Official Nintendo Fanboy Smugness & Gloating Thread

[disciple]

All I'm saying is that you have to factor a bit more into your equation than "it's just a GC clocked 1.5x higher" when coming up with a price.

How many times do I have to say I'm talking about the whole package before you get it, then?

I can't help feeling your splitting hairs on semantics here, while conveniently over(c)looking (see what I did there) that there's more of a difference between the Wii & GC chipsets than simply a higher clockrate (however it's attained).

But there isn't.

Well not being a Ninty engineer or someone who's even been near a Wii yet I can't really comment on this with any authority. It's just when you did the Gamecube+ costing thing 20 pages back I thought you were oversimplifying things somewhat and so came to the conclusion you were doing the same on the +50% clockspeed thing. There really is nothing more to the Wiis CPU & GPU than a 50% increase in clockspeed then?

[Bubba]

Nothing significantly different in the C/GPU region, no. Certainly not anything that would cost Ninty any more money...

Same (old) architecture as in the GC - no fancy new shaders or (AFAIK) any significantly increased transistor count for the CPU - can't do anything cleverer than the PPC part which graced the gamecube.

Yes there are chipset differences - it's gotta interface to the bluetooth controllers and sensor bar and stuff. But this is all simple things. The main core of the wii is just a GC with go faster stripes - for all we know the new devices just sit on the old GC expansion busses. Which, for what Ninty are trying to do, is ace Sure, it can't compete with the 360 or PS3 in terms of raw horsepowers, in graphics or processing terms. But it'll be cheap for them to make and easy to code for. Wii games are looking pretty good now, riding the high level of knowledge already around for GC games. In 3 or 4 years time, once people are really getting to grips with the 360 and PS3 then the difference between the Wii and the other two will be far more gaping. But I'd expect by that time Ninty will have come out with their next console

But you can bet Ninty are making a tidy sum of dosh on it - they're not going to use any of their spare Pokedollars to subsidise any aspect of the wii and the devices launch. I'll pick one up when the price gets to impulse buy territory, or a game jumps onto the scene which makes having one a no brainer. As of yet I've not seen anything to make me *need* a Wii, although I'm sure in time this will change...

Cheers

Bubba

[oddbob0]

As of yet I've not seen anything to make me *need* a Wii

It just never gets old does it?

[Darkflame]

Iwata : It must be tough when your boss knows a lot about ID.

If there was one thing in this world that would make me stop supporting nintendo, it would be if I knew they backed Inteligent Design



btw, umm..if there's no collaboration whatsoever...how does it know if its at the top of the TV or the bottom?
It seems its going too need to else the field of view would be much too high.

[fog]

btw, umm..if there's no collaboration whatsoever...how does it know if its at the top of the TV or the bottom?
It seems its going too need to else the field of view would be much too high.

Whic is exactly what I've been saying.

Also as there's no calibration (AFAIK) you need the bar as close to the screen as possible otherwise aiming will be slightly out.

In some of the Wii Channel videos I think you can see the on screen pointer is slightly higher than the Wiimote is aiming. Which would make total sense if the bar was assumed to be the center of the Wiimotes "field of view".

Watch this and you'll see that when the Wiimote points at the sensor bar below the TV, the on screen pointer is actually in the middle of the screen.

http://www.wii.com/uk/movies/newschannel/

And if there really is no calibration, movement on a big TV will be a lot faster and sensitive than on a smaller TV.

[Deckard]

Im sure it will all be lovely - generally Nintendo's input devices are flawless - look at the N64 controller and DS for affirmation. Id be very surprised come that magical date if anyone posts anything negative about the Wiimote

[Roobarb]

btw, umm..if there's no collaboration whatsoever...how does it know if its at the top of the TV or the bottom?
It seems its going too need to else the field of view would be much too high.

Whic is exactly what I've been saying.

At the start of Mario Galaxy you point the Wiimote at the center of the screen. Looks like a calibration step to me. Presumably other games will be similar?

Also as there's no calibration (AFAIK) you need the bar as close to the screen as possible otherwise aiming will be slightly out.

In some of the Wii Channel videos I think you can see the on screen pointer is slightly higher than the Wiimote is aiming. Which would make total sense if the bar was assumed to be the center of the Wiimotes "field of view".

Watch this and you'll see that when the Wiimote points at the sensor bar below the TV, the on screen pointer is actually in the middle of the screen.

http://www.wii.com/uk/movies/newschannel/

And if there really is no calibration, movement on a big TV will be a lot faster and sensitive than on a smaller TV.

Doesn't look very conclusive to me. How do you know the sensor bar isn't way below the screen out of shot? The camera angle, chosen to keep the hand from being in front of the screen may also accentuate the apparent difference between where the Wiimote is pointing and where the pointer is on screen.

[Dio]

But I'd expect by that time Ninty will have come out with their next console

If the price was lower, I'd agree with you. But at that launch price, should they supercede it with a backwards-compatible superior model in 2 years there will be an absolute mongo outcry. This is not disposable technology; it must have a 4-5 year shelf-life.

[fog]

btw, umm..if there's no collaboration whatsoever...how does it know if its at the top of the TV or the bottom?
It seems its going too need to else the field of view would be much too high.

Whic is exactly what I've been saying.

At the start of Mario Galaxy you point the Wiimote at the center of the screen. Looks like a calibration step to me. Presumably other games will be similar?

Ah so there is some calibration then? I thought I read there was none.

Thinking about the issues created by different screen sizes again, there has to be some form of calibration for it to work properly. And it would need more than simply pointing the Wiimote at the center of the screen.

Also as there's no calibration (AFAIK) you need the bar as close to the screen as possible otherwise aiming will be slightly out.

In some of the Wii Channel videos I think you can see the on screen pointer is slightly higher than the Wiimote is aiming. Which would make total sense if the bar was assumed to be the center of the Wiimotes "field of view".

Watch this and you'll see that when the Wiimote points at the sensor bar below the TV, the on screen pointer is actually in the middle of the screen.

http://www.wii.com/uk/movies/newschannel/

And if there really is no calibration, movement on a big TV will be a lot faster and sensitive than on a smaller TV.

Doesn't look very conclusive to me. How do you know the sensor bar isn't way below the screen out of shot? The camera angle, chosen to keep the hand from being in front of the screen may also accentuate the apparent difference between where the Wiimote is pointing and where the pointer is on screen.

Well it looks suspiciously like the sensor bar is just below the screen to me if you look closely at those channel videos. Could it be significant that Ninty have placed them as close as physically possible to the bottom of the screen?

[Anders]

But at that launch price, should they supercede it with a backwards-compatible superior model in 2 years there will be an absolute mongo outcry. This is not disposable technology; it must have a 4-5 year shelf-life.

DS vs DS Lite.

There wasn't much of an outcry.

[disciple]

There must be some sort of calibration in there since the sensor bar can be placed *anywhere* as long as it's parallel and near to the telly. Even if it's a one off done on 'installation' via the OS.


Not sure if this was posted before, it dates from end of August but I don't remember seeing it.

According to an English translation of a PCGames.com.cn story, the Wii's Remote may be experiencing production problems.

The translation, provided by a GoNintendo reader, says the Remote and nunchaku attachment "still have a lot of small issues, such as buttons aren’t sensitive, hard to press 2 buttons together, and even no response occasionally, and the current sample is easy to get damaged, using the controller in normal situation will produce some noise, etc."

The article also says the Remote uses Bluetooth for data transfer, which Nintendo has previously confirmed; and infrared for determining the Remote's position in space, which has been suspected by some Wii-watchers.

The factory is said to be working with Nintendo to iron out the issues, but site-verified samples must be sent to NCL in Japan because the factory does not possess Wii hardware to test with. The article speculates that not ironing out these problems may cause problems for Nintendo's Q4 launch, which may be why Nintendo has not yet committed to launch dates and lineups.

Tight deadlines for christmas, I sincerly hope there aren't dodgy buttons and occasional signal cut outs on there.

[DocDaneeka]

Hmm I think Ill wait untill I can get my hands on a Wii-Stick* before I put my money down.

*Remote is for bummers, Wii-stick FTW!

[Darkflame]

Wiitroler I say!!!

But at that launch price, should they supercede it with a backwards-compatible superior model in 2 years there will be an absolute mongo outcry. This is not disposable technology; it must have a 4-5 year shelf-life.

DS vs DS Lite.

There wasn't much of an outcry.

Its fine to upgrade a model as long as you dont change the game format.
People expect a game format to last a certain amount of time.

If the DSLite was more powerfull, and took different games, people would be very angry that there old DS became useless. (as games would die out for it too quickly).

Likewise, if an "upgraded Wii" was announced, it would piss off all the existing owners, and no company is going to do that.
A refined model maybe, not not higher specs or anything that would change the game compatibility.


So in conclusion, be Nintendo (release many variations but keep specs the same), not Sega (release a new system with a new game format almost every year...)

[Anders]

Its fine to upgrade a model as long as you dont change the game format. People expect a game format to last a certain amount of time.

If the DSLite was more powerfull, and took different games, people would be very angry that there old DS became useless. (as games would die out for it too quickly).

That would make it a new platform, however, despite backwards compatibility. Look at the GBA vs DS. The DS plays GBA games, but it's native format is new, which makes it a new platform and not a successor to the GBA.

I'm not sure what we're discussing, though. I think most gamers are getting used to the idea of buying the same thing over and over, be it "upgraded" games, franchises and hardware.

[Dio]

Consider this. The PC is a single platform, due to it having slow evolution and both backwards and limited forwards compatibility. There's nothing stopping a console manufacturer doing this (you could easily imagine something simple such as allowing games to ask for a higher clockrate on the graphics chips, if available, but there are other incremental increases that could similarly be imagined).