Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Virtual Console

[MegaByte]

Everything old is new again.

A mockup of Nintendo’s Virtual Console service was available for play at E3.  The demo featured one flagship game from each system announced so far for the service: Super Mario Bros. for NES, Super Mario World for SNES, Super Mario 64 for N64, Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis, and Bonk’s Adventure for TurboGrafx-16.  Each of the five games featured a selection screen with box art and a picture of the system to be emulated.  Selection of each game brought up a control screen, similar to GameCube kiosk demo discs.  While the games appeared to be full versions, they actually stopped with a thank you message after a certain level of completion.  The games were fully emulated originals; several people were able to get to the infamous Minus World in Super Mario Bros.  Emulation of the 2-D systems seemed to be perfect, at least for the games presented.  The Nintendo 64 emulation was most interesting since the resolution of the polygons was increased, while the status icons remained pixelated above.  Emulation wasn’t perfect as I observed several imperfect connections between polygons, which resulted in cracking.    

Virtual Console was also the only Wii station on the show floor to feature the classic controller.  All of the games controlled well on the controller.  The controller’s layout matched the layout of the PlayStation DualShock, with the exception of the shoulder buttons.  The prototype controller featured only one fingertip shoulder button for Z, rather than the two shown in press photos and on display.  Additionally, a mysterious clipping mechanism was on the back of the controller.  The booth attendant was eager to point out this clip, yet when asked was it was for, he would smirk, “It’s a secret."  Neither the controller or Virtual Console interface are finalized at this time.  The attendant did confirm that the classic controller would not be packed in with the Wii system, claiming that Nintendo felt that not enough people had broadband so they would not benefit from owning the controller since they could not download classic games.  This attendant also made it known that the Virtual Console demos were in fact running on Wii dev kits, not the actual Wii systems.  Technical details such as whether Virtual Console games will run locally or remotely are not finalized.    

While everything is still preliminary, it was nice to test out early ideas of how Virtual Console will work.  Hopefully, the controller clip will make more sense in the future, and the other trigger will be added in order for compatibility with other games.  Details on the pricing structure will also be a major deciding factor in the success of the system.

[cirej2000]

Quote
Originally posted by: PGC NewsBot


Neither the controller or Virtual Console interface are finalized at this time.  The attendant did confirm that the classic controller would not be packed in with the Wii system, claiming that Nintendo felt that not enough people had broadband so they would not benefit from owning the controller since they could not download classic games; a lame excuse.  This attendant also made it known that the demos on the show floor were in fact running on Wii dev kits, not the actual Wii systems (unlike the lies fed by other representatives).  Technical details such as whether Virtual Console games will run locally or remotely are not finalized.    

Hmmm if this lame excuse is the truth, then I guess there'll be no VoIP, since it requires pretty darned fast broadband to be effective.

[thejeek]

Quote
Hmmm if this lame excuse is the truth, then I guess there'll be no VoIP, since it requires pretty darned fast broadband to be effective.

VoIP should only need a few kilobits in each direction - the only reason it doesn't work too well over a modem is the poor latency of the connection, not lack of bandwidth. ISDN carries voice acceptably over a 64kbps connection.

[SlayerZero]

Hopefully by the time the full version of the Virtual Console is finished cracking will no longer be an issue. Since the classic controller is not included with the system, Nintendo needs to at least release it's price (as well as the prices of other peripherals) at the same time as they release the price of the Wii. While the Virtual Console may not be the biggest sell point of the Wii, if it works smoothly enough at launch it might seduce some of thosee classic gaming psychos over to the Wii.

[EasyCure]

the clip-mechanism on the underside of the classic controller will be used to.....

clip it to my built that way i can pretend to be captain n 2.0, and release a cartoon in which he kills Naruto and becomes the next big thing. now people wont be wearing those stupid headbands anymore, and instead wearing the stylish VC controller instead ;-)

[Ages]

"The attendant did confirm that the classic controller would not be packed in with the Wii system, claiming that Nintendo felt that not enough people had broadband so they would not benefit from owning the controller since they could not download classic games"

This is bad.  It's pretty much forcing developers to use the Wii remote for their games, no matter how shoehorned the gameplay would be.  They've touted the classic controller as something for games that couldnt use the remote (SSBB comes to mind) and now it's not a standard in the system.  The clip will undoubtedly be used to attach the remote to the classic controller.  Why else would they have to be ATTACHED?  How can you effectively use the classic controller if you're swinging you're wiimote the entire time?

[Hostile Creation]

As long as they make the controller cheap cheap cheap, maybe ten bucks, I don't mind.

[KDR_11k]

You know Nintendo. It'll cost 35 Euros.