The offical Nintendo Revoltuion thread
By Jacob Honigford
A detailed look at the nintendo revolution
Over the past year or so plenty of hype, mystery and controversy has been raised over the new Nintendo Console. Systems like the Xbox have taken the lead in home based gaming, offering features like online multiplayer. However when Nintendo showed off their new system at the E3 Expo they showed gamers that Nintendo just might revolutionize the video game community once again. But until Nintendo “officially” gives us the details, we can only speculate and wait.
The Hype and the Mystery
No one really knows too much about the Nintendo Revolution . What kind of power will it “actually” have? What games are in development? How does the controller work? Nintendo is, for the most part, keeping a tight lid on things. We don’t even really know when the official release date will be.
Living in an online world, it seems everyone has “the inside scoop” on the new console. Members of blogs and forums are saying everything from holographic imaging to new methods of image processing. The bottom line is, with limited facts, speculation is rampid, which creates plenty of misinformation and hype.
Below is a compilation of information about both the Nintendo Revolution and the new controller.
Nintendo Revolution Controller features:
• It is wireless (a new gen controller standard)
• It will use two "satellites" (which will be very skinny "strips", possibly like a 1/4 inch thick magnet, although it wouldn't be a magnet) placed on both sides of the TV to tell just where on the screen the controller is pointing. This function is reported to be extremely accurate and smooth. In fact, it is said to be more accuate than the standard mouse. I don't see how it could "blow" it away, but beat it, yeah, that's more plausible.
• This "pointer" function , as it has been dubbed, will not only enable the controller to act like a mouse but control onscreen action too. For example: Nintendo showed a demo (available in the links section at the bottom of is article) that included people performing some of the following actions with the controller: chopping vegetables, fishing, playing a FPS, playing some horror game (thought to possibly be Luigi's Mansion), playing the drums using two controllers, a sword fighting game, and many others. Now, you may be saying so what? Well, you almost have to see the video to get a good idea of what it's capable of. For more information see the reference links at the bottom of the article.
• It can detect when the controller is rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise (like if you take a TV remote, spin it sideways so that you are holding with the infrared emitter [the part that sends the signal] between you fingers and rotate it towards you or away from you).
• It has the ability to add attachments to the regular controller. The only confirmed one as of right now is the "nunchuck" analog unit. (see reference pictures at bottom of post)
l image of the Nintendo revolution
• A "shell" will be released allowing the player to "insert" the controller into the shell and play SNES, N64, and probably the genres not able to be played with the current controller layout (such as street fighting games, although several possible ways to do this with the standard controller have been found) For a "mock-up" of this shell (provided by IGN) see the reference links at the bottom of the article.
• A "power" button that turns off the system. This was at first believed to turn off the controller but the video makes it apparent that it turns off the system. This is the same feature that Microsoft is employing by including a TV remote with it's system. The remote includes a power button for the system.
• This one is more of a note. Although in the pictures, the controller is shown with the buttons: A, B, a, and b, in the trailer and on the prototype shown in Iwata'a keynote speech, the controller had the a & b buttons labeled x & y instead. Most players are hoping that this will be the final version since it will be rather confusing to anyone who doesn't own the system (I think players will quickly get used to it). But telling your friend who doesn't own a Revolution which "a" to hit won't be very easy.
Nintendo Revolution features:
• It will be wireless and will feature online gameplay straight from the box.
• Games all the way back to the original NES will be available for download. These will be playable by the shell unit for-mentioned. Nintendo has reported that they haven't decided if these will cost gamers (although this is likely, say maybe, $5-$10 bucks a game) and haven't decided which games will be released for download. Nintendo said that theoretically, they could do every game ever released. They said that they would probably let gamers decide though. (Gamecube games will most likely not be released for download, see next item.)
• It will be backwards compatible with the Nintendo GameCube (never understood why they didn't name it the NGC).
• It features a very handy self-loading disc drive that plays both the Revolution's standard size discs and the GameCubes small discs.
• There will be a "self contained" unit that will be released for purchase separate from the system that will allow the system to play DVDs. There isn't much info on this at this point.l image of the Nintendo revolution
• Another one that is more of a note. Nintendo has confirmed that the GameCube controller will NOT be able to be used for playing Revolution games, although many people don't know this and don't know that there will be a shell released. I just added this one to attempt to keep those ideas from circulating.
Nintendo Revolution Rumors and Theories:
• There will be a controller recharge station available for purchase. This theory seems very likely, as most of us would hate to have to recharge those AA batteries every night. IGN has released a conceptual image of the charging station.
• The system will cost $100. Now, if this rumor were to be true, that would be really amazing. And who's to say it's not (besides Nintendo), it's just very unlikely.
• There has been plenty of speculation as to when the revolution will be released. Both Amazon.com and gamestop.com have tentatively added revolution game titles to their websites with the release date slated for March of 2006. However Nintendo has not yet announced any information regarding a release date.
Nintendo Revolution Specs:
Due to the relatively early stages of development, specifications may change before the console's final release. According to a recent interview with Nintendo of Europe's Jim Merrick, Nintendo may never release a complete system spec, citing that the exact technology is irrelevant, and has little bearing on how "satisfying" the gameplay is.
* 1 dual-threaded IBM Custom PowerPC 2.5 GHz core with 256KB of L1 cache, 1MB of L2 cache, and maybe a rumored L3 cache as well.Nintendo president at Montreal convention
* 256MB of 1T-SRAM for an ATI Custom-based RN520 600 MHz GPU that will support up to 2048x1268 resolution, though HD support is still being decided.
* 512MB of 700 MHz 1T-SRAM for the Revolution’s main memory.
* And an extra 32MB just for a Physical Processing Unit (PPU) chip to help the CPU and GPU with the processing load.
If you have any information to add or correct, please post it in this thread
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