STICKY POST
By .ed.
Tuesday, 5. December 2006, 16:29:23
forum, nintendo, opera, blog
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With over 1,800 Members, N+ is a fast-growing and user-generated worldwide Nintendo Community powered by MyOpera.
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By seaempty.
Saturday, 30. December 2006, 21:24:09
seaempty, forum, rumour, interview
...
Dr. Z has come across an interesting interview with Katsuya Eguchi, the man in charge of developing the game, and posted it in our Look What I've Found forum. Eguchi hints at the possibility that you will be able to design your own furniture, and then share it with other users.
I think it's a great idea. Of course, if you made your own furniture, you'd want to share it with others, to be able to give and receive hand-made stuff. Otherwise why would you make it? To be able to do that, you have to build in some place to keep that in the memory. The save data would be pretty huge, then. That's a challenge I'd like to face, though.
It's certainly a very interesting prospect, and I think achievable.
There are a a few more details about the game, which can be found in
this Wikipedia entry. These include functionality with your mobile phone, and also utilisation of the Wii's message board feature.
By seaempty.
Saturday, 30. December 2006, 21:06:40
industry, seaempty, hardware, award
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I4U have made the Wii their gadget of the year for 2006. The Wii may appear in many people's lists of top gadgets released this year, and so it should. It tops I4U's poll for a number of reasons, and one is the reason for this post. They state that it won due to the number of visits items about the Wii generated, and the fact that Nintendo managed an almost global launch meant that it beat the PS3 to the title. Another reason it was chosen over the PS3 was that while the PS3 is "already gathering dust" in their words, the Wii is so much fun to play already.
The reason that clinched the award for the Wii, however, was that their Wii Gadget model photos featuring a hot girl (similar to the DS Lite School Girl which was also brought to you by I4U) had the most page views of all I4U Gadget models this year. A fine reason in my opinion. If you're really interested, the gallery can be found here.
By seaempty.
Saturday, 30. December 2006, 11:50:17
seaempty, wii, mii, website
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You may have already found this site, but yesterday I was introduced to Mii Plaza.net. It's a site where you can upload your Miis, much like our very own Mii Album. There are literally hundreds of Miis already on the site, and it amazes me how creative people can be when creating their Miis. On some there are detailed instructions on how to recreate the Miis on your own.
I love the Lego Star Wars Miis, and I recommend you seek them out. E.T. (left) is also a personal favourite of mine. I now have a few more additions to my Mii collection 
I just wish I was as creative as some of the folks out there (although I am very proud of my Brian Blessed that I created). There are many different categories that the Miis have been sorted into, and it's a nice site.
If you have a Mii that you have created, and are particularly proud of, send us a link, and we'll place it in our own album for you.
By seaempty.
Friday, 29. December 2006, 07:11:11
Europe, seaempty, games, wii
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I have that Friday feeling, so it must be time for some new additions to the EU Virtual Console! Woo!
For starters may I interest you in...NES - 500 PointsBaseball
Ice Hockey
And then for a main course...SNES - 800 PointsSimCity
Super Castlevania IV
And to finish with...TurboGrafx - 800 Points (a
special offer)
R-Type
Bon Apetite! I'll have a portion of SimCity, with a side order of Super Castlevania IV please, but hold the R-Type....for now. It's a bit disappointing as I thought Super Probotector was being released today, but I can't see any sign of it!
By seaempty.
Thursday, 28. December 2006, 14:08:54
seaempty, hardware, ChrWiistmas, wii
I've had my Wii since it was launched in the UK, and have been extremely impressed with it - it has exceeded my expectations. I like to think of myself as an advocate of Nintendo products, and so I've taken every opportunity to pass on the Wii love, and try to generate even more interest in the product. I took the festive period as an opportunity to do this, by taking my Wii on a little tour.
First stop was my work. I won't divulge too much details here, as we probably shouldn't have been playing video games during work hours, but we had a half day before Christmas, and it's a tradition for us to have a little party. I brought in the Wii, and set it up with a projector. There were about 10 of us in, with ages ranging from 19 to 55. It was the centre of attention, and everybody wanted to have a go. I brought along Wii Sports and Wii Play and great fun was had by all. Not only did the participants enjoy it, but the bystanders did too - watching my boss getting wholeheartedly beaten by our secretary at boxing was highly amusing. I had quite a few people coming up to my asking how much the console was, what came with it, etc. I feel sure that Nintendo will be selling a few more consoles as a result of this!
Next came my wife's family on Christmas Day. I set it up in their lounge on their whizzy widescreen plasma TV (the first time I had seen the Wii on one up close). Again it was very well received. Her two younger brothers loved it, and so did her Grandmother. She used to be an avid golfer, and was very impressed by Wii Golf. We started playing in the afternoon, and time flew by. It certainly beat sitting around and watching the rubbish programmes the telly had to offer.
Having finished at my Wife's house, the Wii tour moved to my Mum's house. It was a similar mix of people, but the Mii-maker came into force much more prominently. My side of the family spent much more time making Mii's (partly because we had pre-made some of my wife's family), but they had a great time doing it. Almost as much fun as playing the games themselves. Again Wii Sports and Wii Play were on offer, and again it was a roaring success. Everyone played it, and everyone loved it. The highlight was my mum trying to serve in Wii Tennis, but constantly tossing up an imaginary ball in her left hand, whilst swinging with the right. Hours of entertainment.
The final stop was my Dad's on boxing day. I think he was really keen to try it out, as he kept on urging me to set it up, practically as soon as I walked through the door. My little 6 year-old brother (who is now the proud owner of my old SP) really got into it, and managed to get 3 strikes on his first round of bowling. That was better than I did on my first attempt.
So that was it. I'll say it again: everyone who played on it loved it, and everyone wanted to play on it. It amazed me how my parents, who have never been into gaming, were both swinging away on tennis, picking up spares on bowling, and getting knocked out in boxing. You've probably heard that a lot, but I think Nintendo have certainly come up trumps with this console. Anyhoo, I'll end with a list of the things I noticed on the Wii tour:
-
Excitement - Everyone I met was excited about the console, and seemed really eager to play. I think the "technology fascination" helped with that. I had a great deal of comments, especially from the older generations, along the lines of "that's incredible! how on earth does that work?" Having seen the coverage, people are keen to try it out for themselves.
-
Portability - Due to it's size, it's so easy to pack up the Wii and transport it. Having owned a 360 there is no comparison on this front - due to its size I would never have contemplated taking the 360 on a tour like this.
-
Ease of set up - It's a doddle. Although it probably takes the same amount of effort as other consoles (probably a bit more due to the sensor bar), but even so I reckon my little brother could do it. I used a variety of outputs (Widescreen TV, normal TV, plasma TV, and a projector) and all worked fine, and were set up without a hitch.
-
Awareness - Everybody knew about the console. They may have called it the "double-you eye eye", or some other variation, but they all knew what it as called, and was about. Somebody even saw us flailing about like lunatics through the front-room window as they walked up the drive, and commented as they walked in "I take it you have a Wii then?"
-
Usability - The controls are so intuitive that anyone can use it. This is old news, but worth repeating. People's astonishment at the fact that you didn't have to press any buttons for tennis amazed me. They seemed so chuffed with that fact. The lack of button pressing really does open up the field of gaming.
-
Mii Maker - A star in it's own right, and well worth recognition. Making a Mii family was a hit, and can occupy you for hours. It does need to have more options, however.
By seaempty.
Thursday, 28. December 2006, 11:49:21
virtual console, seaempty, games, list
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Here is a list of the games being added to the VC in Japan throughout January. Is it just me, or is their catalogue the best out there?
FAMICOM TITLES
Ikki (500 points)
Ice Climber (500 points)
Zelda II: Adventures of Link (500 points)
Kid Icarus (500 points)
SUPER FAMICOM TITLES
Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu (900 points)
NINTENDO 64
Mario Kart 64 (1000 points)
MEGA DRIVE
Bonanza Bros. (500 points)
Gain Ground (500 points)
PC ENGINE
Alien Crush (500 points)
R-Type II (500 points)
Soldier Blade (500 points)
Moto Roader (500 points)
I so want Fire Emblem to be released on the EU VC, but I can't see this happening. I can see a lot of excitment for the Mario Kart title, but for me, the 64 version is one of the weakest released, next to the GBA one.
By seaempty.
Thursday, 28. December 2006, 10:55:49
seaempty, hardware, rumour, wii
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The Royalist have reported that a member of the Royal Family became the proud owner of a Wii over the Christmas period. According to them, Prince William purchased Prince Harry a Wii.
Despite being said to be as parsimonious as his frugal grandmother, the Queen, Prince William reportedly dug deep into his pocket to buy Harry this year's must-have 'toy': a Nintendo Wii video games console.
Although there are a great deal of shortages for the console, Wills managed to get his hands on one in time for Christmas, although it may not have been through conventional shops...
Tracking one down was only a matter of time. But he had to pay through the nose for it.
I guess being second in line for the throne doesn't get you everything as easily as you may think!
It's all good coverage for Nintendo, and it's nice to see that they have the Royal assent. You never know, when online gaming kicks in, when you come up against Nintendo_Prince, you might actually be playing against proper royalty.
By .ed.
Thursday, 28. December 2006, 02:16:59
wiicade, remote, games, Wiimote
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WiiDark Sent us a message to remind readers about Wiicade, a site that lets you play some snazzy flash games through the Opera Browser on Wii using the Wii Remote to control the action. Nothing like dozens of free games right?
It's a good site to add as a favorite... Just like N +!
Now go get your game on!
By .ed.
Thursday, 28. December 2006, 00:10:00
news, ambient, flash, aesthetics
...
So, the Opera powered Wii Browser Trial Version launched, and everyone is scrambling to get sweet Wii related, TV compatable, and couch friendly sites up as fast as possible. We've got SofaTube and Wiicade recently providing video and gameplay for free, but what about the people who can't have fun unless thier reading news stories and can't wait until January 27th for the News Channel to launch?
I present Newsmap (again, because it is a few years old actually). Not only does it fill the screen and look beautiful, but it is fully customizable, updates on its own via the Google news aggregator, and it's exactly what you're looking for. I've left this site up on my Wii during my downtime, and it's a great ambient display/conversation starter.
Try it out, you can have it display news for 11 different countries, and the colored sections represent World, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, Health, Nation, and Business. These can also be turned on or off. The stories get darker as they get older, too.
The Concept: "Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of info" ... "Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. [Newsmap takes that] further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe." ... "Its objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media. It is not thought to display an unbiased view of the news; on the contrary, it is thought to ironically accentuate the bias of it."
How awesome is that?!
Credits for Newsmap.
By .ed.
Tuesday, 26. December 2006, 17:55:59
snes, nes, wii, tg16
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By .ed.
Tuesday, 26. December 2006, 16:37:24
wii, youtube, usability, opera
...
If you've met me in person, then you may have heard me go off randomly about how I hate YouTube's site design/interface. For that reason alone I only visit the site when:
Friend: Oh dude you gotta see [description of video], go to YouTube.
.ed: Ugh. Are you sure its there?
Friend: Yeah just search for [description of video].
.ed: Yeah, (I know how to search for things, ass) but did you actually see it on YouTube?
Friend: Yeah, just go.
If the answer is "No, but it should be there." I get sad. Well, thanks to someone who has much more free time (and probably inve$tor$), there is SofaTube. A site that lets you watch videos from YouTube (and Revver)and displays them in a far more aesthetically pleasing way, with much less clutter and less site load time. Designed specifically for Wii Browsers (that's you), it will more than likely feature a few upgrades as feedback rolls in but for now it blows away anything else like it.pleas.ed
By .ed.
Tuesday, 26. December 2006, 16:01:45
playstation, .ed, gba, lite
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Japanese Hardware sales for the week of December 11th - 17th:
-
DS lite: 319,708 Up 10,078 from last week [3.25%]
-
Wii: 108,237 Up 22,798 from last week [26.68%]
- PS3: 70,942 Up 20,771 from last week [41.40%]
- PSP: 48,962 Up 20,032 from last week [69.24%]
- PS2: 37,730 Up 7,270 from last week [23.87%]
- Xbox 360: 17,168 Down 18,175 from last week [51.42%]
- GBA SP: 1,86729 Down from last week [1.53%]
- Game Boy micro: 1,491 Down 64 from last week [4.12%]
- Gamecube: 1,152 Up 583 from last week [102.46%]
- Original DS: 158 Down 9 from last week [5.39%]
- GBA: 42 Up 25 from last week [147.06%]
- Xbox: 3 Down 3 from last week [50.00%]
With all these analysts saying "people will opt for an older PS2 if Wii and PS3 supplies are too limited," it sure hasn't happend. To make things clearer: Nintendo DS, Wii, and PS3 have been selling out completely so those system numbers could be higher if supply was more plentiful.
Nintendo was hopeful to sell about 2 million DS lites this holiday season, but with these numbers, it may end up being 2.5-3 million.
Is anyone suprised by these figures?
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