Topic: Wii's hardware

[jasonditz]

Quote
Originally posted by: Dinzy
DVD movies run at 1x.  a 12 or 16x drive is well 12 or 16 tmes faster.  The gamecube had like 24megs of ram so at say 2MB/s you can fill it all up in 12sec.  Or in other words low ram = low load times.

That's not neccesarily the case either. You don't need to fill up the RAM before you start play, and you can load stuff on the fly without stopping play to some extent. So you can have more RAM with the same speed drive, and so long as you sort of "play your cards right", you won't see long load times.

[jasonditz]

Hopefully this means the Wiimote won't cost $50 a pop... I mean, I'd just as soon buy some NiMH batteries or whatever.

[AnyoneEB]

Ceric: Not really important, but the SNES can theoretically support 64Mbit cartridges, although parts of the cartridge would be unreadable due to overlapping with memory mapped information from various system components. Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean were 48Mbit. (Star Ocean also has some weird extra compressed graphics either on a separate chip or decompressed by a separate chip.) On the other hand, the vast majority of SNES games were 8, 16, 24, or 32 megabits.

No rechargables in the Wiimote is annoying, but you could always just buy your own rechargable AAs. Although, one of my friends says he does not like using rechargables in his GameBoy Color because the voltage does not drop with usage like alkilines. That is, the battery low indicator only goes on very soon before the battery is dead.

[jasonditz]

A nice consequence to this whole battery thing is that someone who is not a "Casual" gamer and tends to use the Wiimote quite a lot could get some of those 15-minute rechargable batteries from Radio Shack or wherever. Much faster than recharging the battery that we've got in the DS, for instance.  

[Jensen]

No rechargeable batteries? maybe I'll wait for Wii 2.0.  

[slacker]

I think Nintendo should have a rechargable option, but also allow regular alkaline batteries. They can then pimp their own rechargable option and make more money. In the end, I'm sure some third party rechargable option will be available.  It seems like a minor issue to me. That comment about physics being built into the system intrigues me. Is this the ace up Nintendo's sleeve that will give the Wii a processing advantage over the competition?  I am a bit suspicious that the Wii might be more powerful than we thought and Nintendo's emphasis on gameplay over graphical power might be lulling the competition into a false sense of security (It could be that they don't want to compete with Hollywood like CGIs and have to pay more to their artist than their programmers).  I'm willing to bet that in the next few months, Nintendo will unwrap the technical specs and reveal that it is a processing powerhouse that can simulate physics well enough that the quality of the effects will wow the gamers.  ATI and Nintendo have consistently say that it will be comparable to the competition, but not support HD. That comparable word has always bugged me. Perhaps at standard resolution, the image quality and effects will be the advantage that justify the comparable comments.

[mantidor]

yeah this not recharge batteries deal sucks big time, time to get rechargable AAs I suppose, Ive been actually needing those for a while.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Non rechargeable batteries isn't really that bad if it has a long battery life like the wavebird has.

[Crimm]

Quote
Originally posted by: VGrevolution
Non rechargeable batteries isn't really that bad if it has a long battery life like the wavebird has.

However, we know it wont.  They've alredy told us that, but if you think about it...
Blah.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

IT'S ALL GOOD.

[mantidor]

does the 360 controller has rumble? and how long does it last?

[Crimm]

Microsoft claims 40 hours, but some websites claim about a "full day" of gaming will kill it.  It could, in theory, last for 40 hours because the intensity of the rumble (so yes, it has force feedback) is customizable; if you turn it off it may well last 40 hours.  It does internally recharge, and if it dies you can connect it to play.

[jasonditz]

360's good for about 40 hours on standard AA's if you have rumble on low (it's got multiple settings).

I'm guessing with NiMHs you could probably do much better though.  

[Mario]

Ah crap, I completely forgot about the battery issue, I don't wanna end up spending $599 on batteries! Looks like i'll have to get one of those fancy rechargable ones... interest in Wii just dropped massively.

[jasonditz]

Nintendo's battery technology, though very nicely self-contained, isn't really markedly better than the stuff available at your local Radio Shack.  In fact, if you're willing to spend a bit more, you can get longer life and some nice features that almost certainly wouldn't have been in a wii rechargable battery (Which would've been likely a trimmed down SP battery).

This gives us a bit more flexibility and I'm all for that.

[BlackNMild2k1]

" if you're willing to spend a bit more, you can get longer life and some nice features that almost certainly wouldn't have been in a wii rechargable battery"

what kind of features does a battery have? & what extra features could I get for a little more $$$?

[Crimm]

Some recharchables are designed to recharge very quickly (as in minutes).

[BigJim]

I'd much rather use rechargable AA's so I'm not SOL if it dies mid-game. Happens all the time on DS.

As for the discs, the games themselves are almost guaranteed to be on proprietary media, not unlike GameCube discs. They're similar enough to "real" DVDs that the cost of compatibility is negligible. Especially when you sign a contract to buy XX million drives and sell an upgrade for $20 a pop.

How many people here plan to buy the DVD upgrade? I'm content with my progressive scan player...

[31 Flavas]

Quote
Originally posted by: stevey
The wiimote wont have buit-in recharchable battieries or be able to use internally chargable battery

Why use some proprietary battery that can only be charged by the Wii or some special charger? For that matter what happens when your internal battery runs dry? Teathered PS3 and/or 360 controllers (while charging) I would think would/could be acceptable... But, I wouldn't want to use a teathered Wii-mote for any sports game on Wii or RedSteel, Metroid, Zelda, Mario, WarioWare, or pretty much any Wii game because I the internal battery is dry. Sorry.

I'd rather just swap out a pair of AA recharable batteries. I can have a spair pair on hand ready to go for when the current batteries fade. No messing around with or having to play while using charging cables.

[Caliban]

I guess the option of using AA batteries is fine, it isn't my first option but whatever. What are these NiMH's I keep hearing about? Has anyone used those Energizer Lithium AA batteries?

[Renny]

Nickel Metal Hydride. It's the current 'standard' for small electronics [edit: as far as standard cell sizes are concerned]. You can buy them in AA or AAA (and more I suppose) cell sizes, so they'll be useable in the Wiimote. I'm sure we'll see an 'integrated' rechargeable battery pack for the Wiimote, a la the WaveBird version from Hip Gear. Still, we've all been spoiled by the battery life of the WaveBird. And non-gamers are accustomed to the long battery life of remotes. It's been my experience that all rechargeables have a shorter run time than Alkalines, so it could be a very inconvenient tradeoff to go with a rechangeable. Standard batteries are only practical when you have a decent battery life to begin with.

Edit: The GBA and DS have internal Lithium Ion batteries, not Nickel metal hydride. <i am lose>

[mantidor]

If it was like the Wavebird I wouldnt care about having to buy batteries, because they last forever, but the remote has rumble and apparently the motion sensing consumes a lot, sony got only six pathetic hours with no rumble (or maybe sony just sucks at doing battery life longer for it) Rechargables are really the only option, whether is included or you have to buy them separately, anyone would get broke by going with only normal AA.

[WesDawg]

Quote
Originally posted by: ruby_onix
I think they said during the "Wii24" on line thing that the Wii will be one of those systems that's powered up all the time, just in sleep mode, like the PS2, and that will contribute to shorter startup times (like the PS2, LOL).

What? I don't think the PS2 is always on. It just has a little lite on the front to show its "off". If I'm wrong, tell me, cause' I'm sick of having to load games up every time I start it.

I'm imagining the Wii's "Always On" feature will be more like the PSP or DS's. If you're in the middle of a game and have to run out for a while, you can just put the thing into sleep mode. Minimizes all the power needed, but can bring itself back to life nearly instantaneously when you get back. I'd love a feature like that.

[31 Flavas]

Quote
Originally posted by: mantidorsony got only six pathetic hours with no rumble (or maybe sony just sucks at doing battery life longer for it)

How large is the battery in the PS3 controller though? I'd assume the hardware of the actual PS3 controller takes up a large amount of space. So the battery would have to be rather small. Bad battery life not because it consumes so much power, but because the battery is small. Now if you stick a reguar set of Alkalines or 3000 mah NiMH AA's into a PS3 controller and I bet its battery life would jump to 20 maybe 30 hours.

It's the same way with bluetooth headsets, the rediculusly small ones that look really snazzy and sleek use tiny Li-ion regarables and get 8-hours talk time. But if you buy a AAA battery powered model, you get 20 hours of talk time.

[BigJim]

Quote
Originally posted by: Renny
Nickel Metal Hydride. It's the current 'standard' for small electronics. The GBA and DS both have an internal NiMH.

Small correction, the GBA SP and DS use Li-On batteries.