Hey. Long time reader, first time writer.

About Ocarina of Time 2D. It turns out that the whole thing was a

scam. The author, (TheRealMethusala) realized he had started something

he couldn't finish, and had a friend or something contact Yahoo! to get

the site shut down so it looked like Nintendo did it. After a quick

Google search,

http://www.zeldacentral.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t3891.html has

the story from someone who was close to the author. Read MrWiggle's

post, a ways down. On an entirely different note, I'm definitely

digging these more-than-once-a-day mailbag updates.

Cheez-it

Yowch. But I also got this note:

http://www.zfgc.com also has numerous 2d Zelda fan games, including a couple oot’s, majora’s masks, etc, in SNES graphics, minish cap graphics, and even gameboy graphics. A bunch of motivated fellows there. But anyways, yea, OOT2D wasn’t shut down by Nintendo or anyone else.

-nick

So there are some alternatives if you were really looking forward to this project.

Heya,

In regards to all of your Nanostray e-mails.

According to our corporate office [GameStop, Inc.] ,we are expecting another shipment to our warehouses -and from there to our retail stores - ,but as of now it has an unknown arrival date.

I would have to guess this is another case of underestimating consumer demands. (IE: the PSP Stereo Station shortage.)

An avid reader,

"E3K"

There's some cause for hope if you want Nanostray but haven't found a copy!

I like Bruce Campbell's work. With me being a Nintendo guy I never got to play any of the Evil Dead games. I'm I would like the games because I'm a huge survival horror fan(thank you Capcom). Eat your heart out Tony Danza, eat your hart out. Thanks for the bag you made my life meaningful again!

Check out Spider-Man: The Movie and Spider-Man 2 for GameCube. Both are brilliantly narrated by Bruce Campbell.

Love the bag and I've been reading the site for a while figured it was time for a question and a bit of input.

First the input, it was said before that the Revolution would feature the same pricing as the competition when it comes to multiplatform games. If it all comes down to it and the sports titles drag on Revolution wouldn't it be smarter to drop the prices on the games? Revolution is supposed to be cheaper to develop on. My thought is that dropping the price makes more people by the game on the system and it installs a fanbase on the system. I could be wrong though.

Second is the question and I'll make it short and sweet. Is there anything going on with development on another Luigi Game? I absolutely loved Luigi's Mansion. It was great playing with Luigi Solo.

-Tracy

Well, here's the problem with your pricing theory. Third-party publishers decide the prices for their games, not Nintendo. So even if it costs next to nothing to port code to Revolution, and Nintendo lowers per-unit royalties and manufacturing costs, the publishers can still sell their games at the same price as on the other systems and just make a larger profit on the Revolution version.

I read somewhere recently that Nintendo is interested in doing another Luigi game. The last one sold well, though probably mainly due to it being a launch title. At the very least, I fully expect Luigi to show up in the new Smash Bros. game with his vacuum in hand.

In the new issue of Popular Science that I just received today, they

list the Game Boy Micro at $100. Now normally if they don't know, they

either put an estimated price range or that the price hasn't been

announced yet, so there feels to be validity to the price. However,

doesn't this seem a bit expense for a system that has 2 alternative

versions that are much cheaper? I understand their aiming for a

different market with the Micro and not those of us that already have a

GBA or an SP, but it still seems a bit high. Thoughts on this?

- Optimistic

That's probably an estimate by the magazine, but it is nevertheless completely possible that Nintendo will price the Micro at that level. It seems like a hard sell though, offering such old technology at a premium price. For fifty bucks more, you could get a DS that plays all the same games plus a whole new library.

I highly recommend using the NES Game Genie. Don't even have to use codes. It's the easiest way to get games playable (even if the cartridges are dirty). Give it a try, it'll save ALOT of frustration.

Jason

Cool trick, but not quite foolproof. The Game Genie itself is kind of hard to insert, and I thought that back when I was a kid and the thing was brand new.

Hey, Bag!

I was wondering weather any of your questions were planted. If not, then your answer to the question written by Alan fell into your hands perfectly, didn’t it?

Uh…love,

Crazy Max

Absolutely not. Nothing on PGC is planted. If anyone on the staff writes into the bag, as has happened a few times already, their names are included with the letter just like anyone else's would be.

I really enjoy reading the mailbag. The number of questions you answer a day gives me hope in actually having one answered. Now that I'm done with the butt kissing, I have a few questions to ask.

1. Today (8/9) you all updated your DS release schedule. There are something like 15 games for Dec. 31 '05. I am correct in assuming those are all just placeholders, right? Didn't you say that the New Super Mario Brothers wasn't expected to be out before next year?

2. How much time do you think it would take to localize the sequel to XX/XY, "Where do Babies Come From?" Do you think there is a chance we will see it before the end of the year? According to Sega it is at "80%" and will be out in Japan October 20th, is that enough time to translate all the directions? If so, I might have an all DS holiday season.

3. Lastly, when the Revolution was first shown (at E3) stories reported that it was 2 to 3 times more powerful than the GameCube. "The information was later determined to be false. We do not yet know how much more power Revolution wields over its predecessor." (ign cube)

a) At what point was this number invalidated?

b) Given the source of the first figure is Perrin Kaplan, someone who would know, is it possible that they backed off because of a bad response?

c) Or, do you think that is an accurate figure they just weren't ready to go on the record about power (or feel that would detract from the "revolutionary" aspect)?

Thank you, James

Good questions all around, which is why I'm printing your letter, not because of the butt kissing.

1. Dec 31st is a coded date in our database. That date, along with a special time code entered simultaneously, prompts the database to display a special date such as "December 2005" or "Q4 2005" or "Year 2005". Either someone forgot to add the time codes for those games, or there's a glitch in the database that is making the special dates not activate. I'll look into it.

2. If you remember, Feel the Magic was actually released in English before it was released in Japanese, because the DS launched in the U.S. first. (And boy, do we have a lot to show for it!) I see little reason that the sequel could not be released in English by the holiday season. The story is probably still being told mostly through action scenes, not text or voice.

3. The invalidation was very subtle, which has caused a lot of confusion. During my talk with Perrin at E3, which we never published because it was extremely short and disjointed and inconclusive, I did ask her about that number and what it meant. As I recall, her answer implied that what she said to Steven Kent (whose article contained the original quote) had been accidentally taken out of context. More likely, Steven was pressuring her to throw out some numerical figure, and she hastily offered "two to three times" without knowing if it is really accurate or how the gaming community would interpret it. My guess, honestly, is that Perrin had seen some Revolution tech demos, and that figure was her personal assessment of how the graphics had improved over GameCube. Perrin is an extremely smart woman, but her field is business, not programming or hardware design. And that is why she and other Nintendo executives have since avoided the numbers game completely, only saying that gamers will be surprised and very satisfied with the Revolution's capabilities. Again, this is all just my assessment of the situation, but I think it's close to the truth.

More mailbag fun is coming your way soon! Keep up with the great questions, please.