Rumour: Nintendo Network in the works

[Foxi4]

The Gamecube was a fantastic system - good CPU, great GPU, compact size, 4 controller ports. Everything was looking great... except some dumb ass at N thought it's a great idea to be fancy and cut down the size of the DVD's to "mini" effectively lowering the capacity of discs by 40%. YET AGAIN Nintendo released a fantastic, strong console that suffered from small capacity discs and, well, developers were not pleased. It died a horrible death, which is a shame. If it had DVD support, a USB slot and a built-in browser (hey - it had a modem slot. Why not use it?) it would have had a fighting chance againts the XBox and the PS2.

Wait, you actually think that having a smaller disk decreases the potential storage space on the disc?
Oh dear lord.

And I get the feeling you're pretty anti-Nintendo.

It's an optical disc in the DVD standard, the size and ammount of layers DOES matter. The Gamecube was only compatible with single-layer discs and the size was cut by 40% (down to 8cm) - the discs had the capacity of about 1,4GB - much less than a DVD (4,5GB standard). Don't try to be smarter than thou - you're simply wrong.

I'm not anti-nintendo - I buy their products since I was a kid. In fact, I buy all the consoles I can possibly afford. I'm just aware of the flaws of each of the ones I own. Hell, I even program stuff for the DS. I'm as "non-anti-nintendo" as it gets.

EDIT: Grammar mistakes in my previous post, I do apologize, I'm kinda sleepy.

 

[drgnslayers]

The Game Boy won against the Atari Lynx, the Nomad and the Game Gear, although they had color, is because you had to recharge the console's batteries faster than with the Game Boy.
Game Gear: 6 AA batteries for 4-5 hours of gameplay
Game Boy: 4 AA batteries for 10-14 hours of gameplay (due to that system's monochrome screen and lack of a backlight)
Sega Nomad: 30 minutes of gameplay and you needed alkaline batteries (more powerful than Ni-Cd batteries), You had access to the Genesis' library but was bulky.
Atari Lynx: 6 AA batteries for 4-6 hours of gameplay
Don't forget that NiMH batteries didn't exist at that time.

NES: It was revolutionary but had an obvious flaw in the design that's called the Zero Force Insertion that wear out quite quickly and cause the Blinking Lights of Doom. Many years later, another company didn't learn the lesson and released a console that also has an design flaw that causes the Red Ring of Death, in which the console was deemed dead and had to be replaced. Anyway, what fun people had to blow in the cartridge.

Super NES and Genesis: Two superb consoles, had the chance to play with both consoles. Best console war ever. Super Nes was the most popular and had the most games that were appealing to me. At that time, you were pledging allegience to either Nintendo or Sega. Those days, people own multiple consoles. For example, a PS3 and a Wii.

N64: I agree that it was the strongest of the consoles but it was the only console who were still using cartridges. The limit that cartridges had made Squaresoft release Final Fantasy VII on Playstation (The PS was supposed to be the Super Nes' answer to the Sega CD but they canned the idea.) That idea made Nintendo the least popular in Japan but were a close second in North America.

Gamecube: I agree with Foxi4 said about this console. It would have been fun if they had included an USB port. As for the idea of mini-DVD, they were afraid of piracy. Thats the same reason that brought them into having the N64 running on Flash cartridges instead of CD. That's why Playstation won over N64.

Wii: Nintendo's bet was to return the fun in playing with a Nintendo console. Microsoft and Sony were inspired by the Wii. The WiiMote was inspired by a failure of the NES' time... the Power Glove.

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[Deleted_171835]

Actually, this generation is the only one where Nintendo has really been behind in terms of specs.
NES: Powerful for when it was released.
SNES: Good for it's time.
Nintendo 64: Most powerful of all the fifth-generation consoles.
Gamecube: It was a work of art (dat mobo). More powerful than the PS2.

Game Boy Advance: Portable SNES, baby!

I specifically mentioned that I don't mean the retro consoles, but even these arguments can be refuted.

The NES was revolutionary, that much is correct. Ever so slightly less powerful then the Master System, but definatelly the console that single-handedly changed the rules of the game...

SNES was indeed good for its time, but the Genesis/Megadrive with expansions was arguably a "stronger" system, even if its capabilities were not fully used (for example the only games that actually used Blast Processing were Sonic games and a few other first party titles). Some cartridges had to contain specific "extra" hardware such as the SuperFX chips to actually run on the system, and the only thing the system was "technically" best at at its time was the sound - it had a superb sound chip compared to the Genesis. It also had a great library, so many consider it to be the "winner" in the 16-bit era, but not all. Depends on the individual.

The N64 definatelly had the "processing power" to dominate the market, but its memory was severely flawed, to the point that certain games actually required RAM cartriges to work properly. (Expansion Pak) The console was to be improved by the DD add-on, but in the end, not much was released for it and the project was eventually "canned"... The final nail to N64's coffin was definatelly the medium used - FLASH cartridges at the time were obselete and did not provide nearly enough space, making developers "cut their games short" when they could spread their wings on the PlayStation, which OBLITERATED the system on every front, at least in my opinion.

The GameBoy's were lucky flukes. When I think back to the day and remember the Nomad (portable Genesis) and similar projects, I do wonder why it was kept afloat... if only the Nomad was more compact and, well, cheaper, perhaps it would've won that round.

The GBA was NOT a portable SNES in the slightest, even if it had SNES ports running on it. Perhaps it's my personal opinion only, but I find the console to be both amazing and... well, downplayed. I have the original GBA and I (used to) have an N-Gage... and I have to say that the difference between 16Mhz and 109Mhz ARM is QUITE BLOODY APPARENT, to the point that some N-Gage games were actually ported to the DS later on. If only the games were on a proprietary cartridge, not on SD's, if they were priced right, more numerous and if the cartridge slot was not under the battery like in the Classic design (later changed in QD), the N-Gage had a fighting chance againts the GBA to say the least. Portrait screen didn't help either - it should've been landscape... but all in all, the little games that did come out for the N-Gage were actually awesome, and the addition of Symbian, which was hip at the time and basically meant "emulators, yay!" and, well, phone capabilities made it a fantastic system. I really weeped after it failed when confronted with the mighty "N".

The DS's hardware is a joke. As much as I like the touchscreen, I find its ammount of RAM and processing power to be at best pitiful. If the PSP and the DS had a baby last generation then I would literally throw all my money at N and Sony and immediatelly buy it - it would be the perfect combination. Yet again, Nintendo was saved by a massive library of games and by the fact that, well, they're Nintendo - it's magic.

The Gamecube was a fantastic system - good CPU, great GPU, compact size, 4 controller ports. Everything was looking great... except some dumb ass at N thought it's a great idea to be fancy and cut down the size of the DVD's to "mini" effectively lowering the capacity of discs by 50%. YET AGAIN Nintendo released a fantastic, strong console that suffered from small capacity discs and, well, developers were not pleased. It died a horrible death, which is a shame. If it had DVD support, a USB slot and a built-in browser (hey - it had a modem slot. Why not use it?) it would have a fighting chance againts the XBox and the PS2.

The Wii is a retrofitted Gamecube. It's as much behind the times as humanly possible. It's fun to play though, I'll give them that. Still... avalanche of shovelware is quite scary when looking for "good" games.

Now, Nintendo prepares a console that's "1,5 times as strong as the PS3" basically catching up with LastGen and having the audacity to call it a Next Generation Console. Well done.

The 3DS? No comment. Twin core, likely pretty slow, a no-name GPU (people argue it's quite strong, but I would've welcomed the Tegra more >>; )... Hardware-wise Vita eats it for breakfast...

So don't tell me Nintendo doesn't have a habit of being behind the times. They do. Since, like, a long while.

Yes, I have quite excentric tastes. Bite me.

I don't disagree with you in terms of the N64. The system was certainly capable enough but the use of cartridges were detrimental to it.

I don't think the Game Boy's success was a lucky fluke, though. The reason the Nomad didn't succeed was because of it's bulky design and horrid battery life. The specs did not matter if it could hardly function as a handheld system. Oh and I didn't mention the original Gameboy in my original post for a reason.

In terms of specs, the GBA was essentially a portable SNES. Hardware rotation, 15bit color and a 16.78 MHz 32-bit ARM7tdmi chip. It also got a number of SNES ports which proves that the system is more than capable of running SNES games. Whether it matched the SNES in terms of it's game library is a matter of opinion, though.

I would say that the reason the N-Gage failed was not solely because of the things you mentioned but rather because a phone and a handheld gaming system do not go well together, IMO. But I have already delved into that before and I would rather not start another debate regarding that.

The DS obviously wasn't powerful. Although I already went over the fact that Nintendo skimped on technical specs this gen. But like I said, that fact didn't matter as much since multiplatform development is not common-place on handhelds. I suppose in a way, a PSP and DS baby would be the 3DS albeit more powerful and a much smaller game library.

The Gamecube was a great console but like you said, the minidiscs and a number of other factors did bring it out down. The console's overall purple design certainly didn't bold well with the public's misconception that it was for kids. While it still turned a profit, it definitely wasn't a wild success.

Like I said, the Wii came out this gen and was underpowered. I already mentioned that.

I'm not quite sure where you came to the conclusion that the WiiU is "1.5 times as strong as the PS3". All the evidence that I've seen so far actually points to the contrary of that. The Wii U devkit apparently had a modified R7770 which is significantly more powerful than the PS3 and 360's GPU (although not powerful enough IMO for a next-gen console). Later devkits were said to have changed a lot with them supposedly being more powerful than anticipated. I have faith that Nintendo won't gimp the Wii U like they did with the Wii in the next-gen.

 

[Foxi4]

I'm glad that we agree on many points and I do put my hopes in Nintendo aswell. WiiU looks like an interesting console, even if only for the tablet controler. I don't think it's all that bulky and I actually like larger controlers.

 

[DiscostewSM]

The WiiMote was inspired by a failure of the NES' time... the Power Glove.

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Anyways, hasn't this discussion gone off-topic enough? Going from the Nintendo Network to strolling down memory lane?

 

[NostalgicMillennial]

The Gamecube was a fantastic system - good CPU, great GPU, compact size, 4 controller ports. Everything was looking great... except some dumb ass at N thought it's a great idea to be fancy and cut down the size of the DVD's to "mini" effectively lowering the capacity of discs by 50%. YET AGAIN Nintendo released a fantastic, strong console that suffered from small capacity discs and, well, developers were not pleased. It died a horrible death, which is a shame. If it had DVD support, a USB slot and a built-in browser (hey - it had a modem slot. Why not use it?) it would have a fighting chance againts the XBox and the PS2.

Wait, you actually think that having a smaller disk decreases the potential storage space on the disc?
Oh dear lord.

And I get the feeling you're pretty anti-Nintendo. While you're correct in saying that in the handheld arena, Nintendo's hardware has always been inferior, bear in mind that people dont care too much about graphics when it comes to handhelds. Hence why Nintendo win every single time. Sony made the same mistake with the Vita as they did with the PSP, i.e. making it overpowered and pricey, so people won't (and aren't) buy(ing) it.
Hopefully the Vita finds its niche, much like the PSP did eventually, but it may well not.

And we all know Sony won't do a price drop. They seem to hate money, after all.

plus the main color of the EmoCube was "kiddie purple" there were no mature games on it to appeal to mature gamers. They finally got the hint...but it was too late...same thing with the Wii

 

[Foxi4]

The Gamecube was a fantastic system - good CPU, great GPU, compact size, 4 controller ports. Everything was looking great... except some dumb ass at N thought it's a great idea to be fancy and cut down the size of the DVD's to "mini" effectively lowering the capacity of discs by 50%. YET AGAIN Nintendo released a fantastic, strong console that suffered from small capacity discs and, well, developers were not pleased. It died a horrible death, which is a shame. If it had DVD support, a USB slot and a built-in browser (hey - it had a modem slot. Why not use it?) it would have a fighting chance againts the XBox and the PS2.

Wait, you actually think that having a smaller disk decreases the potential storage space on the disc?
Oh dear lord.

And I get the feeling you're pretty anti-Nintendo. While you're correct in saying that in the handheld arena, Nintendo's hardware has always been inferior, bear in mind that people dont care too much about graphics when it comes to handhelds. Hence why Nintendo win every single time. Sony made the same mistake with the Vita as they did with the PSP, i.e. making it overpowered and pricey, so people won't (and aren't) buy(ing) it.
Hopefully the Vita finds its niche, much like the PSP did eventually, but it may well not.

And we all know Sony won't do a price drop. They seem to hate money, after all.

plus the main color of the EmoCube was "kiddie purple" there were no mature games on it to appeal to mature gamers. They finally got the hint...but it was too late...same thing with the Wii

I LIKED THE KIDDIE-PURPLE. >>;

The colour was chosen to "match" the "best-selling GBA colour". By the way, did I mention GBA connectivity and the GBA player? Awesome.

As far as mature games, you surely jest. Bloody Roar? Time Splitters 2? Resident Evil 4? Lots of Star Wars games? Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes? Gamecube's situation was NOTHING like the Wii's - the system was strong for its time and developers did try their best. They just hated having to add a second miniDVD when the game was "big" and eventually dropped the console.

 

[Deleted User]

Didn't some other game use the term "Nintendo Network"? I feel like I've seen this before...

Mario Kart.
Bingo.

 

[Hadrian]

plus the main color of the EmoCube was "kiddie purple" there were no mature games on it to appeal to mature gamers. They finally got the hint...but it was too late...same thing with the Wii

EmoCube what the fuck are you talking about.

Also Eternal Darkness, Twin Snakes, Geist, various Resident Evil's and loads of others, it had a lot more 3rd party releases than people remember. You might need to research before you comment so you don't appear ignorant.

 

[Midna]

Apparently this has turned into "were old Nintendo consoles underpowered?" general discussion.

It's funny. All the overpowered Nintendo consoles (N64, Gamecube) were comparative failures. All the underpowered Nintendo consoles (GB, GBC, GBA, DS, Wii) have been huge successes. The only real exceptions are the NES, which had little competition to be compared against, and the SNES, which lost it's console war to the genesis because of Sega's aggressive marketing, and "mature" image.

I'm not quite sure where you came to the conclusion that the WiiU is "1.5 times as strong as the PS3". All the evidence that I've seen so far actually points to the contrary of that. The Wii U devkit apparently had a modified R7770 which is significantly more powerful than the PS3 and 360's GPU (although not powerful enough IMO for a next-gen console). Later devkits were said to have changed a lot with them supposedly being more powerful than anticipated. I have faith that Nintendo won't gimp the Wii U like they did with the Wii in the next-gen.

soulx, why did you say that all the evidence points to the Wii U not being 1.5x more powerful than the PS3, and then provide evidence that points to the Wii U being "significantly more powerful than the PS3"?

plus the main color of the EmoCube was "kiddie purple" there were no mature games on it to appeal to mature gamers. They finally got the hint...but it was too late...same thing with the Wii

Fuck off, Gamecube was full of mature titles, and purple is the best console colouring to date

 

[frogboy]

Finally Nintendo may be able to compete with PSN...

 

[Foxi4]

I'm not quite sure where you came to the conclusion that the WiiU is "1.5 times as strong as the PS3". All the evidence that I've seen so far actually points to the contrary of that. The Wii U devkit apparently had a modified R7770 which is significantly more powerful than the PS3 and 360's GPU (although not powerful enough IMO for a next-gen console). Later devkits were said to have changed a lot with them supposedly being more powerful than anticipated. I have faith that Nintendo won't gimp the Wii U like they did with the Wii in the next-gen.

soulx, why did you say that all the evidence points to the Wii U not being 1.5x more powerful than the PS3, and then provide evidence that points to the Wii U being "significantly more powerful than the PS3"?

plus the main color of the EmoCube was "kiddie purple" there were no mature games on it to appeal to mature gamers. They finally got the hint...but it was too late...same thing with the Wii

Fuck off, Gamecube was full of mature titles, and purple is the best console colouring to date

I believe he read it as "0.5" aka "half". I meant 150%, which is "stronger".

As for the Gamecube - yes, lots of "mature" titles out there for it. The colour? Well, the trends dictate that whatever's next to the TV should be the same colour or gray in the worst case, but Purple Naysayers could always buy a black one. At first I didn't like the purple (even remember bashing it back in the day), but then it kinda grew onto me and now I love it - can't imagine having a differently-coloured one.

As for the sudden change of the topic - I personally believe that threads on forums should be more "organic". Sometimes the discussion goes more or less offtopic, but it's the users who cause it, and if users want to digress for a while then they should be allowed to within reason. Afterall, the subject is sort of connected - we're talking about the evolution of Nintendo systems, and Nintendo Network Compatible systems are the next natural step. Crude connection, but a connection.

 

[xist]

It's funny. All the overpowered Nintendo consoles (N64, Gamecube) were comparative failures.

Would you attribute the choice to use a proprietary disc format as somewhat to blame though? It's funny the Sixth Gen was totally dominated by the PS2 which was the least capable of the 3 main players.

 

[KingVamp]

EmoCube? "kiddie purple" ? That's a new one.

The stereotype for Nintendo runs deep in people.


For me, as long as I get good free wifi, I'm fine with it. All the other wifi features/services are just a nice extra for me.

 

[Foxi4]

It's funny. All the overpowered Nintendo consoles (N64, Gamecube) were comparative failures.

Would you attribute the choice to use a proprietary disc format as somewhat to blame though? It's funny the Sixth Gen was totally dominated by the PS2 which was the least capable of the 3 main players.

Oh, I'm not so sure. Fair play, it had the least horses under its hood, but only because it had a massive head start. It also had lots of perhaptials for the time - camera, extended pad slots (up to 4 when connected), HDD add-on, online add-on, USB slots on-board stock... it was quite the powerhouse for the time.

The other 2 players entered the game when everybody and their dog already had a PS2 and the console had a massive library of games.

 

[zachtheninja]

It's funny. All the overpowered Nintendo consoles (N64, Gamecube) were comparative failures. All the underpowered Nintendo consoles (GB, GBC, GBA, DS, Wii) have been huge successes.

because the under-powered consoles were marketed as affordable and family-friendly.

 

[Astoria]

It's funny. All the overpowered Nintendo consoles (N64, Gamecube) were comparative failures. All the underpowered Nintendo consoles (GB, GBC, GBA, DS, Wii) have been huge successes.

because the under-powered consoles were marketed as affordable and family-friendly.

So, the Wii U will be a failure?

 

[Eerpow]

So, the Wii U will be a failure?

Not if it's affordable...

Apparently the Nintendo Network logo shows up on the cover of Dynasty Warriors VS.
Nintendo really needs to explain this now.

 

[Astoria]

 

[Midna]

It's funny. All the overpowered Nintendo consoles (N64, Gamecube) were comparative failures. All the underpowered Nintendo consoles (GB, GBC, GBA, DS, Wii) have been huge successes.

because the under-powered consoles were marketed as affordable and family-friendly.

So, the Wii U will be a failure?

I was just showing a correlation, not implying that advanced hardware caused the consoles to fail.

The N64 was expensive, low on RAM, hard to develop for, and the low capacity cartridges were put up against competitors with 700MB discs.
The Gamecube was up against the PS2, and was using mini DVDs.

Reportedly, the Wii U is very developer friendly, so that takes care of that problem. Just have to wait and see about the price.