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14 Sep 2006
Today's almost certainly the day. With events planned for today in Japan and the US, and tomorrow in Europe, and pretty much all of the rumored launch dates mere weeks away, it looks like today's the day to finally hear details from Nintendo on the Wii's pricing and the list of launch titles. And the true date. I'll be updating this post as the day goes on.
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5 Aug 2006
Here's a random Saturday link-dump:
- Don't believe BusinessWeek's bubble-math - Web 2.0 plus shoddy journalism equals a firm foundation for another bubble. BusinessWeek takes a made up number, multiplies it by a rumored percentage, contradicts itself several times, and most readers are probably just thinking "Wow, what a smart kid!" Related: A hilarious parody.
- Saved locations on Google Maps - This is a great thing. I've been waiting for some sort of smart auto-complete on Google Maps since day one. The interface is a little crusty (I wish I could click on a bubble anywhere and say "save this location" instead of having to have all locations saved), but I'm certain this is just release number one.
- No Space World and Mario Galaxy could be available at launch. Or rather, no one has yet verified that Mario Galaxy won't be available at launch. Related: The early October release rumors still seem to have some air in them.
- Two Cool Bash Tricks - Holy cow. Both are total life savers, but the second more than the first. Redirecting output to two files before you can diff them is a big pain in the neck. (via)
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31 Jul 2006
Back in June, I came across a question on Ask MetaFilter about getting back into Magic: The Gathering and deck recommendations. I had honestly thought about it from time to time. I remembered the game being an interesting challenge, since you're never sure what the other guy's deck is going to do, and there's no way to be prepared for all of it. I didn't want to fall head-first back into spending hundreds of dollars on the game, but if there was some way I could enjoy it on a limited basis, I was interested. I noticed the poster was in Somerville, so although he wasn't soliciting players, I posted a comment indicating that I thought it was an excellent idea. A couple of weeks later, he emailed me and invited me. Yesterday, I went.
It was a just as much fun as I remember. The pre-made "theme decks" they have nowadays make it really easy to spend $15 and have a great time. I got Code of the Orzhov from the Guildpact expansion, a black and white weenie/whittle deck. Some of the cards — like Agent of Masks — have effects that are really powerful in games that are larger than one-on-one. I also got two boosters for a booster draft and made a few tweaks to the deck after a couple of games, and I was really pleased. I went 3-2 with my deck, a couple of which were very close games. Not bad for it being seven years since I played the game.
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27 Jun 2006
It's been a very long time since a Nintendo console was launched with a bundled game. The last one was, believe it or not, the Super Nintendo (bundled with the pinnacle of platformers: Super Mario World) in 1991. Wii Fanboy has a great feature about "Wii Sports", a collection of little games that was the centerpiece of Nintendo's E3 demos, and has been covered in detail. Could it be bundled with the Wii? Should it be?
How console manufacturers can fail to bundle a game with the console is beyond me. Console prices have gotten high enough. Parents considering the purchase for their kids have to also pick a game or three to add to the tab? Ridiculous.
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27 Apr 2006
The Revolution now has a name. Say hello to the Nintendo Wii. Pronounced "wee". Ugh. If it didn't immediately evoke potty jokes, it wouldn't be such a bad name.
Some discussion and coverage: Revolution Fanboy, IGN, Joystiq, MetaFilter.
Update 28 April: Brian pointed out this great oped over at GameLife. My favorite point: "Of course, I expect the Internet to brim over with toilet humor; that is what the Internet is for. But the Internet is not real life. They've already proven this in a variety of ways related to Nintendo product announcements. Remember the almost universal outpouring of disdain following the announcement of the Nintendo DS? Nintendogs?"
Update 1 May: First mentioned to me by my dad, the theory that "Wii" is a fake name has become somewhat of a dull roar on the Internet. The theory is simultaneously ridiculous and enticing. Or is it just wishful thinking? If Nintendo changed the name at E3, would it be perceived as giving into pressure as Sony has with just about all of the PS3's design? I suppose it gives us one more thing to think about between now and next Tuesday at 9:30am.
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23 Mar 2006
The GDC keynote (that supposedly might reveal the final name of the Nintendo Revolution) doesn't start for more than two hours, but that's not preventing the rumors from flying. Might it be the double-entendre Nintendo Go? (The Japanese word "go" means five, and this is the big N's fifth console.) I'm not sure how I feel about the name, but I'm loving the classic-meets-modern cubed-D-pad logo.
Update 11:49: In this interview done last night, Iwata says that he's going to hold back a lot of Revolution information until E3 in May. Whether this means we won't even get a name today is left to be seen.
Update 14:44: News: You'll be able to download and play Sega Genesis and TurboGrafix 16 games on the Revolution, in addition to the previously-known NES, SNES, and N64 games. But it looks like there was no name change today. Set your clocks for the E3 keynotes!
Update 15:56: Here are detailed notes on Iwata's entire keynote.
Update 27 Mar: It's not a name, but the head of Nintendo's PR, Beth Llewelyn, verified in no uncertain terms that Revolution's name will change. She also claims to not know what the name is.
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13 Feb 2006
This is a really strange development that requires some pondering and discussion. An expansion for Half-Life 2 has been in development for a while (previously named Aftermath). Reportedly, it follows Alyx (and, some reports say, Gordon) escaping from the devastation immediately following the end of Half-Life 2.
But last week, things got weird. Valve renamed Aftermath to Half-Life 2: Episode One. Doug Lombardi is being terse at the moment, but this appears to indicate intent to release regular episodic content. In general, this is a good thing, but I have a number of concerns.
The first concern is with naming. What is the "original" Half-Life 2, chopped liver? Episode Zero? Does anyone remember the naming scheme of the series that started with Dark Forces? First, there was Dark Forces. Then, there was Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight. Then there was Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. Then, well, they decided to stick with Jedi Knight, which I think was a good idea. I predict that it won't be long until there are sub-subtitles (Half-Life 2: Episode Three: Return of the Snarks) or they abandon the episode number altogether. (As a side note, for the nerd subculture, the "Episode Foo" scheme invokes too much Star Wars Prequelism to be anything but unsettling.)
But the bigger problem I see is Valve's rampant perfectionism, and thus their inability to deliver a game on time since, well, the first Half-Life. Sure, this is inarguably a Good Thing™ when it comes to game quality. But when you make a promise to release regular content (especially if you charge per-"episode"), you need to do it. And that means cutting corners. It's taken them a year and a half to release Aftermath. How long will Episode Two take?
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23 Jan 2006
I want to get some Icehouse pieces (from the maker of Fluxx and Chrononauts). It's a game system (analogous to a deck of cards), and there are dozens of games for them. Unfortunately, they recommend getting 4 "stashes" (a stash is 15 pieces in one color) at $8 each. They used to have a nice 5-stash boxed set, but it's out of print.
Either way, I don't want to throw down $40 on this stuff if there's not going to be anyone willing to play with, though. I'm afraid I might have to go to an Anime/SciFi convention to play this (and other Looney Labs games), since I hear they're hot shit.
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16 Sep 2005
My first reaction to the now-revealed Nintendo Revolution controller was to think of every remote control I've ever used. With very few exceptions, they're uncomfortable and hard to get to do what you want them to do. But after reading that 1up article, and watching the intro video, I started to get it. "Revolution" is the only word that fits. If you think of this as turning a television into a three-dimensional DS-like touchscreen, the controller design makes a lot of sense.
Joystiq has an overview of Iwata's whole keynote, with a lot of his (and Nintendo's) rationale and point-of-view.
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7 Jun 2005
So here's the situation as it stands now. We know for a fact that there will be backwards-compatibility of some sort built into Nintendo's Revolution console. We know (or at least are fairly sure) that online access will be free of charge. Unfortunately, we also thought that a huge number of first-party games would be free. We were amazed and incredulous, since that list included every Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong game ever made, as well as a number of other ground-breaking and phenomenal games like Gyromite and Goldeneye.
Sadly, it sounds like that's not entirely true. Some games will be available for free to owners of certain other games, but let's hope that Nintendo doesn't go too far in the wrong direction with this. If Mario 128 (ooh, Brian's gonna squirm about that) comes with every back Nintendo game, they'll sell.. er.. okay, they won't sell any more additional games. But they'll get lots of love from the Nintendo community, instead of pushing away those of us who liked everything we saw about the Xbox 360.