Have you heard anything about at Metroid Prime 2 soundtrack coming out? I

didn't think most of the music was all that great compared to Prime 1, but

I'd love to have the Hydrochamber Maridia-remix.

Really doubt it.

Hey planetgamecube,

I am a big fan of Perfect Dark from the N64 and was wondering if you

will be able to download it for the Revolution, since Nintendo sold

Rareware, or if they will have problems getting the copyright to it.

Thanks.

Andrew

Although the characters and other elements of Perfect Dark clearly belong to Rare, Nintendo did publish the original N64 game, so they should still retain the rights to release it as they please.

Do you know if Nintendo has any secret plans for a Pokemon MMO or such?

It's painfully obvious that such a project would be incredibly popular

and rake in tons of cash. It also has the potential to be

the biggest MMO ever. They could make multiple clients for the

Revolution, the DS, the PC, the cellphone, etc. and all of them could

allow people to play the game in a different way. Perhaps on the DS you

do something like Nintendogs to boost your Pokemon and battle people on

the street. But on the Revolution you get the full Pokemon World.

I'm not even a big fan of Pokemon or anything. But it seems to me like

Nintendo is passing over this amazing opportunity that could make lots of money

and indoctrinate many more kids around the world. The window of

opportunity is closing quickly, however, as the poularity of pokemon is

dropping by the minute. Anyone who knows anything about video games only

has to think about this idea for a few minutes to see a land of

opportunity and wealth. Just what are the people at Nintendo thinking?

How can they not come up with such an obvious idea? They have to be

working on something in secret.

Of course, many people have suggested such a game over the years. There are two main obstacles, aside from the sheer difficulty in developing any MMORPG. First, Nintendo has never had a truly viable online platform to launch such a game; that's about to change with DS and then Revolution. Second, and more troublesome, is the inherent nature of an MMORPG. Interacting with other people requires more or less free communication, which means Nintendo cannot censor the game's content. They can't keep creepy old guys from flirting with the many young kids who would want to play such a game. There's no way to realistically police the game to prevent such behavior, so it's never going to happen unless Nintendo takes away full and open communication, which would cripple the MMORPG gameplay as we know it. Perhaps Nintendo will design a new kind of massive, online Pokemon game that can be played without such means of communication among players. But at that point, it will no longer be what we think of today as an MMORPG.

Battletoads always gets the love for being the hardest NES game. However, I seem to remember a game -- that you yourself owned -- that put Battletoads to shame as far as difficulty . . .

Did you ever beat Milon's Secret Castle?

--DrHogie

(I've known this guy my whole life, hence the personal knowledge.) You know, I never did beat the last section of the game, but I did get incredibly far. I don't know if I'd rate Milon as being harder than Battletoads, though. You do have infinite continues with a simple code at the title screen (a la Super Mario Bros.), so the main challenge is being able to play all day long so you can make some real progress. The game badly needed a password or save system.

Hey, just like to throw out how much i love the site! So much in fact that I was inspired to write in with a few questions of my own! Ok here we go.

1. This was a awhile back but i remember hearing a few developers (ex. Square Enix) were testing the limits of the multiplayer capabilties of the DS wifi. In fact there were a few rumors that connections of 32 and 64 players were even made! Now i thought the DS maxed out at 16, but do you think its possible in the future to have larger mutiplayer?

2. Speaking of limits, I keep hearing that mario kart DS will be limited to 4 player online and 8 player Local Wifi. Do you think that the this is an indication of how playing portable online will be like? I know that the PSP has yet to have an online game that will support 16 players. Do you have any further information on this?

Well thats all I've got for now! Keep up the great work!

Sincerely,

Rob

I haven't heard those rumors about pushing for larger DS wireless groups. My understanding is that the wireless spectrum used by the DS is split into channels, just like on the WaveBird, so I would guess that the 16 player limit is due to there being just 16 channels available to the DS. If that is the case (cue ten emails about how I'm completely wrong about how the DS does wireless), it seems unlikely that any developer could get around such a limitation. As for Mario Kart, the four player limit for the online mode is due to bandwidth and fluidity. Even then, the online mode runs at 30 frames per second while local wireless for up to eight players runs at 60 frames per second. In general, the faster a game is (i.e. the more data it needs to transmit to keep up with the pace of the game), the fewer players you'll be able to have playing together online. I'm sure you could play a poker game with many players online, since there's no rush to share the data back and forth.

I remember a while back something called “Organizer Plus” was said to be in development for Nintendo DS. What happened to it?

Also can we assume when Nintendo goes online that a firmware upgrade will pop up with online pictochat? Honestly pictochat is all but useless (no way to search for someone ) but if online I would use it allot especially to meet new people so I can get to know them before playing Mario Kart. Speaking of Firmware is there any realistic chances Nintendo will officially update DS’s firmware I really would like to take off that warning each time I turn on my system. -adv2k1

I don't know anything about "Organizer Plus". As for firmware updates, the DS is certainly capable of them, but the question becomes how to distribute them so that most of the system's owners get it? If it's heavily tied in with online games, I guess the best way is to include the firmware update with all online games, starting with Mario Kart. Online PictoChat would be heavenly, and I'm really hoping that's in the works. By the way, you're probably stuck with that warning screen no matter what. It's to protect Nintendo from lawsuits.

Dear bag, everytime I look at PSP and XBOX messages boards I can only think about this: why do peoples buy a pricey machine that is not made by Nintendo just to play illegal roms of old SNES and NES games??? What's the matter? Can't Nintendo do something about that? PSP look like it's made to be hacked to play Nintendo games. P.S. The whole Sony agains't Lik Sang thing is not real, is it?

Paco

There's little Nintendo can do to prevent piracy on other systems, especially when people are playing ROMs and not physical pirated software. Sony is trying to cut down on the hacking by installing PSP firmware updates with their new games, but most hackers are smart enough to avoid such updates or just buy a second system. The lawsuit by Sony against Lik-Sang is very real, I'm afraid. Sony doesn't want them selling Japanese and American PSPs to customers in Europe who don't want to wait around for Sony to finally launch the PSP in that region. I have no idea whether the lawsuit has any real legal merit, but since Lik-Sang is based in Hong Kong and the PSPs they have sold are real units from other regions, I'm betting that Lik-Sang will come out on top of this one.

Hey PGC mailbag,

i was wondering, is there any way that i can hook up my Gamecube with my laptop? i am going to college in about a week and won't have a TV to play on any longer. my TV has to stay at home with my younger sister, we share the TV and my parents sympathized with her, while i am in my dorm. i have 45 games for the system and i don't want them to just sit around not being used. well they would actually be used by the rest of my family just not by me. so am i out of luck or is there a solution to connecting my Cube to my laptop and using the laptop as a screen?

thanks for any help,

Josh

Interesting question. If your laptop has a video in jack, like a computer monitor, it should work with a GameCube VGA cable, which can be ordered from various online shops. (Note: VGA adapters are only compatible with progressive scan games.) However, I have no idea whether such a jack is common or even possible on laptops, being more of a desktop guy myself. Another possiblity, though rather convoluted and probably expensive, is to get a graphics card for your laptop with video capture ability. Then it will have RCA-type video jacks, which means you can plug your GameCube's regular A/V cable directly into the laptop. I would guess that there are capture cards for laptops, but they may be pricey.

Hello, PGC. Been readin for a while.

To get to the point, I completely missed the memo

involving the new SSB. Could you link me up to it or

describe it for me? Thanks.

Call me Vid

Mr. Iwata announced the new Smash Bros. game during his speech at Nintendo's pre-E3 media briefing. All he said about it was that it would have online play and is being targeted for Revolution's launch. Zero information about the game has been released since.

The trick I use to get NES games to work is to put the game into the

system and push it down, and then get another game and stick it in a

little bit on top of the one you're going to play. It'll keep the game

down, and it seems to get all my games to work on the first or second

try.

-Keith

Well yeah, there is a long list of less graceful fixes for this old problem. Many people blow on the game connector or wipe it with their finger (not recommended), which can help if dust is the problem. To deal with the connector going bad, my old trick was to insert the game not quite all the way in, so that it was left hanging just barely over the edge of the cartridge slot, and then slam it down into place very hard. It worked most of the time, believe it or not.

Hello

I was wandering what that footage shown in E3 2000( Rebirth) with the tree trunk coming alive and walking around in a forest was. Was that a game or not, I thought I remember reading somewhere (ing.com/cloudrunners.com) that it was coming out for the GameCube or something like that. Sorry for being so vague about it, but I thought maybe it could be one of the new games for the Revolution or not. Oh here two music track from the footage.

Your Comments

Thanks

Rebirth was a tech demo of sorts designed to give an idea of what GameCube could do, graphically, back when the system was first shown at Spaceworld 2000. It was never a real game demo. By the way, please do NOT attach large files to your mailbag entries, even if they are well intentioned and harmless. If you want me to listen to something or watch some movie, and it's really important, please host it somewhere and just send me the link.

Hey bag,

My girlfriend and I are planning on taking a trip to Seattle. I was thinking of checking out NOA while I was in the neighborhood. Exactly what portions of the company building are open to the public. I know they have a store... But what else? Is it worth a drive to Redmond?

-tomspug

No. It's a completely normal building from the outside. On the inside, you will not make it past the front desk without an appointment. And the store is well past the front desk (actually on another floor). There's also a small museum and retail display area, which does contain an F-Zero AX machine. The rest that I've seen, which is not much, is a series of meeting rooms and cubicles and Cafe Mario, the employee dining room. I've never had a bona fide tour of the headquarters, but I've heard that they take you to the call center and that's about it. All of the really magical stuff happens farther back, where we mere mortals may not enter.

Hello-

I recently moved out of New York City where I would frequent the

Japanese bookstores to pick up the various Nintendo magazines. I

couldn't read them, but the art and design were always inspiring and

exciting. 3 Magazines focused on Nintendo- Famitsu Cube+Advance,

Nintendo Dream, and one other. You're probably aware of the rad prizes

the mags come with like a DS screen cleaner or case. Anyway, I

wondered if you cool kids at planet gamecube knew how to get these

magazines by mail? or any other suggestions. I miss them. Thanks!

Christopher

I've never heard of a way to subscribe to the Japanese gaming magazines from outside Japan. You might try contacting those stores you used to visit and ask them if it's possible to set up a regular mailing of those magazines from their store, but I'm sure it will be quite expensive.

Hey PGC, how are you all doing today?

My question is unrelated to gaming, I was wondering who the heck are all you dudes? Do you guys make money out of this website or do you do this for fun? If so, congratulations and keep up the good work!!!!

Hotcubiche FD

We're just Nintendo fans who love to write (and edit, and draw, and code, and...). We're scattered all over the world, though most of us live in the U.S. And we're not all "dudes", either. We have three ladies on the staff. Incredibly, we all do this for fun...no one gets paid, including me. The money we make from advertisements goes into a special bank account that pays for our hosting and some other costs.

Refuel this ironclad mailbag vessel, ye scoundrels!