SpinesN

Err.... who's gonna cut the full screen broadcasts now? btw I assume you are refering to the digital broadcast date here in the states (pssst look at the freaking name of the site). Also that is simply the date analoge broadcasts will end (digital != widescreen). Beyond all that the wii is set to outpot 480p (widescreen) as the default resolution.

Didn't see this one before but if that's the case please join us in the wii hardware thread

Give me a second age of SNES and I will be happy

DCK got it mostly but to cover why a game will not automatically look better on a more powerful system from the get go: A game generally starts its life as a concept on a drawing board. From their it is taken to the programmers to make a game world and controls in which to test it. Now here is where it matters. Programmers that are making the game (staring at screens for hours on end, replaying the same section over and over to find bugs) really don't want to spend the time (weeks) making the game look good if the chance is there that they may have to redo it. Say they create a plane model, make it look all nice and good. They load this model into the game world and find out there is a bug in the animation of the model (propeller doesn't spin, wing flaps don't bend, somthing). They then have to recode the way the plan works and if they cannot fix the problem the will make a work around (fixed wings, jet, etc...). This then calls for a reworking of the model plan since it was styled as one type and now has to be another type. They may have to throw the entire thing out if they thing it would come off looking like a hack job. Now thing about every aspect of a game that you can see. This is why early productions always look sub par.

I will admit they struck gold with world of warcraft. However, you have to understand that MMOs are not the most talent driven projects though. It takes dedication and effort to make a good one but they already had story and setting to work with. I would love for them to come out with a new game, new story, new anything.

Ya... that universal health care.... must be nice to have doctors that don't work you for your money when you go to see them >_> The whole dynamic of life is different over here in the states. You may have higher taxes but on average you live better lives. Mass transit that works, a population that is not sedated, better education (on average :p), and of course... better food. I would love to pay an extra $75 on a game console for that. Of course that's just how I see the world.

I think a lot of that comes from japan and the US sharing so many standards (NTSC, 110v power, etc...) as well as europe being a smaller part of the gaming market.

Ya... blizzard has lost all their talent. Starcraft 2 will never come. The only thing I can see blizzard doing is porting starcraft 64 over to the VC.

Er..... that looks worse that CoD 1 on any half way decent computer :/

Whats so bad about only NA getting it :p

True but if they were to make a "special edition", as another said, they could make it more powerful to meet the need. As for the nintendo mp3 play supporting itunes, I must ask what would apple gain? They already own the mp3 player market. They make little to nothing off itunes btw. It's all about the ipods.

Indeed VC support on the ipod WILL NOT HAPPEN. Neither nintendo nor apple has anything to gain from it (it bites into nintendos DS sales and would ruin the image of the ipod).

Yummy thrustmaster.... mmmmm who approved that name?

What's this about a nintendo mp3 player? 1. Maybe but I doubt it 2. How? I don't wanna play mario with a scroll wheel 3. Er.... no

If you say so >.>

Your right. Make it 6GB so it wont run out of room

Eh.... encryption is needed but mearly stops games from being altered (wiki sonic 4 or 6 for an example). The problem with encryption is that you can't really stop some one from making a bit for bit copy of the encrypted file, which for the sake of our discussion is what pirates will be doing. So all you need to do is find a way to copy the file. Now before you say "but wiiconnect will check for user permissions" think about it like this. Lets say you only have net access for a limited time (say parents regulate online play by disabling wireless) will nintendo not allow you to play VC games you dl'd and payed for? I don't know the answer but I would hope I could play my games without an internet connection and I feel that nintendo will let me. So we have a dilema we must some how make VC games tied to a console without going online. Best thing I can think of is having a system ID tied to the game when it is downloaded and having the entire package encrypted. When the VC decrypts the file it will have to check for system ID (weak point here) before playing the game. Maybe nintendo would even be kind enough to run the game in some fashion of "rental mode" (think less characters, only play to a specific point, etc...) when played on a system with an incorrect system ID. Anyway my 2 cents (100ths of a euro?) here :p

DS games have been pirated. There was a story about it a few months back. Anyway as others have said it will depend on how nintendo goes about running the VC. Presonally I think the on chip crypto is snake oil.

As I see it they could have the system boot with an interpretation layer. Have a 3 cm shift from the wiimote equal X % shift of the control stick or somthing. That way none of the actual game data is ever affected and a single patch could be good for a multitude of games.

Indeed. Yet audio processing is not the whole story. You also need to send and play the signal. Be it optical or coaxial I just hope we get some nice cable to hook up to more than two speakers this round :/ (not just those bloody online only HD cables *anger*) On a side note CT and FF6 music > *

Really? I could have sworn it was 8... hmmm well whatever. Still much more than will be needed for a decent amount of time.

You got a 16MB card (mega byte) with your camera. The cube's 251 block card is an 8Mb (mega bit) unit. It takes 8 bits to make a byte. Thus (in theory) a 16MB sd card could hold 4016 save files. 251 * 2 = 502 (to get to 16Mega bits from 8) 502 * 8 = 4016 (to get to mega bytes from bits)

Eh... depends on how much of the cost nintendo wants to eat this round. You bring up a good point with extra content. I guess we just have to hope devs do the best they can to make the files small (should be a high priority since the wii only has 512MB internal storage anyway). I would also love to have streaming capacity

First off Firewire > USB [/conversation] Only problem is licence fees $.25 per port per device. So say nintendo sells 1 million wiis then lose 250000 they didn't have to spend. USB is a one time licence fee. That and the hardware is cheaper since as others have said the system cpu is used to manage packets. Second (@Pedro) Nice speed on the pron drive :p Third Why does speed matter when you will be loading 3mbit files :? Current flash speeds (~22MB/sec I think) will be more than fine for me.

Lucky brits got a cool looking RE4 cover :'( I actually like your strikers/football case better as well... maybe the grass is just greener on the other side? :P