Revs virtual console: No Rare games?

[see colon]

Rare owns nothing more then some IP (code). Nintendo owns the implimentation of that code in Goldeneye. As I said as long as Nintendo doesn't change the code (simply makes the original N64 rom available) there is nothing Rare or Microsoft can do about it.

i think some people are missing that point, teasy. nintendo published goldeneye. they have the rights to continue publishing it. the onlt thing that might stand it their way might be EA, since they now hold the bond license exclusivly. rare has nothing to do with it because they don't own the IP and have no claim on the publishing rights.

even more interesting is the situation with killer instinct. nintendo+rare+midway but i'm unsure who owns the rights to what.

 

[clem64]

damn... I was afraid something like this might happen. Perfect dark was the one I was hoping for. Such a great game with obvious framerate problems... it would have benefited greatly from being emulated on REV. And I don't see the game popping up on XBLA either because N would have to agree to that. Maybe they could strike a deal where N would get royalties for every dowmload. Somehow I doubt they will agree to that. I guess a remake is still possible.

Goldeneye... I don't see why not. I'm not even sure if Rare/MS have a say in the matter. They just need to strike a deal with EA since it's a James bond game. Could happen...

 

[StefanS]

i think some people are missing that point, teasy. nintendo published goldeneye. they have the rights to continue publishing it. the onlt thing that might stand it their way might be EA, since they now hold the bond license exclusivly. rare has nothing to do with it because they don't own the IP and have no claim on the publishing rights.

even more interesting is the situation with killer instinct. nintendo+rare+midway but i'm unsure who owns the rights to what.

AFAIK Goldeneye is entirely owned by Nintendo (except for EA holding the IP now). Killer Instinct was however sold to MS in the Rare deal at least to my knowledge.

 

[fearsomepirate]

The vast majority of games on XBL, and the best selling ones are all less than 3 years old. They are the exact same games that are very popular on MSN's gaming zone. The two most popular games so far are Hexic HD and Geomitry Wars 2, both relatively new games.

From their GDC interview:

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.

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/698/698059p3.html

So we are going to see original titles on Virtual Console. I for one hope someone puts out some 2D beat-em-ups for it. And IIRC, Sonic Mega Collection and the Mega Man Anniversary Pack sold quite well on the Cube. Joust is one thing, but Super Mario Bros is quite another.

 

[Natoma]

http://blogs.ign.com/Matt-IGN/2006/03/26/7367/

Well, here's something interesting from the Game Developers Conference 2006. Met with some Rare / Microsoft people who confirmed once and for all that Revolution's Virtual Console will not see any Rare-owned licenses. What does that mean? No-gos include Jet Force Gemini, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Conker's Bad Fur Day. Not happening on Revolution. Neither are gamers likely to see Goldeneye 007, unless both Rare and new license holder EA commit it to Nintendo's platform.

On a brighter note, any title developed by Rare that is fully owned by Nintendo could very well show up on the Virtual Console. Donkey Kong 64. Diddy Kong Racing. You get the point.
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Are the wholly owned N64 games below 50MB in size? Maybe they would be available through XBLA?

I seriously doubt Nintendo would've sold distribution rights to the games Rare had developed for them prior to the sale. Nor would it have made sense for MS to want to pay the money for those already developed/sold games as they have no way of making money on them.

The Rare purchase was no doubt for development of all future games with those licenses. It's the only thing that makes business sense for both parties.

 

[Guden Oden]

I think that they can port n64 titles very easly, and with better graphics, they can add msaa and hdr easly, for example, they can add fur shading easly to their engine, and port all rare'e n64 games in a new light via XBlive

You think "HDR" is something you just turn on like a switch maybe?

It's not going to be easy at all, the lighting in these old N64 games is exceedingly fake, and there's simply no quick way to just hack in something like HDR. It would require substantial reworking of the game and its art assets, and who wants to spend lots of money on ancient games, something that pretty much amounts to colorizing old black and white movie classics? Will never happen.

 

[BlueTsunami]

and who wants to spend lots of money on ancient games

Exactly. The reason Nintendo must be doing this in the first place is to reap the benefits of re releasing these classics with 0 to Extreme Minimal amount of reworking with the games.

If your going to somehow add HDR to some classic game, you should probably just remake the whole game!

 

[Ooh-videogames]

I seriously doubt Nintendo would've sold distribution rights to the games Rare had developed for them prior to the sale. Nor would it have made sense for MS to want to pay the money for those already developed/sold games as they have no way of making money on them.

The Rare purchase was no doubt for development of all future games with those licenses. It's the only thing that makes business sense for both parties.

Could be damage control on MS/Rare part, covertly take away one of the most popular N64 games and you got a lot of upset gamers.

Its just a thought, don't quote me on it, I beg of you.

 

[AlNom]

How are they handling the controller config for all the supported systems

 

[Blade]

Alstrong: The ever-present expansion port on the controller.

One note, I'm not sure if they ever got any larger elsewhere... but I know that US N64 game size topped out at 64MB for Resident Evil 2.

Possibly other titles as well, but definitely RE2.

 

[BlueTsunami]

How are they handling the controller config for all the supported systems

Theres supposed to be Shells for the main controller that allows it to be docked and become a different controller (think Sega Genesis's controller but with a port in the middle that docks with the Revolution controller).

You could possibly see a Wavebird Shell, Sega Genesis Shell and theres even speculation that Sega could be providing a Shell thats essentially a LightGun (for games like House of the Dead and Time Crisis).

 

[DudeMiester]

You think "HDR" is something you just turn on like a switch maybe?

It's not going to be easy at all, the lighting in these old N64 games is exceedingly fake, and there's simply no quick way to just hack in something like HDR. It would require substantial reworking of the game and its art assets, and who wants to spend lots of money on ancient games, something that pretty much amounts to colorizing old black and white movie classics? Will never happen.

Maybe the owning companies could do it as training for new recruits? lol.

 

[Jabjabs]

I think RE2 was the only N64 game to be 64MB, I never heard of any other titles going over that. Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong 64, Perfect Dark, Conkers (yeah a lot of Rare games there) where all 32MB

 

[fearsomepirate]

There might be problems with Rare games that were published by Nintendo. It might not be too much trouble to simply recompile games like Conker and Jet Force Gemini (and removing any Nintendo logos) so that they can run at 640x480 with a decent framerate and sell them over XLA. After all, no one stopped Capcom from selling Mega Man Anniversary on the PS2. Who knows, maybe Conker might be fun if it didn't give me a splitting headache. ;-)

 

[Blade]

Actually, Conker's Bad Fur Day also shipped on a 64MB/512Mb cart.

And, I'd say that it's much more worth their while to make Conker: Live and Reloaded compatible with the X360 than making the N64 ROM available.