8th April 2003, 4:57 PM
I don't know about you, but I love the look of my GCN (I got black, they didn't have any other color at that store). Nothing wrong with "indigo" (well technically, purple isn't listed in the colors of the rainbow, so maybe it's MORE accurate, since all you ever really need is seven colors, this statement was intented for laughs...idiots....don't tell me why we need more than seven colors, just laugh at the sillyness of what I said...) when others are there to get. I've never heard anyone make fun of the GCN's look, ever. That handle doesn't look like a lunch box handle (and what's wrong with that? Construction workers have lunch boxes!), it looks perfectly functional. The only problem is it's SUPPOSED to be a cube, but you don't even need a ruler to see that it's "deeper" than it is high or wide, thus meaning it's not a cube at all. For that matter, I do believe the Q is the nicest console I have ever seen, and others agree. ALL consoles look like toys compaired to the look of the Q.
I agree, keeping the same size is a good move. Hopefully they will work out keeping the access speed the same. This isn't some huge thing hurting Nintendo though, although certain ports would be multidisk if they had to occur. What I want to see is some numbers regarding how much pirating the GCN has had compaired to the XBox and PS2 (compairing to XBox would be better as they are very close to GCN sales so it's easier to see the ratio) so we can see exactly how much good this copy protection scheme has done. As of yet I haven't heard of anyone selling illegal copies of GCN games, but then again I haven't been looking, and for that matter I haven't even heard about illegal copying of the other two system's games (though I suspect that with the PS2 format being so very close to standard PC DVD format that it's already happened quite a bit to PS2 games). In any case, this isn't an important step for their success, just something to make developer porting easier.
That third part is of course the most important thing Nintendo could possibly do aside from launching at or a little before the PS2. No more needs to be said. The only trouble is getting some teams working on those super games in advance. Why not have Retro make one and HAL make another, then just get Miyamoto's group working on the third, and in ADVANCE.
That forth one is something that would be great, but remember this. Sony and MS don't publish games nearly that often in their first and second party games. Sony has the advantage of their AAA games being published by third parties all the time. That's what Nintendo needs to do to get all those games coming out all the time (or stop making GB games and get those groups to focus on GCN games, but that's insane because I love portable games), woo some third party groups early on. They are slowly gaining support for GCN, just keep that support and ask them to make some cool games for later on in GCN's life.
The fifth thing is just fan service. Most casual gamers don't care about surround sound or HDTV support. In fact, most casuals I meet just hook up the ol' RF modulator to the new system they bought and hook that up to their 15' TV with VCR combo built in. I'm just BARELY above that with the advantage of not needing an RF modulator :D. This Digital 2 thing sounds pretty sweet from what I've heard in stores, and I can't really tell the difference between that and genuine stuff. Still, I can see that it would be a nice addition. Might as well make it support 6.1. If they are goign to bother with HDTV, they really need to get games supporting higher resolutions that new HDTVs are capable of. Push it to the thousands for starters, then higher. Still though, this isn't something that will sell systems to the masses. I don't know anyone who's ever used the surround sound or hdtv abilities of their PS2, XBox, or GCN.
6th? I've been pushing for that since day one! Put those things in the system from the START (but add what MS is missing, the modem built in, since I don't think 2005 will be so different that everyone's switched to broadband). For that matter, one last addition. Make that HD removable and sell replacement HDs, IN STORES! That online store selling stuff we should be able to get normally is getting on my nerves. It shouldn't be much to put the HD near the side and putting a clip on it and encasing it so we can remove it and slide in a new one. This way, they could even just make it a 10 gig and the size would never really be a problem since one could easily just go out and buy a new HD when it gets filled (beats buying a whole new system...). And YES, an online plan from the start is needed! In fact, even if you don't have an MS style system, you could just go with Sony's system for a while until you get an MS style system worked out. The key is to have some online games at launch.
Well, that's basically expanding on the have AAA titles at the start. Just make them all different genres eh? Sports games never were a big deal to me, but some like them. Get Sega to make those, or EA. Again, 3rd party wooing is a must. As an added extension to this and the above point, release an online FPS from the start. Heck, it doesn't need to be THAT good as long as it looks good and the multiplayer is fun (Halo prooves that). May I suggest a medieval theme with crossbows and magic bolts? I haven't played that kind of FPS since some really old game for PC (wasn't that good, but it was a nice change of pace from Wolfenstein and Doom).
"We need an 8th." Yes you do! Backwards compatibility! This REALLY helped sell the PS2 even when it had barely any games! People wanted to play many PS1 games, but realized the new system was out, why not buy that to play them? Same with the GBC and the GBA! People who never owned the old systems before those two bought them to play the old titles as much as they did to play the new! Nintendo has two experiences with backwards compatibility, and Sony has the success of one. Backwards compatility sells systems! So, just have a nice inner groove (well, most CD trays do) for GCN games and let us play them.
And now, for minor points of improovement that don't even matter, but I'd like to see done anyway.
They should adjust the memory system so that the maximum number of files is equal to the maximum number of blocks on the memory unit. In fact, just use kilobytes and a varient of the FAT system. No royalties involved, and it's already established! It works FINE for Sony (who did both) and MS (who just used a FAT system varient).
When making the new controller, they might have some innovative ideas in mind (might not, not much more that can be done unless something brilliant comes along), but mainly just move that Z button (they have to keep all those buttons due to backwards compatibility). Fill in the two buttons you removed from the 6 button setup to make that falsly innovative tetris shape design (come on, they just cut out the upper left and upper right buttons from a 6 button setup to make that). Add the select button back to it. Give a click feature to the sticks. Make the A button (maybe the B button) pressure sensitive (only one or two need to be made pressure sensitive, and I say that only because sometimes it's convenient to have the pressure sensitivity on the face instead of on the shoulder buttons). Finally, and this one actually matters a little bit, make the plug in for this controller to the system the same as the next GB's link adapter plug in. That way, all you need is the link adapter and you don't have to go out and buy the console to portable adapter cord. Important if you want people USING that system feature.
As far as the system, here's another idea. Make the next GB and the next console share this ability I'm about to talk about. The ability to link the system and portable to each other even without games that support the feature! Why do this? When you select "show GB image" on the console and the portable has booted seeing this connection, the portable will send the data straight to the screen via the console! Instant super game boy, without an adapter, and perfect emulation (since it's not emulating, you ARE playing it on your GB).
Should they put the memory card slot in the controller or on the system? Well, some have complained about only two slots, so controller would solve that. Eh, what the heck. If the controller connector has decent speed (meaning of course that the next GB connection would also have decent speed) then this isn't a problem.
Lastly, the much vaunted DVD/CD playback ability. At first, it seems easy. I mean, all they need to do is add code to support it right? That shouldn't raise the price of the system at ALL! However, not quite. For CDs, they would have to add a CD laser to the assembly, which would increase cost just for CD playback. With the PS2, they were going to use CDs anyway for smaller PS2 games and for backwards compatibility, so there was no added cost. CD audio playback was added merely because they could see no reason at all not to add it (the data for CD playback is just stored on teh same chip containing everything else about the OS). For the XBox, they wanted that CD image burning feature so they were willing to pay the cost of adding hte laser. The question is this. Do we really care about adding that CD burning thing to the next Nintendo system? Hmm, well as lazy reminded me when I decided to inslut the MS thing, there ARE situations where storing your own music can come in SUPER useful to gameplay itself, like in those "play the music" games that are popular and trippy as of late.
Next is the DVD feature. Now this would use the same laser, so there's no hardware added, just software, and that's easy! Or is it? Remember, the DVD group controls usage of DVD movie playback, and royalties must be paid whenever the ability to play back DVD movies is added to anything. This adds to cost. The solution? Do what MS did! Just put the DVD playback drivers in the remote control package, thus making DVD playback impossible without the kit! In this manner, royalties are paid in the sales of the REMOTE, not for the system. In other words, DVD playback is cheap and easy to add, for Nintendo. They merely need to be willing to sell the remote accessory, since merely using the DVD format alone means the capability is pretty much built in save for the drivers and program for playing back the DVDs.
So for these, the second is an obvious addition if they go the MS way. The first, CDs, is something they just need to pick on their own. If they actually decide to use SD cards as memory cards from the START (that is, the slots on the controllers or system, whichever they pick, are for SD cards, no adapter required), then they could just have the user download MP3s from their computer and use them that way.
Anyway, that's all I can think of. Remember, after that analysis of OB1's stuff, it all was minor unimportant things I'd just LIKE to see, but are hardly important for Nintendo's success.
The MAIN THINGS are as follows:
Launch around the time (maybe earlier) of the PS3 launch. Have a decent number of AAA titles out at launch. Make one of these an online FPS with decent graphics (the single player is irrelevent, they could just have 10 short levels, just make the multiplayer fun). Promise, and DELIVER, more AAA games (a couple more) in a few months. Try to keep up the momentum using 3rd party support.
Put the HD and online adapter in the system straight from the start, not as add ons! Making the HD removable would be a plus, as would adding narrowband modem ability to the system. Have some online games (I mentioned an example above) at launch, using either Sony's system or MS's system (or Sony's then MS's later on). Keep up the online support!
Backwards compatibility! If the memory card format is quite different than the old GCN format, then simply creating a classic GCN card partition on the card (manageble from the menu, sounds hard but I'm sure it can be streamlined into a simple "create file" process, it would look like a folder among the list of next gen saves, opening the folder would show saved GCN games, and the system would manage the files in such a way as that the GCN games would only see that folder).
These three elaborate but essentially simple things should allow Nintendo to do VERY well. I say this with all the economical experience of a tape worm.
I agree, keeping the same size is a good move. Hopefully they will work out keeping the access speed the same. This isn't some huge thing hurting Nintendo though, although certain ports would be multidisk if they had to occur. What I want to see is some numbers regarding how much pirating the GCN has had compaired to the XBox and PS2 (compairing to XBox would be better as they are very close to GCN sales so it's easier to see the ratio) so we can see exactly how much good this copy protection scheme has done. As of yet I haven't heard of anyone selling illegal copies of GCN games, but then again I haven't been looking, and for that matter I haven't even heard about illegal copying of the other two system's games (though I suspect that with the PS2 format being so very close to standard PC DVD format that it's already happened quite a bit to PS2 games). In any case, this isn't an important step for their success, just something to make developer porting easier.
That third part is of course the most important thing Nintendo could possibly do aside from launching at or a little before the PS2. No more needs to be said. The only trouble is getting some teams working on those super games in advance. Why not have Retro make one and HAL make another, then just get Miyamoto's group working on the third, and in ADVANCE.
That forth one is something that would be great, but remember this. Sony and MS don't publish games nearly that often in their first and second party games. Sony has the advantage of their AAA games being published by third parties all the time. That's what Nintendo needs to do to get all those games coming out all the time (or stop making GB games and get those groups to focus on GCN games, but that's insane because I love portable games), woo some third party groups early on. They are slowly gaining support for GCN, just keep that support and ask them to make some cool games for later on in GCN's life.
The fifth thing is just fan service. Most casual gamers don't care about surround sound or HDTV support. In fact, most casuals I meet just hook up the ol' RF modulator to the new system they bought and hook that up to their 15' TV with VCR combo built in. I'm just BARELY above that with the advantage of not needing an RF modulator :D. This Digital 2 thing sounds pretty sweet from what I've heard in stores, and I can't really tell the difference between that and genuine stuff. Still, I can see that it would be a nice addition. Might as well make it support 6.1. If they are goign to bother with HDTV, they really need to get games supporting higher resolutions that new HDTVs are capable of. Push it to the thousands for starters, then higher. Still though, this isn't something that will sell systems to the masses. I don't know anyone who's ever used the surround sound or hdtv abilities of their PS2, XBox, or GCN.
6th? I've been pushing for that since day one! Put those things in the system from the START (but add what MS is missing, the modem built in, since I don't think 2005 will be so different that everyone's switched to broadband). For that matter, one last addition. Make that HD removable and sell replacement HDs, IN STORES! That online store selling stuff we should be able to get normally is getting on my nerves. It shouldn't be much to put the HD near the side and putting a clip on it and encasing it so we can remove it and slide in a new one. This way, they could even just make it a 10 gig and the size would never really be a problem since one could easily just go out and buy a new HD when it gets filled (beats buying a whole new system...). And YES, an online plan from the start is needed! In fact, even if you don't have an MS style system, you could just go with Sony's system for a while until you get an MS style system worked out. The key is to have some online games at launch.
Well, that's basically expanding on the have AAA titles at the start. Just make them all different genres eh? Sports games never were a big deal to me, but some like them. Get Sega to make those, or EA. Again, 3rd party wooing is a must. As an added extension to this and the above point, release an online FPS from the start. Heck, it doesn't need to be THAT good as long as it looks good and the multiplayer is fun (Halo prooves that). May I suggest a medieval theme with crossbows and magic bolts? I haven't played that kind of FPS since some really old game for PC (wasn't that good, but it was a nice change of pace from Wolfenstein and Doom).
"We need an 8th." Yes you do! Backwards compatibility! This REALLY helped sell the PS2 even when it had barely any games! People wanted to play many PS1 games, but realized the new system was out, why not buy that to play them? Same with the GBC and the GBA! People who never owned the old systems before those two bought them to play the old titles as much as they did to play the new! Nintendo has two experiences with backwards compatibility, and Sony has the success of one. Backwards compatility sells systems! So, just have a nice inner groove (well, most CD trays do) for GCN games and let us play them.
And now, for minor points of improovement that don't even matter, but I'd like to see done anyway.
They should adjust the memory system so that the maximum number of files is equal to the maximum number of blocks on the memory unit. In fact, just use kilobytes and a varient of the FAT system. No royalties involved, and it's already established! It works FINE for Sony (who did both) and MS (who just used a FAT system varient).
When making the new controller, they might have some innovative ideas in mind (might not, not much more that can be done unless something brilliant comes along), but mainly just move that Z button (they have to keep all those buttons due to backwards compatibility). Fill in the two buttons you removed from the 6 button setup to make that falsly innovative tetris shape design (come on, they just cut out the upper left and upper right buttons from a 6 button setup to make that). Add the select button back to it. Give a click feature to the sticks. Make the A button (maybe the B button) pressure sensitive (only one or two need to be made pressure sensitive, and I say that only because sometimes it's convenient to have the pressure sensitivity on the face instead of on the shoulder buttons). Finally, and this one actually matters a little bit, make the plug in for this controller to the system the same as the next GB's link adapter plug in. That way, all you need is the link adapter and you don't have to go out and buy the console to portable adapter cord. Important if you want people USING that system feature.
As far as the system, here's another idea. Make the next GB and the next console share this ability I'm about to talk about. The ability to link the system and portable to each other even without games that support the feature! Why do this? When you select "show GB image" on the console and the portable has booted seeing this connection, the portable will send the data straight to the screen via the console! Instant super game boy, without an adapter, and perfect emulation (since it's not emulating, you ARE playing it on your GB).
Should they put the memory card slot in the controller or on the system? Well, some have complained about only two slots, so controller would solve that. Eh, what the heck. If the controller connector has decent speed (meaning of course that the next GB connection would also have decent speed) then this isn't a problem.
Lastly, the much vaunted DVD/CD playback ability. At first, it seems easy. I mean, all they need to do is add code to support it right? That shouldn't raise the price of the system at ALL! However, not quite. For CDs, they would have to add a CD laser to the assembly, which would increase cost just for CD playback. With the PS2, they were going to use CDs anyway for smaller PS2 games and for backwards compatibility, so there was no added cost. CD audio playback was added merely because they could see no reason at all not to add it (the data for CD playback is just stored on teh same chip containing everything else about the OS). For the XBox, they wanted that CD image burning feature so they were willing to pay the cost of adding hte laser. The question is this. Do we really care about adding that CD burning thing to the next Nintendo system? Hmm, well as lazy reminded me when I decided to inslut the MS thing, there ARE situations where storing your own music can come in SUPER useful to gameplay itself, like in those "play the music" games that are popular and trippy as of late.
Next is the DVD feature. Now this would use the same laser, so there's no hardware added, just software, and that's easy! Or is it? Remember, the DVD group controls usage of DVD movie playback, and royalties must be paid whenever the ability to play back DVD movies is added to anything. This adds to cost. The solution? Do what MS did! Just put the DVD playback drivers in the remote control package, thus making DVD playback impossible without the kit! In this manner, royalties are paid in the sales of the REMOTE, not for the system. In other words, DVD playback is cheap and easy to add, for Nintendo. They merely need to be willing to sell the remote accessory, since merely using the DVD format alone means the capability is pretty much built in save for the drivers and program for playing back the DVDs.
So for these, the second is an obvious addition if they go the MS way. The first, CDs, is something they just need to pick on their own. If they actually decide to use SD cards as memory cards from the START (that is, the slots on the controllers or system, whichever they pick, are for SD cards, no adapter required), then they could just have the user download MP3s from their computer and use them that way.
Anyway, that's all I can think of. Remember, after that analysis of OB1's stuff, it all was minor unimportant things I'd just LIKE to see, but are hardly important for Nintendo's success.
The MAIN THINGS are as follows:
Launch around the time (maybe earlier) of the PS3 launch. Have a decent number of AAA titles out at launch. Make one of these an online FPS with decent graphics (the single player is irrelevent, they could just have 10 short levels, just make the multiplayer fun). Promise, and DELIVER, more AAA games (a couple more) in a few months. Try to keep up the momentum using 3rd party support.
Put the HD and online adapter in the system straight from the start, not as add ons! Making the HD removable would be a plus, as would adding narrowband modem ability to the system. Have some online games (I mentioned an example above) at launch, using either Sony's system or MS's system (or Sony's then MS's later on). Keep up the online support!
Backwards compatibility! If the memory card format is quite different than the old GCN format, then simply creating a classic GCN card partition on the card (manageble from the menu, sounds hard but I'm sure it can be streamlined into a simple "create file" process, it would look like a folder among the list of next gen saves, opening the folder would show saved GCN games, and the system would manage the files in such a way as that the GCN games would only see that folder).
These three elaborate but essentially simple things should allow Nintendo to do VERY well. I say this with all the economical experience of a tape worm.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)