[StreetsAhead]

There was actually a Pokemon Trading Figure Game that died a quick death. Imagine something like that, but with NFC and tied with the mainstream 3DS game at the time. 8 year old me would have shit bricks and bought every single one. For reference, here are those Skylander figures that are selling like fucking hotcakes at the moment: Real missed opportunity for Nintendo if they pass this up.

Oh, I forgot about the PTFG.
I expect something like this to make a return with the 5th Gen Sim/RPG.
I'm, personally, expecting it to be a launch title, but it may be delayed. Probably won't be very pretty since it's a Pokemon spin-off that started life on Wii, but whatever.

Holy shit, Speculation Thread 4? Yall are some prolific speculators.

About 13.4% of posts in the last three threads have been pointless comments about the amount of posts being made, or the speed of posting, however, so it's not like it's all 'our' fault.

[NinjaTehFish]

At this point its more a Nintendo community thread than anything else.

[TheExplodingHead]

At this point its more a Nintendo community thread than anything else.

This is true, and that's awesome.

[Redford]

At this point its more a Nintendo community thread than anything else.

That's why I'm here!

[guek]

Holy shit, Speculation Thread 4? Yall are some prolific speculators.

[LOCK]

Guys...I want to buy a Wii U.

Yay!?

At this point its more a Nintendo community thread than anything else.

AKA The Cool People of Neogaf

Yeah I said it.

[Thunder Monkey]

I'm here too!

Though I will admit to having fun in the shop avatars thread. That's a fun game.

So... we have anything new to talk about?

[Smiles and Cries]

I need those Amazon pre-orders to go up

when would be a good time for this?

[Redford]

I'm here too! Though I will admit to having fun in the shop avatars thread. That's a fun game. So... we have anything new to talk about?

Glad you did, although I'm happy to see it take a break off the first page for a while, people were starting to just come in asking for a shop without doing one themselves.

And, no, just analyzing the daily slander that Weevils digs up.

[HylianTom]

At this point its more a Nintendo community thread than anything else.

I'm also taking mental notes on all the cool folks that I might want to game with online someday. A lot of the folks around here "get it" as far as love of Nintendo gaming goes (well.. duh!), so this is THE perfect place to populate a friends list.

[Linkhero1]

At this point its more a Nintendo community thread than anything else.

You mean to tell me that this was trying to be something other than that?

I'm also taking mental notes on all the cool folks that I might want to game with online someday. A lot of the folks around here "get it" as far as love of Nintendo gaming goes (well.. duh!), so this is THE perfect place to populate a friends list.

This too :D

[HylianTom]

I need those Amazon pre-orders to go up when would be a good time for this?

Amazon preorders for the Wii went up around September 15, 2006. Their initial allotment was depleted within hours, so the Wii U should be pretty easy if you're waiting in place with some One-Click ninja moves!

And just an FYI: preorders at GameStop/EB began on Friday, October 13. Such a fun night!

[Log4Girlz]

I'm debating using one of the altered avatars from the defile avatar thread.

[Linkhero1]

Amazon preorders for the Wii went up around September 15, 2006. Their initial allotment was depleted within hours. And just an FYI: preorders at GameStop/EB began on Friday, October 13. Such a fun night!

It's going to be a crazy holiday season. I didn't get a chance to preorder the Wii but was it just as crazy going into GS to preorder as it was on launch day?

[TheCongressman1]

so this is THE perfect place to populate a friends list.

Exactly.

That reminds me, when is that community friends list thing for 3DS coming? Is that already implemented? Hopefully they will have that on WiiU as well. Our Gaf Community will be awesome.

[jump_button]

make it go faster T_T

[UltimateIke]

make it go faster T_T

Just think, every time you go to sleep, you knock like 8 hours off!

[Thunder Monkey]

I'm debating using one of the altered avatars from the defile avatar thread.

I am.

Such a simple, yet funny addition.

[Terrell]

Havent Vizio (US) been the number one selling brand in the US by far for the past several years? They havent been around in the market very long and shows that a new entry isnt impossible. Apple probably wont get within a football field of their prices though

Vizio survives by having cheaper parts from Taiwanese partners and smaller margins than their competition, and with smaller margins come much smaller profits. It's enough to keep the business running, and they don't have many grand aspirations for much more than they have.

[TriGen]

And just an FYI: preorders at GameStop/EB began on Friday, October 13. Such a fun night!

That's what I'll be doing, pre-ordering from a store the first day I can, so I don't have to wait for the delivery, because obviously I need the Wii U in my possession as close to midnight as possible.

[Log4Girlz]

I am. Such a simple, yet funny addition.

I will change it to Cabbie's version in a few days.

[lordfroakie]

Holy shit, Speculation Thread 4? Yall are some prolific speculators.

[NinjaTehFish]

I'm debating using one of the altered avatars from the defile avatar thread.

Want me to sort you out?








mwahahahahahahaah >:D

[Log4Girlz]

Want me to sort you out? mwahahahahahahaah >:D

You is evilz

[Redford]

I will change it to Cabbie's version in a few days.

^_^

I'm also taking mental notes on all the cool folks that I might want to game with online someday. A lot of the folks around here "get it" as far as love of Nintendo gaming goes (well.. duh!), so this is THE perfect place to populate a friends list.

Indeed, I've been dying for an enclave like this for years. It's going to be fun to see everyone's taste in games first-hand. (plus the excitement of seeing someone pop online!)

[HylianTom]

It's going to be a crazy holiday season. I didn't get a chance to preorder the Wii but was it just as crazy going into GS to preorder as it was on launch day?

Here's my way-too-detailed account of my very successful camping trip:

I slept about seven hours on the afternoon before the festivities began (the 12th).
For the 2 days beforehand (11th & 12th), I ate very little so that my, uhh, "solid bathroom needs" were minimal.
On the 12th, I drank little.. and emptied my bladder before leaving the house.
I packed my backpack with snacks and drinks. But not too many. I felt safe drinking and eating freely after 4am. I also had Excedrin and Pepto on hand - you must be prepared for all possibilities!
I also made sure that my iPod was charged, my cell phone charged, and my DS charged.
I arrived at GameStop just before 11PM on the 12th (my other half dropped me off). I was the first person in line.
Guys #2 and 3 arrived about an hour later. Pretty cool. One was about my age (late 20s at the time), the other was in early 20s. The crowd ended-up having an average age in the late 20s, which was somewhat surprising. And I liked seeing so many women there. Awesome!
By 4am, we had a nice little line going. My memory fails me, but I think we had about 15-to-20 folks in line by 5am?
Everyone seemed acutely aware that 20 units would be about the maximum number that our store would realistically get.
I spent about one fourth of the night talking about video games & Nintendo, with most conversation happening right at the beginning and right at the end.
A lot of the rest of the night was spent listening to music and podcasts.
Around 7am, my other half brought Jake (the dog) for some moral support. He hung-out with me for about an hour while the other half did early morning grocery shopping. This is one of my favorite parts of the memory. He ate-up the attention he got, and because we always took him everywhere with us, he acted like a perfect gentleman. :-)
After person #20, we got more and more folks who would drive by, shout something like, "how many of y'all are there?" and then they would drive off, frustrated. This was about as negative as it got, thank goodness.

When the time finally came (around 9am), they let us into the store 3 at a time. I plunked down my money (cash), ordered my system, an extra controller/nunchuk, and six games.

Our store ended-up getting 16 preorders. Since I was at the front of the line, I might have been shielded/oblivious to whatever back-of-the-line/close-to-the-cutoff drama that there may or may not have been. Another benefit of getting there early!

One regret? I'm bringing a lawnchair next time. I'm getting too old to be on the concrete.
I'm also bringing the iPad so that I can offer live commentary with other lined-up NintendoGAFfers in lines around the country. This is going to be the first time we're going to to be connected during camping to such a dramatic degree, so it's bound to be much much more fun. :-)

And that's that. It's weird, but I love camping for a Nintendo console!

[Linkhero1]

Here's my way-too-detailed account of my very successful camping trip: I slept about seven hours on the afternoon before the festivities began (the 12th). For the 2 days beforehand (11th & 12th), I ate very little so that my, uhh, "solid bathroom needs" were minimal. On the 12th, I drank little.. and emptied my bladder before leaving the house. I packed my backpack with snacks and drinks. But not too many. I felt safe drinking and eating freely after 4am. I also had Excedrin and Pepto on hand - you must be prepared for all possibilities! I also made sure that my iPod was charged, my cell phone charged, and my DS charged. I arrived at GameStop just before 11PM on the 12th (my other half dropped me off). I was the first person in line. Guys #2 and 3 arrived about an hour later. Pretty cool. One was about my age (late 20s at the time), the other was in early 20s. The crowd ended-up having an average age in the late 20s, which was somewhat surprising. And I liked seeing so many women there. Awesome! By 4am, we had a nice little line going. My memory fails me, but I think we had about 15-to-20 folks in line by 5am? Everyone seemed acutely aware that 20 units would be about the maximum number that our store would realistically get. I spent about one fourth of the night talking about video games & Nintendo, with most conversation happening right at the beginning and right at the end. A lot of the rest of the night was spent listening to music and podcasts. Around 7am, my other half brought Jake (the dog) for some moral support. He hung-out with me for about an hour while the other half did early morning grocery shopping. This is one of my favorite parts of the memory. He ate-up the attention he got, and because we always took him everywhere with us, he acted like a perfect gentleman. :-) After person #20, we got more and more folks who would drive by, shout something like, "how many of y'all are there?" and then they would drive off, frustrated. This was about as negative as it got, thank goodness. When the time finally came (around 9am), they let us into the store 3 at a time. I plunked down my money (cash), ordered my system, an extra controller/nunchuk, and six games. Our store ended-up getting 16 preorders. Since I was at the front of the line, I might have been shielded/oblivious to whatever back-of-the-line/close-to-the-cutoff drama that there may or may not have been. Another benefit of getting there early! One regret? I'm bringing a lawnchair next time. I'm getting too old to be on the concrete. I'm also bringing the iPad so that I can offer live commentary with other lined-up NintendoGAFfers in lines around the country. This is going to be the first time we're going to to be connected during camping to such a dramatic degree, so it's bound to be much much more fun. :-) And that's that. It's weird, but I love camping for a Nintendo console!

Glad it went well for you. Seems like you were prepared for everything too haha. had pretty terrible experiences in the past but that's due to not preordering the console. I'm going to do the same thing you did this time around and hopefully it all goes well.

[NinjaTehFish]

They say somethings wrong with me.
My mum says I'm special.

[Log4Girlz]

They say somethings wrong with me. My mum says I'm special.

:O

[TriGen]

Indeed, I've been dying for an enclave like this for years. It's going to be fun to see everyone's taste in games first-hand. (plus the excitement of seeing someone pop online!)

Yeah, I think it would be cool to do some Nintendo online gaming with people you know aren't gonna just scream in their mic.

[HylianTom]

Glad it went well for you. Seems like you were prepared for everything too haha. had pretty terrible experiences in the past but that's due to not preordering the console. I'm going to do the same thing you did this time around and hopefully it all goes well.

When it comes to console camping trips, I don't mess around!

And I forgot to mention: when choosing a store where I'd camp, I called each possible store and asked them if they would indeed be doing a midnight launch. After they all confirmed that they would be open at midnight on Launch Day, I was able to move to my next criteria: proximity to home, safeness of neighborhood, etc.

This time around, I'm not sure about which store I'll be going to. I just moved to this area of town, and each store has its benefits and drawbacks..

(And NinjaTehFish, that's.. interesting.)

[Terrell]

I've always wanted a camp-out experience, but was afraid of the possibility of sweaty mouth-breathers.

My Wii story was:

January of 2007, finished work, wandered around the mall for about an hour looking at random shit, popped into Zellers for something to eat at their cafeteria and walked past electronics and saw it in the glass case. Knowing they were rare as hen's teeth, I immediately called my bank to check my balance and rifled through my pockets for any large bills.
Paid in bills and debit, rode home on the bus for an hour, plugged it in, bought a VC game and fell asleep.

I literally "walked into the store and bought one", as GAF suggested I could. LOL

[TriGen]

My Wii story was pretty simple. I went to a Target about 2hrs before they opened, stood outside, I was probaly customer 35 in line, an employee came outside and handed everyone a ticket up to I believe 50 something, and then I just waited until my turn and picked up the Wii with a copy of TP. I always get my consoles at launch but I never have had to camp-out for a console, and I buy everyone of the big three.

[Hobbestetrician]

Today's Nintendoomed article.... Why are video game sales looking so weak lately? Blame Nintendo http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...=related_right

No surprise that they took that route instead of the, more true, route of the HD consoles not being able to support the industry this generation. It is pretty disgusting how the press creates their own narrative sometimes.

[Dreamwriter]

Me and a friend (both in our 30's) didn't preorder the Wii, we thought it'd be fun to wait in line at a non-preorder store (Fred Meyer). We didn't camp overnight, though, I drove out a couple times checking line length, and we finally got in line at around noon for the midnight launch (we were around the 20th place in line). We brought decent folding chairs and blankets (it was COLD! There was even light snow), and our DS's and some multiplayer games (Band Bros. import forever!) and his wife came by a couple times bringing hot cider in thermoses. It didn't take long for the line to be a kind of low-key party, it was great fun. Since there were two of us with chairs we could send one of us into the store for restroom breaks. At I think 8ish the store sent someone out to count people in line, and when they got to 100 they turned the rest away (they were pissed, but they didn't cause any problems) and told the back of the line to warn people off. At one point someone offered me $50 for my spot in line, but I didn't take them up on it.

Then at midnight they let one person in, took his picture,,and when he came out he held up his box and people cheered. After that they let people in in small groups, and line order still mattered - they had a limited number of copies of Zelda, and classic controllers, and even extra nunchuks. They also had a person there in a Link costume autographing Wii boxes :)

It was all fun, but I dunno if I'd do it again, the Wii was special.

[snesfreak]

I had been trying to find one for months, and FINALLY in June 07 Circuit City got some in stock (online.)
I saw the in stock notification email and I think I managed to order it in the morning before I left, hard to remember anymore cause I got the order confirmation at a little after 4:30PM (just checked).

$274.32 is what I paid (fucking sales tax)

Came home the next day (overnight shipping) and it was waiting for me.




































A few months (September or October I think) later my fucking asshole piece of shit landlord stole it.


Yeah.


So then, having to find ANOTHER ONE I managed to get one from Amazon in December, got Mario Galaxy too.
Good times...

[Redford]

So where's the pic...?

[Anth0ny]

My story: Camped out at Best Buy at 11PM the night before. Was 11th in line. Got it at 8AM, went home and played Twilight Princess all day.

That was my first all nighter. I remember my buddies leaving the line to grab some red bull at 3AM or so, but they were gone after an hour. Not me. I didn't have any red bull. I was running on

pure

HYPE.

[-MB-]

It's really amazing how much hatred and filth nintendo gets dumped on them by the "enthusiast" press and gamers alike.
the shitstorm Sony sometimes receieves this generation is nothign compared to it.
it's like an entire industry is banking on Nintendo failing hard.

[Dreamwriter]

Oh yeah, and my launch Wii had a disc drive issue, games would crash when they reached certain parts (and my discs in my friend's launch Wii didn't have the problem). Luckily, I live close to Nintendo HQ in Redmond, WA, so I could drive down there and get it replaced on warranty.

[shadyspace]

Bitches. don't. know. bout. my. 1-Click.

[Redford]

And damn Dreamwriter, you live the fucking life when it comes to vidya.

My story: Camped out at Best Buy at 11PM the night before. Was 11th in line. Got it at 8AM, went home and played Twilight Princess all day. That was my first all nighter. I remember my buddies leaving the line to grab some red bull at 3AM or so, but they were gone after an hour. Not me. I didn't have any red bull. I was running on pure HYPE.

This man is an example to us all. The Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov of HYPE.

[jump_button]

It's really amazing how much hatred and filth nintendo gets dumped on them by the "enthusiast" press and gamers alike. the shitstorm Sony sometimes receieves this generation is nothign compared to it. it's like an entire industry is banking on Nintendo failing hard.

they just want mario on others and they think big N going under and failing will be best thing for them, we all know that worked for Sega <_< they doing so well right now........

[HylianTom]

It's really amazing how much hatred and filth nintendo gets dumped on them by the "enthusiast" press and gamers alike. the shitstorm Sony sometimes receieves this generation is nothign compared to it. it's like an entire industry is banking on Nintendo failing hard.

Sony gets some laughs, sure, but you seldom (if ever) see anyone in the enthusiast press clamoring for them to go third-party.

Nintendo stumbles? You can hear them fantasizing about Nintendo making games for a Microsoft machine, pleasuring themselves to the idea.

But part of me has learned to enjoy their attitude. Despite their hate, Nintendo did well for itself, and I'm sure that this bothered them to no end. And if the coming years work-out like I think they will, Nintendo and its fans will be very, very entertained. *giggle* :)

[NBtoaster]

While I agree that modern hardware is very important for the portability of games (not engines), DX11 grade hardware really only has a single distinguishing feature from previous architectures. The vast majority of engine features would still work easily.

I imagine you're talking about tesselation, but compute shaders are fairly important too.

Older architectures may be able to use the newer features, but that usually comes with considerable overhead.

[kittens]

Hahaha, that's amazing.

[AzaK]

It's really amazing how much hatred and filth nintendo gets dumped on them by the "enthusiast" press and gamers alike. the shitstorm Sony sometimes receieves this generation is nothign compared to it. it's like an entire industry is banking on Nintendo failing hard.

I think Nintendo offends them. They see a company that's survived in the industry for the last 30 years all due to some cartoony set of characters that don't blow people's heads off and curse at every step.

They see their 'adult' games come and sell a mill or two units after costing tens of millions to make in an attempt to be like Avatar and then Mario Kart comes out and sells 25 million units for the cost of a cheese sandwich.

I just think their manhoods are threatened and deep down inside they want to love Mario and Zelda but they worry what their friends might think.

I imagine you're talking about tesselation, but compute shaders are fairly important too. Older architectures may be able to use the newer features, but that usually comes with considerable overhead.

While we don't know for sure, nothing's pointing to Wii U having computer shaders is it?

[Redford]

I think Nintendo offends them. They see a company that's survived in the industry for the last 30 years all due to some cartoony set of characters that don't blow people's heads off and curse at every step. They see their 'adult' games come and sell a mill or two units after costing tens of millions to make in an attempt to be like Avatar and then Mario Kart comes out and sells 25 million units for the cost of a cheese sandwich. I just think their manhoods are threatened and deep down inside they want to love Mario and Zelda but they worry what their friends might think.

For many, yes.

But it's been said a thousand times: there are also people that see more potential in Nintendo than they have been demonstrating over the past gen.



I think it's because Nintendo is the only company with a soul in the industry, and the only one that can inspire both praise and constructive criticism. MS and Sony just do whatever suits their business and gamers shit on them all the time, without even being conscious of it sometimes. They have such base expectations that MS and Sony can fill, but it doesn't satisfy anyone in the end like Nintendo does when they get it right.

It's a shame that these base expectations are becoming the average these days.

[DCKing]

I imagine you're talking about tesselation, but compute shaders are fairly important too. Older architectures may be able to use the newer features, but that usually comes with considerable overhead.

Compute shaders are actually just an API in DX11, not a hardware feature. DX10 grade hardware can be programmed using OpenCL (for example) just fine.

The real difference between the DX11 Radeon 5000 series and DX10 4000 series was that the 4000 series tesselator was replaced with a tesselator that conformed to the DX11 standard. There's not much about these chips that causes overhead or anything. It's just older and has an old tesselator.

[monome]

I think it's because Nintendo is the only company with a soul in the industry

Right...