A Salute to Nintendo: Part VIII: Other Miscellaneous Nintendos that Nintendo never Bothered to tell anyone About!

Who hasn't heard of Nintendo? But there are two of Nintendo's lesser consoles: the iQue and the Virtual Boy! First, the Virtual Boy...

To play the Virtual Boy, (takeoff on Game Boy? No idea.) the user looks into an eyepiece on the front, and then a projector allows viewing of the red image. Only red? Hey, it was old, virtual reality sucked! It was released 1995 in Japan and 1995 in North America at a price of around $180. It had a negative reception that was unaffected by continued price drops, which means that it didn't stink, but it didn't suck. Nintendo discontinued it the following year. The Virtual Boy is considered Nintendo's only failure in the video game market.

The controller is cool in a lame way. It's like a big M, like the Nintendo 64's controller. It has two D-pads, Select and Start buttons, and A and B buttons, along with L and R buttons, more like triggers.

It was like looking into 3D glasses and watching a movie: one eye got red, the other blue. If you look at the picture next to you, (left, idiot), you'd see that some parts are red, and some are blue. With both eyes in the goggle things, it appears to be 3D. But it was not successful, because of the competition. Wolud you rather have a Virtual Boy, or a Genesis or Super NES? I know the answer already.



Now, let's learn about the iQue...

It's like a controller, pretty much. It is a controller. It plugs into the TV. It is only available in China.
Games are stored on a flash card that plugs directly into controller. Games are purchased at a special "iQue depot" that can be at convenience stores or supermarkets where games cany be downloaded onto your cartridge and played later.
Only 14 games were ever realeased for the iQue, but that was on purpose. There are 14 classic N64 games for it:

Wave Race 64
Star Fox 64

Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Mario Kart 64
F-Zero X
Yoshi's Story
Paper Mario
Excite Bike 64
Super Smash Bros.

Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth
Animal Crossing
Dr. Mario 64
Custom Robo

If you had all of those for the iQue, you'd get sick of it pretty fast, especially if some of the games are cruddy. I guess that's why it didn't do very well.

Well, there is another two consoles! The Game and Watch and the Color TV Game. Click on the names to see the Wikipedia page for them.

Well, that's it for A Salute to Nintendo.

But still read my blog! Please! That will be all. Siegel out.

A Salute to Nintendo: Part VII: Wii

WHO-HOO!!! The Wii! Since I have one, I know all about it! It is so awesome, and here's why!

Well, it also plays GameCube games, if you have a controller and memory card. Along with Wii and GameCube games, it can also play Genesis, NES, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, Turbo Grafx 16, and Master System games via the Wii Shop Channel, an online service that lets you play certain games. The true way to enjoy the Wii is with its 3 main controllers: The Wiimote, the Nunchuk, and the Classic controller. Let us learn more about these...

The Wii remote (left) is one of the most vital of the Wii's controllers. Its motion sensing and pointer function is one of the major functions of the Wiimote. On the top left is a Power button, which lets you (obviously) turn the console on and off. Below that is a 4-way D-pad. On the front below that, an A button, and on the back of the controller, a B button, or trigger. Below A are 3 buttons: the minus button, the Home Menu button, then the plus button. Below that, a 1 and 2 button, followed by the Player LED and the controller port. And, of course, there's a wrist strap.

Now, for playing Virtual Console (below) and some WiiWare (belower than Virtual Console) games, with some Wii games, you gotta have this. It can let you...uh, do stuff. In the bottom, there are 2 control sticks. Above those are the Select, Start, and Home buttons. To the left of that is the D-pad. To the right is the a, b, x, and y buttons. On the top are the L, ZL, R, and ZR buttons. The middle button doesn't do anything.

The Nunchuk is another attachment to the Wiimote. It features a control stick, and the C (top) and Z (bottom) buttons. It also has motion-sensing, but to a leeser extent than the Wiimote. It is mainly used so that a control stick can be used in games, because today most games are 3D. It's not the Nunchuk that you kill people with, but it's just called that, go ask Nintendo, not me.

Ah, WiiWare and Virtual Console. Let's talk about these. You buy them with Wii Points.

WiiWare is pretty much Wii games

that were put onto the Wii Shop Channel.

They sometimes use the Classic Controller,

though not always. Some use the Wiimote

and Nunchuk, or the GameCube controller.
They are usually 500-1500 Wii Points.

Virtual console games are classic games from

older consoles, like Super Mario Bros.

and Sonic the Hedgehog. They can be from the

NES, Super Nintendo, Genesis,

Turbo Grafx 16, Nintendo 64, and Master System.

They are usually 500-1000 Wii Points.

It also comes with a game, Wii Sports. It lets you play five sports: Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. You use the Wii remote as a tennis racquet, baseball bat, bowling ball, golf club, and the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as boxing gloves. It lets you use Miis (below) as sports players competing in events. It's pretty fun.

There are also these Avatars you can make of yourself called Miis. They are mainly used as playable characters, ex. Guitar Hero World Tour, Wii Sports, save icons, ex. Super Mario Galaxy

Well, that's about all with the Wii that I have to talk about. Coming up next the final installment in the A Salute to Nintendo series, Other Miscellaneous Consoles that Nintendo Never Bothered to tell Anyone About!

See you again next time!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part VII: Nintendo GameCube

The GameCube! A Cube...that plays games. Because of being tiny, cute, and being able to play Game Boy games, it ended up being popular, though not as popular as the PS2 or Xbox. Let's learn more about this GameCube...

The GameCube controller has a wing grip design, and is designed to fit well in the player's hands. The primary analog stick is on the left, and the Start button is next to it. Below it is the D-pad. On the right is a set of four buttons: in the middle, a green A button, to the left of that, a red B button, to the right, a gray X button, and above that, another gray button, the Y button. On the top are 3 shoulder buttons: L, R, and Z. The Z button is blue, and L and R are gray. The Z button is in front of the R button.

The console itself is, well, a cube. On the top, there are 3 buttons: On the top left is the Power button, below that is the Reset button, and on the right is the Eject button. In the back, there is a handle, which can be used to carry the console around. Not much else, unless you want to hang it off of a clothes hanger. In the front are four controller ports, indicated by dots, like this:

. .. ... ....

O O O O

Below that are the memory card slots. On the bottom of the Cube there are plugs used to plug in the Game Boy Player peripheral. What's a Game Boy Player? Let's find out!


Pretty, much, it just lets you play Game Boy games on a TV.
A special Game Boy Player for the Panasonic Q (below) was released because the Q's legs are placed differently than the original GameCube's. All Game Boy Players have screws on the bottom to secure it to the bottom of the GameCube and also have an eject button on the right side for removing Game Boy Advance games. Game Boy and Game Boy Color games stick out from the unit, so they can just be pulled out when the system is off or Change Cartridge has been selected from the menu.

Now, what the heck is a Panasonic Q? It's a GameCube that can play DVDs, CDs, MP3 as well as several other features. The system was officially released only in Japan. Since the GameCube couldn't play DVDs, a feature its competitors, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox had, the system was licensed by Nintendo and was released in December 2001 in Japan only. Nintendo's decision to license the gaming technology to Panasonic is a result of the deal broken between Matsushita (owners of Panasonic and makers of the

GameCube discs) and Nintendo. When Nintendo signed Matsushita as the producer of the optical disc drives that power the GameCube, an agreement was struck allowing Matsushita to produce a DVD system able to play GameCube games.
Other features of the Q include a backlit LCD, a front-loading slot disc tray, an optical sound output supporting Dolby Digital 5.1, and a stainless steel chassis. The Q is capable of installing all of the GameCube hardware upgrades; however, because of the legs on the bottom, it requires a special Panasonic Q Game Boy Player unit designed specifically for it.


What about the discs, they were tiny. On the picture below, on the left is a GameCube Disc, on the right a Wii disc. They were very tiny, but hey, would you rather have a giant heavy cube, or a small, compact, easy to carry one? I think I know the answer. The GameCube Game Disc was criticized for its small storage, because some games with large amounts of data have needed to be on two discs, reducing their quality. Prior to the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo consoles usually used cartridges.










For the Wii, Nintendo extended the technology to use a full size DVD-based disc, enabling it to have the benefits of the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc, while having the standard capacity of a DVD-ROM. Although the Wii can use double-layer discs, all titles were single-layer up until the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. With the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo has admitted that some Wii systems may have trouble reading dual-layer discs due to a dirty laser lens. Nintendo is repairing systems with dual-layer problems.


Well, well, well, looks loike our time is up with the GameCube. But next, the mother of Nintendo consoles, the most popular console right now, the Wii! Keep on following my blog for the Wii post! When we meet again...I don't know.

:-)

Console of the Week: PlayStation 2

The Console of the Week! PlayStation 2! The period button on my keyboard is jammed!
Oh, wait. There it is. I'm giving the console of the week to the PlayStation 2 because of its wide library of games, something else, and that thing in the middle there. Eww... oh, well!

If you'd please look up at the PlayStation 2, You'd better...that Playstation logo that you see on the front can turn 90 degrees, so that it'll look good when it's horizantal and vertical. Next to that is the Power button. Below that and to the left, there are two USB ports, for microphones and other accessories. Above those is the eject button. Left of the eject button are the two memory card slots, and below those are the controller ports.

Speaking ( no wait... writing? Reading? Aw, nuts to this!) of the controller, called the DualShock 2, it is interesting.


Look above at the controller. It has two analog sticks at the bottom, and in between those is the analog button. Above that are the Select and Start buttons. Left of those is the D-pad. To the far right is the face buttons:

From Left to Right:
X, Circle, Square, Triangle

On the top there are 4 shoulder buttons: L1 and L2 on the left, and R1 and R2 on the right.

The PlayStation 2 is the Best-selling game console of all time, so get out your credit cards and go to Best Buy to make it even more, and knock off the competition. Thank you all for reading! See you next week!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part V: Nintendo 64

Ah, the Nintendo 64, the beginning of 3d games for Nintendo consoles. Even though it uses cartridges, the lamest storage type of video games, it was still awesome. Was. It isn't right now.

Now, what's up with that title, 64? If you were a video game expert, you'd know that the 32/64 bit era was in the mid-90's. It was a 64 bit console...very ::sarcasm:: creative. The developers must have been ffeling lazy. Now, what about the N64's (let's call it that)

history? Well... it was originally called the Ultra 64 or in Japan, Ultra Famicom. It's code name was Project Reality. Why the moniker? I don't care. Today I'm too lazy to do research.

One of the launch titles was Super Mario 64. Probably one of the greatest games ever, and at least I know a thing or two about it.

Super Mario 64 is a 3D platformer, the first one in the Mario series, where the player controls Mario through several courses (but no Luigi...crud!) Each course is a little world in which the player is free to wander about in all directions and discover the environment without time limits. The worlds are filled with enemies that attack Mario as well as friendly creatures that offer information, or ask a favor (such as pink Bob-omb Buddies). The player looks for stars in each course; some stars only appear after completing certain tasks, like beating a boss, solving puzzles, racing an opponent, and grabbing coins. As more stars are collected, more areas of the castle become opened.
Some courses have special cap power-ups which augment Mario's abilities. The Wing Cap lets Mario fly; the Metal Cap makes him immune to most damage, allows him to withstand wind, walk underwater, and be unaffected by gases; and the Vanish Cap makes him partially invisible and allows him to walk through some stuff, as well as invincible to some forms of damage. Some courses have cannons that Mario can access by speaking to a Bob-

omb Buddy. After entering a cannon, Mario can be shot out to reach places he couldn't normally access. When the player has the Wing Cap, cannons can be used to reach high altitudes or fly across most levels quickly. Oh, and there's a lot of awesome stuff he can do, too! You can make Mario walk, run, crouch, crawl, swim, climb, and jump using the game controller's control stick and buttons. Special jumps, like a double and triple jump, the long jump, and the backflip can be done by pressing combinations of buttons. There are also special moves, such as wall jumping; jumping from one wall to another in to reach areas that would be too high.

But enough about freakin' launch titles. Lets get to the N64 stuff!

Nintendo noted several advantages for making the N64 cartridge-based. ROM cartridges have very fast load times compared to disc-based games, as CD-ROM drives rarely had speeds above 4x. This can be observed from the loading screens that appear in many Sony PlayStation games but are typically non-existent in N64 versions. ROM carts were so much faster than the 2x CD-ROM drives in other consoles that developers could stream data in real-time off them. Also, ROM cartridges are difficult and expensive to duplicate, thus making it harder for piracy. Compared to the N64, there was a lot of piracy on the PlayStation. The cartridges are also far more durable than compact discs, which must be carefully used and stored in protective cases. It also prevents accidental scratches and read errors from dust and dirt. Whoo hoo! now the bad stuff about cartridges!

While game cartridges are more resistant than CDs to physical damage, they are sometimes less resistant to environmental damage, particularly wear of their electrical thingies inside causing a blank or frozen screen, or static electricity (KA-BOOM!!!). Console cartridges are usually larger and heavier than optical discs and take up more room to store. They also have a more complex manufacturing process, which meant that games were usually more expensive than their optical versions. The cartridges held a maximum of 64 MB of data, where CDs held over 650 MB. As games became more complex in content, sound, and graphics, it pushed cartridges to the limits of their storage capacity. Games ported from other consoles had to reduce content in order to be released on the N64. Extremely large games could be made on multiple discs on CD systems, while cartridge games had to be contained within one unit since using an additional cartridge was expensive (and was never tried).

The controller for the Nintendo 64 could be held in several different positions. It could be held by the two outer grips, allowing use of the D-pad, face buttons and the L and R shoulder buttons (but not the Z trigger or analog stick). It could be also held by the center and right grip, allowing the use of the analog stick, the face buttons, the R shoulder button, and the Z trigger on the rear (but not the L shoulder button or D-pad). More often than the analog stick was not used in games, the analog stick was used in games while in some, both the analog stick and directional pad could be interchangeable. Very few games used the directional pad exclusively; two examples are Tetrisphere and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
The controller also included four C buttons, which were yellow and originally intended to control the camera in the N64's 3D environments. However, since the controller only contained three other face buttons, the C-buttons often became assigned to functions. An example of this is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which I own for the Wii Virtual Console, where the C-buttons can be assigned to secondary items and the Z-trigger is used to move the camera.

Well, that's about it for the Nintendo 64. See you next time for A Salute to Nintendo: Part VI: Nintendo GameCube! Thanks for reading!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part IV: Super Nintendo

Most of you have heard of a Super Nintendo. It's a Nintendo... but super. It was released in 1990, and even though it was released later than the Sega Genesis and Turbo Grafx-16, it outsold both of them. Now, it had stiff competition against Sega in what was called the console wars.

At first, the Sega Genesis competed against the NES, and it had superior sound and better graphics than it. Despite this, the Mega Drive was ignored in Japan. Some positive information came out of magazines, but Sega shipped under one million units in the first year. In order to sell more units, Sega tried some risky moves, including creating an online banking system and answering machine called the Sega Anser and several peripherals and games. The Mega Drive remained a distant third in Japan behind the Super NES and NEC's Turbo Grafx 16 throughout the era.

It was an instant success: Nintendo's initial shipment sold out within hours. With the Super Famicom quickly outselling its rivals, Nintendo reasserted itself as the leader of the console market. Nintendo's success was partially due to its retention of most of its key third-party developers from its earlier system, including Capcom, Konami, and Tecmo.

Sega of America instituted a two-part approach to build sales in that region. The first part involved a marketing campaign to challenge Nintendo head-on and emphasize the more arcade-like experience available on the Genesis, summarized by the slogan "Genesis does what Nintendon't". The second part, since Nintendo owned the console rights to most arcade games of the time, involved creating a library of instantly-recognizable titles by contracting with celebrities and athletes to produce games using their names and likenesses; Joe Montana Football and others stemmed from this initiative. Nevertheless, it had a hard time overcoming Nintendo's presence in the consumer's home.

All versions of the SNES are gray, although the shade may differ. The original North American version has a boxy design with purple sliding switches and a dark gray eject lever. The Japanese and European versions are more rounded, with darker gray accents and buttons. All versions have a top-loading slot for game cartridges, although the shape of the slot differs between regions to match the different shapes of the cartridges.

The SNES controller adds two additional buttons to the design of the NES controller, arranging the four in a diamond shape, and has two shoulder buttons. The Japanese and PAL region versions incorporate the system's logo in the colors of the four action buttons, while the North American version colors them lavender and purple to match the redesigned console and gives the lighter two a concave rather than convex top. Several later consoles have elements of their controller design from the SNES, including the PlayStation, PS2, PS3, Dreamcast, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube Game Boy Player, NES 2, and Wii (Classic Controller).

49 million SNES units were sold worldwide, with 23 million of those units sold in the Americas. Although it could not repeat the success of the NES, which sold 61 million units worldwide, the Super NES was the best-selling console of its era. The Genesis came in second with 29 million sold worldwide, and the TurboGrafx-16 was third with 10 million sold worldwide.

Well, even with lots of competition, it was pretty good! You can't mess with Nintendo! :-)

Coming up next, the first Nintendo console with a control stick, the Nintendo 64! Also, it has most of the first 3D games for Zelda, Mario, and other Nintendo series! Stay Tuned!

A Salute to Nintendo: Part III: Nintendo Entertainment System

Now, who wants to know about Nintendo's first console? The NES, aka Famicom in Japan, is currently Nintendo's most successful console, with 61.91 million units sold. If you have a Wii, you have to go on over to the Wii Shop Channel and download NES/Famicom until your credit card is empty! (It's your choice)

If you want to know the history of this thing, read on!

Following a series of arcade games in the 1980s, Nintendo made plans to produce a console. The Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) was slow to become popular; a bad chip set caused the first release of the system to crash. Following a recall and a reissue with a better motherboard, the Famicom’s popularity soared, becoming the best-selling game console in Japan by the end of 1984. Encouraged by these successes, Nintendo soon turned its attention to the North American market. Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom under Atari’s name as the name Nintendo Advanced Video Gaming System; however, this deal eventually fell apart. Plans to market a Famicom console in North America featuring a keyboard, cassette data recorder, wireless joystick controller, and a special cartridge under the name "Nintendo Advanced Video System" likewise never happened.
In 1985, Nintendo revealed its American version of the Famicom . It rolled out its first systems to limited American markets on October 18, 1985, following up with a full-fledged North American release of the console in February of the following year. Nintendo simultaneously released eighteen launch titles.
In Europe and Australia, the system was released to two separate marketing regions (A and B). Distribution in region B, consisting of most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy), was handled by a number of different companies, with Nintendo responsible for most cartridge releases; most of region B saw a 1986 release. Mattel handled distribution for region A, consisting of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, starting the following year. Not until 1990 did Nintendo’s newly created European branch take over distribution throughout Europe. Despite the system’s lackluster performance outside of Japan and North America, by 1990 the NES had outsold all previously released consoles worldwide.

For its North American release in 1985, the NES was released in two different "bundles". The console deck itself was identical, but each bundle was packaged with different game paks and accessories. The first of these sets, the Control Deck, retailed from $199.99, and included the console itself, two game controllers, and a Super Mario Bros. game cartridge. The second bundle, the Deluxe Set, retailed for $249.99, and consisted of the console, a R.O.B. accessory, an NES Zapper gun, and two game paks: Duck Hunt and Gyromite.
For the remainder of the NES's lifespan in North America, Nintendo frequently repackaged the console in new configurations to capitalize on newer accessories or popular game titles. Subsequent bundle packages included the NES Action Set, released in November 1988 for $149.99, which replaced both of the earlier two sets, and included the console, the NES Zapper, two game controllers, and a multicart version of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. The Action Set became the most successful of the packages released by Nintendo. One month later, in December 1988, to coincide with the release of the Power Pad floor mat controller, Nintendo released a new Power Set bundle, consisting of the console, the Power Pad, the NES Zapper, two controllers, and a multicart containing Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, and World Class Track Meet. In 1990, a Sports Set bundle was released, including the console, an NES Satellite infrared wireless multitap adapter, four game controllers, and a multicart featuring Super Spike V'Ball and Nintendo World Cup.
Two more bundle packages were released using the original model NES console. The Challenge Set included the console, two controllers, and a Super Mario Bros. 3 game pak. The Basic Set, first released in 1987, included only the console and two controllers with no pack-in cartridge. Instead, it contained a book called the The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, which contained detailed information for every NES game made up to that point. Finally, the redesigned NES 2 was released as part of the final Nintendo-released bundle package, once again under the name Control Deck, including the new style NES 2 console, and one redesigned "dogbone" game controller. Released in October 1993, this final bundle retailed for US$49.99, and remained in production until the discontinuation of the NES in 1995.

The game controller used for both the NES and the Famicom featured a brick-like design with a simple four button layout: two round buttons labeled B and A, a START button, and a SELECT button. Also, the controllers had a D-pad, designed by Nintendo for the Game & Watch, to replace the bulkier joysticks on earlier gaming consoles’ controllers.
The original model Famicom featured two game controllers, both of which were hardwired to the back of the console. The second controller lacked the START and SELECT buttons, but featured a small microphone. Relatively few games made use of this feature. The earliest produced Famicom units initially had square A and B buttons. This was changed to the circular designs because of the square buttons being caught in the controller casing when pressed down, and glitches within the hardware causing the system to freeze sometimes while playing a game.

Also, unlike the Famicom, the controllers included with the NES were identical to each other—the second controller lacked the microphone that was present on the Famicom model, and had the same START and SELECT buttons as the regular controller.
Recently, the original NES controller has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the system. Nintendo has mimicked the look of the controller in several recent products, from promotional merchandise to limited edition versions of the Game Boy Advance SP and Game Boy Micro handheld game consoles.

When Nintendo released the NES in the United States, the design styling was deliberately different from that of other game consoles. Nintendo wanted to distinguish its product from those of competitors, and to avoid the generally poor reputation that game consoles had acquired following the video game crash of 1983. One result of this philosophy was a front-loading zero insertion force cartridge socket designed to resemble the front-loading mechanism of a VCR. The connector and the cartridges were clean and the pins on the connector were new. Unfortunately, the connector was not truly zero insertion force. When a user inserted the cartridge into the NES, the force of pressing the cartridge down and into place bent the contact pins slightly, as well as pressing the cartridge’s ROM board back into the cartridge itself. Repeated insertion and removal of cartridges caused the pins to wear out pretty quick, and the ZIF design proved far more prone to interference by dirt and dust. Add-ons like the popular Game Genie cheat cartridge tended to further exaggerate this problem by bending the front-loading mechanism during gameplay.


Well, I hope you liked it! Next up, A Salute to Nintendo: Part IV: Super Nintendo