Justin Reese

@Draracle: I'm not entirely sure that's true. Online retailers -- especially those as big as Amazon -- often are allowed to ship items pre-launch, for arrival on the launch day. My direct-from-Sony order of Pearl Jam's new album arrived the day-of-release, and my Arrested Development Season 3 DVDs arrived from Amazon a day before release. Nintendo may indeed embargo Amazon from shipping until 11/19, but I wouldn't take that as a given.

Granted, people still won't be receiving them on Sunday, but it might not take as long as you think.

This is pretty much the sprinkles on the icing on the cake that is the Wii. Sheezus, Nintendo... how much happiness can you possibly give me?

And I second B-P-M-horseshoe. ScummVM by itself on the Wii -- even homebrew style -- would drown me in giggles, but if they got publishers to add the games directly to the VC, I think I would marry the Wii. My wife will have to share.

And yeah, the DVD playback may or may not surface. If it doesn't, poo on N for not keeping a promise. If it does, I just hope it's not standard so those of us with DVD players don't have to pay the extra scrilla for the DVD licensing fees.

"Chill" is, indeed, the word of the hour.

"Read between the lines" + "released for Wii" + "unchanged Oct. 9 release date" = Wii on 10/9? One can only hope.

Awesome. Although I can't wait for the full-body version that cut me off from all external stimulus. Hopefully it won't inhibit my WiFi signal so I don't end up like one of those loners!

To be a total Unreal dork: "Nali slaughterfest" isn't exactly correct, considering you were protecting the Nali from the Skaarj. "Skaarj slaughterfest" would have been more appropriate.

Dork hat, deactivate.

@ Andreas: Nintendo magicians figured out how to use a single slot-loading drive for both large (12cm) and small (8cm) discs. You can read about it at Wikipedia, or in articles old enough to address it.

@ matt: Currently, it covers two GameCube memory card slots and four GC controller ports (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nintendo-revolution5.jpg). I believe in the current design, the SD slots are behind a flap on the front (beneath the disc slot).

they wanted to stay completely out of the royalties to the DVD people with their main console

This is the main point. I used to gripe about MS making me pay another $30 to play DVDs on my exie, but when I found out about the licensing fee it made more sense. Yes, it does inconvenience those who want to use their Revo for DVD playback (and I don't for a second think that by "external attachment" they mean "separate optical drive") but conversely it trims out an unnecessary cost for the rest of us. I already have a DVD player. Why should I foot the bill for all the people who don't?