. (e.g. 2 touch screens? False. 3 Megapixels? Disputed. New Pikmin? False. Street Fighter IV? False. Launch from SD? False.)

    The good news is that the GameCube remakes are going to include Metroid Prime 1 & 2. So if you liked the control scheme in Metroid 3, you'll have a chance to go back and play the previous titles with those controls! (Whoo hoo!)

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:Lies, Damn Lies, and News Reports by hansamurai · · Score: 1

      Wow, I honestly thought it had two touch screens... Now I honestly don't see the point of it besides the cameras. Interesting. Especially since Nintendo is considering it a different platform than the DS.

      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    2. Re:Lies, Damn Lies, and News Reports by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Street Fighter IV? False.

      Some people mistook Capcom vs Tatsunoko for that AFAIK. There really is a new game but it's not SF4 and since the characters it's vs against are licensed to tons of different companies in the US it's unlikely that the game will ever leave Japan.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    3. Re:Lies, Damn Lies, and News Reports by IpalindromeI · · Score: 1

      New Pikmin? False.

      Not according to Kotaku.

      --

      --
      Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
  2. "Proprietary" by Moryath · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Because they already soaked a lot of people buying SD cards for the Wii... hands up if when you bought your Wii, there were peripherals in the bundle (extra controller, 1GB SD card, etc) that they were pushing like there was no tomorrow.

    Now Big N wants to soak the user again (at one hell of a markup compared to market price on a normal SD card) and still give them barely enough space, unless they buy more than one.

    Countdown until some morally better people reverse engineer this and offer up a solution to just enable your OWN SD card to work as a "wiicard" in 3...2...1...

    1. Re:"Proprietary" by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

      1. I had no trouble getting a Wii without a bundle. Neither did anyone I know. In fact, it seems that those who fell for the bundle deal were in the minority. FINDING a Wii in the first place was the greater challenge.

      2. The article means SD Cards in general. No proprietary card is needed.

      3. The article is wrong anyway. No expansion solution was announced. All that was announced was the ability to download directly to SD Cards + an "easy" way of copying games to main memory. In effect, nothing has changed.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    2. Re:"Proprietary" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This has to just be some files copied onto the sd card, right? what's to stop a user from pulling those files off of the sd card and putting them onto another sd card?

      Are there portions of the SD card that are unreadable except by certain devices, or something?

    3. Re:"Proprietary" by Darkness404 · · Score: 1

      Nothing. However the files are (currently) DRM-ed so that even though I can post a ROM of some WiiWare game, it only works for my Wii.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    4. Re:"Proprietary" by winphreak · · Score: 1

      The only issue for super-storage is the lack of SDHC support. That's hard to fix, since it would (most likely) require a hardware update, but if SD issues remain in the Firmware, then a simple update should be able to support SD cards greater than 2GB.

      (this is slashdot, correct me if I'm wrong :] )

      --
      "I'm a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm."
    5. Re:"Proprietary" by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      1. I had no trouble getting a Wii without a bundle. Neither did anyone I know. In fact, it seems that those who fell for the bundle deal were in the minority. FINDING a Wii in the first place was the greater challenge.

      Yeah, and when I was trying to buy one, the only way to find a Wii was in a bundle. :P

      Fortunately it was a good bundle where the only mandatory add-on was an extra controller and you got to pick which games you wanted, but still.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    6. Re:"Proprietary" by tixxit · · Score: 1

      I wish someone had tried to sell me a bundle w/ an extra Wii-mote. It took me 2 months to get a 2nd Wii-mote after I got my Wii!

  3. Backup Save Data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Hopefully with this solution, I can now backup my save data. Currently the Wii doesn't allow you to back up saved data from any Nintendo Wifi enabled game. If the internal memory gets corrupted, you lose all your Super Smash Bros. Brawl records.

    1. Re:Backup Save Data by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I bet it's to prevent stat savescumming but that's REALLY not worth doing. It's understandable for something like PSO where they are worried about item duping (though that still failed due to cheat devices) but when it's just stats that's stupid.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  4. blah by AxemRed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They should just support 3rd party high density SD cards.

    1. Re:blah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      yeah, too bad they probably don't have capable hardware in the machine.

    2. Re:blah by YojimboJango · · Score: 1, Informative

      I don't know what version of the wii you have, but all my SD cards work. I'm using the one that came with my camera (a 512) in there right now.

    3. Re:blah by stoolpigeon · · Score: 1

      try sticking a 4 gig sdhc card in there - wont work.

      --
      It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    4. Re:blah by Malevolyn · · Score: 1

      Yes, but GP isn't talking about normal SD cards. The Wii doesn't support SDHD cards.

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    5. Re:blah by maglor_83 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Is SDHC really a hardware thing? I've had plenty of devices that have enabled it with a firmware update.

    6. Re:blah by maglor_83 · · Score: 1

      SDHD

      SDHC

    7. Re:blah by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Is SDHC really a hardware thing? I've had plenty of devices that have enabled it with a firmware update.

      SDHC is electrically compatible with SD and uses the same pinout, but they use different addressing modes; with vanilla SD, each address value represents a single word; with SDHC, it represents a block.

      Depending on how the device has implemented I/O, it may or may not be possible to add SDHC support with a firmware or driver update.

    8. Re:blah by Jorophose · · Score: 1

      Assuming they can upgrade the firmware on the Wii like any OS, couldn't they upgrade it to support SDHC USB readers, if it doesn't already?

      Then it's solving the problem, although not properly, good enough because if you start making new Wiis some stuff might be changed for the worse.

  5. SDHC? by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think a better solution would be to add SDHC support so we can use cards larger than 2GB.

    --
    Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
    1. Re:SDHC? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      a better solution would be to add SDHC support

      I don't understand. How is that a "better" solution? A 2GB card already holds nearly 20,000 blocks of memory. To put that into perspective, WiiWare games tend to range between 100-400 blocks. That's where the 60 games figure comes from. That's a lot of space, to be honest.

      The real issue is the fact that you have to rearrange the Wii's memory every time you want to play a game. Think of it like having a PC with a 1.6GB hard drive. You can install a few games at a time, but if you want to play more than 2 or 3, you have to start uninstalling game in order to install others. If you have more than 2 or 3 you want to play at the moment, you will find yourself uninstalling/reinstalling A LOT. That's the situation of Wii owners today.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    2. Re:SDHC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      It's a "better" solution in that people would like to use the SD slot to load ISOs. It's better for piracy.

      And, honestly, that's the only reason I can think of for wanting higher storage capacity on the Wii.

    3. Re:SDHC? by Malevolyn · · Score: 1

      Don't you mean a 512 meg hard drive? Your example is over 3 times bigger than the Wii's NAND.

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    4. Re:SDHC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Troll? Really?

      What, does Nintendo moderate /. now?

    5. Re:SDHC? by Malevolyn · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, this is incorrect. The only (publicly available and misleadingly named) ISO loader still requires that you burn the game to a DVD. Even with a chipped Wii you still have to burn the game onto a DVD. Like GP said, a 2 gig SD card can hold a lot of WiiWare and VC games which can be downloaded and installed illegitimately, not to mention the homebrew WAD manager can install from USB storage devices.

      What I'm getting at is that an official external hard drive for the Wii won't change anything, period, because anything it wouldn't one to do anything that can't already be done.

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    6. Re:SDHC? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 0

      No, not really. A basic CD-ROM is about 650MB in size. Such CD-ROMs were in use back when hard drives were 1.6GB in size. Figuring that the games from CD-ROMs would be installed to hard disk rather than run from the CD, a user could fill up a 1.6GB hard drive rather quickly.

      Basically, I was attempting to make the example realistic rather than contriving something.

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      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    7. Re:SDHC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fact that there are no (public) ISO loaders yet (btw, there are already people successfully loading ISOs off of USB hard drives) doesn't mean that isn't the reasoning behind the desire for large capacity SD.

      - Eric

    8. Re:SDHC? by Malevolyn · · Score: 1

      I said there's one out. But I was wrong. There's actually two, and the second one is much more capable than the first. Both of them are actually backup loaders, not ISO loaders. I haven't seen any true ISO loaders in the wild, yet. But I also haven't been looking. Thanks for the heads up!

      </piratetalk>

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    9. Re:SDHC? by pat+sajak · · Score: 1

      Could it be that the ISO loader requires you to burn a game to DVD because the limited storage space makes it the only feasible option?

      If the Wii had a hard drive, I don't imagine the world would wait long for a mod chip that loads roms from it.

      I've had no issues with storage on my Wii. I think in this case, the illegitimate uses far outweigh the legit ones.

    10. Re:SDHC? by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 2, Insightful

      To be fair, back in those days, the actual files were small; a 'normal' installation of a game from a CD to HD would take up fifty or sixty megabytes. The CD was used for FMV and Redbook audio.

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    11. Re:SDHC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you mean a 512 meg hard drive? Your example is over 3 times bigger than the Wii's NAND.

      Yes, his example is much larger, but he's referring to computer games which typically take up a few hundred MBs for small games and a single game could fill most of a 1.6GB drive. If anything, 1.6GB is too small to be a completely accurate analogy.

    12. Re:SDHC? by Malevolyn · · Score: 1

      Many homebrew applications can access USB storage devices (MPlayer-Wii, most of the emulators, a few others) and to the best of my knowledge there's not a very restrictive upper limit on external storage on the Wii, if there even is one. But there IS a somewhat restrictive list of supported devices. Of course external storage hasn't been tested on a ridiculously wide scale, but a list IS there, along with a tool for checking compatibility of your device. Regardless, you'll still need a fairly large USB drive since most games are DVD5, and a few are DVD9 (Brawl is just over 7.5GB).

      That said, the current backup loaders simply load the DVD in the drive and that's all. I'm sure it's not a restriction, it's just easier to burn DVDs than fool with buying a huge drive to hold game images that may or may not even work on the Wii to begin with. Plus I'm sure that I'm not alone in preferring to have a hard copy around. My ISO backups are in the cloud. (GET IT? lololol)

      --
      Your ad here.
  6. Ummm... by ohtani · · Score: 1

    While I like my Nintendo Wii, I would HARDLY find this as an acceptable solution. The other systems still have a MUCH LARGER size for storage. On upwards of 80GB. 2GB is not decent enough for this. There needs to be a place to permanently store downloadable content (e.g.: Rock Band DLC songs) and 2GB just isn't enough. External HD via USB maybe? Hardware upgrade?

    --
    Pancakes. Oh I blew it.
    1. Re:Ummm... by Captain+Spam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      However, one thing about the other systems is that they're also designed around being a media center (such as they are), waiting to store and play MP3s, movies, etc, etc. The Wii isn't. Without all that, 2GB isn't THAT bad. True, still somewhat small, and the rather slow access time of SD cards is more than a bit painful (or at least the rather slow access time of the Wii's SD card reader), but I consider it a somewhat decent patch solution until, say, they get an external HD option or Wii2 or whatnot.

      Offtopic note: I like your sig, given I know where it comes from and the fact that it's rather a bit obscure.

      --
      Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
    2. Re:Ummm... by MrAngryForNoReason · · Score: 1

      The other systems still have a MUCH LARGER size for storage.

      The Xbox 360 Arcade only has 256mb of storage. The only systems that currently have 'upwards of 80gb' are the Xbox 360 Elite and recent versions of the Playstation 3. Most console owners will either have an earlier Xbox 360 giving them 20gb or 60gb, or an earlier Playstation 3 with 20gb, 40gb or 60gb.

      That aside I do think that Nintendo has missed an opportunity here. For games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero the absence of dowloadable content is a big minus point. If they had allowed usb hard drives to be attached for storage it would solve a lot of problems, providing the transfer speed was good enough.

    3. Re:Ummm... by donaldm · · Score: 1

      The Xbox 360 Arcade only has 256mb of storage. The only systems that currently have 'upwards of 80gb' are the Xbox 360 Elite and recent versions of the Playstation 3. Most console owners will either have an earlier Xbox 360 giving them 20gb or 60gb, or an earlier Playstation 3 with 20gb, 40gb or 60gb.

      Actually earlier version of the PS3 (US and Japan) had 80GB (the 20GB one was quickly withdrawn) it is only now that this seems to be the standard although you could always install legally and with no loss of warranty any standard 2.5" disk drive internally no mater what type of PS3 you purchased. You can connect any size disk via USB which is great for backup or media storage purposes.

      That aside I do think that Nintendo has missed an opportunity here. For games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero the absence of dowloadable content is a big minus point. If they had allowed usb hard drives to be attached for storage it would solve a lot of problems, providing the transfer speed was good enough.

      You have a good point here although the way Nintendo is rolling in money at the moment I don't think that is a priority for them although that may change if the take-up of HDTV continues in most first world countries. Still the Wii output even though it is Standard Definition looks quite acceptable on HDTV's smaller than 42" and even if the Wii is relegated to the kids room and only brought out for parties that is still a huge market.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    4. Re:Ummm... by j0nb0y · · Score: 1

      guitar hero: world tour for wii will have downloadable content.

      --
      If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
    5. Re:Ummm... by MrAngryForNoReason · · Score: 0

      Yes it will but Guitar Hero III (that I bought) didn't, despite them promising it would 'at some point after launch'. So I won't be buying Guitar Hero World Tour, I will be buying Rock Band 2 on the Xbox 360 and enjoying all of the downloadable tracks for Rock Band 2 and the original.

      But of course I will have to buy another guitar, as my wii one obviously won't work with the 360.

    6. Re:Ummm... by ohtani · · Score: 1

      And I don't see how even 20GB isn't "much larger" compared to a max of 2GB. 4GB if you happen to find a compatible non-SDHC card. But still atleast 5-10 more storage.

      --
      Pancakes. Oh I blew it.
  7. Why wasn't this solution available two years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I am completely baffled as to how an idea this obvious wasn't implemented at launch or with a firmware update near launch.

  8. 4GB SD cards do work with the Wii by ften · · Score: 1

    Actually the storage limit isn't 2GB; the issue has to deal with SDHC compatibility. I wrote a little bit about using a 4gb card on GBA Temp; http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=99545 Link to the spreadsheet; http://fathertom.net/wii/4gbsd.xls

    --
    http://fathertom.net/hardwii - My Wii Hardware Centric Website
  9. No SDHC by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't know what version of the wii you have, but all my SD cards work.

    None of my SDHC cards work, which I believe was AxemRed's point.

    1. Re:No SDHC by harrkev · · Score: 1

      The article DID mention a 2G SD card. Regular non-SDHC cards generally top out at 2G.

      It this a firmware update that we can use with our existing 2G SD card, or will we need to buy a "special" 2G card? I got a Kingston 150X 2G for under $11. I wanted the fastest card that I could find for my Wii.

      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
    2. Re:No SDHC by the-stringbean · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Third party 2Gb SD cards work fine already on the Wii. I have a San Disk Extreme II 2Gb card and it works fine - the only cards that don't work are SDHC cards (which Nintendo have never said they would support).

      Regardless of how fast your SD card is the controller in the Wii is painfully slow. Hopefully what Nintendo means by "dramatically easier" copying is some firmware tweaks that improve the transfer rate to something half decent.

    3. Re:No SDHC by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      The transfer rate is fine; it's the encryption/decryption speed they need to improve.

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
  10. Save game protection by daveywest · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd just be happy if I could backup my SSBB save file. That or if they would require the pin number before my 3 year-old gets in and deletes everything he can find.

    1. Re:Save game protection by andy9701 · · Score: 1

      You can back up most save games to an SD card, however there are some games you can't - SSBB and Mario Kart, and probably others too. I have no idea why these saves are "special", but they are. Maybe something to do with unlocking new content or something?

    2. Re:Save game protection by Yosho · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can back up most save games to an SD card, however there are some games you can't - SSBB and Mario Kart, and probably others too. I have no idea why these saves are "special", but they are. Maybe something to do with unlocking new content or something?

      Nintendo doesn't allow games that have online play to be copied. The official stance is that it's because this would enable cheating; in games that have changing characters or tradeable items and equipment, it could facilitate the duplication of that equipment, but I have no idea how one would go about copying a game to cheat in SSBB's crippled online mode. Nonetheless, that's the official word.

      --
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    3. Re:Save game protection by courseofhumanevents · · Score: 1

      SSBB's save data includes the friend code and online data, which could potentially cause problems when copied to a different Wii, so copying is disabled for SSBB saves. If you happen to have Twilight Princess, though, there are a number of homebrew solutions. I highly suggest renting TP if you don't have it, if only for the Homebrew Channel.

    4. Re:Save game protection by khellendros1984 · · Score: 1

      They're the Wi-fi multiplayer games. I think Nintendo is trying to protect us from posting data files with our login info in them or something.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    5. Re:Save game protection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use the homebrew channel and newest GeckoOS it has the option to allow the copying of protected games and you don't need the USB gecko for this to work.
      G

    6. Re:Save game protection by Hitto · · Score: 2, Funny

      Homebrew
      HOMEBREW
      HHOOOOOMMEEEEBREEEEEEW!

      Get the savegame extractor!
      Backup your brawl, kart, whatever save. FASTER than in the system menu, IF it allowed you to "save your save".

  11. Three words: Not good enough by atari2600 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have all three consoles: 360, PS3 and the Wii and I find the PS3 and the 360 have matured well in the current generation of consoles and the Wii frankly has been found lacking.

    Don't get me wrong - the Wii is an awesome social/party attraction but the lack of space, the hard to remember Wii code to add friends, minimal online aspect and not as many games (PS3 is snickering as I type this) have left me a little disappointed. (Only because it was so bloody freaking hard to get a Wii).

    From the article:

    - Nintendo of America Inc. today announced it has come up with a resolution for the dearth of storage on its Nintendo Wii gaming console -- a proprietary, 2GB SD card.

    Sorry, this is not big enough

    - According to Computerworld's resident Wii gaming expert, editor Ken Gagne, a 2GB card will hold about 60 games.

    Fire him - what kind of games are we talking about?

    - Last month, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo U.S. operations, piqued gamers' interest by saying that his company's answer to the storage issue would be "better than" a hard drive, but he offered no details.

    Okay....

    The Wii is still fun but for serious gaming, PC, PS3 and the 360 trump Wii in more than one ways.

    Nintendo: If it has to be proprietary, please make it 4-8GB. Please don't charge a ridiculous price because it's proprietary. Please don't cry when someone breaks open the proprietary protocols. I get the plumber but please bring out some games that do not involve Mario and oh, why don't you go and improve that's sports package you gave with the console? I'd actually pay for a full-fledged tennis game.

    1. Re:Three words: Not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have all three consoles: 360, PS3 and the Wii and I find the PS3 and the 360 have matured well in the current generation of consoles and the Wii frankly has been found lacking.

      Don't get me wrong - the Wii is an awesome social/party attraction but the lack of space, the hard to remember Wii code to add friends, minimal online aspect and not as many games (PS3 is snickering as I type this) have left me a little disappointed. (Only because it was so bloody freaking hard to get a Wii).

      And why is it so hard to get one? Because they're outselling the Xbox 360 2 to 1 and have recently surpassed the Xbox 360 lifetime sales.

    2. Re:Three words: Not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      - According to Computerworld's resident Wii gaming expert, editor Ken Gagne, a 2GB card will hold about 60 games.

      Fire him - what kind of games are we talking about?

      Considering that his computation is spot-on, and that you admit with your question that you have no idea what you are talking about, I'd say that YOU need to be fired. Not him.

      Atari2600? YOU'RE FIRED!

    3. Re:Three words: Not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      The Wii is still fun but for serious gaming, PC, PS3 and the 360 trump Wii in more than one ways.

      Gaming - serious business.
      I mean who wants have fun while gaming?

    4. Re:Three words: Not good enough by wernox1987 · · Score: 1

      And why is it so hard to get one? Because they're outselling the Xbox 360 2 to 1 and have recently surpassed the Xbox 360 lifetime sales.

      Why is it hard to get Wii Fit, or even some Wii games? It doesn't make any sense. Nintendo has created this mass hysteria that the console, quite frankly, hasn't lived up to yet. I've had a lot of fun with my Wii these last couple of years, but it pales when put up against my 360 especially when you pull plastic instrument games into the mix. I've got 3 gigs of Rock Band content alone on my 360 HDD. The saddest thing is, Wii Sports is probably still one of the top 3 games for the Wii.

    5. Re:Three words: Not good enough by donaldm · · Score: 1

      I have always had Nintendo consoles from the NES right through to the Gamecube. In addition I have the PS1, PS2 and pS3 and if it was not for the fact that my PS3 is backwards compatible with PS2 games I would have given the so-called next gen consoles a miss. It is not that I don't like some of the Wii games it is just that they all appear to be a rehash of previous games with minor cosmetic differences and this I have also found true (IMHO) of the Xbox360 and PS3 games although that is now starting to slowly change. Still if people like the latest instalment of Mario or the latest FPS game then that is their prerogative. From my perspective I would love to see an innovative game and at the moment all I see is the same old same old.

      As for Microsoft well I don't like their ethics so I make it a point of not buying any products of theirs. To be fair though the Xbox360 does have a better selection of games than the PS3 although with backwards compatibility I have hundreds more games to choose from which save me a considerable amount of money and the graphics via my PS3 are enhanced and look exceptionally good on my HDTV while my gamecube games (which did look quite nice on my old SDTV and acceptable on my 37" HDTV) hardly get played at all.

      I know it is "all about games" but good graphics helps. A simple test, try playing Zelda 1 on a 37" plus HDTV then play it on a PC with an emulator there is a huge difference, the fun factor is there on both but being able to see an "un-jaggied" Link adds more enjoyment to the game. This is the same when you compare the SD output of the Wii to the HD output of the PS3 or the Xbox360 although to be fair if you only have a small HDTV then the graphical difference between all three consoles is not as noticeable but once you compare on larger HDTV's and they are getting quite affordable then you can really see the difference.

      The HD gaming market is going to be a area that Nintendo will have to address and since the purchase of HDTV's is taking off Nintendo better start thinking about a HD capable Wii although I have noticed that the Nintendo name is synonymous with gaming and for many years Nintendo had their monochrome gameboy and still killed off superior full colour hand-helds. It was not until the PSP that they started to have competition. I know the PSP is about 37M to the DS's 80M but that is still good competition compared to other hand-helds.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    6. Re:Three words: Not good enough by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      The HD gaming market is going to be a area that Nintendo will have to address and since the purchase of HDTV's is taking off Nintendo better start thinking about a HD capable Wii

      They are. They said it even before the Wii was launched. Their next console will be HD. By the time it's released, maybe HDTC is widespread enough to actually justify it as well. It isn't today.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  12. Yes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    2 girls 1 spaceship

    1. Re:Yes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2 girls 1 spaceship

      wrong thread...

  13. SD slot speed is pathetic by glindsey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Has anybody else noticed a ludicrously slow transfer speed when transferring files to and from an SD card? I have a SanDisk 2GB card -- not exactly a no-name brand -- and copying even a small Virtual Console game to the card takes minutes. If a block is roughly equal to 128k (that's an estimate given that a 2GB card holds roughly 20,000 blocks), I calculated the transfer rate to be about twice the speed of a 1.44MB floppy drive. Nearly 100 times slower than the theoretical maximum transfer rate of an SD card.

    Maybe they're trying to keep that retro experience going by giving you mid-1980's transfer speeds too.

    1. Re:SD slot speed is pathetic by Shikaku · · Score: 1

      I have a SanDisk

      Well there's your problem. Overpriced and stupidly slow cards in general. Get a refund. Say it stopped working in your camera.

    2. Re:SD slot speed is pathetic by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      No, that's not his problem. The Wii is that slow with ALL SD Cards. Either Nintendo totally screwed up the I/O (e.g. byte by byte transfers rather than buffered I/O) or they run the encryption engine at times when it's not needed.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    3. Re:SD slot speed is pathetic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      or they run the encryption engine at times when it's not needed.

      We have a winner. If you scan through some of the notes from the reverse engineering of the wii over on wiibrew.org, particularly http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Content.bin_file_structure
      , you'll see that they encrypt even the ICON of hte save files. Not encode, cryographically, RSA256, ENCRYPT the ICON.

      Wii SD security is fail.

    4. Re:SD slot speed is pathetic by glindsey · · Score: 1

      If that's true, why is the official Nintendo SD card for the Wii made by SanDisk?

      And also, who do you recommend? The market has been flooded with so many lousy Chinese knockoffs these days, I have no idea which companies are actually decent.

  14. wii storage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone else feel burnt buy a product with a usb port that dont follow the usb rules i thought i would be able to plug a drive into it and save games
    i felt so screwed i gave it to some kids and got a ps3.

    1. Re:wii storage by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      How is that not following the USB rules? Not following the rules would be doing something like pumping through twice the power it's supposed to have, frying your device. But not supporting a type of device? That's no different than your computer not supporting your new camera or printer without a driver.

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
  15. Wiiak by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gosh, rockband content is up to 8 gigs for everything.. This is pathetic..

    1. Re:Wiiak by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      Unlike the other systems, the Wii doesn't support non-matrixed surround sound; maybe the reduction in channels from 6 to 2 is how they'll handle it?

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
  16. Summary is Balls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nintendo was selling SD cards for the Wii when the Wii first came out. I, like other idiotic douche-bags, bought one, thinking it would have been used for extra storage for the downloadable games. So yeah, Lucas123, learn to get your fucking facts straight.

  17. I do like MP 1 & 2 by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

    That's good, I really did like the control scheme of Metroid Prime 3, I just didn't like the content as much as the previous two games... the "Expanded universe" characters really seemed cheesy and unnecessary, it took away from the idea that you are a lone explorer on a remote planet where something has gone haywire. Metroid was never really about being a bounty hunter.

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
  18. Last nintendo Console for me by spire3661 · · Score: 1

    I was so happy when Wii came out, but now all I have is disappointment once again. I will not buy another nintendo console until they give up their irrational fear of the internet. They didnt really think ahead of lets get this box out the door. Fuck them and their shitty online, shit storage, and shovelware games. Is it really too much to ask to be able to backup your savegames from online enabled games? Im done, selling it on Ebay tonight.

    --
    Good-bye
    1. Re:Last nintendo Console for me by walshy007 · · Score: 1

      your forgetting nintendo is primarily a gaming company, do any of the things your complaining about effect your day to day playing of a game, no, then it's a secondary concern for them.

      as for shovelware games, first party has always been where the quality is on nintendo consoles, because the console is so popular it is suffering what the ps2 did, many crap third party developers with a few gems.