jbanes

If I may say so, you cannot go wrong with Defend Your Castle. I have yet to hear a bad word about it. You may feel like you will need a cybernetic arm after a while, but you'll be having too much fun to care that your fleshy arm is about to fall off.

Paper Mario Defend Your Castle Blazing Lazers Toki Tori Zelda: Link to the Past FZero or FZero X or Both Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time Starfox 64 Wild West Guns (if you have a Zapper or gun peripheral) Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (only because the bastards won't give us Tetris Attack!) Star Soldier R (best played when you have someone to compete against; otherwise may feel too expensive) Lost Winds (short, but great!) Gate of Thunder Lords of Thunder Hmm... am I already over $50? S'pose I am. Feel free to pick and choose. It's all creme de'la creme.

The ECCC Commodore Show will be happening in Chicago in late September (27th to be exact): http://starbase.globalpc.net/eccc/ The last two years have been incredible, with plenty of vendors, presentations, and even Jeri Ellsworth herself. I'm actually surprised that Macbeth hasn't already started promoting the show. He usually has a post up by now.

Wing Commander Can go wrong with Wing Commander anything. (Unless you port it to the XBOX 360 and call it Arena. That was so stupid.) Privateer would be even better. The ulimate would be Privateer Online. Privateer Online == Died and gone to heaven.

Works fine for me. The only problem I have is that there's an odd bug when you go into full screen mode. If the video underneath hasn't finished loading, the full screen mode will not load until the underlying movie is done. I usually drag the tracking slider to the end before going to full screen to force it to skip the load. In any case, there's a much better way to watch videos on your Wii. Just point it at video.stumbleupon.com, pick a channel and enjoy.

Just to clarify a few points: Godslabrat is correct about fragmentation not being a problem with Flash. However, that doesn't mean that Flash doesn't get fragmented. It gets VERY fragmented. In fact, the Flash memory intentionally moves blocks around willy-nilly in an attempt to spread writes across the chip. This improves the lifetime of the chip. However, this has zero affect on the performance of the drive. Macs don't need an explicit defragger, but they do have one built in. Macs go through an automatic defragmentation as files get opened. That helps keep the system in top shape. Classic UNIX file systems rarely need to be defragged though, due to the use of algorithms that make the best use possible of free space. It's a given that any hard disk will need to be defragmented at some point. (Fragmentation is a feature, not a bug! If you can believe it. ) But as most folks here have suggested, consoles most likely do auto-defragging every so often. Even if they don't, defragmenting simply doesn't matter as much as it used to. With disks being larger than ever before, the OS usually has a lot of space to work with when trying to allocate a file. This means that even large files rarely get spread across more than two or three segments. Nothing like the dozens to hundreds of segments per file seen back in the 90s.

Really? I did not know that. Ok, now I'm even more confused as to why Squenix would rather promote the parent company name when the subsidiary is already well associated with the Space Invaders name.

As if this whole situation wasn't already bizarre enough, it looks like Square Enix will be the publisher for the game: http://www.wiimedia.com/news/view/square_enix_gets_even/ Will someone please explain why a WiiWare title produced by a large corporation needs a publisher? I imagine that this relates back to contracts drawn up prior to the WiiWare move. However, if I were Taito, I'd be working like mad to get out of that contract. WiiWare royalties are going to be slim enough as it is. BTW, the game will be out in October for the European market. I imagine North America will get the game shortly thereafter.

A guy. With a big bosom. I wish I was joking. ... Ok, so maybe I'm joking a little. AFAIK, there was no model for Laura. She was originally a "he". The main protagonist of the Tomb Raider games was a generic action hero/archeologist character. However, fearing that the game would be compared too much to Indiana Jones, the character was changed to a female. Her name was Laura Cruz. She was a latina adventurer, but was otherwise very generic. (That's probably why Lara looks more latina than british.) After some discussion over the issue, the character was eventually changed to be British, with a last name picked out of a phone book. Ergo, Lara Croft. But what of the massive bosom? It was an accident. One of the artists who was developing the character's 3D model got the scaling wrong. Before he could fix it, some of the other designers noticed it and said they liked it and he should keep it. Thus the idea of a slim, athletic adventurer with 300lb boobs (each!) was born.

I'm not sure why everyone is making a big deal out of July numbers (probably because June was a watershed event with the Wii taking the lead in NA), but NPD has released the numbers for July. Long story short, the Wii accounted for 49% of the console sales for that month. http://www.wiimedia.com/news/view/july_ndp...ll_in_the_lead/ Make of it what you will.

I'm not sure I agree. This particular game (Space Invaders Get Even) did not interest me at all back when it was supposed to be a retail release. My interest went up, however, once they mentioned that the game would be released on WiiWare. There are two reasons for this: 1. Lower price. Games on physical media rarely drop as low as, say, $10. If the game isn't worth $20-$30 to me, then having the physical media is pointless. 2. Convenience. Like it or not, there is some effort involved in obtaining a game on physical media. With WiiWare, I can punch my credit card into the Shop channel and have a copy of the game in no time. Which means that games that look interesting can be saved for purchase until a rainy day. Of course, my interest went up even further when Taito announced that the game was going to be 500 points + downloadable content. I figured that even a slimmed down game would still be worth the $5. (Especially since I'm the type to leave a lot of games unbeaten.) As you might imagine, my interest dropped sharply once the news came out that the "Starter Pack" (*cough*) was gimped. Sorry, I'm not paying $5 for crippleware. That's the type of stuff you give away, not sell! As of right now, I only have a passing interest in the game. What could have been a good idea (effectively the revival of the Apogee shareware model!) has been twisted into something stupid. On top of that, one has to wonder if the extra UFOs are actual gameplay enhancements or weak attempts to "sweeten the pot" by use familiar ships from Taito's other shmups. I tend to agree with you. In fact, $10 is rather high for a lot of the WiiWare we've been seeing. It seems to me that the developers/publishers are being a bit greedy. If they'd only pay attention to DYC, they'd understand that selling a game at its actual market value (which just isn't going to be very high on a download service) will result in more sales. Any money they might have made from the higher price tag will quickly be eclipsed by the greater volume sold. Unfortunately, I don't see the situation changing any time soon. If you look at Wii disc sales, most of the games hit the market with overinflated price tags. (Who's the moron who thinks that customers want to pay $29.99 for a game that can be purchased at $19.99 for the PS2?) Here's a hint guys: $29.99 is not a budget price Here's a further hint: Unless you're making friggin' Mario Galaxy, $49.99 may not be the ideal price for your game. (I'm looking at you, Boom Blox.)

WiiCade is pleased to announce that it is the first Internet Channel gaming site to offer online multiplayer gaming. This launch provides players with two major titles to enjoy, and ensures WiiCade’s position as the leader in flash gaming and javascript gaming on the Wii. WiiCade Chess The first title released is a Chess game known as WiiCade Chess. This title supports all the classic rules of Chess, thus allowing you and a friend to compete locally or online. Local multiplayer supports sharing a Wii Remote or using two Wii Remotes, thus ensuring that you’ll never need to reach for your Chess board again! WiiCade Chess was written by WiiCade member yoyoyoyo5698. Pentriix The second title is an action puzzle title that is a variation on the classic falling blocks formula. Pentriix pits you and a friend against each other to see who can withstand the four or five block falling pieces the longest. Throw garbage rows at your opponent to increase the challenge and make him fail faster! With three different game modes, highscores, and an offline practice mode, Pentriix provides a thrilling challenge for players of all ages and skill levels. Pentriix was written by WiiCade member kirl. The full list of online multiplayer titles can be seen on the Multiplayer Games Page. Programmers interested in making their own multiplayer titles may download a free development kit from WiiCade Labs.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith works with the GHIII Guitars. Guitar Hero Aerosmith does not work with the Rockband Guitars

Here's the exact quote from a Microsoft exec (who apparently thinks the Wii Fit is a "gimmick"): Full Story: http://www.wiimedia.com/news/view/microsof..._fits_unplayed/

Rock Band Wii is not compatible with the GHIII Guitar. Rock Band PS3 is not compatible with the GHIII Guitar. Rock Band 360 is compatible with the GHIII Guitar. Rock Band PS2 is compatible with the GHIII Guitar.

So let me get this straight. You are surprised that the pre-order system is a massive money making scheme? *pauses* Did you ever wonder how banks make their money? I mean, you put money in, you get money out. Right? If the money was just sitting in a vault, shouldn't the bank never make any money? Of course, that's why the money does NOT sit in a vault. The money is invested into the stock market, mortgages, loans, international trade, and other areas where that money can produce a return. The bank only keeps enough in the vault to cover the expected transactions of their customers. The rest is all in investments. If the bank finds that they need to remove some of their money from those investments because of a higher than normal rate of transactions, then they lose money that they could have been making a return for that bank. As a result, banks would rather you keep your money in your account. Thus the ATM fees, the interest bearing checking account, and other interesting aspects about modern bank accounts. Now think about this: A given Gamestop may have thousands of games pre-ordered at any given time. Those thousands of pre-orders translate to tens of thousands of dollars in floating money. i.e. Money that is being "held" for you until you actually purchase the game. That money is thus free to sit in the bank and collect interest. Or get invested into the stock market. Or be recycled into mortgage backed securities. Or mutual funds. Or money market accounts. In fact, since the amount of "floating" money should vary only a small amount over the year, some of it can even be invested in non-liquid bonds and CDs*! So ask yourself this question: Is GameStop's business that of selling video games? Once you find the correct answer to that question, a LOT of things will become clear. * Tell me you didn't just read that as "Compact Discs". PLEASE tell me you understood "Certificate of Deposit". Please?

Again, that's like arguing that you paid $800 for the latest PC. You should have just kept the old one around and gotten a typewriter to do word processing. Personally, I spend an ungodly amount of time playing the thing. And not just Wii Sports. These days I find myself playing Twilight Princess, Wild West Guns, and Gate of Thunder. Games that I've played an incredible amount of include: Excite Truck William's Pinball Collection Zack and Wiki Geometry Wars Blazing Lazers Super Paper Mario Ghost Squad Defend Your Castle Toki Tori Guitar Hero Star Soldier R Metal Slug Anthology I've also had a chance to catch up on a lot of the GameCube games I missed. For the most part I have found that I'm glad I missed them. One thing I've noticed is that the first party games are impressive, but often don't hold my interest as well as the few really great third party title. Mario Strikers was just completely not my game. Mario Galaxy was GREAT, but I eventually got bored of it before beating it. (Too repetitive.) Mario Kart is possibly one of the best Mario Kart titles ever. But it's still another Mario Kart. SSBB, well, I never really "got" SSBM, so I guess I'm probably an exception there anyway. The next game I'll probably get is Blast Works now that Majesco has announced a price drop to $19.99. I suppose you have a doc that says Santa isn't real also hu smart guy? IN YOUR FACE!!!!!! (part2) Psst! Moycon! I believe in ol' Saint Nick. And I'll bet most historians would agree with me!

Indeed. Which was kind of my original point. We should be getting more competent games than most third parties are delivering. BTW, sorry if I was a bit defensive CPU. Long night last night.

Thank you for repeating what I already said. Except for the minor difference that you called the XFB a 16-bit framebuffer rather than a ~16-bit framebuffer. The difference is somewhat significant as there is technically more than 16 bits of information per pixel. i.e. There are 2 8-bit luminance values, but one shared value for red and blue. This compression scheme potentially provides greater detail to the human eye due to better luminance response over actual color response. (Evidenciary optical illusion, ho!) If you had read what I said, I am agreeing with you. I believe I misunderstood what the text meant about "32-bit mode". Both the Gamecube and the Wii support 8/8/8 RGB mode, which is usually accessed with a 32-bit value due to the natural word size of the GameCube/Wii. Unfortunately, many GameCube games were unable to support 8/8/8 due to the performance cost. With the Wii's greater GPU power, developers can now use 8/8/8 mode all the time unless they absolutely must have alpha. (In which case they're stuck with 6/6/6/6 mode anyway.)

I agree. This is the second time you've tried to give an answer that didn't match the question. Actually, the YCbCr format is 32 bits for two intertwined pixels. Which is ~16 bits per pixel. Too bad that's not what anyone was talking about. The EFB, on the other hand is RGB or ARGB based. It allows 24 bits for color and 24 bits for Z-Buffering for a total of 48 bits per pixel. The Gamecube thus limited developers to choosing between 6/6/6/6 alpha mode or 8/8/8 no alpha. The 6/6/6/6 mode is often referred to as "18-bit" mode to differentiate it from the 8/8/8 "24-bit" mode. Which is almost certainly what everyone refers to when they say "18-bit mode". The EFB is post-processed by the Wii's hardware as it is copied to the XFB for eventual transfer to the VI. In hind sight, I think the developer may be referring to the fact that the Wii is fast enough to allow regular use of the 24-bit color APIs. Many (most?) Gamecube games used the 6/6/6/6 mode without alpha to improve performance and keep the framerate high. If information like libogl and the APIs shown in Nintendo's Newsletter are any indication, this is done using 32-bit ARGB chunks; thus providing the "32-bit color" reference the developer was referring to.

Where do you read stuff like that? Seriously. From here: http://wiinside.blogspot.com/2007/04/inside-wii.html Edit: Some further info on this specific issue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_GameCube http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/05/2...ges-and-colors/ Folks over on Beyond 3D seem to agree as well:

FYI, I think the point about the "DVD Drive" was that the media is of higher capacity than the GameCube media. Which is true. It's also true that the Wii has double the number of rendering pipelines, thus more TEV units and more pixel pipelines, a 50% increase in both CPU and GPU clock speed, more cache memory, more main memory, the addition of permanent storage, a faster bus, increase to 32-bit color from 18-bit color, support for SD Cards, WiFi, bluetooth, etc., etc., etc. So the Wii is definitely not "just a GameCube" any more than your Core Duo machine is "just a pentium". One developer even described the Wii's GPU as "3-5 times more powerful than the Normal GC GPU". He went on to say: (Emphasis added) Which raises the question: Why do all the games look like #@$!ing PS2 games? Complain about the Wii being underpowered all you want. That still doesn't chance the fact that developers are lazy. The GameCube was capable of some of the most impressive graphics of its generation. Yet we don't even see that level of beauty from developers! Much less the greatly improved looks of Mario Galaxy, SSBB, and Metroid Prime 3. I'll be the first to agree that the system is not about graphics. But that's not an excuse to do a shitty job. Developers wipe their ass with the Wii versions of their software, then complain that no one buys third party titles on the Wii. Gee, I wonder why? That's why I'm looking forward to Conduit. FPSes are mostly Ho-Hum, but if it gets developers to be a little less lazy, I'll be happy.

I am a packrat, but I just got an SD Card. A 2GB card holds an ungodly amount of Wii data. Even though I can redownload all the VC/WiiWare titles, I just back them up onto the SD Card as soon as I download them. If I need to make space for something else, I delete it off the system. If I decide I want to play it again, I restore it from the SD Card. It's not an ideal solution, but it works. *shrug* Of course, my method significantly slows impulse game plays. (i.e. When you have a sudden, uncontrollable urge to play particular a game.) But since the card is in the Wii at all times, it doesn't end up being a big deal. I'm still holding my breath for a proper solution, though.

Meh. That's not Galaga. That's a bullet hell game (aka "curtain fire") with destructible bullets.

That's a bit tough to call as I don't have dimensions for the Supervision, but I'd have to say "yes" based on both the screen sizes and eyeballing the units. For comparison, the Game.com had a 3.5x3.5in screen while the Supervision had a 2.37x2.37in screen. That right there tells you something about the units.