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Wii storage solution coming?

Sagitario

Member
Mmmm... lets be creative and realistic at the same time:

You use your PC [HDD] to store them via wi-fi? PC channel maybe? It would be faster than re-downloading everything...

I mean... Nintendo just announced a router that's casual/non-tech-people proof...

People with wi-fi doesn't have to pay a dime... people without it, well... Nintendo can sell you a wireless router if you want one [or go to Best Buy and get one :p]...
 
Soule said:
Nooooo please just go for the HDD, I don't want better, better scares me, well... better from nintendo scares me so please, PLEASE just give the HDD.

There's no need at all for a HDD, a 2GB SD card can be had for $10 and offers 8 times the current storage available to Wii users (256MB). That's more than enough, Nintendo just need to upgrade the firmware to allow us to boot games from SD cards and all is right with the world. There's no need for an overpriced HDD dangling off my Wii. A 2GB card has enough space for at least 50 Wiiware games, which is an obscene amount.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
brain_stew said:
There's no need at all for a HDD, a 2GB SD card can be had for $10 and offers 8 times the current storage available to Wii users (256MB). That's more than enough, Nintendo just need to upgrade the firmware to allow us to boot games from SD cards and all is right with the world. There's no need for an overpriced HDD dangling off my Wii. A 2GB card has enough space for at least 50 Wiiware games, which is an obscene amount.

Wii internal memory
512MB
2163 blocks

My life as a king - 300 Blocks
50 games * 300 blocks each = 15000 blocks = 3,5 Gb

2Gb card = 8652 Blocks / 300 per game = 29 games

Not counting channels and saves.

It's easier just to have a 20Gb/40Gb hdd in there and forget about blocks and such. I got about 12/14 VC games + 3 or 4 Wiiwares and have to delete from time to time in order to play other games. It's a fucknig hassle. I don't even know exactly how many games I own because I cannot put them all in the console at the same time!
 
With such limited space, having locked saves for several of the Wi-Fi games that you can't move to SD card makes it even worse.
 
jrricky said:
:lol I couldn't tell if you were serious on that or not.

I'm going to go with the dumbest idea possible and say they're working on a USB SD card reader.

Yeah, I was joking...but sadly, I can't quite convince myself that Nintendo isn't dumb enough to do this.


brain_stew said:
There's no need at all for a HDD, a 2GB SD card can be had for $10 and offers 8 times the current storage available to Wii users (256MB). That's more than enough, Nintendo just need to upgrade the firmware to allow us to boot games from SD cards and all is right with the world. There's no need for an overpriced HDD dangling off my Wii. A 2GB card has enough space for at least 50 Wiiware games, which is an obscene amount.

Yes, this is obviously the best solution. Check any past storage thread and you can see there are some tech problems (dealing with their incredibly slow encryption, I gather), but since you can apparently already do this with a hacked Wii, they need to make it happen for the legitimate users with money waiting.
 

MarkusRJR

Member
itxaka said:
Wii internal memory
512MB
2163 blocks

My life as a king - 300 Blocks
50 games * 300 blocks each = 15000 blocks = 3,5 Gb

2Gb card = 8652 Blocks / 300 per game = 29 games

Not counting channels and saves.

It's easier just to have a 20Gb/40Gb hdd in there and forget about blocks and such. I got about 12/14 VC games + 3 or 4 Wiiwares and have to delete from time to time in order to play other games. It's a fucknig hassle. I don't even know exactly how many games I own because I cannot put them all in the console at the same time!
If I remember correctly, the Wii only gives you 260mb or so for channels, VC games, WiiWare, save files, etc as the rest is taken up by the UI (and most likely the built in channels) and other things.
 
itxaka said:
Wii internal memory
512MB
2163 blocks

My life as a king - 300 Blocks
50 games * 300 blocks each = 15000 blocks = 3,5 Gb

2Gb card = 8652 Blocks / 300 per game = 29 games

Not counting channels and saves.

It's easier just to have a 20Gb/40Gb hdd in there and forget about blocks and such. I got about 12/14 VC games + 3 or 4 Wiiwares and have to delete from time to time in order to play other games. It's a fucknig hassle. I don't even know exactly how many games I own because I cannot put them all in the console at the same time!

You only have access to ~256MB, the rest is for the OS. Wiiware games are restricted to 40MB. You really see yourself, downloading more than 45 Wiiware games? If the Wii supports SD HC, even that's not an issue, if it doesn't then switching an SD card really isn't all that difficult. There is absolutely no use for a 40GB HDD, its a complete waste.


Leondexter said:
Yes, this is obviously the best solution. Check any past storage thread and you can see there are some tech problems (dealing with their incredibly slow encryption, I gather), but since you can apparently already do this with a hacked Wii, they need to make it happen for the legitimate users with money waiting.

Nintendo created the encryption, they must know what makes it slow. Honestly, reading from the SD slot (i.e. transferring to the Wii) is super quick for me, less than 30 seconds for even the biggest of files, and that's with an unoptimised solution and draconian encryption. Just dump that data to RAM, or a reserved part of flash memory every time I load a game from SD and be done with it. Wipe it when I boot another. There'd be no performance penalties as games would be running exactly as they have been before. Its not rocket science, honestly.
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Whats better than a HD you say? Another Wii with 1 gig of memory! Nintendo would love it. Consumers that have a Wii...not so much. I wouldn't be surprised if this was their solution though.
 
itxaka said:
2Gb card = 8652 Blocks / 300 per game = 29 games

Not counting channels and saves.

It's easier just to have a 20Gb/40Gb hdd in there and forget about blocks and such. I got about 12/14 VC games + 3 or 4 Wiiwares and have to delete from time to time in order to play other games. It's a fucknig hassle. I don't even know exactly how many games I own because I cannot put them all in the console at the same time!

A HDD is fine, but you're not limited to one SD card. I think an SD card solution would be better because it's universal--everyone already has the SD card slot (and cards are much cheaper than any HDD solution would be).
 

Spiegel

Member
I know spanish and the scan says that they are looking for a storage solution and they'll make an announcement in the future. It says nothing about a storage solution "better than a HDD"

Nothing new
 
A 16 gig SDHC card would hold me for a long time with a 40 meg game size limit. $50 on newegg for the kingston version.

Even if they upped the maximum game size it would be fine. The 256 megs of usable is what is really killing me.
 
jett said:
Why won't Nintendo let you save your shit on SD cards?

They already do. The problem is not being able to boot directly from an SD card, although the problem is way overplayed as SD transfers are quite snappy with a decent speed card.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
brain_stew said:
You only have access to ~256MB, the rest is for the OS. Wiiware games are restricted to 40MB. You really see yourself, downloading more than 45 Wiiware games? If the Wii supports SD HC, even that's not an issue, if it doesn't then switching an SD card really isn't all that difficult. There is absolutely no use for a 40GB HDD, its a complete waste.

Ask speevy about his psn collection or that guy that had about 130 VC games :lol

I rather have SDHC built in, but seeing on how slow it is? I rather have a usb where i can store all my photos and downloads as many games as I want.

Plus with a HDD og 20GB they could release the impossition of 40Gb for wiiware games, and offer saturn games for example. Or better neo-geo roms, or n64 games of 512 cartridges.
 

Luigison

Member
itxaka said:
Wii internal memory
512MB
2163 blocks

My life as a king - 300 Blocks
50 games * 300 blocks each = 15000 blocks = 3,5 Gb

2Gb card = 8652 Blocks / 300 per game = 29 games

Not counting channels and saves.
You are way overestimating the average game's size. I have nearly 100 VC/WiiWare titles and saves including a few dozen Wii saves on my 2Gb SD card along with dozens of JPG images. I still have plenty of room. If a lot more good big WiiWare games come out your argument might be justified, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

On another note, can't the Wii access the GCN card slots in Wii mode? If so, what are the GCN memory card transfer rates compared to SD on the Wii. While it's possible for Ninty to use a standard SD or USB solution, I expect them to go a more proprietary route like GCN cards. Is there anything that would limit the memory of a GCN memory card on the Wii?

Anyone think they might combine a storage solution with something like DVD playback, DS play on Wii, the one to one Wiimote add-on, etc?
 

ghostmind

Member
Why is there a 2GB SD limit anyway? Hopefully they can unlock that through a firmware update - like was said earlier, a 16GB card isn't expensive.
 

oatmeal

Banned
Luigison said:
You are way overestimating the average game's size. I have nearly 100 VC/WiiWare titles and saves including a few dozen Wii saves on my 2Gb SD card along with dozens of JPG images. I still have plenty of room.

What.

I have around 25 VC games and I bought Super Mario RPG yesterday and had to delete a couple to fit them in.

I wasn't happy.
 

Threi

notag
bmf said:
Losing your memory, or just repeating yourself?
Beats trying to think of why Nintendo does the things they do.

Their logic is so random, its best to just sit back and enjoy the ride. :)
 

ccbfan

Member
Its not only VC and Wiiware you have to worry about. There's also all these new channels like the MK Wii channel and the Wii Fit channel. Wii Music and Animal Crossing Wii will surely have it too and if the MK channel and Wii Fit channel size are any indication, I might have to start deleting/moving more than just VCs and Wiiware game when those come out.

Oh crap then you got the fact that Rock Band 2 is going to be fully functional and have DLC.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
ccbfan said:
Its not only VC and Wiiware you have to worry about. There's also all these new channels like the MK Wii channel and the Wii Fit channel. Wii Music and Animal Crossing Wii will surely have it too and if the MK channel and Wii Fit channel are any indication, I might have to start deleting/moving more than just VCs and Wiiware game when those come out.

Oh crap then you got the fact that Rock Band 2 is going to be fully functional and have DLC.


Do you know how many blocks are this channels?
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Well, I have 3 convoluted ways that they could make a storage solution that doesn't use the internet.

1) Use both USB ports on the back at once, and make the device that connect to them a USB hub, reserve 100 MB/s for the Storage device, leave the rest for the other USB devices (Which I don't think use that much of the band width)

2) Have a wireless device that connects to all 3 of non used Blue Tooth channels at one time, brining up the speed enough to be usesable for an external device

3) Use the Gamecube controller and Memory card ports to connect to an external storage device. No idea if this would be fast enough, but it is a possibility.
 

Redd

Member
bmf said:
A 16 gig SDHC card would hold me for a long time with a 40 meg game size limit. $50 on newegg for the kingston version.

Even if they upped the maximum game size it would be fine. The 256 megs of usable is what is really killing me.

Ohhh I like this idea. Do it Nintendo do this if it's possible. My 2gb sd card is ok but it will fill up eventually. Is there a real reason why there's a 2gb limit?
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Luigison said:
On another note, can't the Wii access the GCN card slots in Wii mode? If so, what are the GCN memory card transfer rates compared to SD on the Wii. While it's possible for Ninty to use a standard SD or USB solution, I expect them to go a more proprietary route like GCN cards. Is there anything that would limit the memory of a GCN memory card on the Wii?
the gcn sd adapter (official or gecko) works with non-HC sd cards - it's pretty much a plain re-wiring scheme, as the original GCN card bus can carry sd singalling as it is, and specialized software can access that.

re speeds, can't remember exact speeds, but it's was slower that the front sd slot, IIRC. but yes, in practice it can be viewed as yet another sd slot, albeit slower.
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Redd said:
Ohhh I like this idea. Do it Nintendo do this if it's possible. My 2gb sd card is ok but it will fill up eventually. Is there a real reason why there's a 2gb limit?
The 2GB is a hardware limit of the SD card reader, 4GB and up are only readable by SDHC compatible devices. Don't think its fixable with firmware.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
blu said:
the gcn sd adapter (official or gecko) works with non-HC sd cards - it's pretty much a plain re-wiring scheme, as the original GCN card bus can carry sd singalling as it is, and specialized software can access that.

Not just special soft, I believe almost any game can save on sd-cube?
I gotta try, I made one myself out of a gc memory card that only conects to the sd when is inserted. If nothing is inserted it uses the memory card own space. I can't belive I haven't tried it yet xD


What about if the new wiimotes (the ones with motion+ integrated) came with storage space inside?
 
Drkirby said:
The 2GB is a hardware limit of the SD card reader, 4GB and up are only readable by SDHC compatible devices. Don't think its fixable with firmware.
If the firmware can be upgraded, then compatibility can be achieved. I haven't read up on the subject too much lately, but I believe the differences are in the memory addressing and the filesystem. The electromechanical characteristics are the same.
 
bmf said:
If the firmware can be upgraded, then compatibility can be achieved. I haven't read up on the subject too much lately, but I believe the differences are in the memory addressing and the filesystem. The electromechanical characteristics are the same.

Well there we go. The SD slot is 100% the perfect solution, so how about it Nintendo?
 
A SD card upgrade would be great, but I guarantee that won't be it. Nintendo never does things...correctly. I say they'll probably store the games on some sort of server and you can re-download them as you want.

Convenient? No.
Nintendo? Yes.
 
cann3dheat said:
A SD card upgrade would be great, but I guarantee that won't be it. Nintendo never does things...correctly. I say they'll probably store the games on some sort of server and you can re-download them as you want.

Convenient? No.
Nintendo? Yes.

You can already re-download games you've deleted.

Watch it be a new model of Wii with 1GB of internal flash starting in January.
 

phez

Banned
Cheesemeister said:
You can already re-download games you've deleted.

Watch it be a new model of Wii with 1GB of internal flash starting in January.

wii play african animal pack incoming
 

jrricky

Banned
Cheesemeister said:
You can already re-download games you've deleted.

Watch it be a new model of Wii with 1GB of internal flash starting in January.
........With the release of internally built Wii motionplus Wiimote and WiiSports resort packin to sell another 20 million.
 

JohnTinker

Limbaugh Parrot
We all know we can re-download games, and since Nintendo is pushing this technique on us, does this mean they won't be deleting old titles from the VC service like Microsoft has done with old Live Arcade games?

If Nintendo were to delete old VC games that nobody buys anymore, they run the risk in someone trying to re-download the game but it isn't up anymore. Nintendo has to figure out something here.
 

Lossenc

Neo Member
Nah, it should be the new "Special Edition" booster for Wii Motion Plus. It's a separate storage block that plugs in between the nunchuck and remote. So you can always keep it with you and will never be out of your sight.
 
brain_stew said:
SD transfers are quite snappy with a decent speed card.

They are? You're the first person I've ever seen make that claim. What card are you using? The first one I tried (Kodak) didn't even work with the Wii, although it was perfectly fast with my PC. So I paid the premium for the SanDisk Wii-branded card to ensure compatibility, and it works, but it's almost as slow as me speaking all the 0's and 1's out loud.

If there's a card that's faster, I want it. But maybe your definition of "snappy" isn't the same as mine. Here are some numbers:

The largest file I have, Midnight Pool, takes 2 min 45 seconds to copy to the SD card. It takes 1 min to copy back. On my PC, I can copy the same file to the card in 12 seconds, and from the card in 3 seconds.

Like I said, if there's a card where I can get speeds on the Wii that are closer to what I get with my PC, I want one.
 
Drkirby said:
The 2GB is a hardware limit of the SD card reader, 4GB and up are only readable by SDHC compatible devices. Don't think its fixable with firmware.

It is fixable with firmware. PSP had the same problem originally where it wouldn't accept any Memory Stick size larger than 2GB, (I think it was 3.0) the 3.0 FW update fixed this and allowed for compatability with any sized Memory Stick (Currently 32GB is the largest Stick avaliable and it works with PSP)
 

GrayFoxPL

Member
Haunted said:
What could possibly be better than a HDD?

:boggles:

A router.


This reminds me of my psx times. 15 block memory card and the stress of deciding which saves to delete to make room for another game. Good thing is that it forced to finish games more often.
 

Rolf NB

Member
TunaLover said:
because people could exchange games for FREE with other people. in other words, no money for the poor nintendo.
Moot point, it already is allowed. You can copy VC and WiiWare games out to SD since the beginning of time. And then you can copy them back and they still work. The only thing you can't do is running them off SD directly.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
the solution is to buy more Wiis and have each wii have its own supply of games. Yes, excellent.

or maybe a wii with a hard drive in it, but no attachment available so you'll have to buy the new wii drive version.


oh the possibilities are endless when you have a product that sells regardless
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
bcn-ron said:
Moot point, it already is allowed. You can copy VC and WiiWare games out to SD since the beginning of time. And then you can copy them back and they still work. The only thing you can't do is running them off SD directly.
it's not allowed. the games you copy to the sd are runnable only on the wii they were copied from, that's the whole point of the taxing sd encryption scheme.

itxaka said:
Not just special soft, I believe almost any game can save on sd-cube?
my understanding is that the software should be deliberately written to work with the sd protocol. but i don't know if some parts of the original gcn card protocol overlap with the sd protocol - maybe certain ops are identical for both media.
 
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