Full list of Wii specs ... allegedly

If this was 4chan I would be pointing to Andy and Pc's post numbers and saying "same person". Luckily it's not, though.

@blahman

I stand corrected.

However, I have had some concerns with the Gamecube hardware specs listed on Wikipedia, most notably a point stating that Flipper was capable of hardware NURBS. This has never been mentioned in any article or document for Gamecube I've ever seen.

Certainly the GPU had embedded 1T-SRAM, but it was 3MB, far from the 24 the list implies (even the 360 GPU only has 10MB, and it's not really embedded either). For the record, the Gamecube had 24 MB of 1T-SRAM used as main system memory.

I suppose then this does raise the potential authenticity of this list. However, it still seems dubious concerning the mention of adjustable rumble and GDDR3 RAM (thanks for covering my back theboy).

As for the debate on the importance of system power, here's my take:

GPU power: Graphics mean nothing without artistry behind it, and as Ocarina Of Time can continue to teach us, Nintendo has in droves. A memorable visual style on an inferior system will still be more impressive than an ultra-realistic, ultra-generic style on a high end system.

CPU Power: There's nothing that realistically affects gameplay (confined by the interfaces we have) that a multicore 3.2GHZ CPU can do which a 700Mhz songle core chip can't. What will they use this power for? Physical simulation! How will it benefit gameplay? It won't! If physics are made an integral part of gameplay, then scenarios become too unpredicatble for designers to manage. Only a small subset of games will take real advantage of this complexity. Most games (limited by the now-standard dual-analogue format control) will continue with traditional scenarios. Frankly, Portal's more exciting than physics.

So I put it to everyone, that while sub-surface scattered, ray-traced, normal mapped graphics with genuine cloth and breast physics simulation are nice, I'll probably choose Metroid Prime 3 every time, which still conjures atmosphere and immersion like nothing else.

Immersion >> Realism

Although I would like it with portals.

William-

actually, if done right, 512MB could last quite a bit. Considering it's only used for gamesaves and downloading NES, SNES, and N64 Roms. The average NES Rom is less than 1 Megabyte, and the average SNES one is about 1 MB, N64 games average around 15-30MB. So as you can see...512MB could go quite a way with the stuff you'd be downloading. If not...SD cards and Memory Sticks are cheap. 1GB can be bought for around 40-50 bucks from certain online retailers.

Elmer, you are doing more harm then good with your half assed tech analysis. Stop please.

BTW, the Gekko's bandwidth is calculated thus: 64bit address @ 162MHz FSB. 64 x 162,000,000= 10,368,000,000bits = 1,296,000,000Bytes. That's approximately 1.3GB per second. If you take the new FSB number (243MHz of the GPU) and plug it into the formula, then you get 1,944,000,000Bytes of CPU's external bandwidth figure. That's pretty damn close to the 1.9GB/s from the new specs, don't you think?

Also, the 24MB of "main RAM" is referring to 1T-SRAM, and is in no way no the die. If it was, the damn GPU would be over 450 million transistors. That's even bigger than any of the current top end dies for nVidia or ATi GPUs. You're not gonna see those kind of transistor figures even on $600 videocard chips until 65nm.

For all those who are laughing about the DVD player of the Wii... The 360 as one running ALSO at 6x..

Shogan: "Back in the early 90's that was different. The TG-16 launched and couldn't compete with the Genesis in terms of visuals. But now, it's not nearly so much of an issue."

Me: That's ridiculous. Have you ever even played a TG-16 game? 2nd generation games on the Genesis and TG-16 were very similar, and in the case of games that came out on both systems (Bomberman), the TG-16 versions were frequently more colorful because the system had access to more colors simultaneously without going to a lot of extra effort (241 on the background and antoher 241 on sprites, from a 512 color pallette, vs 64 out of 512 on the Genesis).

The sound capabilities were identical.

I still pull out my Duo-R to play occasionally. I haven't touched the Genesis except to play Master System games in years.

@23 (Drew): No kidding.

All this talk about "it's all about the games", and everyone raving about the system hasn't even played any games on it. As an interface desinger, I see a lot of problems with the controller. But, hey, it's new! Of course people are going to go nuts over it without any real-world experience. There was a time in the 80's where Virtual Reality was supposed to be the next big thing. I don't think anyone learned anything from that.

@ARTICLE: "Internal non-removable 512MB flash memory used to storage game save data and downloadable content thus eliminating the need for a memory card."

People are still assuming that the internal memory will be used for game saves. It's possible that internal flash memory will only be available for Nintendo's needs, and you'll have to be SD cards to save games. That would prevent the internal memory from getting clogged with game data, interfering with game downloads and Connect24, which will almost certainly not work with removable media. Nothing has been said about the performance of the memory, either. Trust me, not all flash memory is the same. I found that out in a hurry by working in a camera store.

Personally, I'd have felt better if the Wii had come with a 256MB SD card, and the system had two SD slots.

But then, the system will be "cheap", so people won't object if they have to buy an SD card, a Vitual Console controller, a broadband adapter, etc.

@ARTICLE: "The GPU of the Wii is identical to the GC's but it is on average 1.5X faster."

I don't buy this. The geometry core is probably identical to Flipper, and the performance increase looks reasonable, but the GPU will have pixel/vertex shader stuff tacked on. Only Nintendo knows how much that will affect real-world performance.

The big question is anti-aliasing, and texture memory. I think it's terrible that while Wii works at standard TV resolution, many Wii screenshots lack anti-aliasing. Textures look pretty blurry, too. While I don't play any truly demanding games that require a 7900GTX, I do demand a card with a lot of visual features, so I can play my old PC games with 16x anti-aliasing and high-quality fitering. Graphics don't have to be complex or photo-realistic, but they should be high in quality so that you can see what you're doing. So far, I'm unimpressed with the visual quality of the Wii, given the state of current technology.

@49 (elmer): "GPU power: Graphics mean nothing without artistry behind it, and as Ocarina Of Time can continue to teach us, Nintendo has in droves."

Even many Nintendo fans are confused as to why Ocarina of Time used the visual style that it did. I think the Sly Cooper games looked better, IMO. Even today, Ratchet and Clank still blows me away.

The flexibility is what counts. Lots of power gives you freedom to do anything. In the hands of a talented developer, better hardware means better games. PS3 specs are crazy, but I don't like how people are saying minor improvements from last-gen are a "good" thing. Lower development bugdets, for example. Dev budgets are the resposibility of the developers, and are usually tied to their talent and tools, not the actual power of the system. Less powerful systems may actually cost more, due to optimization and the lack of industry-standard tools. In any case, end-users shouldn't care.

But, hey, the controller is exclusive to Wii, so you'll have to buy the new machine to enjoy the new experience. I suppose that's also why some Wii games will be released for Gamecube.

49 (elmer): "CPU Power: There's nothing that realistically affects gameplay"

As someone who has mingled in the demoscene for a long time, I agree to a point. The problem is, if more CPU power doesn't affect gameplay, why make a new CPU at all? Gamecube could be fun, so Wii can be fun. The problem is that Wii isn't much of an improvement over Gamecube, yet, it will cost quite a bit more than the old system. If this thing sells for more than $150, it is a rip-off. That should upset people, but, if people will pay $300 for a music player that will die in 6 months from toasted batteries, and then buy a new one from the *same* manufacturer, I guess they will pay for something that can have its butt whipped by a machine that costs only a little more.

The law of diminishing returns isn't that extreme, but brand loyalty is truly a wonder of nature.

I also don't know why people go out of their way to make excuses for companies that make lously hardware. Nintendo doesn't have to spread BS because they know their community will do it for them, so long as they release "leaked" photos of yet another piece of plastic, with the promise that, "we've got more secrets we're not telling you! Nyah!" Yeah, secrets like, there's a light bulb on this thing, and over here we have a hole on the thingamabob where you tie the wrist strap.

I truly appreciate new control schemes, but I still don't understand why people love companies that favor form over fuction, like Apple, Nintendo, Sharper Image...

These specs are not realistics. Comments from ATI representative tends to make us believe that the Wii GPU will be much more powerfull then we think. Do you really believe that serious tech company such as ATI and IBM will produce low tech device just for Nintendo? I don't think so. And Nitendo knows this business better then anyone else so these specs are rubbish.

Again, the CPU will be based on the 970FX (single core) and should be running at 2GHz. The GPU will be different in architecture from the XBOX 360 but will used its main component with special Nintendo specifications.

Who cares, Gamecube is a impressive console in the hands of the right developer.
The Wii is more powerful than the Gamecube. What more do we need to know?

First. No matter what you may think Ps3 games look like ass. (poor texturing, no antialiasing, etc) the console its overpriced/overyped, its an insult to my eyes. Fugly. It has the same stupid kidy console joystick that real man like me don’t like

2cond. 360 games also look ordinary, dispensable, bland, (no antialiasing, pitiable FOV, no AF) and most have severe framerate issues. Fragile, overpriced 4 a dvd player and mediocre gaming experience / gaming library its an insult to my eyes and ears.
also It has the same stupid controller, and patetic overall design.

Then you have the wii. Wii games look like top notch ps2 / generic xbox 1 games with better lighting. (in other words, just like most 360 ported games) PERFECT for a inexpensive console. Looks: fking amazing. The remote is an adult device and not a stupid toy (you can leave it infront of your tv, it looks that good) and its unike. small. Quiet. cheap. Fun.

Not a difficult decision Imo

@52 Waccoon
This spec sheet is bullshit. Go back and compare this spread sheet to the GameCube's. Also read the post's on the first page and this time dont glance just READ if your mind is capable of that wich I heavily doubt! It's funny how you took the oppurtunity to start your own Revolution based on a bogus spread sheet! Now for those readers who never fall victim to fanboyism, lets begin laughing at Waccoon's post right about now! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! What an uninformed bastard........

Ahh there is no mention of bluetooth, which we know it has so that is kinda strange and there is no mention of online capabilities!

unless nintendo somehow improved upon the standard slot-loading optical disc drive design (and if these new specs are right), i don't know how it will be able to accept both 8cm and 12cm discs, for the same reason that you can't put a pocket cd-r into a car stereo without breaking it.

512MB internal storage is plenty for what it's worth... on my PS2 and Gamecube I've almost never filled up my memory cards... I have a normal and a half-size gamecube card and an 8MB ps2 card. So 512 MB is more than enough... And nowadays most people have atleast some alternate form of storage, be it a thumb drive or mp3 player (mine doubles as a 512MB thumb drive) and with the size of save files and retro games, you won't need all that much.

As for the controller, I'm not so sure about it at the moment. It does look awkward to use, but at the same time once you get used to it, it looks like it would be both fun and practical.

And as for the rest of the specs, why would it matter? Are all games about who has the most power and best graphics? No. Games are about whether they're fun or not. Some people are entertained better by flashy graphics, some are entertained better by a captivating story, and some are into games that have good gameplay. Like with the 8 and 16-bit systems. It wasn't really about graphics all that much then. Games were either fun or not. Graphics didn't matter back then... So why now do so many value "good graphics" above all else?

Waccoon, seriously. It's such a losery thing to do to respond to EVERY single thing that everyone says. For the love of God, stop it.

#56

Weaszel, they've already explicitly said this capability was included. They simply could not support existing GameCube media otherwise.

The mechanism for allowing this has been around for years. Few implementations are in consumer products because there hasn't been a huge volume of mini-CD and card-CD products out there. For the money most people just buy a big tower of blank CD-Rs and if their size makes them more likely to get broken in the car, who cares? At pennies for a disc that works everywhere, why bother with lesser capacities just because they're a bit more easily stored.

Years ago, card-CDs seemed like the coolest thing ever. Instead of just handing someone with your card listing your name, position, phone number, email, etc., you could give them your whole company website. But surprisingly few people understood how to use them and their value has been greatly reduced since the spread of broadband have made it so that any computer able to display the data on the card can likely just reach the web site. Couple that with the expense and bulk of the cards and the whole thing was an idea whose time had passed.

Nobody saw fit to use the more costly mechanisms when there was so little call for that support. The biggest seller of slot loading drives in desktop and portable computers might have made a difference if they'd adopted those drives as standard but Apple chose against that.

----------------------------------------------------

For those who believe the built-in 512 MB of flash memory inadequate, you'll have the option to add your own. Nintendo is providing a design that is completely ready to use, including the ability to make purchases from the Virtual Library and access other online content, directly out of the box. Unless many other previous machines, including the GameCube itself, there is no need for a memory card for the system to be entirely usable. More than a few parents have had an annoying Xmas morning or child's birthday when they discovered the console was incomplete without a memory card and nobody mentioned this at the time of purchase.

Worse still, new PS2 owners were often surprised to learn they'd need not two different types of memory cards if the wanted to play PS1 games on their new machine.

By all appearances, Nintendo is aiming at a very positive out of box experience. They could have gone for a much smaller amount of memory to serve the basic system needs and left little beyond for save games and online purchases. When you consider the size of the games intended for download, it is entirely possible many Wii owners will get plenty of use from their console without ever needing to purchase an SD card. It will be up to Nintendo to make their online offerings so enticing as to make that kind of Wii owner rare but it is greatly to their credit they've not only given up a previously guaranteed sale of a memory card but by adopting SD have also given up the entire memory card revenue stream in favor of making conditions more amenable to many online purchases. There may be an official Nintendo branded SD card in stores but it will have to be price competitive with offerings from SanDisk and Lexar.

512Mb may not seem like much but it is huge compared to every previous console that didn't include a hard drive. It will scale down nicely along with the rest of the Wii hardware to make it an irresistible second system for a big portion of those who committed their wallets first to the more expensive competition. Millions of gamers whose console is not a GameCube still own a GBA or DS for their handheld enjoyment. Once the decision is made to not try to match the brute capacity of the competition it becomes possible to follow a strategy that builds on that handheld success. Don't make people choose between MS/Sony or Nintendo. Let them have both.

There is no guarantee of being able to match the anticpated novelty or being able to sustain it, but for now it's a good place to start.

Hey, Guys, there is an update to the site
... more info on the GPU and such.

#53

Lighten up, Francis. (Been wanting to use that line since 1981.)

It is the continuing reluctance of IBM, ATI, and Nintendo itself that do more to lend fuel to this fire than anything else. IBM and ATI reps have yet, to my knowledge, to go on record as to the Wii chipset having a single new feature beyond that of the GameCube counterparts, other than a modest boost in performance which is readily achieved by merely increasing the clock rate all around in a way that maintains the bus access balance. Nothing, nada, zilch, bupkis.

Can you recall a console introduction in the entire history of this field where the company and its partners are so disinclined to reveal any meaningful data, even long after the competition's specs are completely out in the open? This isn't the behavior of people who have something to boast about. Rather, it's the behavior of people who don't want the lack of any major new features to overshadow what the product is really about.

In any case, a 970FX or derivative is extremely unlikely. The chip has a LOT of functionality directed towards desktop PC and sever applications that would serve to add nothing but expense to a game console. A revision of the GameCube CPU would be perfectly fine and easily done since IBM has continued development of the PPC750 unit from which it derives.

As it is, the GameCube CPU was modified to be more specific to game developers needs. This meant eliminating some of the high end features in favor of applying the same transistor real eastate to doing more operations on lesser values in the same clock time. Despite Nintendo's 64-bit hype for the N64, 64-bit is really overkill for a CPU in a NTSC/PAL oriented game system, so 64-bit operations in the PPC750 became multiple 32-bit SIMD functions in the Gekko. It made excellent sense then and still does for the Wii. The PPC750 (similar to Motorola G3 but not the same part used by Apple) was alway intended for embedded apps and lent itself well to be modified for the GC. Doing the same surgery on the PPC 970FX would be so drastic as to make using it a strting point a very questionable choice.

Irregardless? Irrespective or regardless could be used, but Irregardless? bizarre.

There you have it folks, the encyclopedia epobirs

Thanks, it's hella long but informative (as usual)
without all of the technical references, let's look at it from a simple perspective.

Resident Evil 4 x 2 (twice the spec, more polys etc)
Zelda Wind Waker x 2
Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes x 2
Metroid Prime Hunters x 2

why is this a bad thing? When did current gen games all of sudden become trash? For examples, there are reasons games like Starcraft, Quake 2, Quake 3, the original Unreal Tourny are still being played even though better looking games have been released.

Gameplay.....the gameplay is still some of the best you'll find even if the graphics are dated. I still play Alien vs Predator because the gameplay is spot on what you'd expect from an Alien game even with the dated graphics engine.

People can bitch and complain all they want about the supposed specs of the Wii but the reality is Wii games don't need to look as good as PS3 or 360 games, they
just need to look good and play great. With Nintendo at the helm, and looking at the DS's success, I'm not ready to count Nintendo out.

So SO many doubters.

Look, folks.
Nintendo's been in this home console biz since 1983.
I think they know a little bit on how to make a console by now.

Specs specs specs.
That tech nerd stuff is much ado about nothing.
I'm no tech-nerd but from what I see it's not necessarily about how big & bad the individual components are...
...it's the relations & connections between those components that's important. How they work in communion.

Look at how big (& heavy) the X-Box was compared to the Gamecube.
And look how close the Gamecube was in graphical performance TO the X-Box. Some say it surpassed X-Box.

Just give it a rest already.
The reason Nintendo's not saying anything is because this is the calm before the storm.

They're letting the prospect of the Wii marinate in gamers' heads before that system reinvents the industry. That's why it's so anticipated & why we have so many speculative on-the-outside-of-the-shopglass-looking-in type of articles like this one.

All they're thinking is
~Wii~
~Wii~
~Wii~

All according to plan.
I believe the BIG surprise is when that system releases with these "sub-par specs" & STILL somehow matches what's out there on the other two systems.
People will be blown away saying "How did they pull that off?!?!?"
Because Nintendo has NEVER slacked on the visuals let's be honest here.

I remember hearing that the Wii demos at E3 ran on basic Gamecubes not the finalized Wii system. That the Wii system was just window dressing.
Fact is we may NOT know how things on the Wii look YET.

When that Wii launch happens I'm quite sure all this worrywarting & hand-wringing will stop cold after people realize how silly they were for worrying all this time. It will have won them over.

That small difference between the graphics will no longer matter. And the fun will begin.

They didn't codename this thing Revolution for nothing.
The Wii will change the industry & we will ALL understand this by 2007.

The specs are only the raw potential to make something. A talented person knows how to take specs & make them something useful in application. Because we don't see & hear those little mechanical components under the machine we see & hear that art ON THE SCREEN.

John Lucas

Those specs do seem relatively logical: with some technical changes and a 1.5x increase is clock speed, you would probably get the "2-3x the power of the gamecube" we've heard elsewhere.

That's still pretty powerful - 24-48 million polygons/second on a device that only needs to push 12(24 in progressive) million pixels/second at maximum. I would like to see more than 64Mb memory so that games like Metroid prime don't have to put so many doors and lifts in to hide loading times.

Personally, I thought a lot of gamecube games had fantastic graphics, anyway.

@ Waccoon

Nintendo's advertising the 512MB like it will be used for game saves. Most likely what will happen is it will be sectioned off so that only a fraction of it is for game saves and the other is for Virtual Console games and Connect24 content. And since Connect24 is for bonus content, not vital data, I don't see why the service can't do a simple check to see if an SD card (or USB media) is available. That would allow it to work off removable memory just fine.

Regarding the visual quality of current screens... Nintendo's first party games look amazing (remember, LoZ:TP is a GameCube game). Third party games not so much, but they hadn't been given a final hardware dev kit until late, so what we've seen is basically GC quality because that's the hardware they were working with. MANY of the game developers showing off their games at E3 were quoted as saying that they just wanted to show off the gameplay and that they were working on upping the visual quality before release. Red Steel is a game that comes to mind as vastly improved already.

The Wii will likely release at $199, and I don't feel that's a ripoff at all. The games coming out for Wii look impressive and fun. $599 I feel is a ripoff for an unproven chip, an unneccesary media drive, and a 10 year old controller.

"I also don't know why people go out of their way to make excuses for companies that make lously hardware. Nintendo doesn't have to spread BS because they know their community will do it for them"

Hmmm, I've never had to replace a Nintendo console. My PS2, like many others', broke after 2 years.

I'd like to hear these problems with the control scheme if you'd like to share.

T1-SRAM uses 1/6 the real estate of conventional memory. DDR ram may be used for the 16MB of "audio" ram that the GC has, unless then intend to use 162.5 MHz SD RAM, which is now more expensive than DDR... So yes, half of the Flipper is 3MB of RAM.

Dev GC's came with 48MB of ram. I think the GC's motherboard has empty ic pads where extra memory can be soldered in, iirc. Been a while since I opened mine to install a qoob PRO chip...

These specs were published by IGN in December. Hardware was supposed to be finalized around E3. Major BS here on the specs.

Also, the Wii-mote was originally supposed to be an add-on to the GC (wired) planned for 2004 but they couldn't get it to respond fast enough.

I still believe a 325MHz System bus and Flipper2 with a 975MHz Broadway.

In a Gamesport "Last Word" interview when ATI developers were showing off DirectX 10's physics capabilities a day before E3, they were asked if physics hardware made it onto any console GPU that they had designed. They responded with "you mean like the Wiiiiii ... no comment." with a few "wink wink"'s.

ATI has a physics card coming out for about $150 that will be directx 10 compliant and work in conjunction with it's video cards.

So I expect some extra functionality from the flipper2 that will not affect GC backwards compatibility. Same for Broadway.

Also, the GC is 576i in PAL territories. So is it hard to believe that Wii could output DVD quality 540p and still not be considered "Hi Def", I think so. Also, 540p upscales well to 1080. So Wii games may look very comparable on certain televisions that have good upscaling features.

One thing I have noticed about E3 demo videos is the smoothness of the animation. Especially on the Madden footage. I'm looking forward to Wii. For everything else, we have our PC's.

Forgetting about games for a moment, and looking at it from purely a business perspective.

Yes, the performance and specs of the Wii pale compared to the 360 and PS3... but which company is making a profit from their gaming division at this moment in time?

Sony... err, nope. Microsoft... definitely no.

It may be nice to have all this HD hardware in our living rooms, but is it realistic to expect Sony and MS to keep on loosing money on the stuff?

If each generation is upping the development costs of software AND hardware the industry will not be able to sustain it - either that or consoles will start costing over $1000 and games for $100 a pop.

Is that a situation we want to be in?

Nintendo may be releasing an 'underpowered' console, but from a business point of view it's sensible.

We get great games and plenty of 'added value' from the backwards compatibility, Virtual Console, innovative controller etc, and at a price point that keeps the consumer happy and Nintendo making money... money they can invest in more innovative technology.

No one is forcing you to buy a Wii, so if you don't like the specs and think the Wiimote is a gimmick don't buy it.

I'll only ever judge a console on the games released and how immersive and fun they are, and the price point I'm willing to pay. MS and Sony are getting close to pricing themselves out of the traditional market and I'm sure Nintendo will be happy to pick up sales this Xmas period from parents who can't afford a PS3 or Xbox360, but find a Wii much less spainful to pay for.

"just one question, why would an inside source give insider information about the technical specs of the Nintendo Wii leak them to a hacking site of all places?"

I think Joystiq should give juanito a star for stepping back a moment and making the obvious insightful comment.

Also, just to find out - since I saw someone bring up HD 360 and PS3 displays in stores, how many people know of a place where such a setup exists already for the 360? I mean, every electronics store in the US is capable of putting together such a display already.

Personally, I know of only one - the Best Buy in the Cambridgeside Galleria in Cambridge, MA. They have a completely high-end setup, complete with couch, for people to sample the 360. No other Best Buy in the area (and no other store, period) has such a setup. I can think of two places near me that would do a similar setup with the PS3 (the aforementioned Best Buy and a SonyStyle store in downtown Boston).

When I see more than one store show off HD displays with consoles, I might believe that people will buy a system purely for graphics.

Wow, Waccoon. We're going nuts over it because it's new? How uneducated and typical to bundle everyone into the same group. I grew up alongside computer folk who mashed up machines, effectively making a device similar to the Wii controller by using a number of regular PC joysticks and gyro mice. It was the most fun I ever had controlling a game, sure it had a few problems as it was just a home project. But from what I've heard with the raving reviews about the controller and from my own experiences - I want it.

"but I still don't understand why people love companies that favor form over fuction, like Apple, nintendo (snip)"
erm. Right. Apple is form over function? Which is why I bought my iPod mini because it had the best storage/size ratio of ANY other MP3 player on the market, when NO OTHER PLAYER could offer me the same 24 hour battery life and 6gb storage. No, i just wanted it because it said iPod on it, DUR. or Nintendo with their old DS, yea theres form over function.

You said you were an Interface Designer (or something?), clearly you're not as you seem to know nothing about form over function and the implications and history of such. and I have just wasted a few minutes of a lovely warm day talking to a troll.

Wow, when the Xbox 360 came out Sony said Xbox 1.5. If this is true than this is truly GameCube 1.5.

Just read Nintendo power and try to find anything that you want to play in it. All they talk about is the Wii mote. What a Joke.

All of you Nintendo Fan Boys hang on you are getting another Game Cube!!! LOL!!!!!!

In my opinion -

Games worth buying a 360 for:
Gears of War
Halo 3

Games worth buying a PS3 for:
MGS4
Final Fantasy ___

Games worth buying a Wii for:
Legend of Zelda: Twlight Princess
Metroid Prime 3
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros Brawl

I've found plenty of games that I want to play on the Wii. And this list is only my must haves; I'm excited to try out the likes of Red Steel, Wii Sports, Wii Music, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Project H.A.M.M.E.R, Sadness, and many others.

We live in a world where MHz is seen as "the" measure of performance, which it shouldn't be.

Anyone remember when a 1GHz PowerPC chip in a Mac outperformed a 1.5GHz Pentium. When they introduced the dual core, a 1GHz PowerPC chip beat a 2GHz Pentium chip. Or look at Athlon vs Pentium chips... a Athlon 64 processor running at 2.2GHz outperforms a P4 running at 3.4GHz.

As they say, it's not the size, it's how you use it. Will graphics on the Wii look as nice as the Xbox360, or PS3? Probably not, even when running in standard definission. Is the Wii a jump forward, that could possibly revolutionize gaming? Definitely

"I guess Nintendo hopes for the DS effect (original games matter more than features and graphics)"

I think you mean, a cheaper device that parents will buy for their kids, because that's why the DS sells (in Japan).

I dont know why you guys are complaining about the onboard memory... None of the console's today come with a harddrive built in (except the old xbox). Companies all make you buy it at a secondary cost, $100+ for xbox 360, not sure how much for ps3 or wii. Flash memory does not suck, I personally have the harddrive and flash memory for my x360, and honestly, its fine. There is more than enough memory on that stick to save all my games to, concidering wii is NOT a HD gaming consoles, graphics will be of a lower texture resolution, and smaller size. Save games will not be gigantic like they are on the PC (10 mb+ for some quicksaves). Yes a harddrive would be nice if you plan on downloading the older games, but its certainly not a requirement. Only reason I bought the harddrive for my 360 is so I could download new demo's and trailers...

Also I cant wait for the wii to come out. Nintendo hasnt let me down in the past, and they wont let me down now.

BTW, PS3 and its overpriced *future proof* hardware can take a hike.

I know Nintendo's not putting all their eggs into the HD basket, but one thing bothers me.

That rumor spec sheet mentions an analog multi-out AV port.
Nintendo claims: (taken from http://wii.nintendo.com/hardware.html)
"An AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video."

Can we at least have a friggin' digital AV out port for component please? Do you think you (Nintendo) could spend the extra $5 on the console just to put a digital out port so we can at least have a true digital 480p signal instead of analog BS...is that too much to ask?

I don't really care if they don't want to support higher resolutions in HD; I can live with 480p. But at least have the common courtesy to actually halfass it with a digital port, instead of quarter-assing it with a garbage analog signal that has to be upconverted.

I really want this system and can't wait, and it's the primary system I'm interested in. But at least throw us a friggin' bone, guys. Sheesh.

I HIGHLY doubt the GPU being the same as the Flipper but just 1.5x faster. That's BS, ATi couldn't have worked on the GPU for so long just to overclock it....

74. component is and always has been analog anyway... if you wanted digital, then you'd put an HDMI port on the Wii.

OK first of all. It is already confirmed that the Wii will use 1t-sram. Second the GPU was developed from the ground up for Wii. It is not an extension of the flipper GPu this has already been stated byt ATI. ATI has been designing the Wii's GPU since 2003. Do you honestly think it would take them over three years to simply overclock the flipper chip by 50%? Use your freaking brains people.

OH and those "leaked spces" of 729mhz and 243mhz are benchmark's from early Wii dev kits aka GC dev kits with more memory. Those kits did not even have the New GPU in them! The used the GC's flipper.

Expect final specs of the Wii to be around 1 ghz for the CPu, 300-350mhz for the GPU, and about 128MB of total system ram excluding the flash ram. For standard defintion that is more than enough.

hmmm compare to XBOX 360 and PS3, the specs seem to be very weak....and for $249+, no thank you, I rather buy 360 or PS3

regular people do not own HDTV's they want to but the vast majority don't.

So most people won't be able to see each blade of grass move with the wind on normal TV. HOnestly who cares if each individual blade of grass in madden07 moves. HOW DOES THAT MAKE THE GAME BETTER?

However changing the control style to make it more interactive and make it more of an experience DOES MAKE THE GAME BETTER.

If you want to throw away money on a console that can do something so trivial as wind causing grass to move than buy that but when the gameplay is boring don't come crying.

I think what MATT from IGN said is correct a few months ago when he said that since its similar to GAMECUBE technology that means developers can make games quicker that look great instead of making things from scratch onto ps3 or 360.

in all honesty regualar people still use RF switch and 10 year old TV's so the graphical difference will not be seen.

@ -Z-

LOL! If I dissed hardware on specs alone I would have totally missed out on the SNES since the Neo Geo had specs that outperformed the SNES hands down. Actually, I would have missed the NES too since the Sega Master System had better specs as well.

Come to think of it, N64 had better specs than the PS and the PSP has better specs than the DS. Imagine the great games that would have been totally missed if I ignored these consoles because the specs weren't the latest and greatest tech.

Come back in a few months and let us know how that's working out for you.

Hey Epobirs

The IBM 970FX was developped especially to bring a G5 technology to Apple Laptop but Apple decided that they had better futur with Intel. The 970FX and the 970MP chip is used into low end desktop for 3D graphic and design work and the sales are mminimalist so IBM would certainly like to get a return to their investment. anyway, IBM has a road map for CPU and any chip development need to be within bounderies of that road map because specifid development will be expensive and Nintendo can't affort sponsoring this type of research project. Sony did with the Cell... and financial analyst are still worry with the outcome because it was extremely expensive for Sony and the results seem to be ordinary despite the design is innovative. The triple core CPU in the XBOX 360 is a direct derivative of 970MP.

The IBM 750 was the IBM version of the G3 processor. The Gekko, was directly derive from the IBM 750. The only 750 in production at IBM now are to sustain the service engineer field for embeded system. The volume is low and it is very unlikely that the Wii will sport and IBM 750 derivative since the cost to produce them will be even higher then producing a 970FX chip. It is a question of volume and technology cost.

as of the GPU concern, why make flipper 2... what will be the purpuse since the chippest ATI GPU has stellar performance compared to flipper. The GPU thechnology has evolved so much in the last five year that again making flipper 2 bas on similar hardware design will be an economical non sens for ATI and a marketing flop. There is special feature on the flipper GPU and these features will be most likely upgraded and integrated into the new GPU but it will be mostlikely inspired in design to the ATI Radeon X1600 GPU. It is good GPU and will be economicalyy viable for both companies.

For sure hardware is not everythin and good programming, design and concept would make surely a good step forward. But programming as its limit... I don't think and Atari 2600 would have been able to run a Zelda games... despite you had the best of the best programmers... We will see soon, but I am confident that Nintendo will present a decent machine to satisfy gamers from all target groups. Let's cross our fingers

#50/elmer

I couldn't have said it better myself. I can almost guarantee that nor Sony or Microsoft will be able to output the magnitude of artistry that only Nintendo has.

Sure HD graphics look nice, but in the next-gen (or new-gen) situation, I think Nintendo has the upper hand. They have a console that will follow in the DS's foot steps and appeal to a much broader audience than Sony and Microsoft's product. No one can deny this, and no one can say that Nintendo will fail at this, because they already tried it with the DS and the DS is outselling the PSP by enormous numbers and became the fastest selling console. Sure PSP had better graphics, but when it comes down to what games you want to play, the vast majority chose the DS. I'm sure everyone here would rather play a 2-D game with an awesome story line, in comparison to a 3-D game with a storyline that puts you to sleep. That right there is the comparison between the DS and PSP, (only thing is that DS also puts out 3-D graphics, just not as pretty as PSP).

So just following what I just said, that almost ensures that Nintendo will win this console war and already has the hand-held war in the bag. History will repeat itself showing that gameplay takes great precidence over graphics. And even if Nintendo doesn't win (which I highly doubt) they'll still be the one on top because they'll have made the most profit. Sony and Microsoft only have money to lose in this console war, just like last only worse.

Nintendo is not on a tech WAR With Microsoft And Sony they are just tryint to put a new way of playing games.
And to compare power Xbox is PC hardware Intel chip If people knew the diffrence Between RISC power PC and intel X86 CISC than comparing both of the 700 Mhz chips would not be the same. A 700 mhz MAC Risc Would BE Faster Than a 700 Mhz PC PENTIUM 3 CISC . Its not the speed its the way cpu instructions are handled RiSC= REDUCED INSTRUCION SET COMPUTING