Nintendo is Better at Backwards Compatibility than Sony

When comparing various implementations of backward compatibility, iTWire noted that Nintendo handles such issues much more better than Sony.
There's still some flamewars raging about whether Sony was right to slash $27 off the costs and drop a hardware implementation of PlayStation 2 software compatibility in its flagman PlayStation 3 console. And while Nintendo was never a poster boy of maintaning an uninterapted user experience, it went a great length to provide a smooth and carefree transition for deprecated platforms users. The Nintendo Wii offers GameCube compatibility to the degree of even offering the slots for existing GameCube controllers.
Nintendo has also delivered a Virtual Arcade that not only offers games from previous Nintendo consoles, but competing old-school games systems in an ever growing library. Yes, you can’t plug your SNES cartridges into the Wii, but even that’s taking backwards compatibility a tad too far. It’s easier to do it in emulation, and Nintendo is able to re-monetize a vast library of their own and other’s gaming content.

Wii exercise is not enough

There's a lot of attention for Wii Sports fitness workouts and its health benefits. Looks like everyone take for granted that playing a half-an-hour session of Wii Tennis (especially with Wii Weights on the wrists) is some kind of miraculous way to loose weight without actually getting sore or bore.
Some fitness experts are rushing to claim your attention to specially designed routines tailored to your need for a small fee while other entrepreneurs are rubbing their hands seeing an opportunity to make a buck selling Wii fitness accessories.
But would it really help an average Joe? Not really. Yes, moving in front of your TV is better than resting on the couch but the gain is minuscle. And if you'd try and make it into a habit to spend an hour a day practicing your golf swing with a wiimote, don't forget to have some warmup and streching prior to hitting the ball - it'd save your trouble of visiting a phisician over a troubled knee or something like that.
There's an article by NY1 that elaborates on the subject.

Wii vaporware

Pokemon Battle Revolution - The first online game for the Wii. It's out and online in Japan but it's completely unannounced for the U.S.


Project H.A.M.M.E.R. - It was shown at E3, now it is nowhere to be found.


Super Mario Strikers - Announced but never released.


Battalion Wars 2 - Announced but never released.


Disaster Day of Crisis - Announced but never released.


Metroid Prime 3 - Supposed to be a Wii launch title. Now it's delayed and no launch date set.

70 year old Wii bowling players

Chicago Tribune is running a story of a great success of a Wii setup at the local retirement community, where the average age is 77. It's residents spend long hours playing Wii Sports and when their grandchildren are visiting them, they give a lesson or two of proper gaming.

"People have no fear of picking up a remote control, but they're hesitant to pick up a video game controller," Llewelyn, Nintendo's senior director of corporate communications, said. "So the idea was to make the controller look like a remote control with just a couple of buttons."

Since the Wii hit stores in November, more than 1 million consoles have been sold in the United States, Llewelyn said. The reaction to the system by seniors has been a pleasant surprise.

On Sunday, Don Hahn, 76, a veteran of numerous real-life bowling competitions, will compete for the first time in a virtual one.

"This is pretty realistic. You can even put English on the ball," Hahn said after connecting on a strike with the Wii. "I used to play Pac-Man a little bit, but with this you're actually moving around and doing something.

"You're not just sitting there pushing buttons and getting carpal tunnel."

Get a sculpture of your Mii.

Paul Pape Design Store offer to build for you an accurate impression of your Mii out of fine clay, so you can take it along with you and tickle it and play with it everywhere.
Thoose figurines are handpainted to match the colours of your Mii as good as possible.
All you need to do is send some photos (or screen shots) of your Mii to the artist.

Top Wii rumours round-up

1. Wii is HD capable.
Gizmodo among many others is spreading the rumour that Wii is HD capable and inspite of it having troubles with 480p mode, you can still get a decent resolution with a lack of extensive antialiasing in other modes. Some authoritative figures in the industry are hinting at Wii having enough processing power to crunch numbers fast enough for a decent high resolution output. There's also some pre-release talks of HD-enabled version of the console heading for a US market.
This rumour could be easily underestimated because of the lack of HD-ready TV sets in living rooms across America and total absence of playable content (except for the videogames itself) for fortunate high definition devices owners but there's another one -

2. You can play DVDs on Wii (using modchip).
And it could be home burned DVD with HDTV content. Get a movie, burn it and watch it on favourite console skipping back and forth with a wiimote. But there's a nuance - Wii currently isn't supporting DVD playback at all. What a pity! But don't you despare - there's a Wii modchip that could enable a region-free DVD playback. Or so they claim. But there's some very strong notions that it's a fake. Some readers point out the fact that Wii disks are spin counterclockwise, while a DVD disk is supposed to be played clockwise. Others mention a that promised stealth operation would be compromised by modchips' other futures, namely region free playback. So no DVD playback for you. But, if you happen to live in Japan, look out for a premium Wii version with native DVD playback, rumoured to be in the works.

3. Is Wii doomed to fail?
There's some doubts about Wii future... Some experts say that Wii software and games line-up is lacking some prospects for grows. Wii sports theme is already played to it's maximum with "adult" or "real" game titles sporting some more realistic approach to golf (Tiger Wood's) or bowling. No MMOG announced (just a hint at upcoming Metroid 3). Novelty effect is wearing off and players are growing tired of brandishing their wiimotes. Yes, Wii is a great partying source, but what it offers to hardcore gamers? And won't they be better off pre ordering or buying PS3?

It take just a 3 hours to dump a Wii game with new dumper

A new Wii image dumper has been released which allows you to dump a disc in as little as three hours (it used to be 50 a while ago). It also includes a complete re-write of the dump code, error correction and integrated unscrambler.
Download Rawdump 1.0

Point'n'Shoot - custom made Wii gun!

Looks like someone disassembled wiimote and integrated its parts into cheap plastic gun replica. Trigger doubles as a "B" button, and the barrel is outfitted with a position sensor. And there's some PC voodoo going too - the modder is clearly using some MS Windows device drivers giving him a priceless opportunity to shoot some flash stick figures while staying completely save from tunnel wrist syndrome.

Some N64 titles affected by emulation problems that have not yet been fixed

Nintendo said that a notice has been posted on the Virtual Console, notifying players about the glitch, but up till this morning there was no such notice to be found.

The recent addition of Mario Kart 64 to the Wii's Virtual Console digital download store showed what could be a big flaw in future releases to the Nintendo 64 channel, as technical problems prevented the implementation of part of the game's save mechanism.

In Mario Kart 64, while the main game data can be saved, the ghost rider feature, which allows players to essentially race against previous versions of themselves, has been scrapped, after it was deemed impossible to replicate on the built-in emulator on the Wii.

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Via Tom's Hardware

Comprehensive guide to playing backups on Wii

Everyone out there have nightmares about scratching or losing their dear Nintendo Wii games from time to time. Console manufacturers always tighten up the security of their devices in order to fight the piracy but doing so they strip us of our rightful wish to have a back-up of legally purchased cd for personal use. And community is fighting back. So here's the first draft of burning and playing back-ups on Wii guide. There's just 4 steps for those strong at heart:

1. Dump a disk
This is the most complicated step and it would take your anywhere from 50 hours to a week to complete it.
First of all, grab a wii disk dumper and head for a PC equipped with a right DVD player - LG-8164b, LG-8163b or LG-8162b.
You can find one on EBay or order it at your local PC retailer. If your couldn't install it yourself, ask a computer-literate friend, relative or your pc vendor serviceman to give your a hand. Once you've all components in one place - that is your workstation, start they dumper and cross your fingers. Luckily you'll soon have a decrypted ISO image.

2. Burn a backup
Replace an original Wii disk with a blank writable DVD and burn your ISO. If you don't know how to do it or there's no software, download a free trial of Sateira CD&DVD burner and follow it's simple instructions. Once the disk is burned, mark it with a cd pen and put it next to your console to abuse in various ways while keeping the original in safe dry place.

3. Upgrade your Wii with a modchip
To boot a game from a backup, you'll need to make some alterations to your console. Some say that it'd void your guaranty, some say it won't, but, well, frankly speeking it's up to you to make such a decision. When your are through with double guessing yourself, go to the local workshop (ask for one Wii forums or look at Craiglist), and have your Wii modded. If you're any good with tinkering and not afraid of soldering some wires, you could possibly mod the device youself - it'd save your some cash to burn on the next game. There's two modchips currently available or under development - Wiinja (you can have it for 40 euros (~$45) and Cyclowiz (coming soon).

4. Insert and start a backed-up game
Sit back and relax - and you can even put your coffee cup on a spare backup disk, while holding your wiimote like a lightsabre in a dual grip.