Messages

251

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Revolution Web browsing confirmed

« on: February 16, 2006, 06:24:00 AM »

I admit that Nintendo seem to know their stuff when it comes to securing the hardware but this is high-risk and high-stakes: the danger is that you'll have account information (for buying games online) and saved game products (already bought) in the Revolutions internal flash memory - this means that if the system is exploited then your account could be compromised (if it's an external attack, from the net) or Nintendo's downloadable game content could be stolen (if you yourself crack the system). I can't see them wanting this to happen and a fully functional web browser is clearly hard to secure (both Firefox + IE have exploits documented regularly)

EDIT: spelling
 

252

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Revolution Web browsing confirmed

« on: February 16, 2006, 06:04:12 AM »

I was wondering if a browser might be a security risk - even if it's quite locked down it's probably easier to exploit than savefiles etc. since to be any use it'll have to implement JavaScript and DOM and probably Flash - all of which seem vunerable and the PSP browser was quickly hacked.

For a company like Nintendo that takes copy protection very seriously, a browser could be an easy way in for people who want to crack the system.

253

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Revolution Web browsing confirmed

« on: February 16, 2006, 04:42:00 AM »

Any additional function like this can only be good really - it's one more tick in a box in the features list on the packaging if nothing else.

Whether it's actually useful in practice will depend on the quality of the interface though, and I'm not sure I'd like to have to buy anything extra (e.g. keyboard) to use it.

Assuming it doesn't require an extra keyboard then I can see myself using it if the Rev controller works well enough as a mouse.

254

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Is this a threat to the Rev-mote?

« on: February 15, 2006, 10:31:50 AM »

I really hope it will be better in actual use than a light gun and it clearly has more degrees of freedom in a technical sense - I guess we'll just have to wait and see if it turns out to be better from a gaming sense - I'm definitely playing Devil's Avocate here and I hope to be proved wrong in the long run

255

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Is this a threat to the Rev-mote?

« on: February 15, 2006, 06:38:00 AM »

Ahhh! didn't realise that - that would pretty much rule it out then. Does traditional light gun technology with CRT televisions suffer from that? I thought they timed the progress of the beam from the top left corner of the screen.

The FPS control screen for the Rev described sounds OK provided they get a good balance between looking around and having the crosshairs follow the direction you're aiming in - getting it wrong could give some people motion sickness.

256

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Is this a threat to the Rev-mote?

« on: February 15, 2006, 06:14:17 AM »

Quote
Lightguns aren't very useful for FPSes, they're like a less accurate form of a touchscreen except you can only tap it. You couldn't use it for turning around and it'd lack accuracy compared to even analog stick aim. Never mind that autofire/charge wouldn't work.

Does it only track the gun when fired then rather than tracking it continuously then? The underlying tech can surely track it all the time? I suppose it would be a bit odd using it to look around though - perhaps it could scroll at the edge of the screen - but isn't the Revmote going to feel similarly odd when the game world rotates as you move it?

I've never felt that tying where you're looking to where you're shooting was ideal in an FPS but I guess that's a limitation of how many sticks human hands/brains can manage.

257

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Is this a threat to the Rev-mote?

« on: February 15, 2006, 04:24:28 AM »

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It's just a lightgun man. A lightgun for newer TVS. How long have lightguns been around?

Since forever admittedly... maybe I am getting too het up about this...

It's just there's been a lot of excitement about the Revmote in conjunction with FPSs and this kind of made me wonder just how much more it will give us - in the context of an FPS at least -  that a light gun wouldn't. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that the Revolution controller is less of a big deal so I don't go mad waiting to be able to buy one :-(

258

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Is this a threat to the Rev-mote?

« on: February 15, 2006, 03:41:05 AM »

And I love the way some people have no imagination...

To be clear: I'd rather have a Revolution - I'll never buy a Microsoft console on principle and I'm not interested in the sort of stuff Sony puts out either, whereas I love Nintendo's style, attention to detail and sheer fun. But there are millions of people out there who feel differently.

Marketed right by Nintendo's competitors and with some alterations, something like this (not NOT this actual product) could leave the Revolution controller looking quite a bit less special - this light gun is a piece of technology that gets a modest proportion of the functionallity of the Revolution remote control and for FPS use it's probably the most interesting aspect - accurate weapon aim. It's clearly not expensive, it's not encumbered by any Nintendo IP so Sony or Microsoft are free implement it, the gun form factor probably appeals more to 12 year old boys compared to the TV remote style Revolution controller and nothing stops you using one of these in one hand and a one handed controller in the other.

259

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Is this a threat to the Rev-mote?

« on: February 14, 2006, 11:39:57 PM »

It's clearly not as versitile to you or I because we're obviously interested enough in this stuff to read Planet Game Cube and write forum posts about it.

But does the average EA buying gamer in the street really care? After all it looks like one of the major perceived advantages of the Rev remote outside Japan is the ability to improve FPS's and, frankly, a light gun would go a long way towards improving the experience compared to a typical console analog stick. It only takes Sony or MS to release something like this, nicely styled and supported by something like Halo, a few astroturfer raves saying it's just like, or even better than the Revmote and people will eat it up :-(


 

260

Nintendo Console Discussion / Is this a threat to the Rev-mote?

« on: February 14, 2006, 09:42:12 PM »

Just seen this on  Lik-Sang, via Slashdot: a light-gun compatible with non-CRT TVs including plasma and LCD. One of the major objections to light-guns these days is that they don't work with modern TV technologies

I realise that it actually does a lot less than the Revolution controller will but sometimes just-good-enough is good-enough - especially for an unsophisticated audience (PS2 nudge nudge, wink wink...)

Edit: fix broken link


 

261

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Considering Nintendo's emphasis on making their console small and quiet...

« on: February 13, 2006, 06:41:35 AM »

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Or they could just make it so that using the Rev you can output the video of your DS to the TV. In some games you have to be able to look at the touchscreen anyway but for something like Mario Kart it would work fine.

That would be very cool but I wonder - does the DS wireless connection have enough bandwidth to do this? Even with the relatively small screen sizes of the DS, 60 frames a second uncompressed would be megabytes a second.

262

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Considering Nintendo's emphasis on making their console small and quiet...

« on: February 13, 2006, 05:53:52 AM »

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Maybe a future Option Pak for the DS will include a motion sensor like the "Revmote"?

I'm picturing myself frantically waving my DS about, whilst scribbling wildly with the stylus and trying to watch *3* screens at once - I think that could cause sensory overload!

263

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Considering Nintendo's emphasis on making their console small and quiet...

« on: February 13, 2006, 04:58:21 AM »

I'm looking forward to Revolution/DS connectivity. I think the better interface on the DS will make it much better than the GBA connectivity where you sacrificed at lot of buttons + analog control.

264

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Considering Nintendo's emphasis on making their console small and quiet...

« on: February 13, 2006, 02:45:02 AM »

Have they not already announced wireless DS connectivity? If not, then I'd agree this is pretty much a given and not a good secret.

It's really starting to eat me this secret business - I'd love it to be great but I don't have good feeling about it...

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Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Considering Nintendo's emphasis on making their console small and quiet...

« on: February 13, 2006, 02:30:11 AM »

Oh yeah - I hadn't thought of the Gameboy Player - it was quite successful. I was working on a theory about how if the secret thing is some sort of optional expansion it'll turn out badly but the GB Player is a good counter-example.

266

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Considering Nintendo's emphasis on making their console small and quiet...

« on: February 13, 2006, 02:18:08 AM »

Has any console ever had a really successful expansion port? Particularly one that had a successful plug-in gadget for it that *wasn't* available at launch?

267

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Forbes: Kaplan Interview

« on: February 09, 2006, 09:16:59 PM »

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What if Nintendo bought Take-Two?

According to Ign, Take-Two might be bought by Elevation Partners and is in discussion with buy-out firms. If Nintendo bought Take-Two, they'd own the GTA series and could keep it from Sony and Microsoft. I'm sure there are some other big franchises Take-Two has but I can't think of anything except Firaxis and the Sid Meier games like Pirates and Civilization, but those are more computer games. Still, if Nintendo did something like that, would you feel that would solve some of the problems related to Nintendo and its not appealing to gamers, not mature, and not appealing to western games arguements?

I can't imagine Nintendo wanting Take-Two - they just don't seem to see the value in the GTA franchise. I think they'd regard it as somehow unsporting to be successful selling games like GTA.

Quote

Also, just out of curiosity, I was wondering what you consider to be Nintendo's best two consoles? Name your first favorite and your second favorite.
I would like Big Jim and Ian to answer but anyone can answer that as well. There is a point to this but I want to wait first for people to respond.

I'm torn between the SNES and the Gamecube. I remember having a lot of fun on the SNES but I'm not sure how much of that is looking back through rose-tinted specs - a lot of the games were hard, unforgiving and repetative whereas on the Cube this is less common. I never had an N64 - couldn't afford one, couldn't afford the games :-(

268

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Forbes: Kaplan Interview

« on: February 08, 2006, 11:57:33 PM »

Maybe, but the thing about my mates' casual gaming habits is that they're only inclined to do it socially - and only when someone else (i.e. me...) provides the equipment. I'm afraid if they used pr0n that way, I might run and hide...

Anyway, it's nice to think of Nintendo starting a craze for private video game fetishism but somehow I can't see that one materializing :-)

269

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE: Revolution booklet tidbits

« on: February 08, 2006, 10:24:38 PM »

My brain hurts now - I thought it was just a pretty picture :-)

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Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Forbes: Kaplan Interview

« on: February 08, 2006, 08:11:19 PM »

I think it's good that thet actually have a strategy and they're telling people about it - and the coverage in Forbes seems positive enough, or at least not outright dismissive. I have my doubts though whether there is an ocean of potential customers out there for video games that currently don't buy them: everyone I know is either into video games and knows it or is pretty much uninterested.

As a bit of a social experiment, I've got non-gamer friends of mine to play party game stuff after the pub - mainly Super Monkey Ball mini games - and while they'll do it drunk and appear to enjoy it (if the screaming, shouting and fits of giggles are to be believed) but they'd never admit they enjoyed it when they sober up, and they'd certainly never buy a console so they could play off their own initiative - the situation has to be engineered so it just happens for them without them having to admit they want to do it :-(


EDIT: spelling  

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Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Revolution booklet tidbits

« on: February 08, 2006, 10:30:17 AM »

OK. Will be careful not to do that again.

[--Please don't leech other people's bandwidth--]

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Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Revolution booklet tidbits

« on: February 08, 2006, 09:50:06 AM »

I dunno what that book that the photos are taken from is for (can anyone read any of the Japanese text?) but it has some mad stuff in it - check out the wacky zen garden:


--Please don't leech other people's bandwidth--
EDIT: Copied inline image to my site and relinked - is this acceptable?
     

273

Nintendo Console Discussion / RE:Revolution booklet tidbits

« on: February 08, 2006, 09:01:19 AM »

Wow - after all the obvious fake info about the Revolution this stuff looks much more plausible. I doubt anyone could photoshop that stuff. Still, interesting as it is, it doesn't shed much light on the stuff we still know nothing about - CPU, GPU etc :-(