Nintendo could have done so much more with Virtual Console

[Anthony1]

With all the things that people are bitching about, when it comes to the Nintendo Wii, I'm suprised nobody is bitching more about the fact that they really didn't do anything with the Virtual Console games. When I first heard about Virtual Console, I was so excited about it, because as much as I enjoy Xbox Live Arcade, Nintendo has a much stronger back catalog of games to draw upon. So naturally, I just assumed that Nintendo would basically do the exact same thing that Microsoft has done, only with their much better lineup of classics. I thought that online play would be a given. I thought they would take a game like F-Zero for the Super Nintendo, and leave the game basically unchanged, but add online multiplayer with 4 players. You and 3 other gamers from across the country or across the world could play together in a F-Zero race, with your own individual perspective. I mean, how hard would that have really been to implement? I figured there would be online leaderboards and worldwide rankings and such, and I was even hoping that Nintendo would some how copy the achievement system.

See for me, being a retro gamer, there is no incentive for me to pay $8 to play F-Zero. I have the rom on my PC, the rom on my PSP, and several F-Zero carts for my SNES laying around my house. Why pay $8 for what I already got? Now, having said that, if there was online multiplayer and leaderboards and stuff like that, I would have been all over it. Even though I can go up to GameCrazy and get a F-Zero cart for a few bucks, I would have paid the full $8 to be able to race around with people from all over the world. Of course, one thing that I would be missing would be some kind of headset. It would be even more fun to be able to talk to the other gamers while you are playing. Especially if they came out with Contra 3: the Alien Wars with online co-op. Just imagine being able to play that game in co-op mode, while you are chatting with a buddy as you go through the game. Or playing ZAMN in online co-op while playing with a friend.

Don't get it twisted, I think the Wii is a really cool system, and it definitely has it's own unique flavor, but man, I really think they totally dropped the ball when it comes to the Virtual Console. i don't know why people would pay $8 for just a straight rom with no ehancements. Why not just go get the cart at GameCrazy and save yourself $5 plus have something physical and real, and tangible instead of some virtual ownership of a rom?

[Leo_A]

Because it isn't possible to do it via emulation, you should've put some thought into it. You either rewrite the games, or don't do it. Doing it like ZSNES does means the non host will always have noticable lag in controller inputs.

if you want Nintendo to dedicate the resources to porting games, and maybe releasing two or three a year at $20 a game, I'm sure they could've. What you've seen from Xbox Live Arcade are entirely original games, a PC game that supported online play to start with, and relatively simple 80s arcade titles that were ported.

So in the end, just like the people that just assumed the Xbox 360 would be 100% backwards compatible despite reports from MS that never indicated it, its your own fault, not Nintendo's.

[Anthony1]

Because it isn't possible to do it via emulation, you should've put some thought into it. You either rewrite the games, or don't do it. Doing it like ZSNES does means the non host will always have noticable lag in controller inputs.

if you want Nintendo to dedicate the resources to porting games, and maybe releasing two or three a year at $20 a game, I'm sure they could've. What you've seen from Xbox Live Arcade are entirely original games, a PC game that supported online play to start with, and relatively simple 80s arcade titles that were ported.

So in the end, just like the people that just assumed the Xbox 360 would be 100% backwards compatible despite reports from MS that never indicated it, its your own fault, not Nintendo's.

Of course, they would have had to rework the code, but how freaking hard would it have been? I personally don't think it would have been all that complicated, and since they've known about the Virtual Console for a long time, they could have started work on it a long, long time ago. Games like F-Zero and Golden Axe and Dungeon Explorer could have had their code reworked a long time ago for online multiplayer, and they would have been ready on day 1 of the Wii launch.

[robotriot]

I don't think it's all that trivial, recoding games written in assembler ages ago for TCP/IP and all that. Not that it's much of an excuse, but I didn't expect that anyway. It's not like they announced you'd be able to do that with their Virtual Console feature, or did they?.

[Darth Sensei]

It's a rip off and I wouldn't pay. But then again, I didn't re-buy them for GBA either.

I've only bought a couple of the Xbox live retro games and that's because of the enhancements you mentioned.

[Sothy]

It should support RGB

[Garry Silljo]

I'm going to use it for some turbo Grafx games I was interested in trying/playing through. For me searching out a system and then paying the prices it demands today isnt worth it for the few games I want to try. They may get $10-20 out of me for that. Otherwise NES,SNES,64,Genesis I will just be sticking to the original hardware. I would enjoy but never expeted online play. I don't think I was ever promised that.

[Emuaust]

It should support RGB

Post of the Year?

[s1lence]

Nah, Sothy has had some much better ones this year. Though the RGB line never really gets old.

[ubersaurus]

I don't own F-Zero. I don't know Bonk, I don't own Super Star Soldier. I bought all of these games, and I'm not looking for any extra functionality. And why? Because they're cheaper than buying them for their respective systems, and in the case of the SNES, I don't even own one. I'd have to pay 20+ bucks to get one.

I don't expect online play or any shit like that from an emulated game, and what's more, what sort of functionality would I want? Why would I want to play F-Zero time trials online when I could just wait for nintendo to put those resources into a new online F-Zero game for wii?

Yes, you get those games on xbox live arcade, and they're online. They're also pretty damn simple and in most cases, pretty short little arcade ports or puzzle games. Here you're paying about the same amount of money for an ENTIRE game. Obviously it doesn't matter to you if you already own the shit, but for people who don't, and don't want to pay out for the console, the games, the controllers, find a place to hook it up, and pay the extra bit of electricity that the machine will need, they can do this. They get a save feature of sorts in games that didn't have them, they get cleaned up N64 games, they get 480p support for machines that didn't exist when that came around. That's fine for me.

You want 4 player F-Zero online, Nintendo may as well redo the entire fucking game, and if they're gonna do that, they may as well make a brand new game.

[slip81]

It would be nice, but I think a bit impractical to put online for most of the games, though I agree, if it was done for Contra and UMK3 it shouldn't be that hard to do it for F-Zero.

Now if Mario Kart 64, Mario Party and Goldeneye don't have multi player, that'll be a problem. Those games were built for multi player, and would benefit the most from an online enhancement.

[Anthony1]

I guess what actually happened is that Xbox Live Arcade set me up with false expectations. After seeing and playing Xbox Live Arcade, I naturally assumed that Sony and Nintendo would copy the idea inside and out. I thought it would be a given that all these games would have online play. I thought it was a given that all these games would have leaderboards and some kind of achievement type thing. I guess my expectations where way out of whack with reality. I honestly didn't know that it would be that hard to add online functionality. You would think for games that originally had the option for two player simultaneous play, they could trick the emulator into thinking that "player 2" was sitting in your living room, rather than being across the country or the world.

It's just right now, there isn't a single game virtual or not, that can be played online with the Wii. That just seems rather odd to me. They have the Wi-Fi built in, so you would think that Nintendo has finally come around to the idea of playing games online. But yet, not a single game features online play. If some of the Virtual Console games at least had online play, then it would be a nice thing to hold people over till more of the Wii games have online play. Just imagine playing Dungeon Explorer for the TG-16 with online support. Man, that game is fun as can be with extra people playing. Back in the day, I had a TurboTap, and me and 4 other friends played the game at the same time. 5 freaking players playing at the same time, going through the dungeons, shooting at the monsters, it was absolutely awesome. I just wish I could repeat that experience now. The thing is, those 4 friends are now scattered across the country, and if there was online play, and a headset, we could relive those memories.

It really sucks that Microsoft is the only one doing things right when it comes to this, because I'm not really interested in the retro fare they have lined up. Sony supposedly has Neo-Geo and might have some other announcements, and Nintendo has their back catalog as well as some love from the Genesis and TurboGrafx. Microsoft keeps bringing out old Arcade games, and that's cool, but my real love is with the classic console games. I can't begin to explain how awesome it would be to play games like Super Mario Kart for the SNES online, with leaderboards and everything that comes with it.

Somebody mentioned that if they are going to re-work the code, they might as well make a whole new game, but I'm not interested in a whole new game. I'm just interested in doing exactly what I did back in the day, except, I'm not a little kid anymore, and I don't have Johnny living across the street, and I can't go to his house and ask his mommy if he can come over to my house and play Wii. I'm grown up now, and my good buddies are scattered around the US, and I see them on XBLA sometimes, but all of us wish we could really get together and play the true classic console games.

[jajaja]

Nah, Sothy has had some much better ones this year. Though the RGB line never really gets old.

Its not so fun when Wii actually supports RBG, Nintendo even made a own RGB cable just for Wii. So yes, it does support RGB hehe

[suppafly]

You WOULDNT need to rewrite the games to support multiplayer.

For instance, SEVERAL genesis emulators support multiplayer over the internet via TCP IP. Those games, obviously, werent reprogrammed in any way.

[ubersaurus]

I guess what actually happened is that Xbox Live Arcade set me up with false expectations. After seeing and playing Xbox Live Arcade, I naturally assumed that Sony and Nintendo would copy the idea inside and out. I thought it would be a given that all these games would have online play. I thought it was a given that all these games would have leaderboards and some kind of achievement type thing. I guess my expectations where way out of whack with reality. I honestly didn't know that it would be that hard to add online functionality. You would think for games that originally had the option for two player simultaneous play, they could trick the emulator into thinking that "player 2" was sitting in your living room, rather than being across the country or the world.

It's just right now, there isn't a single game virtual or not, that can be played online with the Wii. That just seems rather odd to me. They have the Wi-Fi built in, so you would think that Nintendo has finally come around to the idea of playing games online. But yet, not a single game features online play. If some of the Virtual Console games at least had online play, then it would be a nice thing to hold people over till more of the Wii games have online play. Just imagine playing Dungeon Explorer for the TG-16 with online support. Man, that game is fun as can be with extra people playing. Back in the day, I had a TurboTap, and me and 4 other friends played the game at the same time. 5 freaking players playing at the same time, going through the dungeons, shooting at the monsters, it was absolutely awesome. I just wish I could repeat that experience now. The thing is, those 4 friends are now scattered across the country, and if there was online play, and a headset, we could relive those memories.

It really sucks that Microsoft is the only one doing things right when it comes to this, because I'm not really interested in the retro fare they have lined up. Sony supposedly has Neo-Geo and might have some other announcements, and Nintendo has their back catalog as well as some love from the Genesis and TurboGrafx. Microsoft keeps bringing out old Arcade games, and that's cool, but my real love is with the classic console games. I can't begin to explain how awesome it would be to play games like Super Mario Kart for the SNES online, with leaderboards and everything that comes with it.

Somebody mentioned that if they are going to re-work the code, they might as well make a whole new game, but I'm not interested in a whole new game. I'm just interested in doing exactly what I did back in the day, except, I'm not a little kid anymore, and I don't have Johnny living across the street, and I can't go to his house and ask his mommy if he can come over to my house and play Wii. I'm grown up now, and my good buddies are scattered around the US, and I see them on XBLA sometimes, but all of us wish we could really get together and play the true classic console games.

There's a few key differences here though. You use F-Zero as a suggestion, but F-zero didn't have multiplayer back in the day in any form. Tricking a game like that would also create noticeable lag, which gets everyone bitching about that.

The thing is playing online with people is never the same as playing right there with them. I've done it both ways, and the latter is always much, much more fun. It wouldn't be at all like back in the day. Personally I'd rather see new Mario platformers than just play an online version of mario 3.

I don't remember where exactly, but I could have sworn a recent interview about the VC said that they were looking into adding stuff to games but that it wouldn't be any of the clump coming up. And in Japan at least, Pokemon battle revolution has online battling(DS pokemon games aren't out here yet, so neither is this). I also heard about Elebits having online functionality, and that comes out this month.

[Trumpman]

Well, the virtual console seems like it would be worth it to me, because I have never even seen a GameCrazy. I live in Northern NJ, and the closest one is in Jersey City. Also, when you factor in buying them on eBay plus shipping, it's not a bad deal.

I guess I'm not as into the hunt aspect, because there aren't any thrifts or cheap stores around with classic games, but for me, it's either VC or eBay, and VC is cheaper.

[8-bitNesMan]

I gotta go with Anthony on this one. I own every Nintendo system besides the Virtual Boy, and I think it's high time they got their collective head out of their ass and appreciated the hardcore geeks like us that have lined their coffers for so many years. I agree that games like F-Zero, which never had multiplayer to begin with, might be cost prohibitive to do online multiplayer now. But come on and give us what we've all been waiting on. Something more than just a readily available ROM at a highway robbery price. I've always been a huge Nintendo fan, but I also believe that if you're going to do something you should do it right. My two cents...

[jajaja]

Yep, the prices are crazy. If you buy the real game you also get something physical + you can sell/trade it later on and get some money back (or even more). When you download a game through VC you only get the ROM, thats it, a piece of data. You cant even sell or trade it when you get sick of it.

It shouldnt be a problem making online multiplayer with it. I remember years ago when i played SNES games over the internet with my cuzin. Its only the emulator that needs the support, the ROM stays unchanged

[TurboGenesis]

This is my stance. F-Zero was never multiplayer so nothing to change nothing to include. Since I already own the cart for SNES I have no need to "buy" this game on the VC. However I do want multiplayer online classic games. My best example is Contra. Another game I physically own for NES and have no need to buy it BUT if it were to have wi fi online multiplayer, well I'd pay $10 for it. Dungeon Explorer is to be coming soon to VC but I have this game so therefore no buy, but yeah, if online 5 player was capable I'd dl this game.

The whole leaderboard and achievement thing is cool but I can live without it. I'm not going to dl Contra because I want to 1cc it in 12 minutes to get 50 points, I want to play friends when they can't be over or friends that live 1500 miles away.

[tholly]

i highly agree with the achievements arguement....i have no interest in rebuying zelda (which i have played / beaten countless times) ... i also have zelda for many different systems ( NES, compiliation discs on GameCube, etc.) ....

so, with no new motivation (read: achievements) i have no need to pay for something virtual that i already own in physical form....

you Anthony1 are right, the Wii's Virtual Console is highly lacking....



what they need to do is release some japanese games with english language support, release previously unreleased games, or release some unique games...