Tendo City

Nintendo might have a problem on their hands concerning their download content.

Like most of us, I own pretty much every Nintendo made game from the past 20 years as I also own all the consoles from the big N. Being able to download them all in to the Revolution is great for people that never got a chance to play them or lost them. But for people like me, I need an extra incentive to download the games, especially if i'm paying for it.

With the OoT re-release on GC, we got a version of OoT in progressive scan high res, as well as some frame rate issues in certain areas fixed up. The game seems to be locked at 30 fps with very few moments of stutter, only in the hairiest of moments. I noticed that MM got a similar treatment.

So when we start up our Revolutions for the first time and we see the download games, if OoT is there and costs, let's say 10 bucks, what would get you to buy it? If it's the same game as the GC re-release I wouldn't get it. I would need it to have something new.

If it's free, of course i'll grab it. But if it has a cost, I would need something like high res @ 60 fps... That would interest me, but it's still not enough. new dungeons/areas? Okay, now we're talking.

In fact, for all the downloadable games, I would have to be able to have a 'perfect' version of the games to really interest me. No slow down, high res and in surround sound, and of course any and all bugs removed. For Nintendo, this wouldn't be a big deal at all, but new content like levels, characters, etc will take time, energy and money that Nintendo will need to spend on new games for Revolution.

So now we have our perfect versions and we want some new content, something that justifies the price when we already have it available.

I think the answer comes from Nintendo's past. A network of users who use Nintendo-made tools to make game-edits. Entire games, or just an added level. We see roms all the time of dungeons for the original Zelda made by fans. Imagine if Revolutionaries could download the original game along with an editor and make their own levels, weapons, etc and then put them up on a network for other people to download. It would be slow to start up, but within months you would see completely original versions of all our favorite games.

So now we have our perfect versions with new content and a price would be juistified.

How about take it in another direction? Instead of focusing on graphics or new levels etc, they could use the Revolutions wi-fi network to allow us to play all our old favorite 2 player games online. 10 bucks to download Mario Kart for SNES with the bonus of playing it online for free. Suddenly a picture is painted that could really push the entire industry in a whole new direction.

IGN had an interesting article. They were looking at the XBox and PS2 netplayers and noticed a trend; People with handles like Zeldafan or Mario64rules, avatars of Yoshi and their racing car with a paint job of a giant ocarina with Epona's theme drawn down the side with classic C-button icons. The majority of Nintendo fans might have jumped ship but they certainly haven't left Nintendo. If Rev follows suit with their older and newer games, it would sweep them all up. Companies would then be competing with 8 and 16 bit games.

It would be a mad scramble not only for the consumers dollar, but for their play time. Current gameplay designers would have some big shoes to fill if suddenly, their awesome graphics weren't getting any play time because 9 million people are playing Super Bomberman online with their Revolutions.

What about classic one player games? Games like Super Metroid could borrow from current gen titles like Metroid Hunters. Imagine Super Metroid: you start as per usual with nothing, but there are dozens of other players mixed all around Zebes. When your paths cross with other bounty hunters, you can decide to make a team, or try to take them down. You could trade weapons, items or map info with them, too. It could even become a 24 hour world where hunters fight for relics, upgrades and weapons all over Zebes. You could have different levels and handicaps as well for newbies.

This could be applied to just about any one player game from Nintendo. Imagine playing Starfox 64 where your wingmen are human controlled and can each take your own path or even play as the bosses. Couple all of this with the ability to edit your own levels and you have yourself a dream come true. Each game infinitely expandable so you can play it how you want it and share it with others.

And finally, more third parties. The biggest one being Rare for obvious reasons. But online versions of Final Fantasy 2 and 3, Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, you name it. It would be a huge incentive to grab a Revolution, even for people who feel like Nintendo isn't for them.

So here's the bottom line:

1.) The downloadable games should have new content.

2.) They should have online capabilities if possible whether they are multiplayer games or not.

3.) Each game should have the option of an editor to make your own versions of the games.

4.) Frame rate issues should be completely fixed, as well as any bugs - 'Perfect Versions'

5.) PERFECT DARK ONLINE WITH AN EDITOR OMG

You're asking for too much I think, Lazy... that is, if you actually want them to release many. And I'd rather see a lot, with maybe improved versions of a few if they want... but the point is to play the original games.

Now, the price should be low -- no more than $10 for any of them, and less for each older console generation. And they can do some things easily, like improving display quality, etc... perhaps online hookups wouldn't be too bad either, depending on how it's done. But bugfixes, added content, etc? Don't expect it. I wouldn't.

Well, I wonder about those 3rd parties. If they make some profit from it, they'll join in, but otherwise I don't see them wanting to do that.

Oh and, if the game is not multiplayer, what on earth are you asking for online for? How exactly is Chrono Trigger going to be online if there's only one person at the controls? I suppose you could have other people WATCH you play and basically backseat drive the whole time... Secret of Mana on the other hand, that would be great online. Final Fantasy 2 and 3, those would be great NES additions, if Square-Enix would translate the old 8-bit versions of those games, and that's yet another advantage. They could release the games they skipped over in the US, finally! I'll get back to that.

Anyway, a game editor, that's asking a LOT. For one, who knows if they even still have the original programs they used to make those old games. Second off, who knows how user friendly those things are. Most likely, the really old arcade games were made with straight code. Now, I'm all for letting all the "normals" get free access to programming languages from the past. But, realistically they would really have to actually program editors specifically for EVERY game that were user friendly. It's not that it wouldn't be something I'd welcome, but it's not something they would ever DO.

Instead, here's something more reasonable. Nintendo should basically offer simplified programming "kits" that let you make your own RPG with, more importantly, a custom designed combat system and so on.

Debugging, that's a nice suggestion. They may do this but only in some limited capacity, like for the most popular games but not for 3000 of them. I'd like to see Super Metroid but with the ability to actually get out of the last area of the game if you happened to save there, for that "after game party" I tend to have with all the powers I just got.

Back to something I mentioned earlier: they could give us games we never got before. We could get Mother 1, or all the old Fire Emblem games before GBA, or all the old "Wars" games, that sort of stuff, fully translated.

I would imagine most games wouldn't be more than $5 or $10, on the other hand we did have the Classic NES series on the GBA...

Yeah, but those games had production costs -- to make the cart, packaging, shipment, etc... that chews up a big chunk of that $20. Online, it's almost pure profit... the price can be much lower, and yet Nintendo would probably still make more money from it. :)

Editor: Asking far, far too much.

Debugging: Again, it's probably asking too much. Oh, they have copies of the carts and stuff, but do they have access to the sourcecode? Do they remember how this game was programmed? Could they debug it easily? Or would it take time, effort, and money Nintendo would probably rather not spend? I think the latter is much, MUCH more likely than the former. Expect framerate fixes and stuff, and maybe minor bugfixes for the big stuff (that has been fixed in past ports -- like the removal of the Minus World and stuff), but definitely nothing beyond that... remember, these are re-releases. Not remakes. There's a big difference there.

Multiplayer: You can emulate multiplayer for these games over a network -- some emulators do it (for SNES and stuff). It doesn't require changing the game code, either, just creating emulation code that tricks the system into thinking the input is coming from the other "controller" when in fact that controller is on another system over the net... I wouldn't EXPECT (I don't expect anything beyond the minimum) this, but it'd be awesome to have and is definitely doable (since only the already-required hardware emulation code needs to be changed, not the game software code).

Translations: A great idea... they definitely should release Mother 0. Other games it is much more problematic, however. They have no translation, after all, and it'd cost a good bit to translate those games (the ones that have not previously been officially translated, that is)... they certainly can't recognize fan-made translations, and making their own would cost more than they'd probably want to spend, so sadly I'd say it's unlikely... though it'd be really awesome if they did it.

On multiplayer, yes I agree online support is great for games that already have multiplayer. lazy was suggesting something odd though, adding online support to single player games. I'm not sure how that would even work.

Upon thinking more about it, I can see a few things which I will list.

Multiplayer added to those games is pretty much out.

Inviting a guest to watch you play is... interesting, but in the end I really don't care about something like that, nor do I think anyone is really all that willing to watch me play Tetris.

Downloadable content... That's something... However I really doubt that as well. They might as well code a whole new thing, and if they are doing that, why bother asking you to download what is essentially not needed?

Other people being able to see that you are online and invite you to a different game that actually has multiplayer? Now THERE is a feature they can do. Basically "pause" the entire emulation to pop up an out of game window informing you of the invite, or if you really don't want an interruption, a small icon can be superimposed on the image in the corner of the screen telling you there is an invite without pausing the game.

Really though, the biggest option I can think of is downloadable games that are brand new and make use of the Revolution's power. That would need a really large storage device unless you really don't care about things like... decent textures. Anyway, this just brings us back to Nintendo really needing to include, with the system at launch, some manner of massive storage.

Well lazy, I'd have to say that there's a lot there that's asking too much. Adding a multiplayer element to a 20 year old single player game is definitely too much. As far as bugs and such go, I agree with ABF that you'll see some minor bug fixes at best, maybe some showstoppers removed(if any) as well.

Now, an Editor for old games is asking too much. By the way, that Zelda editor is a homebrew tool not a Nintendo one. But, do expect to see editors for Revolution games. A push is starting to happen in the industry to make console games moddable. Both Pariah and Unreal Championship 2 will come with map editors and will allow you to upload your maps so that they can be downloaded by other people over Live.

Like I said last night, the main incentive here will be laziness. Now you can download your favorite classic games and only have one system hooked up to the tv. C'mon, it took ten minutes to the NES hooked up the other night when we wanted to play Simon's Quest. I would expect that the OoT you'll see for download will be the same one that was rereleased on the Cube, same for MM. I would expect that they will probably make the Master's Quest available for download as well.