Geek Rant dot org » Consoles

Old Australian Atari 2600 ad

daniel — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:19:05 +0000

For Atari 2600 fans, check this old Australian advert from Frankster’s video archive.

Gamecube controllers for Wii

daniel — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 06:14:11 +0000

If you want to play a Gamecube game on the Wii, you need a Gamecube controller. Nintendo’s Classic Controller won’t do it. (Makes me wonder why they bothered releasing it, since you can use a Gamecube controller for Virtual Console classic games.)

Anyway, the youngest wanted one to play some Gamecube games, so we went hunting (in Melbourne). You can’t buy original Nintendo controllers retail now (might find them on ebay I suppose), but the (clone) options we found were:

Harvey Norman — corded, $30.
KMart — had nothing.
Dick Smith — cordless, $40.
EB Games — corded, $30 (not listed on their web site).
Game — corded, normally $24, on sale for $19.
JB Hifi — same as Dick Smith.
Big W — corded plus a Gamecube memory card (needed for Gamecube saves) $29.

As he wanted a memory card, and they appear to be pretty scarce, we ended up with the latter, which works well, though it would have been nice with a slightly longer cord.

It’s nice to know that (for the moment) you can still buy these things and play the old games. Viva la backwards compatibility.

Xbox incompatibility

daniel — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:45:38 +0000

Back before Christmas, I had pondered getting an XBox 360. Hey, it would let me play the new Pacman, and that Braid game sounds really good.

Then I discovered according to Wikipedia and Microsoft, there are a number of XBox games we have at home that can’t be played on the 360.

So I’d have to keep the old XBox going to play them. That sucks.

And at least one of them is a Microsoft game.

Midtown Madness 3
Shrek 2
Wallace and Gromit
Midway Arcade Classics
Pro Evolution Soccer 4

Evidently each game needs an emulation profile. Which means I suppose that alas the XBox 360 is not sufficiently advanced as to be able to fully and properly emulate the original XBox, which is why each game needs to be made compatible individually.

We ended up getting a Wii for Christmas. Admittedly the old XBox hasn’t been switched-on since.

At least Nintendo do their backward compatibility properly. Having seen how Microsoft’s dealt half-heartedly with the old XBox, I wouldn’t have wanted to buy into another technological dead-end.

I might see what’s out there to turn it into a Media Centre instead.

Misc stuff

daniel — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:27:53 +0000

Guitar Hero/Rock Band compatibility: For those looking at the options for Guitar Hero and Rock Band (insert grumble about RB2 not yet being available in Australia), check Joystiq’s instrument compatibility chart to see which instruments work with which games.

OpenID: Ooh, this I like: Jeff Atwood on how to use your own URL for your OpenID.

Unix quick reference: Here

Wiiware not for the lone coders

daniel — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:41:59 +0000

Back when it was announced, it sounded like Nintendo’s WiiWare would let bedroom coders get their games into their Wiis, just like Microsoft XNA lets anybody write for the XBox 360.

Not so. Apparently all the usual NDAs and licence fees apply. The difference is the games can be developed by small teams (within licenced developers) and the games are distributed via Nintendo’s online service.

Nintendo snubbing small developers for WiiWare

WiiWare is a lie

I know I was never going to get around to coding any more games, not with my current workload, but all the same, I liked the idea, and it was helping leaning me towards buying a Wii.