gHacks technology news » nintendo

NeonDS Nintendo DS Emulator

Martin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:19:56 +0000

NeonDS is an advanced emulator for Nintendo’s popular Nintendo DS handheld system. If you know the system you might know that it features two screens of which one can be manipulated with a stylus like pen. The mouse is emulating that stick on the computer and it works surprisingly well.

The current version 0.21 works with several homebrew games that I tested from several websites that offer games and applications for the Nintendo DS. Their main purpose is obviously to be run on the Nintendo DS but they work great on the NeonDS emulator.

The emulator is not perfect yet which is fully understandable if you look at its version. Some homebrew games crashed after loading them into the emulator and some did not display the graphics properly. The experience after all was quite good for most applications and games.

Games can be saved and keyboard shortcuts are available which are essential for most applications. To make it short, WASD moves Up, Left, Down and Right while the keys JKU IYO emulate the other six keys of the Nintendo DS. The key 1 emulates select while 2 does the same for the start button.

I was able to get 60 frames per second in most applications and games when testing the emulator, users with older systems will probably experience lower frame rates. If you are looking for a solid Nintendo DS emulator you might give NeonDS a try.

Tags: ds emulator, emulator, nds, nintendo, nintendo ds

Nintendo Wii Fit can help you become fitter

Martin — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:38:54 +0000

The same dude who used the game Wii Sports that shipped with the Nintendo Wii gaming system to reduce his weight and become fitter decided to try it again with the new Nintendo game called Wii Fit. This time though he decided to do keep on living and eating like he did before and include a 45-60 minute of Wii Fit every day into his schedule.

The results are pretty amazing. He used to measure his weight, BMI, body fat and heart rate and saw a drop in all of them. His weight went from 191 lbs to 176 lbs, BMI from overweight to normal (down 1.5 points), body fat from 20.8% to 18.4% and heart rate from 87 to 71.

This obviously are interesting results. The question that comes to my mind is however if those results would have been the same – or even better – if he decided to do something else instead. I’m not thinking about Eyetoys here although this would probably make up an interesting experiment as well.

What if he decided to run, swim or play football (that’s soccer for you Yanks) for 45-60 minutes a day instead ? I would think that it would have been reduced even further.

The benefit of Wii Fit however is that you can do it in your home, that most of the exercises are fun and not boring and that you can do it on your own.

Tags: bmi, body fat, heart rate, lose weight, nintendo, nintendo-wii, wii, wii fit

Even Researchers have fun with the Wiimote

Martin — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:35:40 +0000

I’m often amazed by the videos that are offered at the TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) website. Today I saw a very interesting demonstration by researcher Johnny Lee who was using the Wiimote, that is a controller for the Nintendo Wii gaming system, to produce remarkable applications. The five minute video is showing two distinct projects that utilize the Wiimote to its fullest.

The first project demonstrated a digital whiteboard, something that sells for several thousand Dollars, emulated by the Wiimote and additional hardware that do not cost more than $10. The software used in the demonstration can be downloaded from the researchers website and it actually has been downloaded about 500.000 times.

The other project demonstrated a head mounted 3d- viewer. This system was also using the Wiimote and some additional hardware. He mentioned that this technique will be included in a game by Electronic Arts as an Easter Egg.

As of September 2007, Nintendo has sold over 13 million Wii game consoles. This significantly exceeds the number of Tablet PCs in use today according to even the most generous estimates of Tablet PC sales. This makes the Wii Remote one of the most common computer input devices in the world. It also happens to be one of the most sophisticated. It contains a 1024×768 infrared camera with built-in hardware blob tracking of up to 4 points at 100Hz. This significantly out performs any PC “webcam” available today. It also contains a +/-3g 8-bit 3-axis accelerometer also operating at 100Hz and an expandsion port for even more capability. These projects are an effort to explore and demonstrate applications that the millions of Wii Remotes in world readily support.

The homepage of Johnny Lee contains another video that is demonstrating how it is possible to track fingers with the Wiimote.

Tags: digital whiteboard, innovation, johnny lee, nintendo, research, ted, wiimote

Play Nintendo 8-bit games in your browser

Martin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:56:38 +0000

I really loved the 8-bit gaming systems. I was pretty much a Sega fan back then and only played some Nintendo games like Super Mario Brothers or Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I did however follow the news and games and know lots of old classic games that came out for that Nintendo video game system and I actually bought a few already on my Nintendo Wii using the Virtual Console.

Still, it’s sometimes nice to just play a quick game and that’s where browsers excel. Nintendo 8 is a website that has huge list of available games that can be played in the browser which has to support Java because the games are emulated in a Java applet.

You can choose to browse a category like Action and RPG or browse all available games. Every category except the one that lists all games displays a preview image of the game. A click on the title or screenshot loads the game. Controls are usually the arrow keys for directions, B-key being Z, A-key being X, Start key being enter and Select mapped to CTRL.

Games are fast loading and performance is fine. Excellent way to spend some free time.

Tags: browser game, Games, nintendo, nintendo games, video-games

Wiimote 3D Widget Desktop

Martin — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:30:37 +0000

I knew we were going to see more PC and Wiimote mashups this year. After being able to play several shooters on the pc with the remote it was only a matter of time until someone would introduce applications or even a complete user interface utilizing the Wiimote.

Dan McWeeney and Eddie Herrmann, the winners of last years SAP TechEd ‘06 DemoJam, were not allowed to compete again this year but were asked to make a short presentation at the 07 show. They came up with this rather crazy idea to use the Wiimote, or better two Wiimotes in conjunction, to work on the screen and replace the mouse.

You can watch a short demonstration of the new technique in the video that I did embed below. The demonstration starts around minute 2.

via Podtech

Tags: demo jam, flex, nintendo, sap, wiimote

Wii Modchip Comparision (Wiinja, Cyclowiz, Wiikey)

Martin — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 17:58:51 +0000

It is currently possible to buy two modchips for the Nintendo Wii gaming system with another one becoming available every day now. The available modchips are called Wiinja and cyclowiz, the one that comes out soon Wiikey. All three are connected to the Wii drive and prevent that the drive reports whether a original or copied disk has been entered. This however has the disadvantage that those chips will not be able to defeat the region code of the games.

Wiinja, Cyclowiz and Wiikey are able to play Wii and Gamecube backups from the same region and the Wiikey seems to have a good success rate to play games from other NTSC regions. This means that it could be possible to play Japanese games on a US Wii system. It is however not likely that you can play NTSC games on a PAL system with those modchips.

While the wiinja modchip is not upgradeable the other two modchips Cyclowiz and Wiikey are. This is a big advantage for them and with the availability of the Cyclowiz chip I can’t see why someone would still buy a Wiinja. Sure, the Wiinja is not that expensive but it should be noted that you would have to replace the Wiinja chip if Nintendo would decided to upgrade the firmware of the Nintendo Wii to defeat current modchips.

The Wiikey chip seems to be the best solution for those gamers who like to play original games from other regions. No one has seen the chip in action yet and everything announced at the official Wiikey site should be taken with caution until some reviews are out.

Other more advanced modchips have been announced that have the features the gamers are waiting for. The modchip Wizard for Nintendo Wii for instance is able to defeat regional encoding and is supposed to be able to play games from any region. This would be a major factor for gamers who like to import games due to several reasons.

All chips are running in stealth mode which should make it impossible to detect them and use countermeasures.

Tags: cyclowiz, nintendo, nintendo-wii, nintendo-wii-modchip, wii-modchip, wiikey, wiinja, wizard

Use Orb to stream media on any device with internet access

Martin — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:26:43 +0000

Orb is a free software that changes your pc into a streaming server. If the Orb software is running on the pc every other device that has internet such as the Nintendo Wii, a notebook or pda can connect to a website and view any media file that is shared on the streaming server. The setup is really simple. Download the Orb software and install it on the computer that you want to use as the server.

The next step would be to create an account at mycast.orb.com. When that is done you can start configuring the service at the server. Right-click the icon that should appear in the system tray and select Configuration. Select the media tab and add folders of videos, music, photos and documents that you want to access with another internet device. You may add other users who are allowed to view your media files.

Once everything is setup you simply open the mycast.orb.com website and login. After that you can browse the contents that the server streams and view it on the other device. A real simple but effective system. I was able to view movies using my Wii that way. You can also stream tv if you have a video card that supports it. I don’t think it makes that much sense to stream tv to my wii but it would be nice if you are using a notebook for instance.

Take a look at the following youtube video which demonstrates orb used by a Nintendo Wii.

Please note that you need a broadband connection to do this kind of things. Some folders are automatically added (my documents). If you do not want this make sure to remove them from the configurations menu.

Tags: documents, media, nintendo, orb, photo, server, stream, tv, video, wii

Use your Wiimote in Windows

Martin — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 06:37:57 +0000

I bought a Nintendo Wii when it came out. As you might know you do not use gamepads to play the games but the so called Wiimote which looks very much like a tv remote control and uses bluetooth to communicate with the core system. Carl Kenner developed the software Glove Pie which can be used to control games and applications with gestures, speech and other input devices.

Carl added Wiimote support to Glove (Glove Programmable Input Emulator) Pie which makes it possible to use the Wiimote and the Nunchuck to control applications in Windows. You need to have bluetooth enabled to be able to communicate with the Wiimote and Nunchuck though. Just download and start the Glove Pie software. After that you could add scripts to support the devices.

I found a forum post that had some good examples for scripts that you could use to use the buttons of the Wii devices for example.

Up = Wiimote.Up
Down = Wiimote.Down
Left = Wiimote.Left
Right = Wiimote.Right
A = Wiimote.A
B = Wiimote.B
One = Wiimote.One
Two = Wiimote.Two
Home = Wiimote.Home
Minus = Wiimote.Minus
Equals = Wiimote.Plus

Some scripts for the Glove Pie can be found at Joseph Coulstons website. The two scripts that he offers make it possible to use the Wiimote with Google Earth and one script to display the battery level of the Wiimote.

It is quite possible that we will soon witness some games that work specifically with the Wiimote connected to your computer.

Tags: bluetooth, computer, glove-pie, google-earth, nintendo, nunchuck, pc, wiimote

Games for the Weekend 2 Zelda Ocarina of Time 2D

Martin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:03:32 +0000

I write about a new game that could make your weekend every Friday. This time it is a remake of a classic game: Zelda Ocarina of Time. The developer created a 2D version of this classic game which can be downloaded from his website. If you remember the original Zelda games on the like the legend of zelda for the nes or a link to the past for the snes you might be in for a suprise. The game looks and feels a lot like those classic Zelda games.

The file that you have to download is called OOT GB Demo. Please note that this game is currently a demonstration only, I’m not sure how far you can play at the moment, the author however is still developing the game which means that we can except a complete game to be released in the near future.

The story follows Link, a young boy living with a race called the Kokiri, who is called by the Great Deku Tree and discovers he must go on a quest to amazingly stop a “dark stranger” who lays a curse on the tree, and eventually travels back and forth through time to help save Hyrule from destruction by the forces of evil. (wikipedia)

Enjoy this classic game, please note that you will have to create a save game first before you can start playing the game. Make sure you read the readme file that is included in the download to know about the keys that are used to play the game.

Tags: freeware, game, nes, nintendo, ocarina-of-time, ocarina-of-time-2d, remake, snes, zelda, zelda-remake

Link-o-rama

Martin — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:57:45 +0000

I don’t have much time at hand before I go to sleep and decided to post a quick link-o-rama which is in my opinion better than no post at all. The reason for not updating with a second article today was the game 1701 A.D. from Sunflowers. It is a great waste of time so to speak. Let us start with some gaming news; PS3 is out, Wii is out – the next-gen is now officially this gen. Both systems have sold quite well and it seems almost impossible to buy one at the present time.

Take 2 decided to release the orginal Railroad Tycoon game created by Sid Meier for free, you can download it at fileshack. Someone decided to sell a PS3 that was dual booting Linux and the PS3 interface at Ebay but the auction got quickly suspended. He did upload a video to youtube to demonstrate the linux ps3. Last but not least it seems that Sony is loosing about $240 with every PS3 sold while Nintendo is making money from every Wii that is sold.

What else do we have ? Tomshardware published the first article about their How to Build a PC Series. The first part deals with the components without talking about vendors yet. It basically deals with questions about different tower types or hard drive selection.

The ultimate linux / windows system is an article published on linuxjournal.com. Pretty helpful if you know that you will be using both systems for a while. It concentrates on cross-plattform applications and data sharing across both systems.

Last but not least you should pay my dear old friend Everton a visit at his excellent connected internet blog. Do it now :P

Tags: 1701-a.d., ghacks, Linux, nintendo, playstation, ps3, sony, wii, Windows, zelda

Nintendo Wii Launch Games

Martin — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:12:46 +0000

The Nintendo Wii will come out in the United States November 19th, 2006, in Japan on December 2nd, 2006 and in Europe on December 8th, 2006. The Nintendo Wii features a unique method of controlling the action on screen which could revolutionize the way games are played on video game systems. It concentrates on this aspect instead of pure horsepower like the ps3 and xbox 360.

Wikipedia lists 26 games that will be available on launch day in Northern America, some are the usual multi-platform titles but many make good use of the new controlling scheme. Still, only a few rely on the scheme exclusively. A big advantage of Nintendo’s Wii is the price – the basic system including the Wii Sports game costs only $249.99, this is less than half the price of a premium playstation 3 system which does not ship with a game.

Games for the Wii seem to have a lower price as well, most stay close to $50 while PS3 titles are closer to mid-end $50. The Wii still features all those popular games, like Mario, Zelda and Metroid that made Nintendo the biggest player in the video game market which is great for Nintendo fans. It also offers the unique opportunity for different kind of games that have not been possible with normal controllers.

Let us start with the games, I included at least one link to reviews or previews to give you the ability to read more about a specific title that could be of interest to you.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (ign preview)
Barnyard (ign preview)
Call of Duty 3 (ign review: 7.7)
Cars (gamespot review)
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (ign preview)
Excite Truck (ign preview)
GT Pro Series (ign preview)
Happy Feet (gamespot review)
Madden NFL 07 (ign preview)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (ign preview)
Metal Slug Anthology (gamespot preview)
Monster 4×4 World Circuit (gamespot review)
Need for Speed: Carbon (ign preview)
Open Season (gamespot preview)
Rapala Tournament Fishing (gamespot preview)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (ign preview)
Red Steel (ign preview)
SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (ign preview)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (ign review: 8.4)
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (gamespot preview)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (lawrence: 9.9)
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent (gamespot preview)
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam (ign preview)
Trauma Center: Second Opinion (ign review: 8.0)
Wii Sports (ign review: 7.5, lawrence: 8.9)
World Series of Poker (gamespot preview)

Everyone has of course his own game types that he likes to play, some like Sport games, some racing, some roleplaying games. It is a matter of taste and the Wii should deliver something for everyone. Let us take a look at the most interesting games of some of the most popular categories:

Wii Party Games: Wii Sports included, Rayman Raving Rabbids, probably Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Watch out for Wii Play which is a launch title in Europe.
Wii Games you can’t do anything wrong with: Zelda
Unique to the Wii and worth a look: Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Red Steel

Everything else is up to you. If you have not played all those typical games that come out for all systems (Splinter Cell, all EA games, Call of Duty 3 aso you might want to check them out as well.)

I will buy a Wii and use it for games that you can play with friends plus games that use the unique controller for the Wii in a great way. I will not buy conversions, I will not buy all those games that you can buy for every system that comes out. Wii is unique and that is what I want as well, unique games.

Tags: Entertainment, Games, nintendo, nintendo-wii, nintendo-wii-launch-games, rayman-raving-rabbids, red-steel, super-monkey-ball, trauma-center, video-games, videogames, wii-launch, wii-launch-games, wii-sports, zelda

Southpark Nintendo Wii Episode

Martin — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 16:10:07 +0000

What is going on in Southpark ? After the highly successful World of Warcraft Episode the producers published a second episode that is centered around entertainment technology. Cartman longs for the Nintendo Wii and can’t wait the three weeks until it will be released in the United States. He comes to the conclusion that deep freezing himself is the only solution which reduces the wait time. The plan goes terribly wrong.. but see for yourself.

SPEpisode1012-Go,God. Go! Part 2
Uploaded by s0ldierx

to be continued..

Tags: nintendo, southpark nintendo wii, soutpark, wii

Play Hundreds of NES Games in your browser

Martin — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 19:48:49 +0000

Kornie send me a a link to a great webpage that hosts hundreds of NES games that are playable in your browser. All you need is a java plugin and you are ready to go. VNES currently host 250 English games, 80 Japanese games, 10 prototype games, 25 unlicensed and 25 miscellaneous games.

The English games make the biggest part of the list and include some classic games like Super Mario Brothers 1-3, Double Dragon, Ikari Warriors, Bomberman and Mega Man. This is also a incredible opportunity to play some of the games that the angry Nintendo nerd is reviewing in his videocasts. Play some of the best and the worst games ever that came out for the NES.

Many Japanese games seem to be playable as well because there is not much story to tell. Most are action or jump and run games. The prototype game list has some interesting ones, heroes quest and final fantasy 2.

The author of the site seems to be adding new games regularly to the website which is great because some classic ones are still missing in the list. The games are loading somewhat slowly but are not that big so this is no real hindrance.

Tags: angry nintendo nerd, nes, nintendo, videocasts, vnes

New Nintendo Wii Launch Details

Martin — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:14:59 +0000

Nintendo already held two of the three press conferences about the upcoming Wii launch in Japan, America and Europe. The press conferences in Japan and the United States revealed many information that should also be valid for the European launch, that is, if it is not delayed like the launch of the Playstation 3. The Nintendo Wii will launch on November 19. in the United States and sell for 250$ including a wireless Wiimote, a Nunchuck, and the game Wii Sports which includes tennis, baseball, golf, boxing and bowling.

The launch lineup consists of 17 titles including the blockbusters Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent. First party games will retail for 49,99$ while third party companies may choose a different price range. Additional controllers look expensive at first glance: Another wireless Wiimote costs 40$ and a Nunchuck 20$. Considering that you need at least two controllers for multiplayer experience this is quite expensive.

A normal setup would include the Wii system, a second set of controllers and one or two additional games which leads to a price around 400$ for that bundle. This is still not expensive for a new console system and nothing compared to the expensive Playstation 3.

Virtual Console games will be available at launch, Nintendo is expecting to offer around 30 games until the end of 2006. You can purchase Wii cards with 2000 points (20$) and use those points to buy NES (500 points), SNES (800 points) or N64 (1000 points) games. A total of 24 companies including SEGA and Square Enix are supporting the Virtual Console and we can expect more games coming our way from those companies. Those 30 games are Nintendo first party games, it will be most likely a lot more considering the huge amount of supporting companies.

First party Wii games will not have a country code, means you can play Japanese and European games on a US Wii and vise versa. Again, third party companies may include a country code in their games.

The Wii will have messaging and photo capabilities. Web browsing will be included as well, totally free unlike Xbox Live. You just have to purchase the Opera browser for it. No Wii point price know for that.

I think the Wii will be highly successful. First, it starts with Zelda which alone is a system seller. It has big third party support with incredible games coming out like Resident Evil and Final Fantasy. It has a unique way of playing the games which appeals to long time gamers and probably to never before gamers as well. Remember those Eyetoy parties ? Even non gamers had lots of fun and were able to grasp the concept quickly.

Now, I only need to see an announcement from SEGA that they publish all Shining Force games for the Virtual Console. Oh, and Panzer Dragoon Saga please.

Tags: nintendo, nintendo-wii, wii

Angry Nintendo Nerd Videos

Martin — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:38:37 +0000

Do you remember Nintendos first console system NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) ? The Angry Nintendo Nerd reviews the worst games that came out for the NES on video and guess what – You can watch them all here at ghacks. The following games are reviewed by him: Castlevania II: Simons Quest, Back to the Future, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Roger Rabbit, The Karate Kid and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hide.

All videos last many minutes and show mainly game footage but you also see the angry nintendo nerd commenting and hear him of course while he is showing scenes that simply make him that angry. Hope you enjoy the videos.

Oh, I would like to remind everyone that the Ghacks first anniversary competition is still running, you can win some great prices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4we8iFk-fY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y306cWw98a4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjUz8IT0CYg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-6WakV0kWM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DfdRdOM_B0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M_4Yqk65f8

Tags: angry nintendo nerd, nes, nintendo, nintendo videos

The Next Gen War (Microsoft vs. Nintendo vs. Sony)

Martin — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 17:54:32 +0000

Microsoft already released their Xbox 360 to the masses and is recieving favourable reviews especially for they xbox live service. Nintendo was the shining star of the last E3 with their revolutionary Wii system and Sony has still the largest fan base of all system makers but is apparently strugling with their playstation 3.

Two of the three major players decided to use the latest technology for their systems while the remaining company is heading into a different direction. I have some troubles identifying the innovations of the Microsoft Xbox 360 system and the Sony Playstation console. Sure, they got high definition, more cpu and gpu power, more ram, hard drives, Blue-Ray (Sony) and HD DVD (Microsoft) support and they seem to be battling each other to win the next gen crown.

Still, their systems look like their old systems with more power to me and some tiny modifications. Where are the innovative games for the Xbox 360 ? I suppose I have to ask the same question once the PS3 comes out. Where is the innovation ? Better graphics ? Sure. More fun ? Not neccessarily.

What about Nintendos approach ? I was never a big Nintendo fan, being a Sega supporter my whole life. Don´t get me wrong, I loved to play some classic Nintendo games like Mario Kart and Mario World but I always thought Sega was making better games.

When I first read about their concept for the Wii system I was very excited. It sounded to good to be true. Finally some innovation. Finally a new approach to video gaming. Nintendo could bring back what video games were lacking the last years in my opinion. Fun and Innovation. Their controllers can be used for thousands of game concepts using natural movements of your arm / hand. Be a surgeon, tennis player, baseball star, sword fighter, whatever you like by emulating the natural movement with the controller. This could be exciting, if Nintendo manages to make it right.

Nintendo was always a quality company so I think they will make it right. It will be the only next gen system that I will buy once it comes out.

Which system will you buy ? What do you think about the systems ? Let me know.

Tags: microsoft, nintendo, sony

gHacks technology news » nintendo

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