Author Topic: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread bring your own salt (Read 4234537 times)

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #475 on:** March 13, 2007, 05:56:17 PM »

Quote
US online retailer Best Buy has sent out an email notifying customers who have pre-ordered Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii that the release date has changed from summer '07 to New. Year's. Eve.

A six month delay? to a game already delayed by 6+ months (wasn't it originally scheduled for Launch)?

What could they be doing? adding multiplayer online like Reggie hinted to awhile back?

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #476 on:** March 13, 2007, 06:36:19 PM »

Come on...An online retailer release detail is hardly justifiable as a rumour... =/

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #477 on:** March 13, 2007, 07:01:38 PM »

I used it as a reason to push the online MP3 rumor thats been going around and sort-of hinted at by Reggie.

Besides if they are sending out e-mails about a delay to the customers(& months before the targeted release period), they must know something that we don't.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #478 on:** March 13, 2007, 07:09:00 PM »

I'm with Bill on this one.

Its been mentioned a while back that sometimes when the game companies don't provide the stores a firm release date they will often make one up and use it as a place holder date till the real one is announced.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons Best Buy is sending the e-mails and changing dates is because Nintendo has been so quiet about it that they figured that the game wouldn't be released this year and is letting everyone know to expect a sudden change in dates.

King of Twitch · « **Reply #479 on:** March 13, 2007, 07:27:58 PM »

Well I better not get my hopes up. I'll just assume it's being ported to the next next-gen Starcube until I hear otherwise. ;*(

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #480 on:** March 18, 2007, 01:47:50 PM »

Ok, sorry for the last non-rumor rumor, but here is an actual rumor, and one that will hopefully come true. If this happens, and happens soon, it could be the start of some interesting possibilities for the Wii.

The rumor comes from the Japanese gamer mag - GameLabo

Quote
The meat of the rumour, which has been doing the rounds on several US and European websites over the weekend, suggests that a Nintendo meeting took place recently to discuss the subject of an external hard drive for Wii.

While the story might sound a bit ridiculous on the face of it, fact is that many Wii gamers have already hit their limit on the Flash memory that comes with the console - especially if you've been downloading as many VC games as you can get your hands on.

Source - Computer&Videogames.com

This would be great for Animal Crossing, a Pokemon MMO, NeoGeo & Saturn VC games

, and whatever other uses 3rd parties could think up for a HDD. I know FFXI would probably be ported right away.

Remember all those rumors waaaay back when about the stand being a battery pack for the Wii? Well what if this rumored external HDD comes in the form of a slightly modified Wii stand, one that possibly has blue LEDs(like the disc slot) that glow when being accessed, and just has a little USB cord that plugs right into the back of the Wii. I think if they use some of those iPod mini HDDs and just insert it into the stand they could keep the Wii looking like it already does with its minimalist design and extremely small footprint.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #481 on:** March 18, 2007, 01:54:17 PM »

Not surprising, since Nintendo has been touting that you could plug in some USB devices to store data. They just needed the firmware upgrade to do it.

Would be cool if it came true, though. I hope they also allow for normal hard drives to be used. Would suck if you had to shell out 100 bucks just to buy a hard drive for the Wii when you had one that could've been used.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #482 on:** March 18, 2007, 01:59:10 PM »

I too am hoping that they allow the use of 3rd party USB devices.

Anything less than that would suck, especially after they said it would be able to do so a while back.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #483 on:** March 18, 2007, 02:02:18 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
I too am hoping that they allow the use of 3rd party USB devices.

Anything less than that would suck, especially after they said it would be able to do so a while back.

If anything, the official Wii hard drive should be the CHEAP alternative. I mean, we don't want the "Nintendo Wifi dongle" fiasco to happen again.

But let's be realistic, if the hard drive comes true, it will be overpriced and be very small capacity wise (like 20 GB).

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #484 on:** March 18, 2007, 02:05:50 PM »

I expect it to sell at a premium, just like the Wii-branded SD cards.

External USB drives are hella cheap which is why I hope they allow you to use them.

If they allowed the use of 3rd party SD cards, I don't see why they'd disallow 3rd party USB drives.

BranDonk Kong · « **Reply #485 on:** March 18, 2007, 04:44:20 PM »

Even if they release their own HDD and do not support 3rd party drives, I'm sure someone will figure out a way to make a 3rd party drive appear as the official Nintendo one, like they did for the Xbox 360. Of course, this is assuming they add HDD support to begin with. If they do, and release their own HDD, it better look awesome with the system, like the 360's HD DVD drive.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #486 on:** March 18, 2007, 04:53:35 PM »

Agreed.

I'd consider springing for a branded HDD if it looked awesome and was easy to port around, but I'd probably opt for an iPod I could wear around my neck.

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #487 on:** March 18, 2007, 05:46:57 PM »

Well what if the Nintendo branded HDD came preloaded with a game, like Animal/Mii Crossing or some other Nintendo developed HDD focused game?
What if the HDD was like I mentioned before(in the stand)?

Would either of those convince you to pay premium prices?

Strell · « **Reply #488 on:** March 19, 2007, 02:12:17 AM »

SIXTY FOAR DISK DU-RIEEEEEEVE MEGATONS

Pittbboi · « **Reply #489 on:** March 19, 2007, 02:23:03 AM »

Welp, that didn't last too long...

Nintendo Rep Denies Hard Drive Rumor

It wouldn't be the first time a rep (for NOE, of all places) didn't know what they were talking about, but at the same time...this person seems pretty sure that a Wii Hard Drive is pretty out of the question.

Still, I'm surprised at how quickly and straightforward the official response to this rumor came. It makes me wonder why they won't just hurry up and confirm/deny all the rumors regarding friend codes...hmmmm...

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #490 on:** March 19, 2007, 02:36:54 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: BlackNMild2k1
Well what if the Nintendo branded HDD came preloaded with a game, like Animal/Mii Crossing or some other Nintendo developed HDD focused game?
What if the HDD was like I mentioned before(in the stand)?

Would either of those convince you to pay premium prices?

If Animal Crossing came on the drive, probably, but that doesn't seem likely.

The convenience of carrying my HDD around my neck is too good to pass up, really, especially when I can then easily use it to move save files around.

Rhoq · « **Reply #491 on:** March 19, 2007, 02:57:28 AM »

I know people have been able to use the Wii's USB ports as a power source (for charging iPods and battery charge stations) but has anyone tried to connect a USB flash drive or external HDD?

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #492 on:** March 19, 2007, 03:00:00 AM »

Currently, it doesn't do anything if you do so (which is a shame).

Rhoq · « **Reply #493 on:** March 19, 2007, 03:15:17 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
Currently, it doesn't do anything if you do so (which is a shame).

Hopefully a software update will be released in the near future to rectify this.

Ceric · « **Reply #494 on:** March 19, 2007, 05:45:23 AM »

I think the probably Nintendo, in their mind, would run into is that the Read time of a Harddrive is slower then the flash and you don't want to be hitting flash has a temporary drive because it only has x amounts of writes. Which for the lifetime of the Wii how it is currently being used should be fine but if you using for a page file consistently I could see that halfing the projected lifetime relatively easily.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #495 on:** March 19, 2007, 06:04:58 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Pittbboi
Welp, that didn't last too long...

Nintendo Rep Denies Hard Drive Rumor

It wouldn't be the first time a rep (for NOE, of all places) didn't know what they were talking about, but at the same time...this person seems pretty sure that a Wii Hard Drive is pretty out of the question.

Still, I'm surprised at how quickly and straightforward the official response to this rumor came. It makes me wonder why they won't just hurry up and confirm/deny all the rumors regarding friend codes...hmmmm...

I say we should wait and see. Remember that Nintendo has denied stuff in the past only to announce it a few months later.

Nintendo has already said that they plan on allowing use of external storage devices, so them (or a third party) making an external HD for the Wii seems like an obvious choice.

Ghisy · « **Reply #496 on:** March 19, 2007, 06:21:52 AM »

I'd rather see Nintendo releasing a flash memory HDD.
Much more reliable and lighter than an actual USB HDD.
An 8 gig flash HDD would rock!

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #497 on:** March 19, 2007, 06:25:23 AM »

Problem is that flash has a limited number of times you can write to it, and a HDD's lifetime can possibly reach or exceed that number, hence why they'd want an actual HDD with heads and sectors.

Dirk Temporo · « **Reply #498 on:** March 19, 2007, 06:33:44 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
Problem is that flash has a limited number of times you can write to it

What?

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #499 on:** March 19, 2007, 06:39:15 AM »

Flash Memory

Another limitation is that flash memory has a finite number of erase-write cycles (most commercially available flash products are guaranteed to withstand 1 million programming cycles). This effect is partially offset by some chip firmware or file system drivers by counting the writes and dynamically remapping the blocks in order to spread the write operations between the sectors. This technique is called wear levelling. Another mechanism is to perform write verification and remapping to spare sectors in case of write failure, which is named bad block management (BBM).

It sounds like it would be no big deal, but the thing is, a HDD sees thousands of writes and changes every day. Reaching a million is easily possible if you're going to be continuously updating the content on a HDD, like what would happen in a real-time Animal Crossing.

Currently, AC only saves games when a player commands it to. The issue there is that AC can never have a real consistent world where the power going out won't undo all the changes and call down the wrath of Resetti. If every time the player dug a hole, caught a bug, etc., the game saved to the flash, then you can see why the flash would have a chance to be worn out.

A HDD opens a lot of doors, in terms of not only gaming but also downloadable content and makes sense that Nintendo would have a Wii-branded one for "casual" gamers who just don't know any better.

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Author Topic: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt* (Read 4234537 times)

Author Topic: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread bring your own salt (Read 4234537 times)