Virtual Console - All you need to know

[Stocka]

Nice work. My excitement for it has been let down though since the news of it being region locked. I was mainly looking forward to playing the likes of Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Terranigma, Eartbound etc.

Hopefully it was all a mistake and Nintendo will clear the situation up...

[Hero-of-Time]

There is still a chance for Terranigma as it did come out over here.

[Nintendork]

Nintendo Europe you fucked up. This sucks balls.

 

I am going to have a think about what I'm gonna do.. but I'm thinking fuck it.

 

I wanted the Wii to play the classics on my TV.. for £180+ I could get a MAME box on the go with loads of roms and emulators.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

for £180+ I could get a MAME box on the go with loads of roms and emulators.

 

Except that it's illegal. Emulators are legal and go under reverse-engineering laws. But downloading roms for games that you don't own is completely illegal*, no matter what urban legends people are often spreading about it.

 

* It's copyright infrigement, plain and simple

[Tellyn]

That sucks, guess I'll just have to stick to playing them on my PC.

 

Goldeneye is probably THE game most people associate with the N64, it'll be a shame if Ninty can't sort something out.

 

Thanks for the positive comments everyone.

 

It is possible for Rare games and others to be put onto the Virtual Console. It's just that licensing will be very expensive, and for a game that will be sold for such little money, Nintendo will be unlikely to pay the license unless the demand is great for it.

[Hero-of-Time]

Im still suprised that RARE havent put both Banjo games on Xbox Live Arcade, I would certainly pay to play them again.

[triforcemario]

Rare would have to pay fees to Nintendo if they wanted to publish the Banjo games on XBOX live, since Nintendo originally published the first two Banjo games.

[pedrocasilva]

Im still suprised that RARE havent put both Banjo games on Xbox Live Arcade, I would certainly pay to play them again.

They can't emulate N64 legally so they'd have to port it to run natively on Xbox.

 

Said this Rare games used N64 to it's fullest, running even on a custom written rendering microcode... porting as is could proove dificult, they'd have to rewrite/fix huge parts of the code.

 

Not to mention rare's philosophy is being perfectionist about graphics, just look at conker's bad fur day; it took 4 (or so) years to remake for Xbox, instead of making a sequel. No doubt that probably started as a port and it ended as a full remake.

Rare would have to pay fees to Nintendo if they wanted to publish the Banjo games on XBOX live, since Nintendo originally published the first two Banjo games.

True, unless that was predicted in the sellout agreement.

 

then again if Nintendo knew what they know today they'd secure the rights to re-publish titles published by them originally, without needing Rare's consent/pay fee's.

[Hero-of-Time]

Rare would have to pay fees to Nintendo if they wanted to publish the Banjo games on XBOX live, since Nintendo originally published the first two Banjo games.

 

That explains it then.

[Tellyn]

I'll try to update this on Wednesday again, I'm going to Robin Hood's Bay for a couple of days tomorrow. I'm planning on doing some little spoiler boxes so that the post isn't too long, of some of the POSSIBLE titles for the Virtual Console, e.g. give links or a list of games from each console.

 

 

Something that I just found out that could end up adding more consoles to the list. Metal Gear has been said to be one of the titles that is the most anticipated to be put on the VC, but it wasn't on the MSX.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MSX_games

 

The MSX2 played host to Metal Gear and its sequel, Solid Snake. This probably means that we'll also see games from the MSX2, MSX2+, and the MSX Turbo R.

[Guest Stefkov]

nice thread. Ive wanted to know what games will proabbly bbe available.

I think i might get NES zelda and mario at launch. Then maybe sonic, just for the fun of it. Then see what else comes along. Already have OOT on cube disc, if Majoras mask is available a aunch definitely getting that, ive never played it.

[Nintendork]

Except that it's illegal. Emulators are legal and go under reverse-engineering laws. But downloading roms for games that you don't own is completely illegal*, no matter what urban legends people are often spreading about it.

 

* It's copyright infrigement, plain and simple

 

Talking like that should be illegal. Who said I don't own the original titles? It's called ownership, plain and simple.

 

I mean who said I have the internet? Let alone know how to use it to download roms. Someone get Phoenix Wright in here..

 

Nintendo is going to get some huge back lash from hardcore Nintendorks around the world because effectively we were promised the classics from Iwata.. and this is a half truth in reality.

 

I think something should be done.

[Emasher]

no a link to the past

[Nintendork]

no a link to the past

 

If I know anything about the world of marketing (and I think I do) they'll probably release each AAA game in chapters.. and once they're all out and have reached near maximum market penetration they'll offer a bundle of the games at a cut price for people who aren't typically into the Zelda series.. or Mario series for example.

 

'The Classic start set' 2000 Wii points featuring.. Zelda, Mario.. Donkey Kong yadda yadda.

 

I don't think it would be efficient to stick to the same price structure forever.

[dazzi]

I doubt it tbh, nintendo are known for being a bit pricey, they have and can keep knocking these old roms out on the gba for £30 a pop and still sell em, the prices of the points got me by suprise - essentially its £14 for 2 snes games, many like f-zero fit on a floppy and can be downloaded anywhere for emu's not to mention the age of these games.

 

never the less as an collecter I'll be downloding so I can preserve my beloved snes collection lol

[PioRow]

While I am a fan of the concept of the VC I think the pricing is a bit to pricey. Especially as all the hard work is done writing the emulator, the roms are freely available now. And lets face it, over the years many enthusiast have written emulators for various platforms. I had a emaultor on my Xbox that played pretty much all the 8bit and 16bit consoles.

I think the prices should be dropped to more like £1, £2 and £3 for the various formats.

 

Personally I will probably buy 1 or 2 classic games and then wait for the rare titles, or the obscure games that I played way back in the day. I dont see any point buying Mario64 as I played it to death on the N64 and the DS version. Same with mariokart on the snes.

I'll probably get Super Mario World for old times sake and then wait for some rare Turbo graphics games or NES classics.

[ZeldaFreak]

Except that it's illegal. Emulators are legal and go under reverse-engineering laws. But downloading roms for games that you don't own is completely illegal*, no matter what urban legends people are often spreading about it.

 

* It's copyright infrigement, plain and simple

 

Who gives a fuck that its illegal, Nintendo fucking screwed up - if that results in less sales for the VC thats there fault.

 

They made their bed they have to live with the consequences, simple as!

[IMJ]

Great thread.

 

I think the VC is a great idea, but I have my reservations. I mean, what's the point if the games are region-locked? My hope was to play exactly those titles that were never released in Europe. But now we still get the same old s***. The idea of a virtual console is that the publisher doesn't have much cost to distrubute some classic games and reach a new, worldwide audience. Now they're releasing the same games to the same people...

 

Hopefully they'll change that, or they'll still port some foreign classics for Europe!

[Teppo Holmqvist]

I think the VC is a great idea, but I have my reservations. I mean, what's the point if the games are region-locked?

 

Nobody said in original Eurogamer article that European VC would be original limited to PAL-releases. Only thing that was said was that you can only buy VC games for European console from European site. "Only PAL-releases" was just stupid conclusion that Revo-Europe's news team drawed. And why Nintendo can't allow games to be bought freely? Here is five main reasons:

 

Ratings: Most virtual console games were released long before videogames were rated. Nintendo needs to get rating for each game in each region. Selling games without European ratings is illegal in most EU countries. Or if it isn't illegal, game gets automatically R-rating as it hasn't European rating. And Nintendo must follow local laws, as it's legally responsible as a distributor for thse games. And no, Nintendo can't just convert US ratings to European ratings, because they don't rate games.

 

Censorship: Let's assume that little Hans from Germany buys old NES classic called Hitler no Fukatsu: Top Secret* from NOJ's webstore. In this game, single allied soldier tries to fight against occultistic neonazis that try to resurrect Adolf Hitler. Who would be legally responsible for selling game with suspicious material to minors? Nintendo. Who would get all blame in the media? Nintendo.

 

Licensing: Some videogames have different publishers in different regions, and contracts that bind company A don't bind company B. In these cases, Nintendo needs to negotiate virtual console distribution seperately with each publisher. One simple example could be Capcom that often sells publishing rights to another company in Europe.

 

Localization: Nintendo is going to localize and translate new games for European market. They have been hiring translators for this few months, and they definitely don't want US versions of same games to spread into European countries.

 

Price: Well, you can always ask more money from European customers, if they can't use exchange rates to their benefit and buy same games from USA.

 

* Known as Bionic Commando in west

[Dr.Boo]

WHAAAAAAAT?????? NO PAPER MARIO????? What the fuck? That was the game I was most waiting for!! Why do they do this to us

 

PS: It's nice to be back... my internet connection was out for more than a month

[Kurtle Squad]

Europe's gonna get bugger all from the VC. NOE aren't gonna go sorting us out Paper Mario n Earthbound.

[Emasher]

WHAAAAAAAT?????? NO PAPER MARIO????? What the fuck? That was the game I was most waiting for!! Why do they do this to us

 

PS: It's nice to be back... my internet connection was out for more than a month

 

welcome back :awesome:

[Teppo Holmqvist]

Europe's gonna get bugger all from the VC. NOE aren't gonna go sorting us out Paper Mario n Earthbound.

 

Paper Mario did come out in Europe, but very late in console's lifetime and in extremely small quanties. Here is the PAL cover:

 

 

Usually PAL-copy fetches 40-80 euros in eBay. MobyGames has more pictures.

[Kurtle Squad]

Paper Mario did come out in Europe, but very late in console's lifetime and in extremely small quanties. Here is the PAL cover:

 

 

Usually PAL-copy fetches 40-80 euros in eBay. MobyGames has more pictures.

 

I actually meant Super Mario RPG

[Nintendork]

What sort of shoot 'em ups can we expect in Europe besides Gradius on the MSX?

 

I really want to catch up on that genre.. good value for money those games as they're so hard.