Just when you thought you were safe from its terror... tEH MeGAton RETURNS!!!!

[OB1]

From the dojo:

According to various EB retailers across the globe who've reportedly been tipped off by the Big N, Nintendo is poised to make a major announcment in February regarding a major product they plan to launch in time for Christmas of 2004. Word on the street is that this new item will either be their next Game Boy, to go head to head with Sony's PSP, or something else altogether (NOT the N5). (wj)

Source: Electronics Boutique

Hopefully it'll be their next Gameboy and not just some multiplayer version of Space Invaders or something like that.

[Great Rumbler]

tEH meGAton RETURNS!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[A Black Falcon]

They were telling the truth about Megaton... we just all thought that they meant LAST year! :D

[Dark Jaguar]

Let's just totally ignore it this time. Not only will that mean we won't be acting like idiots, but if it actually exists and is totally amazing, it'll be like a bomb going off in our emotional systems!

Anyway, Space Invaders IS multiplayer. Well, alternating anyway.

[A Black Falcon]

Never! We've got to make a huge countdown and get all hyped up and then have it be the announcement that its an add-on for that pokemon box thing that adds ... uhh, who knows... a new background color and stickers you can print with a Game Boy Printer? :D

[OB1]

You know what? I wouldn't even be a tiny bit surprised if that was Nintendo's big surprise that Iwata spoke of.

[The Former DMiller]

We already knew Nintendo had a big announcement brewing for early next year, and everyone is assuming it's the next Game Boy. And mentioning the M-word on any Nintendo forum should be considered treasonous.

[A Black Falcon]

Oh we THINK we know... but this is Nintendo, remember. We don't know anything. :)

[Laser Link]

Hahahaha. I think "Megaton" is one of my favorite words ever. It just makes me laugh.

And I will cry all night long if they do unveil a new GameBoy and it is 3D.

[OB1]

Yeah, it'll be sad if 2D gaming dies off with the next Nintendo handheld.

[The Former DMiller]

I think we all know that the next Game Boy will be designed for 3D graphics. Nintendo wouldn't stand a chance against the PSP if they didn't do that. It will really be sad to see 2D gaming pretty much die, but we all knew it would come eventually. Maybe Nintendo can throw us a bone every once in a while and release some cool 2D games for their new handheld.

[OB1]

Well Intelligent Systems seems to love their 2D games so hopefully they'll stick to that for a while, although I would love to see a 3D Fire Emblem or Advance Wars from them.

[Weltall]

ANOTHER Game Boy? You WANT that? I just spent a hundred bucks on the SP! I don't want to have to buy ANOTHER one!

Seriously, Nintendo should just start numbering them like damn sports games already.

[Dark Jaguar]

It would only be the 4th generation. The SP is just a remodel, not a new system completely.

[OB1]

Nintendo needs a new handheld to compete with the PSP.

[The Former DMiller]

Originally posted by Weltall
ANOTHER Game Boy? You WANT that? I just spent a hundred bucks on the SP! I don't want to have to buy ANOTHER one!

Seriously, Nintendo should just start numbering them like damn sports games already.

I got my SP for free from Nintendo so it doesn't bother me. :p

Anyway, Nintendo has to release a new handheld by Christmas 2004 when the PSP will probably be released. They cannot give Sony much of a headstart otherwise we might have a PSX vs. N64 situation.

[A Black Falcon]

Oh, early '05 would be just fine... the GBA should have more than enough momentum and not everyone will jump for the PSP right off the bat. Not with its drawbacks, especially price... Nintendo has plenty of time.

[OB1]

Oh, early '05 would be just fine... the GBA should have more than enough momentum and not everyone will jump for the PSP right off the bat. Not with its drawbacks, especially price... Nintendo has plenty of time.

Yeah, especially price! Now what was that number that Sony gave us for the PSP again? .... Oh that's right, they haven't announced a price yet.

[A Black Falcon]

There's no way in the world it'll be under $300...

[OB1]

Probably not, but if the next Gameboy is $200 and the PSP is $300, most people will look at the fact that the PSP can play movies and music and will think of the extra $100 as a pretty good deal. It worked with the PS2 and X-Box... although that of course depends on how they're going to handle movies for the system. It won't play regular DVDs and the discs won't be recordable, so it'll be interesting to see what Sony does.

[A Black Falcon]

Exactly, its not a popular format like the DVD is so that somewhat negates that plus... not completely, but somewhat. Having to buy movies AGAIN will not go over well. And MP3s? If you can't record to the cartridge, not many people will care.

[Great Rumbler]

It won't play regular DVDs and the discs won't be recordable, so it'll be interesting to see what Sony does.

I don't think many people will buy it because of that feature. Buying movies on again and only being able to play them on the PSP and with a small screen isn't going to turn people on to it.

And MP3s?

They'll probably do that either the same as the N-Gage where you can transfer MP3s off your computer and onto a memory card, but that will me buying extra memory cards just for your music. Again, not something that will turn people onto it, I think.

but if the next Gameboy is $200

I'm going to go out on a limb here and with no basis at all say that the next GBA will be $150 or less. But, we shall see.

There's no way in the world it'll be under $300...

It MIGHT go as low as $200, but I think $300 is a much closer estimate.

[OB1]

Exactly, its not a popular format like the DVD is so that somewhat negates that plus... not completely, but somewhat. Having to buy movies AGAIN will not go over well. And MP3s? If you can't record to the cartridge, not many people will care.

Well so far we know very little about how it's all going to work, so let's wait until we do before we continue this discussion.

I don't think many people will buy it because of that feature. Buying movies on again and only being able to play them on the PSP and with a small screen isn't going to turn people on to it.

The screen size won't be an issue. If you can play complex 3D games on a screen that size then you can certainly watch movies on it. But like I said above, let's wait until we find out more about how watching movies on the PSP is going to work before we continue this.

They'll probably do that either the same as the N-Gage where you can transfer MP3s off your computer and onto a memory card, but that will me buying extra memory cards just for your music. Again, not something that will turn people onto it, I think.

Not if Sony uses their widely-used memory sticks. People already use them for digital cameras and mp3 players, so it wouldn't be like having to buy a brand-new type of memory stick that will only work with one device. The lower-memory sticks are also pretty cheap.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and with no basis at all say that the next GBA will be $150 or less. But, we shall see.

I sincerely hope you're wrong, because that would most likely mean that Nintendo would be sticking to cheap parts (i.e. carts) and it wouldn't be as powerful as the PSP.

It MIGHT go as low as $200, but I think $300 is a much closer estimate.

Probably.

[A Black Falcon]

Well so far we know very little about how it's all going to work, so let's wait until we do before we continue this discussion.

Good idea, but I think I'll be right. :D

I sincerely hope you're wrong, because that would most likely mean that Nintendo would be sticking to cheap parts (i.e. carts) and it wouldn't be as powerful as the PSP.

They want it cheaper, but not so much less powerful that it won't compete...

[OB1]

Good idea, but I think I'll be right.

You wouldn't be ABF if you didn't think crazy things.

They want it cheaper, but not so much less powerful that it won't compete...

We'll see...

[Laser Link]

Has anyone used those portable LCD screens like the have for GameCube. I've seen them in action a few times, and I thought it was way too hard to see anything. I wonder if that will be an issue with these handhelds. I say we stick with 2D. :)

[OB1]

I heard that the official Nintendo one was excellent.

[A Black Falcon]

You wouldn't be ABF if you didn't think crazy things.

We will see, we will see... :)

And what would be the sense in making a console that is way behind technologically and has no hope of success? That'd be stupid... Nintendo wouldn't do that.

[OB1]

*cough*carts*cough*1.5GBdiscs*cough*

[A Black Falcon]

That is not a major technological disadvantage, I'd say.

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, it's not a particularly major dissadvantage, but they still should use full-sized DVDs or some kind of high-density small DVDs that have a similar amount of space with their next console.

[OB1]

Carts weren't a major technological advantage, you say?? I know a few Squaresoft employees that might disagree with you there, bubba.

The GC discs aren't nearly as much of a setback as the N64 carts, but it did result in crappier third-party ports.

[A Black Falcon]

Originally posted by OB1
Carts weren't a major technological advantage, you say?? I know a few Squaresoft employees that might disagree with you there, bubba.

The GC discs aren't nearly as much of a setback as the N64 carts, but it did result in crappier third-party ports.

There is more than a little bit of difference between a 8-64MB N64 cart vs a CD that can hold up to 700MB and a GC disc that holds 1.5GB vs others that hold 4.5...

[OB1]

Gee wiz, genius, perhaps that's why I added "The GC discs aren't nearly as much of a setback as the N64 carts". Guess that just flew right past you, huh?

And it's 1.5 GB vs. 9 GB, actually. All X-Box discs are DVD-9's and some PS2 discs are as well.

[A Black Falcon]

I somehow doubt that many are actually 9gb games, though... and still, that's just 2-6x larger vs 10+x for the N64...

[OB1]

It has greatly affected the FMV and sound quality of many third-party ports for the 'cube.

[A Black Falcon]

Nothing I would have noticed, though... :)

[OB1]

How many third-party games did you get? Try playing all three versions of SSX Tricky and you'll see a huge difference in sound and FMV quality between the GC version and the other two.

[A Black Falcon]

Like half of my games are third-party... lets see... I have 14 games and the demodisc.

1st/2nd/Exclusive- Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Wave Race, Eternal Darkness, F-Zero, Rogue Leader, SSB:M.

3rd-Sonic Adventure 2, Skies of Arcadia, Capcom Vs SNK 2, Extreme-G 3, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, Burnout, and the demodisc.

Oh, and with just the sound coming from the TV, and not speakers, would you notice a sound difference?

[OB1]

None of those games had any of those problems. And no, you wouldn't notice a major difference with regular tv speakers. You would notice the different in FMV quality, though.

[A Black Falcon]

None of them are very FMV-heavy... BG:DA has a few, but that's about it.

[OB1]

Well, it's still unfortunate that Nintendo never quite keeps up with the competition when it comes to storage medium.

[A Black Falcon]

Nah, I have no problem with the GC's format. N64, yes, that was too much smaller than the competition... though I fully understand why Nintendo went with carts. CDs weren't fully proven yet, after all... and load times back then were awful...

[OB1]

And that great decision made them fall far behind Sony.

The GC discs are much much better, but several third-party ports are lesser because of space issues.

[A Black Falcon]

So? Who cares about mediocre multiplatform games, anyway?

[OB1]

Nintendo should, that's who. They almost always get the worst third-party ports, and that's not a good thing.

[A Black Falcon]

Sure, but that's minor stuff... not very important IMO. And I like GC discs... :)

[OB1]

Oh sure, it's extremely minor. So minor that PS2 and X-Box versions of multiplatform games almost always outsell their Gamecube counterparts because the GC has such a bad reputation with multiplatform games, and it's one of the many reasons why Nintendo is #3. Yup, that's minor alright!

[A Black Falcon]

Soul Calibur 2. :)

[OB1]

The one multiplatform game that has sold better on the GC. Yipee.