[LiK]

it will not.

[Bending_Unit_22]

When was this confirmed though, they could include a Wii-on-a-chip like early PS3 models included essentially a PS2 and full backwards compatibility similar to Nintendo systems, though perhaps that's too costly too.

I fixed my response for that caveat too late. I thought I read it was via emulation but I couldn't point you to anything, in general with how cheap Nintendo is I wouldn't think they'd slap an entire Wii, or even just the CPU, into the Wii U.

The GBA is the only system I can think of where Nintendo put the innards of the prior system into the next one for B/C and that was a single cheap Z80 chip. All other Nintendo B/C has either been the system is almost the exact same chips or emulation.

[WillyFive]

The worst part is Reggie telling lies, like that not possible upscaling old games.

You need to emulate the games in order to render them in HD.

It would still be nice if it upscaled Virtual Console games.

It won't, because each game has it's own emulator that is made to work with the Wii; it's not like they are ROMS that an emulator inside the Wii plays.

An N64 game will play exactly the same on the Wii U as it does on Wii: 480p and no widescreen support.

[Alextended]

It won't, because each game has it's own emulator that is made to work with the Wii; it's not like they are ROMS that an emulator inside the Wii plays. An N64 game will play exactly the same on the Wii U as it does on Wii: 480p and no widescreen support.

That will be the case if they don't (ever, not just launch) make VC available on WiiU and so only possible as Wii bc but I think it's likely they'll want to continue and expand on that service and so perhaps offer them updated on WiiU even if you can transfer your Wii licenses over. If they do that then the WiiU version could handle it more like rom loading, or just with new emulators. Either way, it's not like 2D games can be improved, although some nearest neighbor upscale would be preferable to whatever a TV will do. And it doesn't mean they'd add higher resolution to N64 and other 3D games even if they did do this, that part could be an one off effort and if they did it again it could lead people to expect GC games when/if added to VC to do the same which will be harder.

[Syril]

Kirby's Adventure VC says otherwise.

Wait, what's this?

[chaosblade]

No it doesn't, which kinda sucks considering how GC support pretty much comes 'free' with Wii backwards compatability. I'm guessing they didn't want to spend the money on mini-disc readers and memory card slots. :(

They could have emulated the memory cards and controllers even if it had hardware b/c for the main stuff. The only question would be transferring data, which I guess could just be another accessory they could sell.

The mini-disc support is probably the main reason why they didn't bother.

[KillerTravis]

Why would anyone ever expect Nintendo to do anything extra?

Giving you backwards compatibility on all the games you've bought isn't something extra?

[KageMaru]

Reggie confirmed at E3 2011 that it doesn't, they said the only wait too do it is make a new game (HD remake) out of it.

Yup and this is a flat out lie.

[ColdBlooder]

Yup and this is a flat out lie.

How so?

[1-UP]

I'm expecting GC/Wii HD remakes anyways

Wind Waker in glorious 1080p. homerdrool.jpg

[Tain]

They should just hire the Dolphin team, have Wii U emulate Dolphin, boom.

even if this were possible (it isn't), compatibility would blow and performance wouldn't be very close to perfect

not worth it

[WillyFive]

Giving you backwards compatibility on all the games you've bought isn't something extra?

It should be the standard.

[King_Moc]

I'm guessing that to upscale the games, it would have to emulate the Wii, rather than run them as if it wqas a Wii (which i'm guessing is what it does). There's no way it would be powerful enough to emulate the Wii. It takes a pretty beastly PC to do it effectively, currently.

[Kai Dracon]

Hardware B/C PS3s didn't turn PS2 games into HD either. People need to understand there's a difference between hardware B/C and emulation.

Emulation may give you extra capabilities and tricks, at the expense of compatibility and some games not rendering correctly.

Hardware gives you 100% compatibility and games behave like they should, but you can't upscale in the same way as emulators like Dolphin.

[drspeedy]

already been answered: no I'm expecting GC/Wii HD remakes anyways

GC HD on VC is almost certain in my mind. They should start advertizing that:

"Wii would like... U to re-buy games you still own!"

[Berordn]

GC HD on VC is almost certain in my mind. They should start advertizing that: "Wii would like... You to re-buy games you still own!"

Can't really blame them, given the success of HD collections this gen. Free money for virtually no effort on their part.

Not that I like it.

[King_Moc]

GC HD on VC is almost certain in my mind. They should start advertizing that: "Wii would like... You to re-buy games you still own!"

Make them HD, slap in a few new features, maybe achievements (for those that are that way inclined) and charge maybe £15/$20 and i'm game.

This is Nintendo though, so no extras, low res 2D art assets and £25.

[KillerTravis]

It should be the standard.

Well when the competitors don't even bother to include something as mandatory as that it's cool that Nintendo at least gives you the full catalogue.

[drspeedy]

Can't really blame them, given the success of HD collections this gen. Free money for virtually no effort on their part. Not that I like it.

Hell no, I don't blame 'em. Means I'll be keeping my Wii for a while longer tho.

And my gamecube. And... Well, I keep all my consoles, what am I talking about!

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Pretty certain answer is no. Stupid oversight imo. Wouldn't that be yet another reason to upgrade?

Yes, I'd buy a Wii U at launch if it upscaled current Wii games.

Your reason to upgrade will be that they'll sell you all your Wii games again, in HD.

Probably what Nintendo is thinking and planning to do.

[lunarworks]

If it did they wouldn't be able to sell it to you again.

[EloquentM]

Wouldn't you need to use emulation to upres and upscale these games? That seems like a bit too money intensive, time consuming, and possibly game breaking at Nintendo's expense. Hardware BC seems like the smart way to go despite the entitled hardcore gamers opinion.

[ohlawd]

That's where GC/Wii HD Collections come in.

Metroid Prime Trilogy... lol I don't even care about the HD part, I just hope they do this so I can experience MP 1 and 2 with motion controls without having to pay $100+ for the Wii version

[King_Moc]

If it did they wouldn't be able to sell it to you again.

Whatever. Nintendo have consistently been the best console company with regards to backwards compatibilty. Even shoving a GBA slot into the DS. Believe what you want, but if you'd ever tried to emulate via PC, you'd understand what the issue is here.

[EloquentM]

Whatever. Nintendo have consistently been the best console company with regards to backwards compatibilty. Even shoving a GBA slot into the DS. Believe what you want, but if you'd ever tried to emulate via PC, you'd understand what the issue is here.

No! I want my zach and wiki in glorious 1080p! Who are you to tell me otherwise?!

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

So when do you think Nintendo will announce some HD collections? I wonder what titles will be announced?

I'd actually be excited for a Twilight Princess HD. Skyward Sword already looks amazing because of the art style but TP looks muddy and blurry. I'd love to see a HD version of that game.

[King_Moc]

So when do you think Nintendo will announce some HD collections? I wonder what titles will be announced? I'd actually be excited for a Twilight Princess HD. Skyward Sword already looks amazing because of the art style but TP looks muddy and blurry. I'd love to see a HD version of that game.

I'm just hoping they've taken a hint from those 3-in-1 collections.

[plagiarize]

Make them HD, slap in a few new features, maybe achievements (for those that are that way inclined) and charge maybe £15/$20 and i'm game. This is Nintendo though, so no extras, low res 2D art assets and £25.

most first party Wii games already use high res 2D art assets, weirdly enough. check the dolphin thread to see, if you haven't already. Gamecube games not so much, but the assets in Wii games are generally close to what you need for HD standards, if not already at or beyond that level in many cases.

[CamHostage]

Can't really blame them, given the success of HD collections this gen. Free money for virtually no effort on their part.

I take it you haven't been following the HD collections market all that closely? This "free money for virtually no effort" idea was hot for a second but has proven to fall apart when fans stopped turning up and when developers started asking for the right support budget to actually do these games right. R&C HD, the long-in-development ZOE Collection and maybe Final Fantasy X could be the tail end of this fad. Nintendo is always an exception that can move Zelda and Mario all day long if it wants to, but that's not proving to be the infinite money pool that some people think. Remastering resells is probably not going to chief reason if BC fails to be included in other next-gen platforms.

(Luckily, we got a lot of the games that big games that commanded HD remasterings right in the sweet spot, treasure that Ico collection because Dark Cloud and SOCOM and The Getaway will never happen.) (Also, support the heck out of SEGA's JGR project because they've done a complete 180 from their awful "HD" releases and should be encouraged to keep it up.)

[HYDE]

You can get component cables for the GC? I thought it only did a/v and s-vid?

Some GameCubes can some can't. It has to have the digital av out and you have to buy some cheap official Nintendo component cables too ;)

[TheLastCandle]

Please, please god let us stream Wii games to the gamepad. That's really what I desire from a backwards comparability standpoint.

[Sneds]

Pretty sure it was confirmed that it wont, sadly. I have my Wii hooked up via HDMI though, and it does look slightly better than it did through component cables. So, y'know, you might get a 5% bump in IQ.

What have you used to do that?

[EloquentM]

What have you used to do that?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005QB...dir_mdp_mobile

[drspeedy]

Please, please god let us stream Wii games to the gamepad. That's really what I desire from a backwards comparability standpoint.

Despite all the fainting and speaking in tongues in the Tiki Tori thread around VC gamepad play, THIS would be the killer WiiU feature.


Won't happen. At least not at first, maybe V2.0

[CamHostage]

Whatever. Nintendo have consistently been the best console company with regards to backwards compatibilty. Even shoving a GBA slot into the DS. Believe what you want, but if you'd ever tried to emulate via PC, you'd understand what the issue is here.

Ha, let's not get carried away! Nintendo have done BC on only one console in all of its history (now two with Wii U,) and their portable BC is partly because their portables were minor steps all along that had no need of breaking away from the past. Also, the GBA slot on the DS (not a GB slot, mind you, not sure why the difference) was there partly to provide an easy and proprietary (and thus free-to-license-for-Nintendo) IO slot for future DS needs (such as the Rock Band accessory and the DS Slide Controller.) Nintendo has done more than due diligence with BC, but it hasn't gone out of its way and it hasn't had a lack of ulterior motives.

[The Abominable Snowman]

I don't think a separate laser is really necessary to read GC discs at this point, and also if nintendo wanted, they could have GC BC.

[Meier]

This is terribly disappointing. I was hoping to play some of my Wii titles that I couldn't really ever stay focused on due to the poor video output/graphics. Oh well, what can ya do.

I definitely need to figure out how to convert my Xenoblade save to an R1 save before the Wii U comes out as I imagine that'll spark me to play it further.

[Muffdraul]

I for one welcome our inevitable "Wii Classics HD" re-release overlords. Budget priced, I'm sure!

[TDLink]

This is terribly disappointing. I was hoping to play some of my Wii titles that I couldn't really ever stay focused on due to the poor video output/graphics. Oh well, what can ya do. I definitely need to figure out how to convert my Xenoblade save to an R1 save before the Wii U comes out as I imagine that'll spark me to play it further.

Really? I mean...really? They aren't 360/PS3 graphics but they aren't garbage either. How did you ever play games from previous gens?

[shouamabane]

I'm a huge Nintendo fan. The video output of the Wii is a serious problem. I stopped playing Xenoblade because of it too.

[Dogfacedgod]

I've got quite a few games on my Wii's back burner. Xenoblade, Zelda TP and SS, Fire Emblem just to name a few. The Wii U will probably be out by the time I get around to playing them. It might've been a sooner purchase for me but now I'll have to see what the peanut gallery says about it.

[Madao]

Please, please god let us stream Wii games to the gamepad. That's really what I desire from a backwards comparability standpoint.

yeah. same here. the Wii back catalogue + VC games would be really nice on the U pad screen. you don't need upscaling there.

[MarkusRJR]

One game that doesn't quite work right, out of however many games they've released across multiple platforms on the service? Dolphin wishes it had compatability that good.

Wait, what's wrong with Kirby's Adventure on the Wii's VC?

[Jumpman23]

I was hoping for it to be offered as it would have been one hell of a backwards compatibility offering. Imagine games like Skyward Sword uprezzed, omg! Sadly, Reggie said no go way back at E3 so unlikely Ninty has taken a change on that stance.

[ChuyMasta]

I would totally buy TP HD!

Just re-do the textures and render at 1080p....GLORIOUS!

[RedSwirl]

Hardware B/C PS3s didn't turn PS2 games into HD either. People need to understand there's a difference between hardware B/C and emulation. Emulation may give you extra capabilities and tricks, at the expense of compatibility and some games not rendering correctly. Hardware gives you 100% compatibility and games behave like they should, but you can't upscale in the same way as emulators like Dolphin.

But it did upscale PS2 games, especially after the first few updates. The effect varies from game to game, but PS2 games generally did look significantly better running on the PS3. The PS3 at the very least mitigated the effect you usually get playing a PS2 naively on an HDTV.

Also, I would imagine that Virtual Console games released after the Wii U launch would be treated a little bit differently.

[SMT]

It doth niet. Sorry OP, no luck for you.

[Ein Bear]

What have you used to do that?

I bought this: http://www.neoya.com/shop/wii2hdmi/

Like I say though, it has barely any impact on how the games actually look. I only bought it since my TV only has the one component input and I was fed up of changing cables every time I wanted to swap between PS2/Wii.

[CraftySkills]

Your TV/monitor will upscale them, as they do Wii games on Wii. It will look horrible regardless of which bit of hardware does the upscaling (since nobody's going to natively implement a solution like that crazy AA stuff that GAFer adds to HD console games via his PC). It's not going to render them in higher resolution, that much we know.

wait what? someone can add anti aliasing to console games through their pc?

[Drkirby]

I think he is talking about Emulators, which can render Gamecube/Wii/PS2 games in 1080p.