Greetings Mailbag,

Wii niid some additional information on Wii. First of all, why is the release date on a Sunday? Wii pretty much have to order from Amazon.com because wii have a credit card from there. Should wii be worried that wii will not be able to get one around the release date from Amazon? Secondly, what are the dimensions of the sensor bar? Wii have our center channel speaker placed in front of a 42" plasma display device (which sits on a table), wii want to be able to place the sensor bar right on top of the speaker (maybe use some Velcro to make it stay put).

Ok, thanks. Wii hope this one is worthy of a response.

Thanks,

-The unit they call Robert

I didn't want to answer this question because of the Wiis and other iis contained within. Luckily for you, you asked a very good question, so I'll let it slide this time. But don't do it again!

Part the First: Nintendo has traditionally released new hardware on Sundays. It's the best day to do it for a number of reasons. Sunday marks the beginning of a new shopping week, with retail advertisement flyers hitting the newspapers. People can see the new Nintendo system in the paper and (hopefully) be able to go get one that day if it interests them. It's also good for the hardcore types that line up to be the first to own the system, since they can wait in line all day Saturday, get the console that night and play it the next day without missing any school or work in the process. Plus, it makes for good press on Monday when Nintendo can report sell-outs across the country. Launching hardware on any other day wold still have it sell out and still get news coverage, but the way Nintendo plans it maximizes their return, as it would be among the first things going on in the week. Getting a system from Amazon, or any online retailer for that matter, might be a crap shoot since you don't have any way of guaranteeing you get a console from the first batch. Even if you pre-order, you might need to wait a week or two. I'm waiting in line for mine, so it's a good thing the day I'm doing it is a Saturday!

Part the Second: The sensor bar as it will be in the retail box is about 8 inches long, and a tick thicker than a bar of chocolate, I'd say. You can put the bar anywhere you'd like, but try to put it as close to the center of the TV as possible. If the bar is too low or too high, you're going to need to point the remote more toward the bar to compensate for the difference, since the remote needs to see the bar to work in the games that use the pointer.

Dear PGC

While I was watching Twilight Princess demonstrations online at the latest Wii press event, I noticed something else that Nintendo changed for this build: Link was right-handed! He held his sword in his right hand, and his shield in his left. He even threw his gale boomerang and strung his bow with his right hand. My guess for the change was because of the Wii controller and the modified controls. It would see weird to swing with your right hand and see Link attack with his left, or to thrust your left hand foward and see Link thrust with the shield in his right. I'm not sure how I feel, though. I still always admired the south paw side of Link, being the most prominent lefty in all of gaming. It's a small loss, sure, but you could also argue that it was an equally small gain. I don't know, what's your take?

Link's right-handed now? Big deal. He still uses the Master Sword and matching shield. He's still got on the green garb, complete with boots and pointy hat. Throughout the Legend of Zelda series, all the Links have been different people, and them being left-handed had nothing to do with the legend. It was just something Shiggy kept doing because he wanted to. To anyone out there that thinks this is a deal-breaker, go ahead and get the GameCube version. Have fun waiting those extra couple of weeks while I'm playing the game on the Wii!

It makes a lot more sense with the control changes that swinging the remote with the right hand swings Link's sword, which will now also be in his right hand. The shield on his left arm can be thrust forward by doing the same thing with the nunchuk in your left hand. Keeping the tradition of a lefty Link wouldn't work well on the Wii if people wanted to swing the sword with their right hand, the hand the just about everyone will hold the remote with. It would be backwards if you needed to move the right half of the controller to do something on Link's left side, and it would be awkward to hold the remote in a non-dominant left hand to have the game actions to better mirror your own. Nintendo probably figured the same thing, which is why they made the change.

The only thing that concerns me about this change is whether or not it will affect the day/night cycle. If everything in the game is mirrored to accommodate Link's change (as I heard it was reported to be), does that mean the sun will go across the sky in the opposite direction? I don't care what hand Link holds his sword in, but having the sun rise in the west and set in the east is another matter.

Hey Mailbag,

I got a few questions I want to shoot by you and hopefully you can answer them.

1.) I was thinking about how I was going to setup my Wii next to my other systems when I thought of this. Will the Wii's audio video cable (specifically the Component one) come as one cable like they have for every system or will they be separated giving enough so I can run the audio cables to my receiver and the video to my HDTV since the TV and receiver are a few feet apart. Also since my Surround Sound Receiver is a bit on the older side it doesn't have any Component Inputs/Outputs on it so hooking the Wii all up to that then running the cables to the TV is out of the question. I could rig something up with a switch box I'm sure but I would rather avoid that option if possible since the Wii is the only System that would need to use it and would like to save money buy not having to buy extra parts if need be.

2.) and really quickly is there any games in development that actually let us use dual Wiimotes for like dual weapons or something along that line were the Nunchuck wouldn't be able to do it.

Thanks,

Crazylink

1) I remember seeing the component cables hooked up to the back of the large HDTVs Nintendo was using to show off games at E3, but I can't recall if they were the sort that could be separated. I have the same problem you do, since I only have two component inputs on the back of my TV and four or five things to hook them up into. I need to route the video lines into a splitter and the audio lines directly into my receiver. I hope Nintendo these situations into consideration, especially because they won't be having support for separate optical audio cables. I don't want to be rewiring my entire home theater system for just one console.

2) There are no games that I know of that currently have any support for two remotes. The closest we have so far is Boxing in WiiSports, but that uses the remote/nunchuck combo. One of the early theories involving a dual remote setup was a boxing game, but it looks like the analog stick attachment has enough precision to work just as well as the remote does in that respect. (More on that later.) Outside of that, the only thing I can think of at the moment where you'd really need two remotes is a shooter is in the scenario you mentioned, where two remotes represent two guns, and you can have free movement (with the D-Pads) and the ability to independently shoot at two things at once. I'd like to see that.

I know that most of the details of the service itself are still a Deep Dark Secret, but do we know enough about the Wii console itself to say whether or not it supports WPA encryption? I have no problem with the networking being wireless only (having a wired network in your home in 2006 is like having a black and white TV) but I don't fancy opening up my network to intruders because the Wii only supports WEP. We had to jump through serious hoops to get the DS to talk via WPA, and it would be nice if Nintendo didn't shaft us with a useless protocol twice in a row.

I'm fairly certain Wii will support WPA wireless encryption. For those that remember our Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection interview conducted at GDC earlier this year, Nintendo said that not including WPA in the DS was a decision “finalized during the design of the hardware itself." I read that as saying WPA was outside of the DS's practical range of capabilities. The Wii is much more capable than the DS in the area of wireless internet. The console is designed to be on 24/7, and also to be connected to a wireless network 24/7. It would make a whole heap of sense to make the Wii as secure as possible, and WPA security can provide that.

Hello mail bag,

Been reading the website for a long time, love the bag, yada yada, you know the schpeel.

Anyway, I have a question concerning whether or not I'll be able to play the Wii without difficulty. I am a college student, so my dormroom is kinda cramped. In order to save space, I purchased a TV card for my PC and I play my video games on my LCD computer monitor.

1. Will the fact that I'm playing on a monitor rather than a standard TV affect my ability to play Wii? and 2. I can get myself a max of about 3 feet away from my monitor. Am I going to need to rearrange my stuff to get more distance to be able to play Wii?

Thanks!

1) No. The type of display is a non-issue. It doesn't matter what kind of display you have, or what the size of it is. All that matters is...

2) ..the sensor bar is placed as far away from you as possible. For the games that require the infrared pointer, if the remote is very close to the bar, remote motions appear large and exaggerated from the Wiimote's perspective. The nice thing about the sensor bar is that you don't need to put it right up against the display. If you have your monitor on a desk, for example, you could put the bar under the desk and against the wall in the space your legs would normally occupy and just point the remote at that while you play. You should start exploring where you could place the bar for maximum distance from where you'll be sitting, but still being comfortable while pointing at it.

Hey Steve, I was wondering if Take Two Sports is still going to make games for the Nintendo Wii? I know earlier this year it was announced that Take Two Sports enjoyed the Wii and wanted to develop games, such as NBA 2K7. Is it still going to happend?

Take-Two is hell-bent on competing with EA for the gamer's sports dollar. I don't think it would make much business sense for TT to allow EA to have an exclusive console base in the Wii, so I think they'll come to the party eventually. Nintendo will need to show there's the right demographic for sports games to sell on their new system. If Madden Wii sells as good as it plays, and there's proof of a large sports audience for the system, hopefully Take Two and 2K will bring in some competition.

We all know the Wii is backwards compatible with Gamecube disks. My question is how will we pull game saves from the Gamecube's memory card and transfer them to the Wii? Once the Wii is released I plan on packing the Gamecube away and playing everything on the Wii. Will I be able to do this without having to start over with all of my game progress?

--Dave

You will not be able to transfer GameCube saves to the Wii. To play GameCube games, you must use GameCube discs, controllers and memory cards. Wii accessories or system-specific features like the on-board 512MB of flash memory are off-limits to GameCube games, so you're going to need to keep all of your GC cards, and use the Wii just as if it were a redesigned GameCube. Bummer.

1) The WII hardware supports 16:9 gaming correct? But are ALL games going to be 16:9 or have 16:9 enhanced modes? Will the Wii allow you to chose your tv screen for 16:9 vs 4:3 (I ask this b/c my brother has a 16:9 tv and you don't get screen shape options in the GC set up --and if you chose the 16:9 support for the game (ala F-Zero GC ) you still have to use your strectch key on your tv to make it fill correctly.

2) VC and online pricing.. I think the pricing structure for the VC games will make a lot more people go to the illeagal ROM thing. $5 for a NES game that you can get in a used bin for less? $10-15 for SNES and N64 titles that if you go to EB or equivalent most of those games now retail at or below that price. Is Nintendo using these "high" prices to pay for the "FREE" Wii online service instead of charging for the service and having FREE games? I don't mind paying for a NEW game... just he catalog titles.

3) How is Nintendo planning on selling the controller? You have Wiimote + Nunchcuk + classic shell. Each can be bought seperately but don't you need all three to have a "complete controller" for your system? I guess individual sales would be good so you can only replace the part you need --but I htink they should sell bunldle packs w/ everything as well at say a $10-15 price break from buying sperately.

4-A) Is the system only going to be released in white? Will they do the controllers in different colors? I personally would love a black wii and some multi colored wiimotes.

4-B) Will/would Nintendo release a GOLD Wiimote for Zelda? That would be TOO COOL not to get. Or heck...a GOLD Wii.

Thanks for answering my email. I love your site and have been reading for years now.

1) Wii supports 16:9 just like the GameCube does. In other words, it's completely up to the developer to implement it. It's not like there's a magic switch that will make all games run in widescreen. Game makers need to specifically include a mode in every one of their games to display everything in the screen format. The Wii will probably have an option to make 16:9 the default screen mode for all games, but if a game doesn't include such a display option, we're going to need to manually change our TVs to compensate. I don't want to do that, so developers had better understand that all games should have a widescreen option!

2) A very small percentage of eventual Wii owners will know where to get ROMs illegally. The majority of eventual Wii owners won't even know that it's possible to play old games in the way PC emulators allow. "High prices" is relative to what else people know is available. If you ask a random guy on the street that he could pay $5-10 for one game, or $50-60 for another, and they both play on the same system, don't you think that person would want to know more about the cheaper game first? No matter what they charge, Nintendo is going to be making big bucks on Virtual Console. It's a no-brainer that VC will help pay for the costs associated with keeping a free online service running smoothly.

3) Nintendo has confirmed that the nunchuk and the remote will each be sold individually. There will be no "combo deal" for getting both at the same time, because such a deal would mean less profit for Nintendo. I said this before in the 'bag, but paying $60 for a full controller is outrageous. I've always bought extra controllers at the launches of previous game systems, but I'm not going to be doing so this time around.

4a) White only. One color at launch makes it easier to pump out systems and be sure the early adopters don't get stuck with a color they didn't want. (You can get the Wii in any color you want, as long as it's white.) Controllers are always the first to get new colors, because it's easier to do it with them. Making a new color hardware is a pretty big step, something that is only done after they test the market with the various controller colors. Nintendo needs to be sure that whatever new color Wii they come up with will sell as much as or more than the basic white model.

4b) I would buy a golden controller in a heartbeat. Maybe even a golden Wii, especially if it was of the bright metallic variety. Shiny things make me very happy.

Maybe this is common knowledge but I was wondering if you could tell me what happened to NCAA Football on the Gamecube? NCAA Football 07 didn't come out for the Gamecube. When did they stop making NCAA Football for Gamecube and why? I am planning to get a Wii and Madden looks like a really cool game but I am a much bigger fan of college football so I have to play NCAA 07 on the PS2. Is there any chance, seeing as how EA seems to be behind the Wii 100%, that we could see NCAA Football 08 or beyond on the Wii?

Carlos

In the grand scheme of things, EA was doing no harm by not making NCAA Football for the GameCube. The football minority buys it, and the GameCube had the minority audience (and it didn't have online). Putting out a game that the minority of the minority would buy didn't make any business sense to EA, so they dumped it. If only a few thousand people were willing to buy your GameCube game, and the other two systems were selling hundreds of thousands of copies, why would you keep spending the money on the Nintendo version?

Going back to what I said earlier about Take-Two, EA probably won't make a Wii version of NCAA available until it knows there's a large enough sports audience to justify its development. Companies can't just makes games for the sake of making them. They need to make money from every game they create. It might actually work out better for EA on the Wii, because they could easily port up from the PS2 version to the Wii with the Madden Wii control interface stuck right in, and it would work out great. Maybe. We'll see.

Hey guys,

While reading IGN's Madden hands-on, a question reappeared in my mind that I failed to send in with my last one, so here it is: how sensitive is the accelerometer in the nunchuk attachment? For some stupid reason, I have always thought of them as super mini rumble-type units that used weights. Regardless of my irrational mental image of an accelerometer, I'd still like to know just how much force has to be used for it to register. For example, should I feel the need to thrust the Wii-mote and nunchuk forward at the same time during a rousing game of Madden, am I going to have to "jerk" them forward for the accelerometer to respond, or will a quick, smooth forward motion do the trick?

Thanks!

Jason M.

Like I alluded to earlier, it's sensitive enough to work in WiiSports Boxing. The nunchuk is the left hand, and the remote is the right hand, and based on the impressions I've read, they feel exactly the same. There's got to be some impressive tech inside the thing if it works that well. (But it's still not worth the $20 price, in my opinion.)

Allow me to explain how acceler-o-meters work. Picture a small bead trapped inside of a ping-pong ball. You'll notice that if you hold it in your hand and not do anything to it, the bead settles at the bottom of the ball. That's because the force of gravity is acting on it. Accelerometer measurements are based on how severe a force is being applied in terms of gravity, or 'G'. The base position of the bead in the example would simply be 1G, the force of gravity. If you drop the ping-pong ball, the bead starts to float off of its inner surface, creating a zero-G environment inside (relative to the bead).

Now image grabbing the ping-pong ball and thrusting it downwards while still holding it. The bead inside will hit the top part of the ball, which a standard accelerometer would register as negative Gs, a force that goes against the one of gravity. How quickly you performed the downward thrust would affect how hard the bead hits the inside top of the ball, and accelerometers can measure that severity. The same concepts can be applied to moving the ping-pong ball to the left or right, or also away from you and toward you. In that case, you would get lateral Gs. This information can be applied to a game just like the information a developer would get from analog stick positions. The difference is that analog sticks only have two axes, while the motion of the remote or nunchuk can be done over three axes.

Let's apply this to Madden's passing game. You can throw a lob or a bullet pass, depending on how quickly you do the throwing motion with the Wii remote. All of that is done through an accelerometer reading that happens as you move the controller. A soft motion will record a low G reading, while a hard, fast motion will record a high G reading. The value will be positive if the motion goes in a positive direction on a given axis, and negative if it goes in the opposite. Hypothetically, if the range of the Wiimote's accelerometer range was calibrated to be between -3.0G and 3.0G, with 0G being the starting position, a motion that creates a reading of 3.0G would produce the fastest bullet pass possible, while a reading of, say, 0.75G would create the slowest lob possible. The values in-between would produce pass strengths in-between, obviously.

When I played Madden Wii at E3, one of the things I did was to see what was the slowest possible controller movement speed at which I could perform the throwing motions in the game. It wasn't set so that a slow, perhaps accidental motion would cause the ball to be thrown. It was at the point where the game knew that the motion I was doing had to be a throwing motion. The same thing went for juking and stiff-arming while running with the ball. Things didn't happen until I wanted them to.

Here's what I'm getting at. Just as developers can create a dead zone in the movement of analog sticks, or require a minimum amount of travel be completed before an analog trigger is activated (such as to fire a gun in an FPS), the accelerometers in a Wii controller can be set with a minimum value which needs to be met in order to perform the corresponding action. Figuring out what that value is will be one of the toughest things for Wii developers in the early going. You don't want to require too great a force (a hard, jerking motion, etc.) to make something happen, because that could tire someone out too quickly. On the other hand, developers shouldn't make it so the slightest movements (a soft, gentle push, etc.) trigger an action, as that could lead to accidentally doing something while you were just moving your hands around normally, or trying to perform a different action. They need to find the sweet spot where people can perform actions without too much effort, but won't get frustrated by them happening accidentally or not at all. Different games will require different sensitivities, especially for something like Red Steel's swordplay.

Now that I've explained how it works, I'll answer your question. For those who don't know, thrusting both controllers forward is necessary to perform the fumble-inducing "hit stick" tackle on defense. I barely had any time to play the game defensively, but I remember putting a medium amount of effort into performing the move the two or three times I tried it. It felt good. However, I think a move like the hit stick should use a fast, jerking motion to activate. It would add to the fact that you're supposed to be really hitting the guy you're tackling, and since it's supposed to be a high-risk move, you wouldn't be using it often enough to get tired doing it. A softer motion could activate it just the same, but don't you think it would lose a little of its meaning if that were the case?

Even in Madden's first build at E3, the controller motions felt excellent. I didn't need to change the strength of my flicks or thrusts from what I had thought I needed to do before picking up the controller for the first time, so that was good. At that rate, EA Canada should have it perfected by launch. I definitely want to try out the finished Madden 07, but I'm going to hold out until they put the online features back in for Madden 08. No point in buying it this year if I'm going to buy it next year, you know?

Just seven more mailbags until the Wii launches! I think counting down the weeks is better than counting down days. Seven weeks seems like less of a wait to me than 49 days does. 7 < 49. It's basic math, people!

I'm always accepting your questions. You can send in your correspondence to the address below. Here's a tip for sending in questions: Write out what you want to send in, but don't send it right away. Instead, save it, wait a day or two, then come back to it. You'll find that you may have not asked everything you wanted to originally, and also catch some obvious spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. I do it any time I write a review or other article for the site. You should do the same.

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