Author Topic: Nintendo's Expansion Ports (Read 20992 times)

TJ Spyke · « **Reply #25 on:** November 01, 2011, 12:00:50 AM »

I never experienced any lag with my Game Boy Player.

UncleBob · « **Reply #26 on:** November 01, 2011, 12:56:52 AM »

Quote from: Kikori on October 31, 2011, 11:07:14 PM

I've read many times that Game Boy Player is kinda laggy. Is this true?

I've only had one such experience... kinda.

Back in the day, when I was running a solo-GameCube, a friend brought his over along with his Game Boy Player. We hooked them up and played some Four Swords (GBA) on the big screen. It was awesome.

Anyway, during one round, we came "desynched" - the Links on both screens would still respond to their respective controls, but they weren't in the same spot... so I could be walking up a path on my screen and be walking into a wall on his screen. Likewise, he could pick me up on his screen and I'd be running around like nothing was wrong on mine.

The /official/ word from Nintendo is that you're not supposed to link Game Boy Players together... but I've done it many times and this is the *only* time I've ever had a problem with the Game Boy Player - in any fashion.

StrawHousePig · « **Reply #27 on:** November 01, 2011, 01:21:27 AM »

Oh wow, Warp Pipe and the LAN adapter. Never got a version of Warp Pipe to work right... something about the lappy I was using at the time... so long ago.

Never could get into PSO. Played it a few times but it seemed to mostly be people standing around chatting. No thanks. Plus it was a SEGA game and SEGA games *suck*!

MegaByte · « **Reply #28 on:** November 01, 2011, 01:24:52 AM »

Now that internet speeds are faster, we should try to get a Double Dash Warp Pipe tournament going.

UncleBob · « **Reply #29 on:** November 01, 2011, 01:38:22 AM »

Quote from: MegaByte on November 01, 2011, 01:24:52 AM

Now that internet speeds are faster, we should try to get a Double Dash Warp Pipe tournament going.

Totally up for trying that sometime. Lord knows it went... poorly the last time I tried.

I don't know about a "tournament" though - we'll be lucky to get two people connected.

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #30 on:** November 01, 2011, 02:07:57 AM »

It'd be cool if someone had come up with a Homebrew Channel hack that lets GameCube games see the Wii's Wi-Fi as a broadband adaptor. I'd imagine that would up the numbers we could pull in for such an event.

MegaByte · « **Reply #31 on:** November 01, 2011, 02:28:35 AM »

If by "come up with a hack," you mean "write an operating system..."

UncleBob · « **Reply #32 on:** November 01, 2011, 02:32:26 AM »

Quote from: MegaByte on November 01, 2011, 02:28:35 AM

If by "come up with a hack," you mean "write an operating system..."

For those who dabble in such things, does anyone know if the GameCube emulator for the PC does LAN Modes on compatible games? And not Online where the second player is the second controller - but actually supportive of the LAN modes built into the games?

Would it be possible to write a GCN emulator for the Wii? Is the Wii actually powerful enough for such a thing?

UncleBob · « **Reply #33 on:** November 01, 2011, 02:38:57 AM »

Fun Fact: Since we're kind of on the subject.

For those who have never seen it, in Mario Kart: Double Dash, the LAN Mode is a selection on the main menu screen - it only appears of you have a LAN Adapter in your GameCube.

What's really fun though - the Demo Disc (the ones for the in-store demo units) that contains a Mario Kart: Double Dash preview... the LAN Option shows up on that menu - again, only if you have a LAN Adapter installed... but you can't select it at all. Just kinda neat.

MegaByte · « **Reply #34 on:** November 01, 2011, 02:53:20 AM »

Quote from: UncleBob on November 01, 2011, 02:32:26 AM

Would it be possible to write a GCN emulator for the Wii? Is the Wii actually powerful enough for such a thing?

No, at 1.5x specs of the GC, the Wii is far too weak to emulate the GC (a rule of thumb used to be that you'd need at least 10x power, and that would be with speed hacks). Instead, you'd need to rewrite the GC BIOS to take into account the additional hardware and emulate the LAN adapter. However, that additional hardware part is non-trivial because you'd have to write drivers for the Wii security and I/O systems, which the GC BIOS doesn't know exist. Going in the other direction, you might be able to run the GC game as Wii software, with hooks patched in memory to deal with the network and any Wii-isms. In either case, it would involve massive architecting that would be hard even if all of the technical information was publicly available.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #35 on:** November 01, 2011, 12:31:45 PM »

Quote from: MegaByte on November 01, 2011, 02:53:20 AM

No, at 1.5x specs of the GC,

Didn't Iwata or someone else at Nintendo say the Wii was 2 to 3 times more powerful than the GC?

MegaByte · « **Reply #36 on:** November 01, 2011, 12:39:03 PM »

It doesn't matter what they said. The Wii CPU and GPUs are clocked at 1.5x the GC, and the memory was roughly doubled (it's more complicated than that).

Kytim89 · « **Reply #37 on:** November 01, 2011, 05:50:14 PM »

wonder hiw many times more powerful the Wii U will be over the Wii?

ThePerm · « **Reply #38 on:** November 01, 2011, 06:49:12 PM »

well considering I think someone said next E3 you'll see the more final design of the Wii U, I hope it has an expansion port, so it is future proofed. I had forgot about the GameCube's port, and that I actually used it for the GBA player. The Wii was future proofed as well in the controllers, but not the system itself.

MegaByte · « **Reply #39 on:** November 01, 2011, 07:01:21 PM »

The Wii U has USB ports, which is the modern version of expansion ports (unfortunately, Nintendo didn't do much with them on the Wii).

famicomplicated · « **Reply #40 on:** November 02, 2011, 08:58:24 AM »

I learnt a lot from this feature, very interesting stuff here!
I'm especially into the SNES and N64 stuff, gotta love those add-ons!

Big thanks to Danny for digging up all this info and putting all in an easy to read manner, makes life easy for lazy people like me!

UncleBob · « **Reply #41 on:** November 02, 2011, 09:40:36 AM »

We should really try a Warp Pipe Mario Kart match up. Who's in?

Ceric · « **Reply #42 on:** November 02, 2011, 09:50:31 AM »

Quote from: UncleBob on November 02, 2011, 09:40:36 AM

We should really try a Warp Pipe Mario Kart match up. Who's in?

Maybe if I can find all my stuff.

Quote from: StrawHousePig on November 01, 2011, 01:21:27 AM

Oh wow, Warp Pipe and the LAN adapter. Never got a version of Warp Pipe to work right... something about the lappy I was using at the time... so long ago.

Never could get into PSO. Played it a few times but it seemed to mostly be people standing around chatting. No thanks. Plus it was a SEGA game and SEGA games *suck*!

That annoyed me about PSO. When you found a group that wanted to play the game then it was great. I'm glad the Monster Hunter Community isn't super chatty like the PSO one was.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #43 on:** November 03, 2011, 12:19:20 AM »

Quote from: MegaByte on November 01, 2011, 07:01:21 PM

The Wii U has USB ports, which is the modern version of expansion ports (unfortunately, Nintendo didn't do much with them on the Wii).

But you can't add more RAM to a system via a USB port, can you? Yet the N64 had an expansion port which allowed just that, and Nintendo released the RAM pack so it actually happened. It might not be a bad idea for Nintendo to include a port in the Wii U to allow the RAM to be expanded at some future point so that it can remain competitive against the PS4/420.

If that can be done via a USB port, then fine, but everything I know or think I know about USB leads me to believe it isn't really capable of that so some other sort of port is required.

Kytim89 · « **Reply #44 on:** November 03, 2011, 12:22:11 AM »

If the Wii U had a a spot for an internal HDD then it it would be the modern day equivalnet of the N64 memory expansion pack and port.

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #45 on:** November 03, 2011, 12:39:13 AM »

Quote from: Kytim89 on November 03, 2011, 12:22:11 AM

If the Wii U had a a spot for an internal HDD then it it would be the modern day equivalnet of the N64 memory expansion pack and port.

Wrong kind of memory expansion.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #46 on:** November 03, 2011, 01:03:02 AM »

What BnM said.

But I would also like to see a port or slot or drive bay or whatever you call it for an internal HDD to be added if the user so desires. I understand if Nintendo doesn't want to bundle a $50 HDD in the system by default in order to cut costs, but it would be nice if the option existed for users to add one in themselves. The PS2 was that way, so its not like that is unprecedented.

But yes, that is separate from the RAM which would be nice if that could also be upgraded later on.

Ceric · « **Reply #47 on:** November 03, 2011, 10:51:25 AM »

Ram can't be added vi any cost effective standard connector, I think Infiniband and like is fast enough.

I have mixed feelings about RAM upgrades in consoles. Harddrive style space is sort of a non-issue but, RAM starts diversifying the spec and makes moving targets for developers.

Chozo Ghost · « **Reply #48 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:54:00 AM »

Any game which would require a RAM upgrade could come bundled with the RAM upgrade. That's how it was with the N64 games which required the RAM Pak. I'm not sure how much a RAM module would cost, but hopefully it could be manageable.

Ceric · « **Reply #49 on:** November 03, 2011, 12:32:00 PM »

Quote from: Chozo Ghost on November 03, 2011, 11:54:00 AM

Any game which would require a RAM upgrade could come bundled with the RAM upgrade. That's how it was with the N64 games which required the RAM Pak. I'm not sure how much a RAM module would cost, but hopefully it could be manageable.

That's partially it. I mean Capcom is citing a slightly bigger cart for RE:Rev as the $10 premium reason. Which is bull but, think if you had to pack in something else. Not to mention if its popular we as gamers have 10 or so of them. Not good for the environment.

In theory that's great but in Practice its Wii Motion+.

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Author Topic: Nintendo's Expansion Ports (Read 20992 times)