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Nintendo DS News is a News and downloads site for All Nintendo Handhelds and Consoles including the Gameboy, NES, N64, Snes, Gamecube, Wii, WiiU, NDS, 3DS, GBA and Snes, We have all the latest emulators, hack, homebrew, commercial games and all the downloads on this site, the latest homebrew and releases, Part of the
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March 8th, 2007, 21:58 Posted By: wraggster
The Nintendo DS Emulator for Windows gets another update:
Added LZ77UnComp function.
Fixed a bug in EEPROM management.
Fixed a bug in CpuSet function.
Fixed a bug in Texture management.
Fixed a bug in Extend Palette.
Fixed a bug in BGxCNT register.
Fixed a bug in 3D stacks.
Fixed a bug in MMU functions.
Fixed a bug in load roms.
Fixed a bug in IRQ routines.
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March 8th, 2007, 21:54 Posted By: wraggster
Emu_Kidid has released a new version of GCOS for the Nintendo Wii, GCOS is an operating system for the Nintendo Wii via the Gamecube slot.
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March 8th, 2007, 21:51 Posted By: wraggster
Sektor has released a new version of the port of Flashback to the Nintendo DS:
Heres whats new:
Updated to DLDI version of libfat for greater device compatibility
DS LED blinking is stopped at startup because DS-X annoyingly leaves it on
DS sleeps when closed (you have to pause manually)
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March 8th, 2007, 21:45 Posted By: wraggster
We brought you the story that an EA producer was not given access to Mii code for My Sims, and that according to him, no third parties were. The situation seems to have changed, because Sega Sammy is using the little guys and gals in its Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii. It's not the most exciting implementation of Miis, with no Fist of the North Star-style makeovers or actual in-game avatars-- in fact, it consists mainly of a Mii portrait tied to a character profile.
The game uses Nintendo Wi-fi as well, but for online rankings, which hardly counts as online play. We aren't ready to call that an implementation of third-party online play yet.
Coming from a licensed pachinko game, proof that it is possible for third parties to use Miis. Sega does what E ... Ain't?
via wiifanboy
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March 8th, 2007, 21:44 Posted By: wraggster
Pandemic Studios, best known for big-kid games like Destroy All Humans and Full Spectrum Warrior, are working on a new children's game for Wii. According to a quote on Business Week's website from Pandemic Chief Executive Andrew Goldman, the game is the reflection of a desire to do something fresh and offer new gameplay, in a medium that they see as becoming stale. "The Wii does something new, and draws people back in."
via wiifanboy
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March 8th, 2007, 21:43 Posted By: wraggster
via wiifanboy
During an interview with Mercury News, Nintendo's resident ass-kicker and name-taker Regie Fils-Aime spoke about the problems with Wii supplies and the demise of E3 as we knew it, commenting on the phoenix that has risen from the ashes. His take: the new E3 is just important as the old E3. Reggie say wha?
See, Reggie says that Nintendo will still continue to hold their big press conference every year at the event, as they had in the past (which was already confirmed), and sees the show now as focused more on North America. Wasn't the show always focused on North America? Regardless, we wouldn't say the new E3 is as important as the E3 of year's past, from our perspective. Now smaller press outlets will be denied access and that really boils down to hurting you guys, the readers.
In speaking about the still-woefully-absent-from-retail-shelves Wii, Reggie said "we [Nintendo] are all acutely aware of the issue and we all realize we have a limited period of time to address the issue." The limited amount of time comes from the knowledge that consumers aren't going to wait forever for consoles to be on store shelves and eventually will just give up on the Wii altogether.
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March 8th, 2007, 21:30 Posted By: wraggster
via wiifanboy
Update: This schedule is only good up until Q2 for this year. Sorry for the mistake.
Along with their press release for Pokemon Battle Revolution, Nintendo sent along a release schedule for all of the upcoming Wii games in 2007. Know what's weird, though? Mario Party 8 is listed as being released on May 29th.
This, of course, doesn't support what we reported earlier about the party title involving Mario and his friends. We've put in a call to our Nintendo rep and will update you all on what they say later on. In the meanwhile, head past the post break for the full list of titles releasing on the Wii in 2007.
[Via press release]
Here's the goods:
April 9 - Super Paper Mario - Nintendo
April - Prince of Persia Rival Swords - Ubisoft
April - Bust-A-Move Bash - Majesco
April - Bioncle Heroes - Eidos
May 15 - Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - Midway
May 29 - Mario Party 8 - Nintendo
May - Tamagotchi Party On - Namco Bandai
May - Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Disney Interactive
May - Escape from Bug Island - Eidos
May - Spider-Man The Movie 3 - Activision
June 11 - Big Brain Academy - Nintendo
June 25 - Pokemon Battle Revolution - Nintendo
June - Cosmic Family - Ubisoft
Spring - Heatseeker - Codemasters
Q2 - Legend of the Dragon - American Game Factory
Summer - Shrek the Third - Activision
Summer - Transformers the Game - Activision
What games are you looking forward to?
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March 8th, 2007, 21:25 Posted By: wraggster
via gamespot
On Wednesday, the big news at the 2007 Game Developers Conference was Sony's debut of its PlayStation Home avatar-based service. On Thursday, Nintendo had the opportunity to claim some of the buzz with Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote at the Moscone Center's cavernous south hall esplanade.
The line of eager developers waiting to get into the hall surrounded an entire city block 20 minutes before the keynote was intended to tip off. It snaked back around on itself as GDC staffers did their best to keep the crowd from spilling over onto the streets.
The enthusiasm was understandable, though. The previous evening, Miyamoto took home a lifetime achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards for his three decades of work. After receiving a standing ovation, he promised those in attendance that he would have much to say at his keynote the following morning, amping up expectations to stratospheric heights.
10:40: Inside the hall, attendees are greeted by the obligatory gaming press conference thumping techno music. Five massive video screens dominate the space as a host of gaming journalists huddle over softly glowing laptops. Almost 10 minutes after the scheduled start time, people are still finding their seats as an announcement is made asking for cell phones to be turned off.
10:47: People are still finding seats. A certain game-blog staffer is running around with a video helmet haranguing anyone in range.
10:48: Staffers are still trying to find seats for attendees, squeezing as many people into the auditorium as possible. Mutterings in the crowd range from discussion of Sony's keynote to assessments of the week's various parties, with free beer, swag, and embargoed news being freely disseminated.
10:52: People continue to jostle for seating. Hopefully there aren't any fire marshals about...
10:55: The DS pictochats are almost as full as the auditorium as attendees are again asked to take their seats. The keynote is scheduled to end at 11:30 a.m., but that seems unlikely at this rate.
10:59: Still nothing happening. You can almost feel an epidemic of gluteal cramps begin to break out amongst the constantly shifting crowd. Still, Perhaps surprisingly, the crowd seems to be tolerating the delay in good spirits. Conversations about Mega Man, Mario, and other familiar franchises rise above the din.
11:00: Now the show starts.
11:01: GDC director Jamil Moledina takes the stage to introduce Shigeru Miyamoto, talking about the creator's "quarter century of disruptively contagious hits."
11:02: Miyamoto takes the stage to a round of applause and cheers. He's wearing a link pin on his lapel.
11:03: Speaking through a translator, Miyamoto says he will use the Wii's photo channel to give his presentation.
11:04: Miyamoto begins talking about his 25 years designing video games, referencing games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man as the games people talked about.
11:05: He shows a picture of the stereotypical child gamer, eyes glazed, jaw slack, and calls it "disturbing."
11:06: He brings up the top-selling games of 1998, pointing to Nintendo's GoldenEye at the top of the charts and saying that the gamer image was still generally neutral. But by 2004, he said something had changed.
11:07: With Grand Theft Auto and Halo 2 on the top of the charts, Miyamoto said he was getting new questions from reporters, questions about what effects games had on people. Even though sales went up, he said the reputation of the industry went down.
11:08: Miyamoto expressed his concern about games becoming stagnant as everyone tried to do the one type of game that was successful, and then brings up his creative vision, and "The Nintendo Difference."
11:09: The three elements of Nintendo's corporate vision are next. Up first is the expanded audience. Miyamoto says he has his own way of gauging a product's potential success with an expanded audience. He calls it "the Wife-o-meter," and shows a graphic of it. It measures one variable: The interest of his own wife.
11:10: He says that we may remember the first time we played Pac-Man or Super Mario Bros. as important moments in our lives. However, they were not important moments for his wife.
11:11: Not even Tetris attracted Miyamoto's wife, but she took some interest in their daughter's experience with Ocarina of Time. Animal Crossing scored even better on the Wife-o-meter, convincing her to actually pick up the controller, but Miyamoto still strived to drive the meter higher.
11:13: Now he talks about pets. While his wife is a cat person, Miyamoto prefers dogs. He references the Wii Everybody Votes Channel poll on the subject to show that more than 60 percent of the voting population agrees with him.
11:14: After an extended detour and pictures of his dog, Pick, Miyamoto gets back to the point. He talks about showing Nintendogs to his wife, and how she started looking at games from a different perspective.
11:15: For Valentine's Day, Miyamoto said he came home from work expecting her to be asleep, but instead found her playing the Wii. She had stayed up casting votes on the Everybody Votes channel.
11:16: Miyamoto was shocked, saying it meant she had downloaded the channel herself. He said it would have been less surprising to find Donkey Kong ransacking his house.
11:17: Now he shows a picture of the second installment of Brain Age, and how she's embraced the game completely. Miyamoto says she's turned into a hardcore gamer and shows off her Mii, which she uses to play Wii Sports. Apparently she's made Miis for the whole family, extended relatives, and everyone in the neighborhood. He calls it her first step in game design, filling the Wife-o-meter completely.
11:18: The second key element of the Nintendo vision is balance.
11:19: At Nintendo, Miyamoto says teams working together work in the same building to emphasize teamwork. He talks about his collegiate education in industrial design, and how he's used that knowledge to help design every Nintendo controller from the NES to the Wii remote.
11:20: But he doesn't want people to think that he created the controllers solo. "It doesn't work that way at Nintendo," he says, "It's a group collaboration."
11:21: As for the Wii, he described it as the most intense creation process ever. One team was dedicated to developing new games. A second team wanted to preserve the company's classic franchises. A third team was dedicated to helping third parties work with the new controller.
11:22: In the process of designing the controllers, they designed numerous prototypes. Miyamoto shows images of a few of them, some showing the roots of older gaming controllers, some looking more like standard TV remotes. One prototype appeared to simply be a giant button with a Mario star shape on it.
11:23: Miyamoto says the final version of the Wii controller is the result of a true collaboration between different teams.
11:24: As a controller, Miyamoto says the Wii remote does a lot of what he's dreamed of for years.
11:25: He stresses the importance of providing game creators with the chance to make new kinds of entertainment that couldn't be realized with the way things were.
11:26: Miyamoto says Nintendo's viewpoint of progress goes beyond game hardware. He shows a picture of a museum in Kyoto for a Japanese game that blends playing cards and poetry. Nintendo is one company that makes said cards, and Miyamoto says he was asked to design the exhibits for the museum.
11:28: He said the project was enjoyable to work on because it wasn't technically a game, so they didn't have to worry about details like how it would end. But he said it was important because it bridged the gap between generations. Typically the poems are only of interest to the elderly, but the interactive elements have helped draw younger people into the traditional art.
11:30: Now he brings up the last element of Nintendo's corporate vision: risk. He says Nintendo employees are encouraged to do things differently from everyone else. He brings up the DS and Touch Generations titles, saying some may be good for the soul, and some may be good for the brain, but the ultimate goal is fun.
11:32: He says none of the company's past risks hold a candle to the Wii, however. He calls the GameCube a step towards the Wii with the emphasis on the big green A button on the controller, but said it was ultimately still too complex an interface for non-gamers. To really break through, he said they had to do more, but they were still challenged in developing the Wii Remote.
11:33: Miyamoto talks about meeting with his producers and think not about what functionalities would be lost by the Wii Remote's design, but what would be gained. He says didn't know the risk was going to pay off until last spring at E3 when he saw the long lines of people waiting to play the Wii and their happy faces as they left.
11:34: He moves from the corporate vision to his own personal vision.
11:35: In interviews, Miyamoto says he's often asked about where he got ideas from, or why he designed a certain level in a certain way. But he says that the harder people look at the particulars of his games, the further they get from the actual answer.
11:36: "When I'm creating a game, what I always try to envision is the core element of fun within a game," he tells the crowd. "And to do that, I imagine one thing, and that's the face of the player as they play the game."
11:37: He talks about watching people play the DS for the first time and shows clips of Japanese consumers' first reactions to the system.
11:38: Miyamoto points out that it wasn't just hte person playing each game that was happy, but the people watching (including the attendees in the auditorium) were happy and smiling as well.
11:39: Miyamoto talks about all the emotions that can be triggered by gameplay, and while he always wants them to walk away happy, he says all that's important is what "you" (the developers in the crowd) want the players to feel. However, Miyamoto again mentions that his personal taste is to always make that experience a positive one.
11:40: He says that developers sometimes get tunnel vision when creating a game, and says that they have to force themselves to create from the consumer's viewpoint.
11:41: That's why Miyamoto says he's willing to take a risk, delay a game, or change a key spec late in development. "In any case, I believe that my vision of a happy player's face--the one I try to imagine in every project--is also a good match for Nintendo."
11:42: He says that positive focus is what will appeal to expanded markets, and brings up Wii Play. Even though Wii Play isn't a core gamer's game, Miyamoto says traditional gamers are enjoying it because it's something they can play with non-gaming friends.
11:43: Miyamoto says he often makes games so that players themselves are encouraged to become more creative. At the core of that is communication.
11:44: Great games don't necessarily need to include communication (Solitaire, Pac-Man), Miyamoto says. He brings up Zelda, saying his first prototype of the game didn't go over well in Japan. People were confused, they couldn't solve the puzzles, and asked for simple routes through the dungeons. "I ignored them," Miyamoto said.
11:45: Instead, he dropped gamers into the world without even a sword, so that they would be forced to think about what they had to do. Other puzzles also inspired gamers to ask their friends for help and compare notes on the game.
11:46: He said in that sense, Zelda laid the groundwork for Animal Crossing.
11:47: The next aspect of game design he talks about is prioritization. He says all developers have the same complaint: "not enough." There's not enough people, not enough budget, or not enough time. As a developer, he shares those complaints, but has to cope with them anyway.
11:49: He talks about Wii Sports, and how it has only one stadium, no fielding, no ability to lay a bunt, and three-inning games. Not even the characters are realistic, Miyamoto says. They were based on traditional Japanese wooden dolls.
11:50: Despite all the unrealistic elements, Miyamoto said they prioritized pitching and hitting in order to make the game seem realistic regardless.
11:51: At one point in development, they tried to use Mario characters in place of the wooden doll-styled characters, but found that people liked the non-Mario style better.
11:52: Miyamoto says he's a baseball fan himself and hopes to play a more realistic baseball game on the Wii eventually, but says people are already enjoying Wii Sports baseball in its own form of realism.
11:53: Now Miyamoto is talking about tenacity. Referring to Wii Sports baseball again, he talks about how the idea for it had been something he wanted for a long time, and it was just a matter of waiting.
11:54: He brings up the Famicom disk drive and a simple face-creation utility Nintendo developed for it.
11:55: He changes the character's eye, hair style, and face shape in a way fairly reminiscent of the Mii. The utility was intended to come with an animation program. Miyamoto liked it, but the internal feedback was confusion over how it could be a game, and the product was shelved.
11:57: He revisited the idea in another form with the Nintendo 64 disk drive, and showed a 3D character editor made for the system with a wide variety of clothing options for characters. Miyamoto thought nobody at Nintendo could resist that idea, but again the project never reached fruition.
11:59: He tried to bring the idea back yet again with Stage Debut, a GameCube game that was intended to use the Game Boy e-Reader and a camera attachment. He demonstrates the title, which shows a digital Miyamoto dancing with Pikmin characters--and gets much laughter from the crowd. However, Nintendo once again balked at the idea, saying there wasn't really a game to make out of it.
12:00: However, when the Wii was in development, Miyamoto was told of a team within Nintendo that was working on a face creation utility for the DS.
12:01: Miyamoto said he went back to his team and called them useless before jumping to work on the new team's project for several months. He wasn't angry at his own team, he said, but frustrated that they had been working on it for 20 years without succeeding.
12:02: Miyamoto brings it back to the company's vision of an expanded audience, saying he'd had it backwards for years. By making things complicated, he was alienating potential audiences. By keeping the choices limited and making things simple, they got it to work.
12:03: He said tenacity paid off, but only when he was willing to take the risk.
12:04: Miyamoto says he's now working on a new Wii channel as a result of how successful the Mii concept has been. He's going to create a popularity contest for Miis that will feature contributions from gamers around the world.
12:05: His final example of tenacity is Mario. Miyamoto says the plumber came from humble beginnings to be in countless games. He event suggests there may be too many Mario games, a heretical concept to many Nintendo faithful.
12:06: But he's always asked what happened to Mario 128. He said the original Mario 128 demo at Spaceworld was intended to show off the GameCube's horsepower. Not only that, he said most of the developers had already played it, because it eventually became Pikmin.
12:07: A Super Mairo Galaxy graphic appears on the screen, and Miyamoto says the spherical stages of the game are another element of Mario 128 revived for the game, which will come out later this year.
12:08: He then shows a short demo of Mario catapulting between various objects and islands in space, dealing with changing gravity, collecting coins (natch), and fighting monsters.
12:09: Miyamoto's main message is that creative vision isn't one element of game design; it is the very essence of it. He stresses that the developers in attendance don't need to share his vision, saying their success will depend on how well they can realize their own visions.
12:10: Miyamoto talks about measuring the success of a game by how well it breaks outside of the sphere of gaming to attract those who don't play games, or are even afraid of them.
12:11: He again shows a picture of the stereotypical gamer sitting in a dark room staring a the glow of a TV with a controller in hand, and contrasts that with pictures of people playing the Wii.
12:12: Miyamoto closes saying if we can make a gamer of his wife, we can make a gamer of anyone. He receives a standing ovation as the lights come up.
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March 8th, 2007, 21:25 Posted By: wraggster
via gamespot
On Wednesday, the big news at the 2007 Game Developers Conference was Sony's debut of its PlayStation Home avatar-based service. On Thursday, Nintendo had the opportunity to claim some of the buzz with Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote at the Moscone Center's cavernous south hall esplanade.
The line of eager developers waiting to get into the hall surrounded an entire city block 20 minutes before the keynote was intended to tip off. It snaked back around on itself as GDC staffers did their best to keep the crowd from spilling over onto the streets.
The enthusiasm was understandable, though. The previous evening, Miyamoto took home a lifetime achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards for his three decades of work. After receiving a standing ovation, he promised those in attendance that he would have much to say at his keynote the following morning, amping up expectations to stratospheric heights.
10:40: Inside the hall, attendees are greeted by the obligatory gaming press conference thumping techno music. Five massive video screens dominate the space as a host of gaming journalists huddle over softly glowing laptops. Almost 10 minutes after the scheduled start time, people are still finding their seats as an announcement is made asking for cell phones to be turned off.
10:47: People are still finding seats. A certain game-blog staffer is running around with a video helmet haranguing anyone in range.
10:48: Staffers are still trying to find seats for attendees, squeezing as many people into the auditorium as possible. Mutterings in the crowd range from discussion of Sony's keynote to assessments of the week's various parties, with free beer, swag, and embargoed news being freely disseminated.
10:52: People continue to jostle for seating. Hopefully there aren't any fire marshals about...
10:55: The DS pictochats are almost as full as the auditorium as attendees are again asked to take their seats. The keynote is scheduled to end at 11:30 a.m., but that seems unlikely at this rate.
10:59: Still nothing happening. You can almost feel an epidemic of gluteal cramps begin to break out amongst the constantly shifting crowd. Still, Perhaps surprisingly, the crowd seems to be tolerating the delay in good spirits. Conversations about Mega Man, Mario, and other familiar franchises rise above the din.
11:00: Now the show starts.
11:01: GDC director Jamil Moledina takes the stage to introduce Shigeru Miyamoto, talking about the creator's "quarter century of disruptively contagious hits."
11:02: Miyamoto takes the stage to a round of applause and cheers. He's wearing a link pin on his lapel.
11:03: Speaking through a translator, Miyamoto says he will use the Wii's photo channel to give his presentation.
11:04: Miyamoto begins talking about his 25 years designing video games, referencing games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man as the games people talked about.
11:05: He shows a picture of the stereotypical child gamer, eyes glazed, jaw slack, and calls it "disturbing."
11:06: He brings up the top-selling games of 1998, pointing to Nintendo's GoldenEye at the top of the charts and saying that the gamer image was still generally neutral. But by 2004, he said something had changed.
11:07: With Grand Theft Auto and Halo 2 on the top of the charts, Miyamoto said he was getting new questions from reporters, questions about what effects games had on people. Even though sales went up, he said the reputation of the industry went down.
11:08: Miyamoto expressed his concern about games becoming stagnant as everyone tried to do the one type of game that was successful, and then brings up his creative vision, and "The Nintendo Difference."
11:09: The three elements of Nintendo's corporate vision are next. Up first is the expanded audience. Miyamoto says he has his own way of gauging a product's potential success with an expanded audience. He calls it "the Wife-o-meter," and shows a graphic of it. It measures one variable: The interest of his own wife.
11:10: He says that we may remember the first time we played Pac-Man or Super Mario Bros. as important moments in our lives. However, they were not important moments for his wife.
11:11: Not even Tetris attracted Miyamoto's wife, but she took some interest in their daughter's experience with Ocarina of Time. Animal Crossing scored even better on the Wife-o-meter, convincing her to actually pick up the controller, but Miyamoto still strived to drive the meter higher.
11:13: Now he talks about pets. While his wife is a cat person, Miyamoto prefers dogs. He references the Wii Everybody Votes Channel poll on the subject to show that more than 60 percent of the voting population agrees with him.
11:14: After an extended detour and pictures of his dog, Pick, Miyamoto gets back to the point. He talks about showing Nintendogs to his wife, and how she started looking at games from a different perspective.
11:15: For Valentine's Day, Miyamoto said he came home from work expecting her to be asleep, but instead found her playing the Wii. She had stayed up casting votes on the Everybody Votes channel.
11:16: Miyamoto was shocked, saying it meant she had downloaded the channel herself. He said it would have been less surprising to find Donkey Kong ransacking his house.
11:17: Now he shows a picture of the second installment of Brain Age, and how she's embraced the game completely. Miyamoto says she's turned into a hardcore gamer and shows off her Mii, which she uses to play Wii Sports. Apparently she's made Miis for the whole family, extended relatives, and everyone in the neighborhood. He calls it her first step in game design, filling the Wife-o-meter completely.
11:18: The second key element of the Nintendo vision is balance.
11:19: At Nintendo, Miyamoto says teams working together work in the same building to emphasize teamwork. He talks about his collegiate education in industrial design, and how he's used that knowledge to help design every Nintendo controller from the NES to the Wii remote.
11:20: But he doesn't want people to think that he created the controllers solo. "It doesn't work that way at Nintendo," he says, "It's a group collaboration."
11:21: As for the Wii, he described it as the most intense creation process ever. One team was dedicated to developing new games. A second team wanted to preserve the company's classic franchises. A third team was dedicated to helping third parties work with the new controller.
11:22: In the process of designing the controllers, they designed numerous prototypes. Miyamoto shows images of a few of them, some showing the roots of older gaming controllers, some looking more like standard TV remotes. One prototype appeared to simply be a giant button with a Mario star shape on it.
11:23: Miyamoto says the final version of the Wii controller is the result of a true collaboration between different teams.
11:24: As a controller, Miyamoto says the Wii remote does a lot of what he's dreamed of for years.
11:25: He stresses the importance of providing game creators with the chance to make new kinds of entertainment that couldn't be realized with the way things were.
11:26: Miyamoto says Nintendo's viewpoint of progress goes beyond game hardware. He shows a picture of a museum in Kyoto for a Japanese game that blends playing cards and poetry. Nintendo is one company that makes said cards, and Miyamoto says he was asked to design the exhibits for the museum.
11:28: He said the project was enjoyable to work on because it wasn't technically a game, so they didn't have to worry about details like how it would end. But he said it was important because it bridged the gap between generations. Typically the poems are only of interest to the elderly, but the interactive elements have helped draw younger people into the traditional art.
11:30: Now he brings up the last element of Nintendo's corporate vision: risk. He says Nintendo employees are encouraged to do things differently from everyone else. He brings up the DS and Touch Generations titles, saying some may be good for the soul, and some may be good for the brain, but the ultimate goal is fun.
11:32: He says none of the company's past risks hold a candle to the Wii, however. He calls the GameCube a step towards the Wii with the emphasis on the big green A button on the controller, but said it was ultimately still too complex an interface for non-gamers. To really break through, he said they had to do more, but they were still challenged in developing the Wii Remote.
11:33: Miyamoto talks about meeting with his producers and think not about what functionalities would be lost by the Wii Remote's design, but what would be gained. He says didn't know the risk was going to pay off until last spring at E3 when he saw the long lines of people waiting to play the Wii and their happy faces as they left.
11:34: He moves from the corporate vision to his own personal vision.
11:35: In interviews, Miyamoto says he's often asked about where he got ideas from, or why he designed a certain level in a certain way. But he says that the harder people look at the particulars of his games, the further they get from the actual answer.
11:36: "When I'm creating a game, what I always try to envision is the core element of fun within a game," he tells the crowd. "And to do that, I imagine one thing, and that's the face of the player as they play the game."
11:37: He talks about watching people play the DS for the first time and shows clips of Japanese consumers' first reactions to the system.
11:38: Miyamoto points out that it wasn't just hte person playing each game that was happy, but the people watching (including the attendees in the auditorium) were happy and smiling as well.
11:39: Miyamoto talks about all the emotions that can be triggered by gameplay, and while he always wants them to walk away happy, he says all that's important is what "you" (the developers in the crowd) want the players to feel. However, Miyamoto again mentions that his personal taste is to always make that experience a positive one.
11:40: He says that developers sometimes get tunnel vision when creating a game, and says that they have to force themselves to create from the consumer's viewpoint.
11:41: That's why Miyamoto says he's willing to take a risk, delay a game, or change a key spec late in development. "In any case, I believe that my vision of a happy player's face--the one I try to imagine in every project--is also a good match for Nintendo."
11:42: He says that positive focus is what will appeal to expanded markets, and brings up Wii Play. Even though Wii Play isn't a core gamer's game, Miyamoto says traditional gamers are enjoying it because it's something they can play with non-gaming friends.
11:43: Miyamoto says he often makes games so that players themselves are encouraged to become more creative. At the core of that is communication.
11:44: Great games don't necessarily need to include communication (Solitaire, Pac-Man), Miyamoto says. He brings up Zelda, saying his first prototype of the game didn't go over well in Japan. People were confused, they couldn't solve the puzzles, and asked for simple routes through the dungeons. "I ignored them," Miyamoto said.
11:45: Instead, he dropped gamers into the world without even a sword, so that they would be forced to think about what they had to do. Other puzzles also inspired gamers to ask their friends for help and compare notes on the game.
11:46: He said in that sense, Zelda laid the groundwork for Animal Crossing.
11:47: The next aspect of game design he talks about is prioritization. He says all developers have the same complaint: "not enough." There's not enough people, not enough budget, or not enough time. As a developer, he shares those complaints, but has to cope with them anyway.
11:49: He talks about Wii Sports, and how it has only one stadium, no fielding, no ability to lay a bunt, and three-inning games. Not even the characters are realistic, Miyamoto says. They were based on traditional Japanese wooden dolls.
11:50: Despite all the unrealistic elements, Miyamoto said they prioritized pitching and hitting in order to make the game seem realistic regardless.
11:51: At one point in development, they tried to use Mario characters in place of the wooden doll-styled characters, but found that people liked the non-Mario style better.
11:52: Miyamoto says he's a baseball fan himself and hopes to play a more realistic baseball game on the Wii eventually, but says people are already enjoying Wii Sports baseball in its own form of realism.
11:53: Now Miyamoto is talking about tenacity. Referring to Wii Sports baseball again, he talks about how the idea for it had been something he wanted for a long time, and it was just a matter of waiting.
11:54: He brings up the Famicom disk drive and a simple face-creation utility Nintendo developed for it.
11:55: He changes the character's eye, hair style, and face shape in a way fairly reminiscent of the Mii. The utility was intended to come with an animation program. Miyamoto liked it, but the internal feedback was confusion over how it could be a game, and the product was shelved.
11:57: He revisited the idea in another form with the Nintendo 64 disk drive, and showed a 3D character editor made for the system with a wide variety of clothing options for characters. Miyamoto thought nobody at Nintendo could resist that idea, but again the project never reached fruition.
11:59: He tried to bring the idea back yet again with Stage Debut, a GameCube game that was intended to use the Game Boy e-Reader and a camera attachment. He demonstrates the title, which shows a digital Miyamoto dancing with Pikmin characters--and gets much laughter from the crowd. However, Nintendo once again balked at the idea, saying there wasn't really a game to make out of it.
12:00: However, when the Wii was in development, Miyamoto was told of a team within Nintendo that was working on a face creation utility for the DS.
12:01: Miyamoto said he went back to his team and called them useless before jumping to work on the new team's project for several months. He wasn't angry at his own team, he said, but frustrated that they had been working on it for 20 years without succeeding.
12:02: Miyamoto brings it back to the company's vision of an expanded audience, saying he'd had it backwards for years. By making things complicated, he was alienating potential audiences. By keeping the choices limited and making things simple, they got it to work.
12:03: He said tenacity paid off, but only when he was willing to take the risk.
12:04: Miyamoto says he's now working on a new Wii channel as a result of how successful the Mii concept has been. He's going to create a popularity contest for Miis that will feature contributions from gamers around the world.
12:05: His final example of tenacity is Mario. Miyamoto says the plumber came from humble beginnings to be in countless games. He event suggests there may be too many Mario games, a heretical concept to many Nintendo faithful.
12:06: But he's always asked what happened to Mario 128. He said the original Mario 128 demo at Spaceworld was intended to show off the GameCube's horsepower. Not only that, he said most of the developers had already played it, because it eventually became Pikmin.
12:07: A Super Mairo Galaxy graphic appears on the screen, and Miyamoto says the spherical stages of the game are another element of Mario 128 revived for the game, which will come out later this year.
12:08: He then shows a short demo of Mario catapulting between various objects and islands in space, dealing with changing gravity, collecting coins (natch), and fighting monsters.
12:09: Miyamoto's main message is that creative vision isn't one element of game design; it is the very essence of it. He stresses that the developers in attendance don't need to share his vision, saying their success will depend on how well they can realize their own visions.
12:10: Miyamoto talks about measuring the success of a game by how well it breaks outside of the sphere of gaming to attract those who don't play games, or are even afraid of them.
12:11: He again shows a picture of the stereotypical gamer sitting in a dark room staring a the glow of a TV with a controller in hand, and contrasts that with pictures of people playing the Wii.
12:12: Miyamoto closes saying if we can make a gamer of his wife, we can make a gamer of anyone. He receives a standing ovation as the lights come up.
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March 8th, 2007, 19:59 Posted By: wraggster
While at the Vicious Cycle booth, we got a chance to view at Vicious Engine, now working on the Wii, and how the team sees to implement controls for first-person and over-the-shoulder titles.
Essentially, only the nunchuk is used for camera and movement. The top joystick moves and strafes your character, while left and right rotations trigger the accelerometer and rotate the characters perspective left and right and a forward / back roll with cause the camera to look down / up, respectively. In play testing the control scheme, using the accelerometer control to move the camera feels awkward, and the rotations seem to move in 15 degree spurts (as opposed to fluid movement). After a few minutes, however, the movement became more intuitive.
With the simplification of movement in one hand, the other hand (and, more importantly, the infrared motion sensor) is free to control whatever -- sword-fighting or off-of-middle cursor positioning. Level Designer Bryan West told us, rather bemused, that with how the control scripts are implemented in the engine that even he could build a game with what's available.
Visually, the engine looked slightly better than Red Steel, especially the character model we saw. West talked with us and lamented about the common trend of ignoring Wii's graphical capability and simply upscaling textures used for PSP titles. We're assuming, then, that we won't be seeing the same issue with Alien Syndrome, a PSP and Wii title using the Vicious Engine. West also told us that they are working on a Wii game internally that involves the Vicious Engine but cannot currently discuss at this time.
via joystiq
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March 8th, 2007, 19:57 Posted By: wraggster
Almost a year after its release in Japan and six months after the same in Europe, Nintendo is finally sending the Opera DS browser to North America on June 4. Although it lacks Flash, video, sound and PDF support (yikes!), the package includes full stylus control as well as handwriting recognition. You can create bookmarks and display images, but forget about saving sexy pictures of Anna Kournikova to your DS. It's definitely a gimped way to surf the web, but reports say it's a generally smooth experience. The browser retails for roughly $32 in Japan and $52 in Europe, but no pricing has been mentioned for the North American release.
via joystiq
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March 8th, 2007, 19:56 Posted By: wraggster
via joystiq
Ubisoft has picked up the North American publishing rights to Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06, simplifying the name to 'Jam Sessions' and adding a save feature. Guitar Hero this is not. Gone is the rock star play-along backdrop, replaced with bare chord cues and player-generated rhythms. Jam Sessions morphs your DS into a simulated acoustic guitar, meaning that "it's both cooler ... and potentially way more niche" than the Harmonix pastime. Picture it: Minibosses take the stage and rock an entire 'Unplugged' sesh on their DSs.
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March 8th, 2007, 19:51 Posted By: wraggster
via gamesradar
Readers, let's try and work something out together. See, we went out and splashed a penny shy of $70 on a brand new Game Boy Micro last month, despite the fact we've already got another, ooh, five or so machines that can already play GBA carts. Why did we do this? Seriously, we want to know. After all, surely the Game Boy brand is deader than the much-neglected GamesRadar potted plant?
In a recent interview, Reggie himself conceded that there was only one more holiday season left in the Game Boy Advance, a glum forecast that still looks woefully optimistic when you consider Nintendo has dropped support for their smallest child like a hot sausage roll.
Additionally, the third-party publishers we spoke to regarding GBA support were non-committal at best. Only Square Enix seem particularly interested, with a few Final Fantasy remakes and a proposed sequel to FF Tactics in the pipeline - despite the fact that in December 2006, the GBA outsold the Wii, with 850,000 units snapped up. Clearly, the console itself does still have a future. And not just as a "gateway console" for younger players to buy, which the endless stream of depressingly conservative licensed cartoon-games seem to be geared at.
But if you walked into your local Best Buy and strolled over to the forlorn GBA department, you would be forgiven for thinking that's all the Game Boy has left to offer anymore. And it's understandable that, for all its success, people are abandoning the format. Greedy-eyed publishers look at the DS sales and see the larger margins, while smaller developers are often locked out because the prohibitive costs of the Nintendo license discourages some of the quirkier ideas from ever being more than a napkin scrawl.
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March 8th, 2007, 19:48 Posted By: wraggster
via gamespot
Koji Kondo, the veteran Nintendo composer responsible for the music behind the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series, received a rock star's reception during his lecture at the Game Developers Conference today. Once the cheers and applause had died down after his introduction, Kondo outlined what he views as the three essential elements of great gameplay music--rhythm, balance, and interactivity.
Kondo, speaking through an interpreter, said all games have an internal rhythm that must be identified and followed to create music that makes an impression. He used the now-famous music that is played during the first level of the original Super Mario Bros. as an example of finding rhythm, saying that he wrote the theme after long observation of how Mario moves and jumps in the level.
"All games contain unique rhythms in some form or another. These rhythms can be found in character movements and also in the timing of players pressing buttons. It's essential to grasp these rhythms and use the ones that represent the most satisfactory playing experience and create music based on them. To be able to do this, you have to play the game you're working on again and again," Kondo said.
When it comes to balance, Kondo said he thinks the most important sound effect should be the one heard most clearly. But Kondo added that the overall flow of the music from a game's beginning to its end is just as vital. Kondo says unlike other composers who hand in each piece of music to a game director after they are completed, he prefers to hold on to a piece for some time before handing it in with several other completed compositions. This allows the director to look at the music as a whole and not as discrete sections.
"It's important to think of all the music as one piece for an entire game and not just simply a collection of individual pieces," he said. "I consider how one song flows into the next and look at the overall flow of the music from the beginning to the end of the game."
However, interactivity is the key element that sets game music apart from other media, Kondo said. He urged the attendees at the lecture to continue to create real-time, interactive music to further the genre.
"I believe that incorporating sound ideas that showcase the interactive nature of video games is the most important part of sound work. For example, as the remaining time decreases in the original Super Mario, the tempo of the music increases. This is something you can't do with CDs, movies, or other broadcast media. It's just one example of sound changing to suit a player's condition." he said.
"Incorporating interactive elements has the following advantages. It has the ability to create music that changes with each play-through. And it has the ability to create a multicolored composition by transforming themes within the same composition. Musical changes can also add surprises to a game and make it more enjoyable to play. And it has the ability to add musical elements as actual gameplay features. Video game music is not the simple background music you find on movies or TV."
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March 8th, 2007, 19:44 Posted By: wraggster
The first Wii title to utilise Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection for online play will be Pokemon Battle Revolution, the company has announced - with the game due to launch this summer.
The game, which continues the immensely popular Pokemon franchise, will also showcase the wireless link-up between the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii consoles for the first time.
Players who own Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl on the DS will be able to link up with the Wii title to import characters into Pokemon Battle Revolution - and will even be able to use the DS as a controller for the game.
The DS and Wii both have Wi-Fi functionality built in by default, but while many DS games take advantage of the function, to date no Wii games have offered online play or DS connectivity. Instead, the Wii has focused on non-games services delivered over the network, such as news, weather, messaging and Virtual Console downloads.
Pokemon Battle Revolution is due to launch on June 25th in North America, with no European date as yet announced for the title.
via gibiz
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March 8th, 2007, 19:37 Posted By: wraggster
Following Sony's announcement of its new online community software, PS Home, Nintendo has gone on the offensive, deeming the service "an example of Sony's 'Mii-too' approach."
When asked of the company's thoughts on Sony's online plans, Nintendo told CVG: "This is an example of Sony's "Mii-too" approach. But as Mr. Miyamoto states, Nintendo years ago considered and rejected the type of approach Sony is now taking", presumably referring to creating a virtual online world.
Just in case you missed it, PS3 Home allows players to create their own character, like a 3D avatar, and take it into a realistic online virtual world to interact with PS3 gamers from around the globe.
Nintendo's equivalent avatar system, the Mii Channel, lets gamers make simple cartoon-style characters and save them onto the Wii's internal memory. These Miis can then be imported into games for gameplay, or sent to other Wii consoles via the internet.
Nintendo has clearly opted for a simpler approach - although some say the lack of customisation options make it a bit too basic.
But Nintendo is pleased with it's avatar system, saying: "Miis have become a cultural phenomenon in their own right, appealing well beyond the traditional core gamer audience, and the process of populating them across the Wii universe is just beginning."
3D avatars and real time interaction could become a huge aspect of gaming with the current generation of consoles. But will Microsoft join the party with their own PS3 Home or Mii equivalent?
via cvg
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March 8th, 2007, 19:36 Posted By: wraggster
4 CommentsExpectation of StarFox 64's - Lylat Wars in the UK - appearance on Virtual Console has been ramped up courtesy of ESRB.org.
The website for the Entertainment Rating Software Board has a listing for the game for Wii.
StarFox 64 has been heavily rumoured for Virtual Console, and the listing on ESRB gives strong indication that those rumours are true. We've contacted Nintendo for comment and are awaiting a response.
via cvg
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March 8th, 2007, 19:32 Posted By: wraggster
Gamers will be able to use the DS as a controller to play Pokémon Battle Revolution when it launches in the west later this year.
Nintendo told CVG: "There will be games that take advantage of a connection between DS and Wii. The first game to do this is Pokemon Battle Revolution."
"In Pokemon Battle Revolution, players can port characters from Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl via the DS and use their Nintendo DS units as controllers," explained Nintendo.
With both the DS and Wii having built-in Wifi capabilities, the two consoles will connect without the need for wires.
Pokémon Battle Revolution is, of course, also the first Wii game to boast online gameplay as we mentioned here last year.
The game will release in the US on June 25. A UK release is yet to be announced.
via cvg
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March 8th, 2007, 19:32 Posted By: wraggster
Gamers will be able to use the DS as a controller to play Pokémon Battle Revolution when it launches in the west later this year.
Nintendo told CVG: "There will be games that take advantage of a connection between DS and Wii. The first game to do this is Pokemon Battle Revolution."
"In Pokemon Battle Revolution, players can port characters from Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl via the DS and use their Nintendo DS units as controllers," explained Nintendo.
With both the DS and Wii having built-in Wifi capabilities, the two consoles will connect without the need for wires.
Pokémon Battle Revolution is, of course, also the first Wii game to boast online gameplay as we mentioned here last year.
The game will release in the US on June 25. A UK release is yet to be announced.
via cvg
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March 8th, 2007, 19:22 Posted By: wraggster
EA and Spielberg formed a partnership last year with the intention of creating dazzlingly amazing story-focused games. Since the deal was announced, EA has been very tight lipped until now...
Speaking to GameDaily, Young was asked about the deal EA and Spielberg struck last year. Nothing's been released officially about the deal or games, but that didn't stop Young dropping a few hints.
He said, "I can't really share any game details, but recall our original announcements was for three projects. Well, two of those are underway right now in the studio.
"The first one, what I can tell you is what you'd expect, sort of, from a Steven Spielberg production. Steven's stories are intimate stories that take place around huge, world-changing events... sort of, big stories shown through the eyes of a small group. Doug Church is producing it...
"The second project is something Lou Castle is producing, one of the great producers in this industry, and that's one of the products we're building for the Wii. Very exciting and interesting..."
Apparently Spielberg's in the LA studio once a week and he's a joy to work with.
via cvg
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