Post by: Jonnyboy117 on March 29, 2009, 02:14:00 PM
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/podcastArt.cfm?artid=18064
And the fanboys saw that it was good.
Episode 139: On the 859th Day, He Rested
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From the North American launch of Wii to last Wednesday's GDC keynote, it took Satoru Iwata just 858 days to get a functional storage solution for the console. Despite our latent anger over the incredibly long wait, we couldn't be happier with the new SD Card Menu and all the other crazy announcements from Iwata. We cover it all, from Virtual Console Arcade to the coming flood of downloadable Final Fantasy titles. There's also a bit of talk about the new Zelda for DS and a localized Professor Layton sequel.
Don't worry, the show isn't all news. It actually starts with a meaty New Business -- both James and Jonny are getting into GTA: Chinatown Wars, and Jonny has some dirt on Henry Hatsworth and Shaun White Road Trip. Also, learn why Greg pre-ordered Mad World, played it for a few minutes, and then traded it in the same day!
In your Listener Mail, the topics turn to network throttling (and a tangential discussion of OnLive), various forms of Virtual Console for DSi, and our gaming disappointments. Please keep those letters coming! And don't forget that our Secret of Mana discussion begins next week. Start playing the game now and leave your thoughts in the RetroActive forum thread!
Credits:
This podcast was edited by Greg Leahy.
Music for this episode of Radio Free Nintendo is used with permission from Jason Ricci & New Blood. You can purchase their new album, Rocket Number 9, directly from the record label, or download it from iTunes, or call your local record store and ask for it!
Post by: Sarail on March 29, 2009, 06:29:09 PM
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on March 29, 2009, 09:17:21 PM
Post by: mac<censored> on March 30, 2009, 07:47:51 AM
Post by: Plugabugz on March 30, 2009, 08:22:33 AM
Virgin Media have a 20mb connection here, and if you download more than 3gb a DAY they will throttle your connection (by 75%!!!!) to 5mb for a defined period. Others are "unlimited" but blanket throttle everything all the time - my last ISP did this and it made every online wii game unplayable.
I mentioned it because everyone here is dependent on their internet connection working... and it don't then things like iPlayer, OnLive, Netflix etc will just won't work.
Then games like Brawl will become an even bigger slideshow ;)
Post by: NWR_DrewMG on March 30, 2009, 09:40:49 AM
Post by: Sarail on March 30, 2009, 10:35:31 AM
I guess I'm just not that big of a fan of the "sandbox" genre of video games.
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on March 30, 2009, 07:37:58 PM
Post by: ShyGuy on March 31, 2009, 03:12:27 AM
Post by: Stratos on March 31, 2009, 04:02:24 AM
People are having a lot of problems with this update. Wiis crashing and not reading disks.
I hope it gets hacked soon because I want to use the homebrew solely to bring the Wii back to V3.4
Poorly played move Nintendo.
Post by: TJ Spyke on March 31, 2009, 11:51:38 AM
People are having a lot of problems with this update. Wiis crashing and not reading disks.
I haven't had my Wii crash. I have twice had to reset the system since the Wii wouldn't read the disc (it would just keep the Wii and GameCube disc icons spinning).
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on March 31, 2009, 12:14:45 PM
Except the SD Channel is evil and a poorly tested piece of junk. It broke games that use the SD card like Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Animal Crossing.
People are having a lot of problems with this update. Wiis crashing and not reading disks.
I hope it gets hacked soon because I want to use the homebrew solely to bring the Wii back to V3.4
Poorly played move Nintendo.
Works fine for me in AC. I had a disk reading problem but unplugging the system and plugging it back in fixed it permanently so far. From what I understand games that weren't built with larger SD cards in mind (Or SDHC) CANNOT work with it unless the physical disks are replaced, that has more to do with the Wii hardware then Nintendo not fixing it with this update. Guitar Hero should support 2GB SD cards like it always has.
Post by: BeautifulShy on March 31, 2009, 05:33:34 PM
I want to know what they think of Punch Out and Excitebots.
Post by: kraken613 on March 31, 2009, 06:39:09 PM
Post by: yoshi1001 on April 01, 2009, 07:59:54 PM
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 01, 2009, 09:50:00 PM
Post by: Stratos on April 02, 2009, 04:10:00 AM
I don't think there were a lot of games released on both the NES and Game Boy. Some of the few I can think of are Yoshi and Dr. Mario.
Yoshi Cookie, Tetris and Tetris 2 were as well. There were a lot that were on both for a while if I remember correctly. I'll do a search and come back with the results.
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on April 02, 2009, 04:08:40 PM
I still think a Virtual Handheld (GB, GBC, GBA, Game Gear, NGPC, Lynx, Wonderswan) is more likely. DSi probably doesn't have enough RAM to properly emulate the 16-bit consoles and up.
Post by: NWR_DrewMG on April 02, 2009, 04:13:14 PM
Post by: Stratos on April 02, 2009, 04:24:40 PM
Aren't the GBA and the Super NES pretty similar from a technical prowess standpoint? Why would you need a beefier machine to emulate the Super NES than the GBA?
The SNES was a bit better than the GBA. Play Yoshi's Island on it and watch it lag on the Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy level.
Also, I checked the lists in Wikipedia and there were a lot of games that came out on both the GB and NES.
I don't think either way we are going to see a cross platform deal like that any time soon.
@Jonny
If the DS is close to the N64's capabilities then shouldn't it not have that much of an issue emulating 16-bit console games? The DS is stronger than a GBA and we saw ports of Donkey Kong Country, Mario World and others on the final Gameboy system. We also have seen games like Chrono Trigger, Mario Kart and others on the DS with equal or superior graphics from their predecessors. Shouldn't that mean it is more possible to emulate SNES on the DS?
Post by: Mop it up on April 02, 2009, 05:49:16 PM
Though I'm sure there are other factors here so I probably don't know what I'm talking about.
Post by: Stratos on April 02, 2009, 05:52:03 PM
Based on technical specs alone I would think the DSi could handle Nintendo 64 emulation. The DSi CPU is about as fast as an overclocked Nintendo 64 so it should have no trouble there (and actually might be able to fix framerate problems). It has twice the RAM of a Nintendo 64 with the Expansion Pak, so even if the system needed a little extra resource for the emulation, I'd think it could still run them just fine.
Though I'm sure there are other factors here so I probably don't know what I'm talking about.
You convinced me!
It's crazy to think that the DS has more powerful hardware than the N64 which is much larger than the DS. Heck, the Ram Expansion alone is almost as big as a DS, isn't it?
Post by: Mop it up on April 02, 2009, 06:21:18 PM
Original DS specs:
CPU: 67 MHz ARM9
Second CPU: 33 MHz ARM7
RAM: 4MB
DSi specs:
CPU: 133 MHz ARM
RAM: 16MB
Nintendo 64 specs:
CPU: 93.75 MHz (overclocked is around 140MHz)
RAM: 4MB regular, 8MB with upgrade.
The N64 RAM Expansion cartridge contains a lot of empty space to leave room to ventilate (that thing gets HOT!); the actual RAM chip itself is quite small. Given the DS came out eight years later, that's plenty of time to make it smaller and require less cooling space.
Post by: Stratos on April 02, 2009, 06:31:09 PM
Post by: Mop it up on April 02, 2009, 07:01:27 PM
Without modifying the games, they could not display properly on the DS. Even NES games have a resolution of 256 x 240, which would cause a part of the top and bottom of the image to be cut off. Therefore, games would likely need a reprogramming, which would probably be more effort than it is worth.
Post by: yoshi1001 on April 02, 2009, 08:35:48 PM
One thing that did occur to me, though is that if they could emulate GB/GBC on the DS, why wasn't that incorporated into the original DS? Is the DSi really that much more powerful that it becomes feasible?
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 02, 2009, 08:47:53 PM
Post by: Stratos on April 02, 2009, 09:21:37 PM
I think the resolution issue was a problem because if I remember correctly that was a big hurdle for porting the original Zelda to Gameboy. Each room in the game was a full screen size so it couldn't easily be ported.
@Yoshi1k1
I think they just hadn't thought of the idea at the time the DS was being developed. WiiWare was a bit of a pioneering effort for Nintendo. I would imagine that if they knew how big it would have been it would have been included. The only thing baring the original DS from working with a D/L service is the lack of internal flash memory like the Wii has.
@TJ Spike
Are you referring to the lack of a GBA slot?
Post by: yoshi1001 on April 02, 2009, 10:29:24 PM
I think it was more of a size issue. The DS would have been larger in size if they made it so you could play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.
How so? Wouldn't they just stick out the bottom, like GBA games on the DS Lite?
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 02, 2009, 10:44:59 PM
Post by: Mop it up on April 02, 2009, 10:47:51 PM
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 02, 2009, 11:18:21 PM
The Game Boy Advance also contained the Game Boy Color's CPU. The DS does not have the Game Boy Color's CPU, only the Game Boy Advance CPU (the ARM7). If they wanted the DS to be able to play GB/C games, then it would need the GBC CPU which would have given it three CPUs. Don't you think that would have been a bit ridiculous?
He's suggesting that GB/C compatibility could be included via emulation, which would definitely work because even the GBA could emulate the GBC.
Post by: Mop it up on April 02, 2009, 11:28:41 PM
I really shouldn't get into this technical stuff though because there are too many things I don't really know.
Post by: Stratos on April 03, 2009, 12:39:38 AM
Post by: King of Twitch on April 03, 2009, 02:31:03 AM
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on April 03, 2009, 12:57:02 PM
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 03, 2009, 01:07:28 PM
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on April 03, 2009, 01:07:48 PM
None of the previous handheld systems' backwards-compatibility was based on emulation. It was more like PS1 on PS2 or PS2 on the early PS3s... or GameCube on Wii. They share hardware, so you can trick the old games into thinking they are running on the original hardware. Emulation is all software-based.
What Jonny said, and I am not even that familiar with the stuff!
BTW does anyone know yet if the DSi has the GBA hardware still in tact? Yeah we don't have a slot anymore but it doesn't mean they still removed the internal hardware.
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 03, 2009, 01:12:42 PM
None of the previous handheld systems' backwards-compatibility was based on emulation. It was more like PS1 on PS2 or PS2 on the early PS3s... or GameCube on Wii. They share hardware, so you can trick the old games into thinking they are running on the original hardware. Emulation is all software-based.
What Jonny said, and I am not even that familiar with the stuff!
BTW does anyone know yet if the DSi has the GBA hardware still in tact? Yeah we don't have a slot anymore but it doesn't mean they still removed the internal hardware.
The ARM7 chip that allowed for GBA backward compatibility isn't like the GBC chip in the GBA, it's one of the two processors that are used in DS games, so it's definitely still in there.
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on April 03, 2009, 01:53:46 PM
None of the previous handheld systems' backwards-compatibility was based on emulation. It was more like PS1 on PS2 or PS2 on the early PS3s... or GameCube on Wii. They share hardware, so you can trick the old games into thinking they are running on the original hardware. Emulation is all software-based.
What Jonny said, and I am not even that familiar with the stuff!
BTW does anyone know yet if the DSi has the GBA hardware still in tact? Yeah we don't have a slot anymore but it doesn't mean they still removed the internal hardware.
The ARM7 chip that allowed for GBA backward compatibility isn't like the GBC chip in the GBA, it's one of the two processors that are used in DS games, so it's definitely still in there.
Interesting.
Post by: Mop it up on April 03, 2009, 06:24:32 PM
The ARM7 chip that allowed for GBA backward compatibility isn't like the GBC chip in the GBA, it's one of the two processors that are used in DS games, so it's definitely still in there.According to Wikipedia the DSi contains just one CPU, a 133 MHz ARM processor. Unless I'm missing something then it would appear that the ARM7 processor has been removed from the DSi.
Post by: yoshi1001 on April 03, 2009, 07:25:13 PM
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 03, 2009, 07:53:17 PM
The ARM7 chip that allowed for GBA backward compatibility isn't like the GBC chip in the GBA, it's one of the two processors that are used in DS games, so it's definitely still in there.According to Wikipedia the DSi contains just one CPU, a 133 MHz ARM processor. Unless I'm missing something then it would appear that the ARM7 processor has been removed from the DSi.
That's not possible, removing the ARM7 would make the DSi incompatible with DS games in addition to taking away GBA compatibility, DS games use both the ARM7 and the ARM9.
Post by: Mop it up on April 03, 2009, 10:42:28 PM
What I was asking is if the DSi core processor can emulate GB/GBC why didn't they include that feature in the original DS (which I believe has the same core processor)?My guess would be that it was more trouble than it was worth. Since they no longer sold GB/C games, how would it benefit them?
That's not possible, removing the ARM7 would make the DSi incompatible with DS games in addition to taking away GBA compatibilityWhat makes you so sure of this? The source on Wikipedia links to an article where somebody opened up the DSi and found only one processor.
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on April 03, 2009, 11:07:24 PM
Post by: NovaQ on April 22, 2009, 06:17:08 PM
Disappointments in gaming - what a perfect question for an Internet gaming fan site! I'm surprised that hasn't been brought up sooner.
Twilight Princess disappointed me for sure, but of course it had massive, long-term hype (and the disappointed have already made themselves well heard/read by now). In addition to James' Temple of Time "wow moment," I thought the final real dungeon, the one in the sky, was wicked.
Wind Waker's clear omissions of dungeons were pretty disappointing, too. The third pearl and the fire and ice arrows all "should have" had dungeons. It makes you wonder how much better the game could've been had it had more development time.
Also, I got Yoshi's Story when it first came out for my birthday. That was a sad birthday.
P.S. Did Jon say "It's pretty Nietzche" instead of "It's pretty niche"? I think it was at the part about FF on VC...
Post by: Stratos on April 22, 2009, 06:24:31 PM
Also, I got Yoshi's Story when it first came out for my birthday. That was a sad birthday.
Pretty ironic considering the mission in the game is to keep the Yoshi's happy and reclaim the Super Happy Tree!
I also need to clarify something earlier regarding DSi/GBA backweards compatibility. I mentioned that size was an issue and some people interpreted that to mean cartridge size. I meant screen resolution, not that cartridges would stick out of the machine. You have to rework the games output to fit in a different resolution. The original Zelda especially was designed to have one room fill the entire screen. It had to be reworked to fit one room on the GBA screen properly.
Cartridge size is not a big issue I would think considering original GB carts stuck far out on a GBA SP.
