Virtual Console feature hints at upgrading classics

sweet!

I talked about this on my site. The VC idea won't reach its potential until they start adding content that differentiates it from illegal emulation.

http://www.playwii.com/?p=79

"We've contacted our Nintendo rep and will let you know what we learn."

Is it really YOUR Nintendo rep? How can I get one of these much sought after objects?

PC Emulators have supported online play for years...this is not an "update" to the game, just a feature of the emulator.

They would not change the binaries at all, FACT.

Well yea I thought the whole idea at first of virtual console was to make games like mario kart online, since we played them with friends back in the day. Online multiplayer. It was a long shot in my head when i thought abotu that purpose but its like the virtual console is only as good if you make the games a better advantage to what they were before. I know it was thought of, but who knows... if not..I can always wait for the wii version of mario kart online....but shit who wouldnt want to play WCW vs NWO REVENGE ONLINE

so i have a question aside from the article. buying a nunchuck and wiimote costs around $60.... yet wii play(releasing in january i believe)comes with both along with the game for... $50. any explanations?

It only comes with the wiimote, not the nunchuk.

Online Mario Kart 64, AND Golden Eye??!!??!?!?
That will FORCE me to buy VC games!! That will be like holding a gun to my head, I couldn't say no...

Until then, I will stick to my XBox for classic games.

cool!!!

they'd have to reprogram the games. You can't just tack-on online play to an existing game. That's why so many PSP ports only have ad-hoc.

I can see very few VC games do this, and even then, they'll be rather expensive.

This is kind of off topic can you play mario kart double dash wirelessly with 2 wiis and gc controllers?

@earl: sadly "golden eye" probably won't come to the VC because of licensing problems:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_(video_game_company)#Absence_of_Rare_titles_for_Nintendo_Wii_Virtual_Console

Online play is the only reason I'll buy most of the VC games. SNES Mario Kart would be a must re-buy with online play.

nintendo announced before that they have no plans for changing the roms. they're not going to tack on different things for the wii mote. goldeneye (when/if it comes out) has to use the classic controller, no wii mote reprogramming. blows, yes, i know. they said this before. let me find a link

no offense, but do you bloggers on joystiq read the other blogs?

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/13/nintendo-virtual-console-games-have-not-been-changed/

"All [Virtual Console] games will be faithful recreations of the original versions in all areas, including content, movement and expressions, so they will not feature new functions like multiplayer or internet play if the original title did not."

That doesn't mean that in the future they won't add the possibility of doing online multiplayer. It's a huge longshot that they'd actually do it, but it's relative child's play to route button press information over the Internet and feed it to an old ROM which just sees it as the other controller.

I don't care about online play...I just want the pie factory level in Donkey Kong!

Seeing as Duck Hunt is coming out next year for the VC, they are going to have to do something to change that ROM to get it to play nicely with the Wiimote. If they make us use a regular controller to play that, that would suck.

Hey EVERYBODY... Nintendo doesnt have the rights for the Goldeneye game... Not even Rare.. I know that EA has the Licenses to make james Bond games... I'm not really sure, because I just heard this, that is Activision the one that has the Goldeneye license... allegedly Microsoft bought the game license to put it up on the XBLA... because surprisingly its lower than the 50 mgs regulation that Microsoft has over the XBLA games... Well THIS ARE NOT FACTS... this are just rumors... and the companies that I have just mentioned maybe are not really the ones... well sorry for my english... its not my first language..

There should be no question whether or not they do this. They NEED to build up the online capabilities. They need to abstract the controllers for Virtual Console multiplayer games in order to facilitate online play. Sure, keep the 4 player split screen like you would have playing in the same room. Abstract the controllers to be received from over the internet. Do this Nintendo, science damnit, you must do this Nintendo!

You can tack on online play without modifying the game code.

ITS CALLED AN EMULATOR. It emulates controller ports as well, you know.

Perfect Dark, smooth frame rate, hi-res graghics
and online battles, thank you.

Online play wouldn't give it that much of an advantage over PC emulation, but at least it's a start. Take note, Nintendo.

Still, the only thing that can save the VC in my eyes:
Rondo of Blood, motherfucker.

I always giggle whenever I see The Wiire listed as the source, 'cos I'm friends with one of the guys :P He let me play Wii at his place on launch day

You gamers just live in your own little worlds? Very few people have heard of emulators, mostly just hardcore gamers. Obviously they have little to no reason to use VC unless they like being legal. But there are an insane amount of people with fond memories of NES, SNES, Sega, blah blah games, that would love to play them again, but getting working systems is a pain, and they haven't heard of emulators, or don't know how to use the web well enough to find them.

Point being, it's doubtful we will see online play in any old games, that's a lot of work from what I understand about video game programming. And Nintendo plans to have a strong current gen library for that.

@ 24.

You're about the only one here who actually gets what the VC is about.

@24 : The point is that PC emulators are far more advanced than the VC right now (and are very much legal if you own the original games). Don't you think it's sad that Nintendo can't even offer something at least as good?

stop begging for updates to games that they have denied will ever be updated!! if they thought they could do it, don't you thiunk they would hacve told us about it?! do you really think they employ SNES programmers anymore??!

well, i'd have to say one guy here makes a point that there will be some programming needed to make Duck Hunt a VC game. the original game used a light gun, so most likely the wiimote pointer will be incorporated. going by that theory, some extra programming will be done by nintendo. therefore i don't see it as an impossibilty of online play added or whatever features. it's just a progression. they may say they 're not changing anything right now, but things are known to change, especially through the life of the console. i wouldn't count on all VC games being absolutely faithful to the originals just yet, especially knowing about what they're going to do with duck hunt. there will be some extras eventually. off the subject a little, anyone realize that turbografx-16 will have 2 games with 5 people multiplayer for the VC? that is, bomberman 93 for now, and dungeon explorer later on. how cool is that? any combination of wiimotes and GC controllers will do.....just awesome! i wonder if in the future there may be 8 player games....its definitely a big possibility.

Hum, I have a question. Let's say Mario Kart WOULD be multiplayer, would it be the simple feature most emulators currently have (that is, connecting two players far away), or would it be like, a huuuge multiplayers system, where you can compete in GPs agains 7 other human players?? The latter would be awesome and would make me buy the game for sure...otherwise, simple network connection between two players is already implemented in current free emulators/roms, so no need to pay for that.

Thanks for your answers/feedback! ^^

Indeed, online play for the classics would be nice, but personally, I wouldn't care for the most part. I've got my DS for a Mario Kart fix.

What I am happy about is that I'll be able to play the SNES games I never had a chance to (I was a Genesis kid).

I'll be happy when Starfox rolls around. I'll probably get F-Zero for now.

Allowing online play for old games is so easy a monkey could do it. It can be done without any modification of the games, only the controller input into the games. All that needs to be sent over the net are controller movements.

Think of it like this: You're playing your game of, lets say, mario kart. Someone else is playing their game of mario kart. The buttons you press are sent to their game over the net, and their game acts as if you are playing the secont player, and vice versa.

Of course, actually modifying games for online play isn't that likely. (we can dream, tho...)