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[Caramello]

Be careful: although much maligned on GAF, there is a genius behind the carefully designed and balanced nostalgic patterned simplicity of NSMBWii's style of art.

Perhaps I didn't word that well and put too much weight into it to make a point..

I liked the art style although they could have used more in the way of vibrant visual effects but that can wait for the next one. I feel that EAD and Retro did as good a job as each other but Retro had never touched Donkey Kong whereas EAD had a lot of experience with Mario. So I feel that EAD have more of a reason to be under scrutiny than Retro.

Basically my point is that Retro are doing a great job compared with the rest of Nintendo (or on a similar level, I don't mean that Nintendo EAD are doing a worse job) and this argument that they're lost puppies who need Nintendo to make decisions for them is ridiculous.

 

[Maxrunner]

So did Arkham got more deep with his claims???

 

[DaSorcerer7]

So did Arkham got more deep with his claims???

he has't returned yet..

 

[AceBandage]

What did Arkham claim?

 

[DaSorcerer7]

What did Arkham claim?

Claimed to have knowledge of final devkit Wii U specs...and they were unimpressive.

 

[AceBandage]

I see.

 

[Jocchan]

What did Arkham claim?

"A radical step must be taken to combat Gotham City's diseased."
Journal Entry #2, September, 1920

 

[AceBandage]

"A radical step must be taken to combat Gotham City's diseased."
Journal Entry #2, September, 1920

It became his family's legacy... and its curse.

 

[DefectiveReject]

"A radical step must be taken to combat Gotham City's diseased."
Journal Entry #2, September, 1920

Post of the thread

 

[Shion]

Wishful thinking time

I wish Nintendo realized the need for some new, hardcore-targeted, IP's. I'd love to see 3 brand new Action/Adventure games coming out of their teams:

1: A western style Action/Adventure from Retro Studios.
2: A new series by EAD 3.
3: Another by Koizumi (EAD Tokyo 2).

Finally, I'd love to see the next Zelda being a co-development between EAD Tokyo 2 and Retro Studios.

Retro Studios: Graphics, Art Direction, Overworld.
EAD Tokyo 2: Dungeon design.

I also really like the sound of this for a new Yoshi's Island.

I wish EAD would collaborate with them on it.
Graphics: Good-Feel
Gameplay: EAD

It would make their games so much better.

 

[ecosse_011172]

So did Arkham got more deep with his claims???

Clearly full of shit.

 

[wrowa]

I've heard the final devkits are based on a TI 84 Plus.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Clearly full of shit.

Not necessarily.

But it's all really in the eye of the beholder.

Some people are going to rank this stuff differently. Some claims of power may not be considering the need for the Wii U to have to output to multiple screens.

For some people, 5x XBox 360 (just using IGN's numbers which, for the record, are dumb purely because they're using the stupid multiplication scale of power comparisons) would simply not be enough.

Wii U is likely going to end up not being huge on horse power but fine on actual capability, but we'll see how things shake out.

 

[Mlatador]

There is no need for the Retro Studios to work on the next Zelda. Zelda doesn't need them!

They should focus on what they've already done a couple of times, that is looking for some very famous IPs that haven't been around for years, reviving and making them awesome AGAIN and taking 'em to the next level.

There are plenty of other franchises that could need their genius expertise, but not Zelda.

They also have to work on Donkey Kong Country Returns 2, which just needs to be done...

 

[z0m3le]

I actually disagree with this. The reason exclusives became unfeasible is because this generation was everything last gen WASN'T. The only hardware leader this gen was the Wii, and no one knew how to TOUCH it because there was nothing remotely traditional about it. And the 360 and PS3 basically divided the market in half in NA and Europe, with Japan left to figure out what to do with all the money they invested backing the PS3 essentially going down the tube for the first 4 years of the console's life. It was a giant MESS, so multi-platform for the HD consoles was the ONLY way to make things better.

But we're not walking into that situation this time. This time, we're walking into a generation with Nintendo coming out first, in full fighting spirit. With all we already know, 3rd parties finally have an opt-out on motion controls, HD hardware AND an online platform to work with. It's also first out of the gate.

So while western devs may still multi-plat as they have for EVERY generation since the dawn of time, Japan's development world will likely side with Nintendo, and thus the exclusive will be reborn.

Japan more than any other region usually only picks one pony to bet on. Given Nintendo's current track record and having a console that removes all the previous barriers to entry, I feel confident in saying that horserace has already been decided.

Mark my words. The exclusive will return.

Wow, as a long time Nintendo fan, I would love for a PS2 type of success you are suggesting. Wii U is in the proper position to become even more with Nintendo's 1st party ips. If you think about why 360 was such a huge success for Microsoft, it had a lot to do with Wii not being powerful enough and 360 launching first. (I love my 360 so much that when it died, I bought a slim version, but had Wii of hard half the graphical power, I doubt I would of bought a 360 at all, because Wii would of got those 3rd party games with twice the install base.

I have to give it to gaf, I've been a lurker here since the dojo thread, and I've been through 2 other console gen wars as a poster/lurker but man that is one of the best reasoned and yet fan dream posts I've ever read. If it happens I will finally only own one home console again... that hasn't happened since the SNES.

Not necessarily.

But it's all really in the eye of the beholder.

Some people are going to rank this stuff differently. Some claims of power may not be considering the need for the Wii U to have to output to multiple screens.

For some people, 5x XBox 360 (just using IGN's numbers which, for the record, are dumb purely because they're using the stupid multiplication scale of power comparisons) would simply not be enough.

Wii U is likely going to end up not being huge on horse power but fine on actual capability, but we'll see how things shake out.

Any Dev targeting the other next gen consoles horse power (that same rumor says that 360's successor is only 20% greater than the Wii U) would decide if lowering the graphics a bit (polygon count, lighting, shadowing, or hopefully AA) and allowing the controller to deal with a map or menu or item screen... They don't have to use the screen at all either, Wii U's screen really can't be a hindrance to a dev team like Crytek unless they let it.

also just graphics wise, to get 10x the Gflops of a 360, you need a HD6970 even a 7870 would be closer to 8x than 10... rumors suggest 6x, so you are looking at something along the lines of a 6870... or a 7790. All the speculation I hear from your side bases it's facts on the Wii being so inferior, the tech is there for Nintendo, they plan to spend some money on the console, and might break even at ~$300-$350 unless you think MS and Sony are fine with $500 consoles bigger than the PS3 fat with external power, I think anyone saying that is being a bit unreasonable.

 

[DefectiveReject]

I've heard the final devkits are based on a TI 84 Plus.

My sauces tell me its based on the colonels secret recipe...

 

[Plinko]

Not necessarily.

But it's all really in the eye of the beholder.

Some people are going to rank this stuff differently. Some claims of power may not be considering the need for the Wii U to have to output to multiple screens.

For some people, 5x XBox 360 (just using IGN's numbers which, for the record, are dumb purely because they're using the stupid multiplication scale of power comparisons) would simply not be enough.

Wii U is likely going to end up not being huge on horse power but fine on actual capability, but we'll see how things shake out.

I think he's talking about Arkam's hit-and-run claim with no backup, though. Others on here have at least some form of legitimacy. Arkam stated that he heard the power was low and then never posted again. It was clearly a troll.

 

[Shion]

They also have to work on Donkey Kong Country Returns 2, which just needs to be done...

Why does Retro have to work on a 2D platformer though? If there's one developer in the industry who knows how to make awesome 2D platformers...it's Nintendo. I think that EAD could totally handle the next DKC game.

 

[ultrazilla]

While Nintendo has obviously used the name "Triforce", this *appears* to be NEW movement on the term by Nintendo securing it as a video game system name.

If I am reading this correctly, the mark will be published for a period of opposition(which I presume means other companies can contest the mark)

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4001:7b1mg1.4.1

http://tdr.uspto.gov/jsp/DocumentVi...ation Confirmation/1/31-Jan-2012/sn/false#p=1


Possible name of Nintendo's new e-shop for the Wii-U?(name subject to change)

Nintendo has applied for the term "Pushmo" on Dec 7, 2011

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield...01:7b1mg1.4.45

Word Mark PUSHMO
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Downloadable multimedia files, namely, video games; downloadable electronic game programs; downloadable electronic game software; electronic game programs; electronic game software; software featuring entertainment, educational and informational content, namely, video games, computer games and puzzles; video game programs; video game software
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85489163
Filing Date December 7, 2011
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Owner (APPLICANT) Nintendo of America Inc. CORPORATION WASHINGTON 4600 150th Avenue NE Redmond WASHINGTON 98052
Attorney of Record Jerald E. Nagae, Reg. No. 29,418
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

 

[Djamb3]

Pushmo is the name of Pullbox in US


Triforce is intriguing. Nintendo triforce? wii triforce? sounds wrong

 

[Mlatador]

Why does Retro have to work on a 2D platformer though? If there's one developer in the industry who knows how to make awesome 2D platformers...it's Nintendo. I think that EAD could totally handle the next DKC game.

You're right, but since DKR is probably - priority-wise - a notch below other very important titles EAD is working on (Mario Games, Zelda, Mario Kart), I think they just won't have the time to take on a DKCR2.

Retro totally nailed to revive the classical DKC formula on the Wii - the faithful transition to next gen worked beautifully - so a sequel would definitely turn out best in their hands.

 

[wsippel]

While Nintendo has obviously used the name "Triforce", this *appears* to be NEW movement on the term by Nintendo securing it as a video game system name.

 

[A.KU.MU]

I've heard the final devkits are based on a TI 84 Plus.

Liar. It's based on the extremely powerfull Intel 4004. 92 kiPS at 740 kHz.

 

[Mokka]

I've heard the final devkits are based on a TI 84 Plus.

I wonder what you can get out of the Zilog Z80 when you shrink it to 45nm and overclock it to 1.66GHz.

 

[Mr Swine]

I wonder what you can get out of the Zilog Z80 when you shrink it to 45nm and overclock it to 1.66GHz.

128 polygons and if you want 60 frames it would be 2 polygons a second! Think of the graphics then!

 

[Mokka]

128 polygons and if you want 60 frames it would be 2 polygons a second! Think of the graphics then!

But they said it would have eDRAM. You clearly didn't consider that.

 

[Rösti]

As wsippel referenced, the term "Triforce" has been used for the arcade system board developed jointly by Namco, Sega, and Nintendo in 2002. Nineteen games have been released for the system, with F-Zero AX and Mario Kart Arcade GP (including its sequel) being the most proclaimed.

While I didn't find any official white paper regarding its specifications, here's a tenative list I've gathered from several outlets:

CPU: IBM Power PC "Gekko"
Sound DSP: Custom Macronix 16bit DSP @ 81MHz
Main RAM: Main Memory 48 MB MoSys 1T-SRAM, Approximately 10ns Sustainable Latency.
RAM: Version "A" upgradable RAM modules, up to 512MB (possibly higher)
RAM: Version "B" unknown
Graphics Engine: "Flipper" (Custom ATI/Nintendo)
Color: 24-bit Color, 24-bit Z Buffer.
Hardware Features: Fog, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, 8 Hardware lights, Alpha Blending, Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texture, Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear/Trilinear/Anisotropic Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC), HW 3-line Deflickering filter.

It's more or less an upgraded Gamecube. Perhaps Nintendo is investigating a next generation version of this, with Wii U as base. Seeing however the arcade industry's decline as of lately, I wouldn't bet on it. Other potential uses could be they are aiming to change the name of the Fun Center™ Mobile Entertainment Unit, supplied by Starlight Children's Foundation to hospitals. That unit, which is based on Wii, includes a hard drive for example, which all the games are stored on. The feedback on these units has been tremendous, so it's only natural for Nintendo to continue their partnership with Starlight. Seeing Wii U in hospitals later this year or at least in 2013 is probably not that far out.

Here's a repair guide (containing much information) for the Fun Center, if anyone is interested: http://www.starlight.org/uploadedFi...ms/Fun_Centers/2009 Repair Manual PN65660.pdf

 

[onilink88]

I called Dragon Quest X going to WiiU when GAF's Dragon Quest Defense Force said that we'd fly into the SUN before we ever saw a Dragon Quest on an unproven platform.

And I'm going to call something else... FFVersusXIII is going to come to WiiU, and it will revive interest in the series. Coupled with use of Luminous Engine and a shortening of the production cycle, the series will come back from the dead.

Calling it.

Hmm, it's been announced for, what, six years now, but how long has the game been actually been worked on? How large is the team working on it? Is it financially viable to keep exclusive to one platform at this point?

Suppose the answers to the first two questions are "for most of the six years" and "large", then I'd have a hard time believing that Versus isn't a money sink at this point. That'd mean that the 360 and maybe even the Wiiwoo would be candidates for ports, correct? Hell, the game wouldn't even have to be a financial disaster for SE to consider porting it, right?

Anyhow, those are just my assumptions, and I'd like to know what the current state of the game is.

 

[ReyVGM]

New Yoshi horizontal side-scroller from Kirby’s Epic Yarn developer Good-Feel.

But Epic Yarn is already a Yoshi Island game in disguise.

You elongate your arm just like Yoshi's Tongue.
You can't fly anymore, but you can float, just like in Yoshi Island.
You transform into vehicles, just like in Yoshi Island.

There were a couple of more similarities, but I can't remember them now.

What I want is a new Yoshi Island, with crayon-like graphics, with the visual quality of Wario Land Shake It.

 

[Caramello]

I think Nintendo are going to have a pretty freaking huge E3 this year, I watched last years press conference again and it was clear that they were really trying to target the core gamer. I think we'll see games like Resident Evil 6, GTA 5, Medal of Honor 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (unless they can't talk about it as per Microsoft's exclusivity agreement) etc all confirmed for the system among many others.

Obviously they'll have many of their own games to show too and they usually show a bit of the games they have coming in the next year and a half in the lead up to the systems launch (look at the 3DS for example). Also they'll have to juggle the 3DS as games like Paper Mario, Animal Crossing, Mario Tennis, any unannounced core titles and their new unannounced expanded audience titles (which will probably require demonstrations). Also third party 3DS support beyond E3 is largely unknown so expect to hear some announcements on that front too.

It's going to be pretty damn packed and I can't wait!

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

talking about the space on the touch screen being enough for the older board games.

Let's see... 6.2" 16:9 screen, so a square checker board taking up the entirety of the height would be about 3 inches to a side. Each square of a checker board would thus be 3/8" to a side.

Remember how Capcom said the Wii couldn't even handle the RE5 Title screen?

They had Resident Evil 5 up and running on 3DS.

Street Fighter IV all over again.

Eh, getting FF isn't that big of a deal.
The franchise is slowly dying thanks to SE's ineptitude.

As big of a deal as having Mario or Dragon Quest, no. But considering the current state of affairs where XIII and XIII-2 are PS3's biggest games and the X360 versions may as well not exist in the region, it would make a difference.

MH4G for sure.

At this point going for a console version with extra features not available portably would seem a bit weird, but at least a console-ized version like PS3 got with MHP3 seems doable.

 

[TunaLover]

Do you think that Capcom release RE5 for Wii U?
I think they could consider it if they are willing to bring RE6

 

[wsippel]

As wsippel referenced, the term "Triforce" has been used for the arcade system board developed jointly by Namco, Sega, and Nintendo in 2002. Nineteen games have been released for the system, with F-Zero AX and Mario Kart Arcade GP (including its sequel) being the most proclaimed.

While I didn't find any official white paper regarding its specifications, here's a tenative list I've gathered from several outlets:

CPU: IBM Power PC "Gekko"
Sound DSP: Custom Macronix 16bit DSP @ 81MHz
Main RAM: Main Memory 48 MB MoSys 1T-SRAM, Approximately 10ns Sustainable Latency.
RAM: Version "A" upgradable RAM modules, up to 512MB (possibly higher)
RAM: Version "B" unknown
Graphics Engine: "Flipper" (Custom ATI/Nintendo)
Color: 24-bit Color, 24-bit Z Buffer.
Hardware Features: Fog, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, 8 Hardware lights, Alpha Blending, Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texture, Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear/Trilinear/Anisotropic Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC), HW 3-line Deflickering filter.

It's more or less an upgraded Gamecube. Perhaps Nintendo is investigating a next generation version of this, with Wii U as base. Seeing however the arcade industry's decline as of lately, I wouldn't bet on it. Other potential uses could be they are aiming to change the name of the Fun Center™ Mobile Entertainment Unit, supplied by Starlight Children's Foundation to hospitals. That unit, which is based on Wii, includes a hard drive for example, which all the games are stored on. The feedback on these units has been tremendous, so it's only natural for Nintendo to continue their partnership with Starlight. Seeing Wii U in hospitals later this year or at least in 2013 is probably not that far out.

Here's a repair guide (containing much information) for the Fun Center, if anyone is interested: http://www.starlight.org/uploadedFi...ms/Fun_Centers/2009 Repair Manual PN65660.pdf

The successor to the Triforce is the Nintendo RVA platform, a modified Wii with an additional FPGA (Xilinx Spartan I believe). Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is the only game known to run on RVA as far as I'm aware. It's likely that there will be a Wii U based arcade board as well, but I wouldn't expect them to continue using the Triforce label unless it's really a Triforce 2, backed by (the same) three companies.

 

[bgassassin]

Claimed to have knowledge of final devkit Wii U specs...and they were unimpressive.

He didn't claim that. He seemed to be talking more about what little bit was said in the past and that it was leading to disappointment, yet never backed up that statement once called out on it.

 

[Jocchan]

He was probably taken out by the ninjas.

 

[disap.ed]

While Nintendo has obviously used the name "Triforce", this *appears* to be NEW movement on the term by Nintendo securing it as a video game system name.

Triforce will be name of the digital distribution network (Nintendo Network - Origin - Steam)

 

[bgassassin]

He was probably taken out by the ninjas.

Nah. There's no money in that.

 

[Jocchan]

Nah. There's no money in that.

Gotta keep those ninjas in shape for real missions.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Do you think that Capcom release RE5 for Wii U?
I think they could consider it if they are willing to bring RE6

Considering how many times and places all the other games got released it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Maxrunner]

Considering how many times and places all the other games got released it wouldn't surprise me.

just add wiimote support please.

 

[bgassassin]

Gotta keep those ninjas in shape for real missions.

That's handled through other methods.

 

[Jocchan]

If the WiiU is going to release in Q4 and they indeed have a WiiU version of RE6 in the pipeline, I doubt they'd release a port of RE5 as well. At least not for a while.

That's handled through other methods.

Oh, I know perfectly what you're talking ab

 

[blu]

128 polygons and if you want 60 frames it would be 2 polygons a second! Think of the graphics then!

Somewhere in an alternative universe Z80000 reigned supreme, and personal computers ended up much more fun.

 

[StevieP]

Anyone want to summarize what happened in the last, oh... 16 pages? I go away for a weekend and I'm like 6500 posts behind! lol

 

[AntMurda]

Responding to a couple of posts.

1. Premiere developer at Nintendo the past 5 years has been EAD Tokyo Group No.2. That is not even a question.

2. Retro Studios is a good developer but they have really been put on this pedestal that they are the greatest developer in existence. While potentially they may prove that someday, they have not released an earth shattering game since Prime 1.

3. Retro Studios should probably develop some type of FPS / Action-Adventure game for the western audience. It makes more sense than them "saving a random Nintendo intellectual property".

4. I think the Wii U and 3DS will allow both the respective games and developers from the Nintendo camp to establish new identities.

 

[Arkam]

He was probably taken out by the ninjas.

Just a little scared of them

And boy did I get crucified on here. To be clear I do not know all of the final specs. I only know some from a recent kit. So it "could" change... But I doubt by much. And based on that I think people on this board are going to be a little disappointed. I blame these crazy rumors from IGN with their whole 5x nonsense. That's all I'm gonna say.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Just a little scared of them

And boy did I get crucified on here. To be clear I do not know all of the final specs. I only know some from a recent kit. So it "could" change... But I doubt by much. And based on that I think people on this board are going to be a little disappointed. I blame these crazy rumors from IGN with their whole 5x nonsense. That's all I'm gonna say.

welp, there you have it. PS3/360 power for another 5+ years in nintendoland.

 

[Rösti]

Anyone want to summarize what happened in the last, oh... 16 pages? I go away for a weekend and I'm like 6500 posts behind! lol

• Discussions about GDC (and E3) and Nintendo's attandance there
• Patent and trademark browsing, not much new discovered
• The usual hardware debate

No greater revelaitons in other words, but not a slow period either.

 

[brochiller]

Just a little scared of them

And boy did I get crucified on here. To be clear I do not know all of the final specs. I only know some from a recent kit. So it "could" change... But I doubt by much. And based on that I think people on this board are going to be a little disappointed. I blame these crazy rumors from IGN with their whole 5x nonsense. That's all I'm gonna say.

He speaks!

It depends how recent of a kit you're talking about here. From what we've heard, the (supposedly) final kits just went out a few weeks ago, and there have been some improvements made to them.

 

[IceDoesntHelp]

Responding to a couple of posts.

1. Premiere developer at Nintendo the past 5 years has been EAD Tokyo Group No.2. That is not even a question.

2. Retro Studios is a good developer but they have really been put on this pedestal that they are the greatest developer in existence. While potentially they may prove that someday, they have not released an earth shattering game since Prime 1.

3. Retro Studios should probably develop some type of FPS / Action-Adventure game for the western audience. It makes more sense than them "saving a random Nintendo intellectual property".

4. I think the Wii U and 3DS will allow both the respective games and developers from the Nintendo camp to establish new identities.

Funny, Retro is my favorite developer because of the Prime games. Since they also have the revival of Donkey Kong under their belt, I believe they can do anything.