Topic: How many players?

[UncleBob]

Okay, if you were playing a simple game that only requires a directional pad and one button, how many players can you connect to one Wii at a time?

Obviously, you can connect four Wii Remotes and use them in "NES Mode"... But can you connect four classic controllers (or four nunchuks) while in "NES Mode" for 4 more players to join in?  I tried it and it didn't seem incredibly uncomfortable.

Then, add in four Game Cube controllers, of course.

That's up to 12 players.

Now, the other thing I can come up with is the DS Connectivity.  Anyone know how it works?  The DS doesn't connect via Bluetooth, as far as I know, so you should be able to have the four Wii Remotes connected, while still connecting more DSes...  Any idea how many DSes can be connected at once?

Is it possible to have 16 (or more?) Players from one Wii?

[BranDonk Kong]

I'm sure the DS connects via ad-hoc WiFi (same way that it connects to another DS), it doesn't have any other wireless capabilities.

[Smash_Brother]

What are you getting at, UB?

[Plugabugz]

A massively multiplayer offline game, possibly?

[nickmitch]

Faceball?

[Ceric]

Well Technically you could connect up to 4 Gamecube controls.  +4 Then you can connect 4 Wiimotes. +4 Next Connect 4 Nunchucks to the Wiimotes (I think the Classic control probably borrows some button inputs from the Wiimote). +4  Theres the 12.  You can connect an arbitrary amount of DS's that is only limited by the amount of Channels available in the 2.4 ghz range that can be used by 802.11b.  I'm assuming there is at least 16 so +16.  Now we know you can connect a usb Keyboard as well so thats +1.

In theory, abstracting away the Wii's ability to meaningfully keep up with all these inputs in a timely manner, you could have about 29 people inputting something into the Wii at the same time throuch sanctioned input methods.  

[Plaguefox]

I may have been bungling things, but the last time I tried to play a two-player Virtual Console game with one Classic Controller and one WaveBird, I couldn't have them in the same port.  That is, if my Classic Controller was hooked into the Wii Remote labeled as player one, the WaveBird hooked into the GameCube player one slot would be controlling the same thing.

I solved the issue by moving the WaveBird's receiver to the player two spot in the GameCube ports.  Is this a hardwired limitation, whereby the GameCube's four ports are mapped identically to the potential four Classic Controllers?  That could throw a wrench in the 12-player concept, but I'm almost positive there's a way around this; isn't the TG16 Bomberman game five players?

[Uncle Bob]

Yep, it is.  One Wii remote and One GCN controller and three more of each of them in some combination.

And this is what got me wondering... Could we have some kind of crazy-ass multi-player Bomberman?  Granted, it would suck on a smaller TV, but if you had a decently large TV, it could be pretty fun.

I still want my 1,000 player on-line Bomberman... That would be great fun.

Bomberman is and should always be bombs, mazes and items. The more, the better.

[Athrun Zala]

I think 18 would be the maximum...

4 GC + 7 Wiimotes + 7 CC (remember that Bluetooth allows up to 7 devices at the same time...)

it would be highly impractical, however...

[BlkPaladin]

I lost where I got this news but someone was playing around and found that if there was someone who wanted to there could be 16 remotes. But it would just be easier to implement LAN play were you can have four players per Wii.

[Crimm]

The number of games that could accommodate that many people on screen is limited.  It would have to be a game that wouldn't require split-screen.  One where all the players are on the screen at once.

[ThePerm]

bomberman!

[UncleBob]

Quote
Originally posted by: Crimm
The number of games that could accommodate that many people on screen is limited.  It would have to be a game that wouldn't require split-screen.  One where all the players are on the screen at once.

What ThePerm (and I) said... Bomberman.

Basically, what I'm thinking, for this crazy-ass Bomberman is that there is a really high limit for the max number of players, so virtually any group of people can play at the same time.  You'd only be limited by how crazy you want the game to be.

A friend and I played the Bomberman Land Touch! with 6 computer players on on the "Mini" level (it takes up only one of the two DS screens).  It was some crazy stuff.