Today, since I wasn’t doing anything important, I decided to check out three 7Seas Fishing Areas namely Delphinus Isle, Hedonism and Feudal Nippon. Why? I don’t know, it was a good idea at that time I guess. Ha ha ha!
I started with Delphinus Isle because it was the first link that greeted me when I […]
7Seas Fishing Game recently released their new set of fish and this set is composed of various Goldfishes. I’m not much of a fish collector but I do like catching something new from time to time so this new set is a very welcome addition. The goldfishes are really cute so I’m sure many girly, […]
I logged in today in Second Life to be greeted by a 7Seas Social Chat group discussion about fishing bots. The exchange of thought was surprising and it seems that most, if not all, are against the use of this fishing bot. I know sooner or later someone would come up with something like a […]
I woke up very early in the morning (around 3AM my time) to attend and watch the third day of the Bitter Thorns Master Tournament only to be greeted with bad news, hate and accusations. I will not go into the details of what happened since it’s not related to the tournament.
My day started terribly […]
Filed under: Screens
Resident Evil sure looks familiar, doesn’t it? That’s probably because this latest Capcom port is just the GameCube version with a dash of motion. That isn’t to say it doesn’t look good (it does), it’s just that this game has been remade, reworked, and re-released a lot.
How many times do we need to replay great games — particularly when we can already play them on the system in question?
Gallery: Resident Evil
| Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments |
| |
Today, Medieval England (Medevil England sim) held their very first Horseback Tournament. As the title implies, the tournament is a mounted one and it’s not jousting. It is like your everyday melee fights but only this time the fighters are mounted on their horses. Special melee weapons were used in this tournament. These weapons use […]
Filed under: Wii Warm Up
Is there one addition to the post-Mega Man 2 world that you miss the most? The Mega Buster? Sliding? Clown Man’s voice acting?
| Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments |
| |
Filed under: Peripherals, Controller
Those of you looking for a rechargeable solution to your Wiimote’s power needs, manufacturer MeWe has just come up with a new device: the Quad Charger. As you can see above, it includes LEDs to let you know the power status of your recharging Wiimotes, as well as the capacity to charge four simultaneously. And, of course, it comes with four rechargeable packs (Ni-MH).
The MeWe Quad Charger is currently available and costs $49.95.
| Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments |
| |
So, I started Second Life RPG which is a new site which will try to list and feature the many Roleplay and Combat sims in Second Life. Well, I may not be able to feature and list them all but I’ll definitely try.
Now, one of the feature of the site is the RPG Sims Directory. […]
Filed under: Mods, Peripherals, Tech stuff, Controller, Features, Revolutionary
Game controllers have come a long way since we were holding a box with a protruding stick and tapping a single button. Now they’re so packed full of cutting edge (yet inexpensive) tech, I’d half expect to see a Wii Remote and Nunchuk in the cockpit of the space shuttle* as a cost-cutting measure. As advanced as the Wiimote is, a lot of us have found a thing or two that could be revised about its design. I’ve gone to the most extreme reaches of my imagination, and come up with a design concept that I believe is about as radical a step beyond our current Wiimote, as that controller is beyond every console controller that came before it. And just like Nintendo’s own design, my perfect controller would be based around technology that is already being used today in different applications.
*Warning: The Wii Remote and Nunchuk’s accelerometers will not work in space. NASA engineers, be advised to wait for the MotionPlus.
Do you realize that a complete set of Wii controllers for a single player can total out to around $100? That’s the Remote, a Nunchuk, a Classic Controller, and a Gamecube controller for your Gamecube games. Then on top of that, you’ve got to pay extra for batteries or a recharging kit. Street Fighter fanatics like myself are in grave risk of spraining our fingers on the Classic Controller, so that’s more money for a fighting game stick or gamepad. Figure in the costs for building an addition to your house to store all this gear, and you’ve spent a small fortune on what’s thought to be one of the most affordable consoles of this generation. There’s no getting around the fact that all of those features can’t be crammed into a single controller for free, but it would be worth a little money just to not have so many controllers and attachments cluttering up the place.
If you can manage to get underneath your pile of Wii accessories to dig out your old Xbox and Dreamcast stuff, take a look at their controllers. Microsoft seemed to borrow heavily from the styling of Sega’s swan song controller, but skipped over what was probably the most revolutionary feature the Dreamcast pioneered — Visual Memory. Sony dabbled in it with their own PocketStation VMU, and Nintendo took the concept in a different direction with Gamecube-to-GBA and Wii-to-DS connectivity. But not since the Dreamcast have we had screens inside our standard game controllers. Before the motion-sensing abilities were revealed, many people believed the Wii’s controllers would feature a touch screen for input, and I still believe that that idea has potential.
Just think of what could be possible with a screen in your modern controller. Using Bluetooth for data transmission wouldn’t provide enough bandwidth for streaming video or anything like that (it’s already strained with your control data and the speaker’s audio, plus you wouldn’t want to drain your batteries with such a resource-hogging task), but images could be uploaded to the revised Remote’s increased internal storage during the wait while your Wii loads up a game level. A thumbnail pre-rendering of your Mii could have a few frames of animation showing it wincing with every blow landed in Wii Sports Boxing, or beam with pride while your on-TV avatar does a victory dance around the ring.
Such a simplified usage of the touch screens would mean that they don’t require heavy processing, a high refresh rate, or high resolutions. 64×64 pixels would be a sufficient resolution, but for a full color screen with controller-fitting low power requirements (Dreamcast VMUs were 48×32 and monochrome) , OLED screens might be the way to go. The thin screen, self-illuminated technology is already gaining popularity in cell phones, and Art Lebedev has designed some novel computer interface devices incorporating OLED screens. Even though the geek chic gadgets come with high price tags, it hasn’t done much to spoil their appeal.
As it is, the Wiimote loses a big chunk of its functionality when you turn it sideways to use like a NES controller. With the controller’s IR sensor pointing away from the Sensor Bar, there’s no way to smoothly and accurately control an on-screen pointer with the fluidity of a mouse. I think of that ability as a key piece that’s missing from the perfect-control puzzle, so I’ve added some redundancy with a second IR sensor on the side of the Remote. The Nunchuk portion retains backward compatibility with digital buttons opposite the analog-stick-replacing touch screen. Flipping the Nunchuk around would also allow its new analog trigger and six face buttons to be used in conjunction with accelerometer and integrated MotionPlus gyroscope. Yes, my perfect controller has a gyroscope.
Data between controllers would travel across a short USB cable when connected in the gamepad/extended remote configuration, and a longer cable would bridge the gap when you need to ‘chuk like Bruce Lee. Like the two halves of the Motus Darwin, my perfect controller should be able to slide together with minimal effort, after you’ve connected that USB cable. Remember how the Dreamcast’s VMUs could be connected to each other to share data and play games? Why not connect two Remotes together in a similar fashion. Think of the force that could be unleashed with a double-sided, Darth Maul Wii-saber!
Every other week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments |
| |