Nintendo's Presentation at GDC06 by Iwata

[Corwin_B]

NeoGeo would rock. I'd really like to play those classics (Fatal Fury, Samurai Showdown) again. Moreover, it could be done since the rights are back at SNKPlaymore again.

BTW, does anybody else wonder want Nintendo is going to do about the 512 MB flash memory in Rev? I mean 512 MB are really dirt cheap, Hopefully they'll upgrade it a bit or offer an external HDD.

Nintendo said there would be a SD card slot on the Revolution, IIRC.

 

[StefanS]

Nintendo said there would be a SD card slot on the Revolution, IIRC.

Yeah I forgot about that one, presumably the slots resides below the upper lid, where the gcn-controller ports are

 

[expletive]

I'm not a big fan of the back catalog type announcements but that Zelda DS does look like great fun. I could see that as a reason to jump in to the DS platform. You guys see how you can draw the trajectory of the boomerang? Cool!

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Neo Geo anyone? I ALWAYS wanted to play those games when I was younger but couldn't afford it. Saturn and Dreamcast would be nice too, if possible.

Neo Geo remains a niche untill this day, Hudson and Sega are of a far greater importance to Nintendo. It would be nice to have SNK on board as well, but that's up to SNK/Nintendo.

 

[OtakingGX]

Neo Geo remains a niche untill this day, Hudson and Sega are of a far greater importance to Nintendo. It would be nice to have SNK on board as well, but that's up to SNK/Nintendo.

Sweet, then I could download Garou: Mark of the Wolves! Weren't the carts for some of those games 150+ MB? Guess I'd better go get a big SD card!

 

[Natoma]

Does anyone know if Nintendo included their typical "high speed" port on the Rev? The reason I ask is that if it does indeed exist, it would not suprise me to see a 3rd party come up with an external hard drive expansion on the 512MB flash. 20GB drives are dirt cheap these days.

As for Saturn/Dreamcast games, it's understandable why Nintendo wouldn't offer those, upon reflection. They're 600MB+. Unless Nintendo is going to use Bittorrent to distribute the games in their virtual console service, their bandwidth is going to go to hell in a handbasket. NES/SNES/N64/Genesis/TB-16 era games are probably no larger than 16MB. Later Neo Geo games topped out at 125MB, but most were ~40MB. Large, but still manageably downloadable.

I don't think we'll see virtual console for CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Bluray games until there's a critical mass of ADSL2/FTTP/DOCSIS 2.0 connections.

 

[StefanS]

Does anyone know if Nintendo included their typical "high speed" port on the Rev? The reason I ask is that if it does indeed exist, it would not suprise me to see a 3rd party come up with an external hard drive expansion on the 512MB flash. 20GB drives are dirt cheap these days.

Well, there're 2 usb ports (or usb like ports) on the back of Revolution (Picture). Plus we don't know what exactly is below the upper lid cover, where the GCN controller port are.

 

[StefanS]

Just found a nice interview:

The juicy parts

IGN: So, SEGA Genesis and TurboGrafx games on Revolution's Virtual Console. That makes us happy. Does this mean all SEGA and TurboGrafx games will come over?

Beth: That's kind of up to SEGA, as to what they want to provide. But what we talked about today was kind of a best-of from SEGA and then TurboGrafx games. But we haven't gone into specifics about what that means or what some of the games will be. But the idea is that you will be able to play some of your favorite SEGA Genesis games or some of the games that were out on the TurboGrafx.

IGN: Is this an exclusive agreement?

Beth: Not necessarily exclusive, but we're just excited to have that content on the Revolution.

IGN: And when you speak about SEGA and Hudson, does this announcement mean that just titles published by those companies on Genesis and TurboGrafx may come to Revolution?

Beth: It could be beyond that. But obviously that would be a discussion between publishers and SEGA.

IGN: Are any other deals like this in the works?

Beth: Obviously we want to make a very robust library for the Virtual Console, so there may be other announcements down the road.

...

IGN: The Virtual Console is going to be home to hundreds of classic games, from the sound of it. But can we expect original games for it, too?

Beth: Yeah, and actually Mr. Iwata touched upon that briefly today - the system being a platform for developers to try out new content. So, certainly. We've been focused pretty heavily on the classic content and now bringing SEGA Genesis and TurboGrafx games, but it certainly will be a forum for bringing some new content.

...

IGN: Sony says final PS3 dev kits will hit in June. When do final Revolution dev kits hit?

Beth: We haven't announced what our final dev kit schedule is yet.

...

IGN: Is the Revolution hardware itself finished?

Beth: I believe so, yes.

 

[Natoma]

Well, there're 2 usb ports (or usb like ports) on the back of Revolution (Picture). Plus we don't know what exactly is below the upper lid cover, where the GCN controller port are.

Hmm. USB HD anyone?

 

[NavNucST3]

I was thinking more of the originals. Though now it seems it's only a few Megadrive games and not the whole library, but the original Sonic will be there, I'm sure. Bit disappointing really, only having a selection of titles to play. I'd have thought Sega emulation would be a doddle and there's be nothing to prevent them all being available. I wonder what the restriction is? With luck (for those who like retro gaming, which isn't me!) more will become available over time.

Could be a self-imposed limit, When you think about having to search through all of the games NES/SNES/N64/SEGA/TGFX, that would be a hell of an unwieldy beast of a list. Espcecially considering all of N's talk about ease of use and making thing simpler.

 

[nintenho]

Hmm. USB HD anyone?

Wouldn't that be slow?

 

[ERP]

Could be a self-imposed limit, When you think about having to search through all of the games NES/SNES/N64/SEGA/TGFX, that would be a hell of an unwieldy beast of a list. Espcecially considering all of N's talk about ease of use and making thing simpler.

It's more to do with IP ownership.
They would have to negotiate individually with all of the original publishers (and in some cases licensors), some of who'm no longer exist. Just because they can emulate a genesis doesn't mean they can legally distribute all of the content.

 

[Natoma]

Wouldn't that be slow?

USB 2.0? Not at all. The interface is faster than the PATA drive Microsoft used in the Xbox.

 

[nintenho]

USB 2.0? Not at all. The interface is faster than the PATA drive Microsoft used in the Xbox.

Yeah, I guess it should be enough for downloadable games then...

 

[StefanS]

It's more to do with IP ownership.
They would have to negotiate individually with all of the original publishers (and in some cases licensors), some of who'm no longer exist. Just because they can emulate a genesis doesn't mean they can legally distribute all of the content.

Exactly. Moreover, from the sound of the interview, Sega and Hudson are responsible for bringing 3rd party Genesis and TurboGfx content to the virtual console, which is kind of strange in my opinion. But maybe the marketing representative doesn't know what she's talking about.

 

[StefanS]

Hmm. USB HD anyone?

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/29/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm

The Revolution has 512 MB of flash memory, allowing for some initial storage space. The system also has a slot for SD memory cards, which are widely used in digital cameras and can hold a greater amount of data. Most importantly, Iwata mentioned, were the USB ports that are built into the Revolution "so practically any storage method can be used".

That more or less confirms that there'll be external hdds.