Revolution Specs

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/673/673799p1.html

Not sure if this is old news, but I thought it was worth posting (I did do a search, but my searching skills suck). Looks good to me, more powerful than the Gamecube by some but not so much as to warrant a rediculous price tag.

There are more developer commentaries on the site as well. Most say that the Revolution could sell for as low as 99 dollars with no stretch of the imagination... I would just stick in some more RAM myself and maybe an extra controller and make it 150 but hey, there is no reason for me not to buy this console if its 99 bucks.

Oh, no! Without graphic scaleability, the only thing developers will have left to focus on... is... gasp...!! Gameplay!

I'd like to reiterate I think Nintendo is taking the moral high ground in the industry by stepping away from the perpetual console wars. I just hope they don't get left in the dust by the darwinism of market economy. That is to say, will anyone but complete nerds like me buy the system?

Walter said:

Oh, no!  Without graphic scaleability, the only thing developers will have left to focus on... is... gasp...!! Gameplay! 

I'd like to reiterate I think Nintendo is taking the moral high ground in the industry by stepping away from the perpetual console wars.  I just hope they don't get left in the dust by the darwinism of market economy.  That is to say, will anyone but complete nerds like me buy the system?

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While I like it as well, I shall play devil's advocate, expand on your fears, and point out that Nintendo is just as much running away with their tail between their legs as taking said, "moral high ground."

I don't want to get down on the Revolution (particularly the revolutionary part), but I'm still wondering why they're eliminating cross-platform/major third party/traditional gaming and such (so it'll be in the bargain bin six months after launch?). That's the business standpoint, but it's also just plain limiting creative potential. This is what got them in trouble in the first place ("We're so fucking smart, we don't need CD's or technology! We're NINTENDO!" whoops). I mean, the Super Nintendo wasn't the best system of it's time (arguably all-time) because of some gimmicky shit, however revolutionary, it simply had the capacity for the best games and it delivered. Again, while I like the idea of the Revolution; realistically, it could be a case of style over substance. Can't they "revolutionize" on a strong foundation? Then again...

HawaiianStallion said:

There are more developer commentaries on the site as well. Most say that the Revolution could sell for as low as 99 dollars with no stretch of the imagination... I would just stick in some more RAM myself and maybe an extra controller and make it 150 but hey, there is no reason for me not to buy this console if its 99 bucks.

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Good point. I just hope it's the ultimate gameplay machine it's supposedly going to be, and not the new Virtual Boy.

Frankly, I'm hoping this is all a ruse and they're going to Pearl Harbor everyone with an uber-system and call it the Super Nintendo 2. =)

Creating high end graphics takes a lot of time, and time = money. If graphics continue expanding at their current rate, we'll end up with hyper-realistic graphics in games that take 20 years to program and your lifes saveings to buy. Now, I'm all for games looking pretty, but the focus of "innovation" is going to change soon.

We've allready seen the new direction in a few tech demos. I remember one where you play as a futuristic soldier and its utter chaos. Your commander is yelling in your face, your comrades are getting blown up, ect ect. "So what, big deal, cutscenes have been doing stuff on par for years." The thing is, I think thats where the gameplay is headed.

This generation, I think we'll have substantial improvements to AI.

Next generation, I think we'll be looking at graphics again. Not neccesarily big poly-count improvement, I think we'll be looking at realtime generated poses and such. Rather then a character's movements be determined by pre-animated loops of them running and stuff, I think we'll see the machine actualy figure how they can move based on the character's environment, flexability, strenght, ect.

What I'd really love to see is Nintendo (or someone) opening up game development. I'm not currently planning on buying any of these systems, but I'd be in for a $99 console if I could use it to develop games. Hell, you could tag on another 100-200 dollars for the development tools and a restrictive non-commerciality license and I'd still be strongly inclined to pick it up.

"Griffith No More!" said:

I don't want to get down on the Revolution (particularly the revolutionary part), but I'm still wondering why they're eliminating cross-platform/major third party/traditional gaming and such (so it'll be in the bargain bin six months after launch?).

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I'm not sure they're really keeping all that stuff out. They're planning to have a full retro-compatibility with old games, including GameCube games, so I'm pretty sure "traditional" gameplay will be featured and accessible, they're just not talking about it, probably because they don't imagine that people might be dubious about their "innovative" positions (usual Nintendo stuff).

Anyway, I didn't play any GC game, and I must admit that playing them on a $99 "next gen" console feels like a good deal compared to the $500 required to play Kameo 2. Now I'll wait to see it retail at $99 before believing it.

"Griffith No More!" said:

That's the business standpoint, but it's also just plain limiting creative potential. This is what got them in trouble in the first place ("We're so fucking smart, we don't need CD's or technology! We're NINTENDO!" whoops).

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I think they came back from that. Majin has a point too with systems being hard to develop on. The PS3 is going to be hell for programmers because of its numerous cores, and Sony might actually have underestimated the effects of such a policy (N64 paid the hard price for it).

I'd like to point though that Hideo Kojima announced he'd develop a game for the Revolution a little while ago, and that he was at Shigeru Miyamoto's conference at the DIEC 2005, along with Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari among other things and considered a pioneer of videogaming), Robin Walker (Valve), Hirokazu Hamamura from Enterbrain, and lots of others. I think this is encouraging in a way: at least some people look like they're interested. Miyamoto also said that there was a last "secret" about the Revolution controller that hadn't been revealed yet.

Denial said:

What I'd really love to see is Nintendo (or someone) opening up game development. I'm not currently planning on buying any of these systems, but I'd be in for a $99 console if I could use it to develop games. Hell, you could tag on another 100-200 dollars for the development tools and a restrictive non-commerciality license and I'd still be strongly inclined to pick it up.

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Nintendo did this in the past (with the N64 among others), you just had to send them an application and prove you were serious about it. It's really nothing new. I'm not following stuff like this anymore so I can't tell you if they're still doing it, but if you're motivated I think you should try to contact them about it.

Aazealh said:

Nintendo did this in the past (with the N64 among others), you just had to send them an application and prove you were serious about it. It's really nothing new. I'm not following stuff like this anymore so I can't tell you if they're still doing it, but if you're motivated I think you should try to contact them about it.

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Interesting. I can imagine why it wouldn't take off with the N64 (nobody can manufacture cartridges...) but I hadn't known about anything regarding the availability of development tools for the GameCube. Will keep that in mind.

Denial said:

Interesting. I can imagine why it wouldn't take off with the N64 (nobody can manufacture cartridges...)

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Well actually that's sort of how the Doctor V64 came to be, many established developers even eventually used it over Nintendo's own development kit. For those that don't know the D64 plugged into the N64's expansion slot and allowed to backup/send data/etc to the N64 from a CD-rom drive instead of a cartridge.

I really don't know about the GC though, but now that I think of it I seem to remember (fuzzy memory, I'm not guaranteeing anything) that Nintendo supported and even partly funded some developments on GBA by small/amateur developers. This was probably all limited to Japan though.

At this point the Revolution has the probability of getting bought by me. A distant second is the xbox 360 (which I'll wait a year or two for the price to go down). I'm really anxious to get my grubby hands on that Revolution controller!!

Smash Bros Revolution, nuff said.


I just hope that we aren't required to use the TV remote to play the game. That'll disappoint.

dwarfkicker said:

Smash Bros Revolution, nuff said.

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I'd actually like to hear more information regarding your claim.

I just hope that we aren't required to use the TV remote to play the game. That'll disappoint.

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I'd rather play every game with the new controller, personally. Motion detection? Yes, please.

dwarfkicker said:

I just hope that we aren't required to use the TV remote to play the game. That'll disappoint.

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I'm sure within' 10 minutes of launch there will be a controller variation for whichever old nintendo console you choose to play with the revolution.
Not to mention the "remote"'s functionality is half the appeal...

How about when Sony brings out it's own controller variation of the Revolution remote system? Duel Shock, anyone? =)

"Griffith No More!" said:

How about when Sony brings out it's own controller variation of the Revolution remote system? Duel Shock, anyone? =)

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I suppose the technology's there... there goes the advantage.

Walter said:

I'd rather play every game with the new controller, personally. Motion detection? Yes, please.

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I've watched enough people wave their controller around while smashing buttons that I don't really wanna see the console pay attention to that....

Majin Tenshi said:

I've watched enough people wave their controller around while smashing buttons that I don't really wanna see the console pay attention to that....

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I agree. Games should only be allowed to be played by elites with experience, who know how to properly play them. The masses can burn.

"Griffith No More!" said:

How about when Sony brings out it's own controller variation of the Revolution remote system? Duel Shock, anyone? =)

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Speaking of the Dual Shock and shittily designed controllers, anybody seen the new Dual Shock design for the PS3? I was quite dissappointed when I saw this, as I love the original Dual Shock design, but I geuss Sony lost rights to it or something. This thing looks like some 3rd party POS. Designs are subject to change? God I hope so.

Sony's already announced that the notorious "boomerang" controller pictured above is not the final design for the PS3 controller. It's been speculated (twice previously on these forums...) that theyre going to release a new controller, stealing Nintendo's movement detection concept from the Revolution's controller.

I'd actually like to hear more information regarding your claim.

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Smash Bros was an excellent game. Smash Bros Melee was an excellent game (better than the first in my opinion). Smash Bros Revolution will be an excellent game.

dwarfkicker said:

Smash Bros Revolution will be an excellent game.

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And you base this on...


...absolutely nothing

Walter said:

Sony's already announced that the notorious "boomerang" controller pictured above is not the final design for the PS3 controller. It's been speculated (twice previously on these forums...) that theyre going to release a new controller, stealing Nintendo's movement detection concept from the Revolution's controller.

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They've actually said that the boomerang is pretty much what the final controller is going to look like with slight changes, but the overall design is remaining basically the same as what we saw from E3. I dont really mind though as I've seen footage of how you hold it, and surprisingly it looks rather comfortable. It fits in the plams your hands wonderfully well.

Walter said:

I agree. Games should only be allowed to be played by elites with experience, who know how to properly play them. The masses can burn.

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Not my point at all. These are people who play games with at least some regularity. But they look like idiots when every time they hit the "left" button and unconsciously turn the controller 90 degrees counter-clockwise and move it about a foot to their left.


As for the PS3 controller...
From what I understood, the technology they lost the rights to was in the details of the rumble feature. I don't see that justifying such a major overhaul to the controller design.

I'm not entirely sure what to think about the thing. I'm not thrilled with the look, but I'll hold off final judgement on it till I can actually hold one in my hands. (though, in that picture, the triangle and circle button look too recessed, I hope its not as bad as it looks)

And you base this on...


...absolutely nothing

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Track record dude, track record.

dwarfkicker said:

Track record dude, track record.

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Final Fantasy X-2.

Suck on it.