Nintendo Approves Use of NiMH Batteries in the Wii Remote

Many of you, like me, were disappointed when it was announced that the Wii Remote would not have a built in rechargeable battery pack. And I am sure some of you expected that Nintendo would say what they always say about rechargeable batteries – don’t use them. And sure enough, in the Wii manual, it does say just that. But, I was browsing Nintendo’s support site last night, and I came across this:

Important Note: If you would like to use rechargeable batteries, the only type of battery recommended are Nickel Metal Hydride batteries. When it comes to using rechargeable batteries, you must follow manufacturer guidelines for safety and proper usage. Failure to do so could cause damage to the Wii Remote and void the warranty.

So, for all of you that use rechargeable batteries in everything you can, like me, get out the spare NiMH AA cells you have lying around, and stick them in your remotes when the batteries that came with them die. And for those of you who don’t use rechargeable batteries, the initial cost may be high, but the batteries will save you so much in the long run. The best rated brands are Radio Shack and Rayovac, but many other brands may use similar technology. Batteries with higher milli-Ampere-hour (mAh) capacity will last longer between charges. Just make sure you have a charger that will charge them to their full capacity.

Sony may have shipped less than half of its projected numbers

GameDaily reports that the number of PS3 systems shipped by Sony for the North American launch could be as few as 125,000. If so, that makes the PS3 launch the worst launch of this generation of video game systems. I won’t rant on about this, I have done enough of that. All I can say is, that is what you get, Sony, for using technology that is so new that it is hard to manufacture good quantities of it. Who knows, though, Sony may well be keeping millions of units in a secret warehouse somewhere. Sony being total a**holes to their loyal customers just to build hype? Does not surprise me at all.

New World Of Warcraft Commercial

Blizzard has released a funny new commercial. It is a lot like the DirectTV commercials that have been airing lately. Enjoy.

If you would like to download this video in AVI format, click here or go to worldofwarcraft.com.

Disassembling the Wii

So, you got your new Nintendo Wii and you are just dying to know what is inside.  But you don’t want to void your warranty and risk breaking your Wii.  Well, someone has done the work for you.  Here it is, the Nintendo Wii disassembly, performed by Nikkei Electronics.  There are three parts, and they are all in order below.

Remember kids, don’t try this at home.  Unless, of course, you have a Wii you don’t care about.  And a great system for keeping track of where the thousands of tiny screws in the Wii go.

The Wii Disc Slot Light

Many of you are probably disappointed that the blue light around the Wii disc slot does not light up all the time. And many of you have probably not seen the light do anything more than flash briefly at startup. Fear not, for the light just operates differently than expected. If you have the WiiConnect24, Standby Connection, and Slot Illumination options all turned on in the WiiConnect24 settings, and you have your Wii configured to connect to the internet, your disc slot will light up when you get data from WiiConnect24. The easiest way to do this is to send an e-mail to yourself and then log in to your e-mail account and reply to the e-mail you just received from your Wii.

For maximum spiffiness factor, change the Slot Illumination setting to “bright” and leave your console off. I am not sure if the light will light up if you have the console on and you get data from WiiConnect24, but I do know that if your console is off and you receive data from WiiConnect24, the disc slot light stays on until you turn on your Wii.

How To Deal With a Dysfunctional Sensor Bar

I was browsing the usual video game news sites when I came across this informative 2.5 minute video:

I thought that there must be something unexpected about the Wii Sensor Bar when I found out it was only $10 US on the Nintendo Store. Just for the hell of it, I tried this out myself. My method was a little different; I used my One For All URC-9910 and its RF Link box, and It worked rather nicely. I just put my remote and the RF Link box side by side, aimed my Wii remote between the two, held down the CH+ button, and I got a shaky but workable cursor. This is a great thing for those of you who have a broken sensor bar. With some games that don’t depend on the cursor, such as Wii Sports, once you get past the Wii menu, you don’t need the Sensor Bar at all. Still, do get Nintendo to replace your Sensor Bar if it is broken, but use this trick while you are waiting for Nintendo to send you a replacement, and you won’t have to suffer through Wii withdrawal.

One extra little note for those of you who don’t have a deep understanding of how infrared technology works. Any remote should work. (TV, VCR, stereo, etc.) Just make sure it has a little bulb on the front of the remote, and that bulb is facing the Wii Remote. If you don’t hold down buttons that repeat on your remotes, you will have to rapidly press the buttons you are holding on the remotes for the Wii Remote to recognize your remotes. For most remotes, the best buttons to use are the channel +/- and the Vol +/- keys. There are two ways to tell if a button repeats. If your remote has a LED that glows when you hold down a button, try holding down a key. If the LED on your remote glows until you release that button, then you should be pressing a button that repeats. Another way is to use the remote with the device it works with. Press and hold down a button on the remote. If the operation that button triggers keeps occurring as you hold down the button (i.e. holding down the next track button, and your CD player keeps skipping tracks), then you have found a button that repeats.

As the video says, for those of you who are tech savvy, it shouldn’t be hard to create your own Sensor Bar.

HD Wii may become frustrating for some.

 

While the Wii is by no means an HD system it can put out a clear 480p signal. For those of you who have a HD set and bought a Wii you may have noticed something, I sure did. The Wii looks just aweful on HDTV with the composite cables. Zelda looks washed out and blurry, Red Steel looks jagged and pixelated. So what’s the solution? Buy the Component cables from Nintendo, you will be glad you did.

For $29.99 your Wii will go from worse than SDTV to better than SDTV. Personally it’s a little frustrating having to wait until the end of November to get these cables but once I do man it’s gonna be awesome. I guess the message I’m trying to get across to people who are in the same boat as me is don’t sweat it. Soon your $2,000 TV will display the Wii better than your friends $200 TV like it should.

PS3 campers, play or eBay?

Excited, cold and a little scent of B.O. were the thoughts of campers wishing and wanting the new PS3 releasing in just a few hours. Here in Colorado Springs eagerly anticipating campers were lining up at various retailers around the city, such as Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and Circuit City. Of those about half are eBaying their PS3 systems for cash. So while it may sound as though PS3 is the hot item of this holiday is that really true? Expect to see hundreds if not thousands of PS3 systems on eBay tomarrow while only a handful of the 400,000 minus consoles will actually find a home. So take it what it’s worth, PS3 is a great system but in many minds it’s a great way to make a little extra cash.

For those that are interested in the “habitat” of camping for a new console here are some pictures that were taken with only hours before the PS3 is released.

Lines were small at retailers such as Target but Best Buy had 50+ people waiting and hoping. Tomarrow and Saturday we will see if the lines for Wii (if any) will be camparable. But please note many retailers have so many Wii systems it’s not far from the truth to assume you could walk into a Best Buy store and pick up a Wii at 2 in the afternoon.

New Releases – November Week 4

NOTE: This column will be a weekly look at what’s coming out for the various game systems. While reading, you should keep in mind that I don’t own every system (just most of them) and have very little money – hence, the comments that follow will be little more than my own insane ravings and opinions almost entirely devoid of fact. But, if nothing else, you’ll at least get a handy list of the week’s new releases. I’ll also cover accessories, new hardware and peripherals, and other developments of interest. Note, however, that since I don’t generally play PC games much (or Mac games – oh, wait, they don’t exist!), I’ll simply be lumping them all together at the bottom of this report in a nice alphabetical jumble.

Releases covered this week include everything from Sunday the 19th to Saturday the 25th of November, and are based on estimated shipping dates (which are subject to change at any time – as they say, “check your local listings”). This week’s report is actually a little earlier than I’d normally post it up, but only because the report I tried to do earlier in the week got lost somewhere in the internets. Sorry, but there you go.

[hardware] Nintendo Wii console / Easy prediction: Based solely on the criteria of total units shipped and lower retail pricing, Nintendo will wipe their collective ass with Sony by the end of the year and leave them really hurting come spring. Yes, graphics and processing power are important, but FUN is the keyword to any new game console. And the Wii has that in spades. (After all, why did the Neo-Geo stick around for so many years after it had become outdated? Because it remained FUN above all else, never mind its technology. Sony would do well to learn about that phenomenon.)

As for the console itself, keep in mind that your $250 gets you all of the following: Wii console with 512MB built-in memory, one Wii Remote with detachable Nunchuck, the all-important Sensor Bar, one Wii Sports game disc, and all the cords and cables for TV hookup and power. If you’re buying on eBay, don’t finalize your bid until you see all those items in the picture (or at least the unbroken seals on the box). Then again, if you’re buying a Wii on eBay, you apparently have no will power and should simply WAIT until local stores get them in stock. Believe me, it won’t take long – Nintendo’s done this kind of thing before.

[accessory] Wii Memory Card by SanDisk [Wii] / Let’s get this straight right off the bat, so stupid consumers aren’t confused. Yes, these are snazzy-looking little memory cards, in the same bleach-white color as the Wii console. But – and this is a really big BUT – it’s the EXACT SAME as any normal SD (Secure Digital) memory card. Yep, exactly like that used in thousands of digital cameras for the past half-decade or so. Hence, there’s no reason to pay any more money for these cards than for any other no-name brand that will work EXACTLY the SAME in your Wii. Got that? Good. That said, these snazzy white cards appear to come only in 2GB size for the moment.

[accessory] MotionFX TiltSense Adapter by Split Fish Gameware [PS2] / First off, I don’t know who Split Fish is, so mark this down as a “questionable” in the reliability category. Second, we have officially reached an Atari-2600-level of useless accessory gadgetry in these late days of the PS2. The MFTSA (as I like to call it) basically tries to fake your standard PS2 DualShock controller into working like a fancy PS3 SixAxis pad – which would be nice, I guess, except that I doubt many current games are going to need (or even work with) this input style. But, hey, it’s your 40 bucks.

Bass Pro Shops Trophy Hunter 2007 [Xbox, PC] / You may have played hunting games before. But you’ve never played a hunting game yet that carried the prestigious “Bass Pro Shops” seal of authority. Yes, now you won’t just blast that buck – you’ll blast him while sporting an official Bass Pro Shops orange safety vest!

Cabela’s African Safari [X360] / Not to be outdone, the previous bastion of hunting games has taken its show to Africa. So put on your photo-realistic Cabela’s camouflage boonie hat and get to killing those wildebeests!

College Hoops NCAA 2K7 [Xbox, X360] / Another year, another season of NCAA B-ball. The game’s only 20 bucks, so why not?

Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix 4 bundle [Xbox] / Round four of the Xbox’s own exclusive DDR version brings more noise and funk to your living room – you provide the sweet dance moves. (Yeah, hopefully it’s not as lame as I make it sound. But it might be…)

Dance Factory + [PS2] / The “+” in this package is the addition of a custom dance pad controller. Otherwise, the game here is the same one that was introduced last month to a generally underwhelming reception. Yes, it will allow to dance to any of your very own music CDs. But no, that doesn’t make for a very good dancing game (since the program isn’t smart enough to do anything but pick out the beat). However, now there’s one more lookalike dance pad out on the market. Sigh.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down – Team Sabre [PS2] / Think watered-down PC port and you’ll have it. Yes, we are truly in the glory days of the PS2, aren’t we? (This one also vies for the honor of “Most Contrived and Important-Sounding Title of 2006″.)

Dogz [DS] / A trumped-up reprise of a watered-down copy of a good original concept (namely, Nintendogs). Nice to know the DS is carrying on so well in the Game Boy’s tradition of mindless crap games for kids.

ExciteTruck [Wii] / Besides Zelda and Red Steel, this will most likely be one of the big Wii games that people pick up on launch day. Current reviews run anywhere from “pretty cool” to “underwhelming” – but at the least, you’ll never have played a racing game this way before. (Assuming I end up getting a Wii sometime this week, I’ll let you all know exactly what I think of it.)

Hard Rock Casino [PS2] / Another gambling game, which no doubt features various forms of poker in an effort to cash in on the Texas Hold’em craze. And this one also, apparently, is trying to cash in on the fact that Vegas seems to be cool again. Fad plus big-name license equals high potential for crappy game. Color me skeptical!

Harley-Davidson: Race to the Rally [PS2, PC] / A licensed motorcycle racer that I’ve heard nothing about. It’s by Activision, so it may not suck terribly.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown [PS2, DS] / Everyone’s favorite celebrity-voiced prehistoric animals return for another go-round at madcap adventure! Okay, having said that, I dare you to tell me that line couldn’t have described at least three other games based on computer-animated films. Go ahead!

March of the Penguins [DS] / Someone please explain to me how a game based on a documentary (!!) about the migration habits of penguins can honestly be considered a good licensing move. Methinks someone somewhere is about to lose a cushy marketing job.

Need for Speed: Carbon [Wii] / Ostensibly the same as the version released on “conventional” systems a couple of weeks ago, but with the benefit of Wii-only motion controls. (Use Ubisoft’s wheel attachment for best effect.)

Pimp My Ride [PS2, X360] / No, no. Don’t drive it – just pimp it! They must have figured, “All these games where you have to drive the car once you’ve customized it – that’s no fun! Let’s just make it look cool, and leave it at that.” Expect lots of Xzibit tracks and many, many references to car audio companies.

Rainbow Six: Vegas [X360] / The first next-gen appearance of this classic team-based shooter seems to look really good in screen shots, and its track record on Microsoft systems (not so much on Sony) is still solid. Should be a winner.

Sega Genesis Collection [PSP] / As if to prove further that the PSP is best used as an emulator for other systems, here’s a collection of classic Genesis games for your portable enjoyment. Best bets out of this set include the two Sonic games, Ristar (an oft-overlooked gem), three complete Phantasy Star adventures, and the weird but intriguing Comix Zone.

Shrek: Smash and Crash [GCube] / Released last week on other systems, and no doubt just as much of a marketing tool as those other efforts. Wow, I’m sick of licensed crap…

Superman Returns [PS2, Xbox, DS, X360] / Incessantly delayed for the past six months, ostensibly to make sure that the game is as good as can be, Superman finally Returns to a console near you this week. And the delay was probably necessary, since previous games featuring Supes (save for the marginally good Justice League Heroes of late) have been utter piles of crap. For evidence, witness the oft-referenced 3D effort forced on Nintendo 64 players, which is generally rated as being one of the top-five worst games of all time. All that said, this new one MUST be and WILL be better than that. They’ve had enough damn time to get it right, haven’t they? (Oh yeah – the movie comes out this week on DVD, too, so timing helps.)

Thrillville [PS2] / An amusement park business simulator by LucasArts. Could be good, but this type of game has always worked best on PCs. You never know, though.

Tony Hawk’s Project 8 [PSP] / The same game you’ve already played six or seven times before, but now in porta…oh, wait, they’ve done that too. So, it’s the same game. Again.

Totally Spies! 2: Undercover [DS] / Which begs the question: What were they before, out in the open? I mean, they are “Totally Spies”, right?

Wii Sports [Wii] / Not sure why you’d buy this, since it’s gonna come free with every Wii console for the next few months at least. And unless you’re a collector…oh wait, that’s why you’d buy this. So you can leave it sealed and, in ten or fifteen years, be able to say, “I bought every single game for the Wii on launch day!” Loser.

Yggdra Union: We’ll Never Fight Alone [GBA] / A new, original RPG on GBA? And by Atlus, no less? Wake the kids, dust off your SP and head directly to the game store! There is life left for Nintendo’s old soldier yet…

PC Games

Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express / Air Cargo Pilot / Backspin Billiards / Bass Pro Shops Trophy Bass 2007 / Battlefield 2: Booster Packs Collection [expansion] / Bricks of Egypt 2: Tears of the Pharaohs / Classic Games Collection: Ultimate Battle Pack / Classic Games Collection: Weekend Games Pack / Dream Vacation Solitaire / Dynasty / Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Knights of the Nine [expansion] / Emperor’s Treasures / Equestrian Challenge / Fifth Disciple / Fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner [expansion] / Galapago / Great Invasions: The Dark Ages / Lawnmower Racing Mania 2007 / Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Aircraft Power Pack [expansion] / 3-D Model Trains / Timothy and Titus

A Truly Dedicated Camper

In Colorado Springs’ newspaper, the Gazette, an article was published yesterday about William Harold Maddox VI, a man who has been camping out at a Colorado Springs Circuit City since Saturday. Enjoy the wonderful typo that is in this article:

“The 600-gigabyte version of the video game system…”

I have got to say I admire this guy’s determination. Especially with how bitterly cold Colorado can be. Of course, there are states that do get colder. Our fall and winter nights get pretty cold, but our days can be pretty nice, even in the middle of winter.

Send us your camping stories and, at our option, we will link to them or publish them. I would especially like stories from people who have camped out even longer than this guy.

Just an afterthought: now that William Harold Maddox VI is famous, will he get even more for his PS3 on eBay?