We realize there are still only a select few of you who actually have Wiis at this very moment (although those on the Eastern seaboard will have theirs in just a few short hours). But you might like to know that our Wii finally got its system update (huzzah) and is able to access the Wii store. The points are valued at a cent per, so 1,000 Wii points will set you back $10 US. Which is also what N64 games cost; SNES games will run $8, while NES and Genesis games run $5. Click on for a tour of the store!
Those familiar with our
Wii interface walkthrough video will notice the Wii store channel's updated icon.
Select, then start.
The Wii loading screen.
Hurrah. The music that starts sounds strangely like The Girl from Ipanema.
We'll start at the Shopping Guide.
Looks like a help file index; we won't bore you.
So let's add some points.
We don't have a card, but here's where you'd do it.
Or you can buy with your credit card; we're not a fan of points, but at least it's easier than the skewed Microsoft points system where one point does not equal one cent.
Wii Ware in the upper right: we thought we could snag the internet channel (i.e. the Wii Opera browser) but sadly they're not launching it yet (nor any other channels).
So let's peep the Virtual Console.
Here's the recently added list. Don't worry, we'll spell 'em out for ya one by one.
This is the per-system download screen: NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis. Man, remember how competitive Sega and Nintendo were in the 80s when it was a two horse race? That was brutal. Guess we know who won (kind of).
N64 only has the $10 Mario 64 title. Glad the Wii's launching with at least one Mario game.
SNES only had two titles, both of which are old faves. SimCity, and F-Zero.
NES titles include Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Pinball, Soccer, Solomon's Key, Legend of Zelda, Wario's Woods.
And Genesis titles are Sonic The Hedgehog, and the inimitable and forever-classic Altered Beast -- a wise $8 investment.
Sorry, we haven't bought anything yet. So let's do that now.
Aight, select your card. Sorry AmEx and Discover card users, you're boned!
Enter that card info.
Sigh. Now enter your damned billing info.
Ha! Taxes after all. Is that 8.4% for the state of Washington?
Authorizing. Please don't reject... please don't reject...
Huzzah!
There's our receipt. We're so gonna write this off.
What to buy... what to buy. F-Zero sounds good.
Yep, looks like a winner. Wait, what about N64? We wanna see how those graphics are handled.
Ok, let's do this thing.
Damn, you need the classic controller (which we don't have handy). Ah well, all the way back to classic Nintendo for us.
Yeah, hows about that Legend of Zelda, the orig.
Yep, there it is.
Pre-download download.
Nice little Mario animation going on there. We're kinda curious how many more download animations there are.
Great, Zelda downloaded!
Ok, so we've got it downloaded.
Ah, so that's where these games go! No wonder they gave us so many channels.
Screw Twilight Princes, let's do it up old.
Can you hear the music yet?
Engadget, man. Old school.
The settings menu, where you can link your nintendo.com account or remove the Wii shop channel.
Back in the main menu we decided to try out the other channels -- the Forecast channel (not to be confused with the Weather Channel) and news channel are both not yet functional. Bummer.
Trying to run them takes you to the Wii update utility, which, of course, isn't gonna change anything.
Kind of a bummer to see some of those titles as pricey as they are, if you ask us. $5 for a NES game -- which is about $5 more than you'd pay for a ROM and about $4.50 more than you'd pay at a thrift store -- isn't insane, but man, it's back catalogue! It's not like they're depriving themselves of sales here.
posted Nov 18th 2006 9:04PM
holy crap, i just got a Wii form this site http://wii.megafreebie.com/ Not only did I get one, but it cost me really really cheap too! I received it in the mail only a couple weeks after i did it!
Please excuse my ignorance, but do downloaded games get upsampled to 480P ala XBox games played on the 360?
Question: Are there any country restrictions to use a credit card? (like the way iTunes doesn't let you use a credit card that doesn't have a billing address in the US).
i cant wait to get my wii later tonight
Repeated plea - get a camera man. Some tripod action with a longer exposure would get rid of that muare.
Seems like they're stretching the VC games.. any way to change that? They said the games would run as-is.
Call me crazy, but I see no possible way for the "You cannot transfer ownership of your VC titles" thing to hold up in court (here in the US). The right of First Sale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_sale) says (in short) that if you bought it, you can resell it.
Technically, one or two court cases seem to suggest that *maybe* you can write a license such that users have to give up that right, but 1) that's horseshit, and 2) it might not hold up if challenged again.
So, as far as reselling your VC titles, while it seems reasonable that through the First-sale doctrine you will be able to transfer your VC titles, you may find it difficult, near impossible to make a "Lawfully Made Copy" of the work. Because it is invisible information, it is still against the law to make a copy of it, because there is no way you are getting permission from Nintendo. You have two options:
1. Find a way to transfer your VC title, you would no longer have it, and your friend would. This would be legal.
2. Find a way to transfer your VC title while keeping a copy. This would be illegal, but I haven't ever heard of Nintendo doing house raids.
I'm impressed with the sheer volume of photos you took of your tv
anyone else find it odd that the date on the legend of zelda is 1986 to *2003*?
It seems to be the Gamecube version that they released as Zelda: Collectors Edition, just checked my copy and it shows 1986-2003.
Thanks for the walkthrough and pictures. :)
I would be interested to know - I assume you *don't* need a billing address to redeem a card. I'm thinking of those of us who, somehow entirely legally, may end up with a US model (or Japanese model, preferably, assuming it does English) machine without quite having a credit card billed in that country. I'm thinking of finding a friend in that country with a paypal account who can go buy cards and email on the numbers... I'm assuming that a card bought in Japan won't do anything useful with a US machine, and vice versa...
sweet!
How long did it take to download Zelda and over what kind of connection?
Err, slight typo on the billing info screen. Hopefully it's "country" and not "county", right?
Damn I'm seeing a trend here.... "unleased" instead of "unleashed", "county" instead of "country".
My!
it *is* pretty sad that Nintendo wants another $5 from you for games that you might already own.. and games that they already profited from.... AND they make a profit on the friggin console to begin with!! cut us a break with the old school nintendo! Its like the Govt cashing in everytime a car is sold.. new or used.. didnt they get their fair share the first time it was sold off the lot?!?
shon Dempsey, feel free to dig out your NES, SNES, or N64 if you want to play those old game. No one's forcing you to buy it on the Wii. But if you want the convenience you can pay for it.
No, it probably is "county" -- what county you're in can affect how much sales tax you pay.
Here in Washington State, there's a 6.5% state sales tax and an additional local tax that varies. Here in Redmond the total sales tax is 8.8%. Same in Seattle.
Max, you're right. The customer support pages repeatedly mention "county": http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/channelsShop.jsp#points . The section on redeeming Wii Points Cards don't mention anything about entering an address, so I guess I'm not totally screwed.
For alphanumeric entries like Billing info and Credit Card Number, did an onscreen keyboard come up? Was it cumbersome at all to enter that information. Did you use the Wiimote D-pad to navigate or a motion-sensing pointer?
give it a couple of weeks and the console will be hacked so you can upload all your ROMS and other goodies.
Am I the only one that thinks the Wii interface looks more like a placeholder interface than the finished product?
there's sales tax? wtf?
Wait, the Wii comes with 512 MB of interal built in so you can save game data, virtual games, and other downloads directly into it right?
AWESOME! Altered Beast!
"anyone else find it odd that the date on the legend of zelda is 1986 to *2003*?"
It could be that they're using the version created for the GBA.
Does anyoone else have there wii stuck on the Connecting....pleast wait screen for the shop channel. Because I am and I can't do anything to get out of it. I don't know if I should pull the ac cord out or not,. Nothing else works...not power not reset...nothing.
it did this to me as well. the power button and reset buttons did nothing. i let it sit for like 10 minutes before i just unplugged it. powered it back up... went back to the store... no problem at all. and it has been fine ever since.
it was not (as suggested) anything to do with the router or internet connection. as i was using my laptop fine during the wait.
I'm wondering...did they say what you can do if you run out of the 512 MB of memory?
nick it sounds like you may have a problem with your internet connection. It you have an 802.11 g router make sure that it is set to accept both B and G connections (to do this enter 192.168.0.1 into a browser window (the ip address may be a little different but it will be listed on the bottom of your router) and enter the admin name and pssword, then look for the option that says router mode (or the like) B only, G only, or B and G only , and choose b and g only... hope that helps ...
Sorry if you guys have already answered this, but what's up with taking pictures/video of your tv? the wii can use RCA cables, right? no video capture cards at engadget?
Just a thought.
Just to nitpick, Genesis/Mega Drive games show in the screenshots as 800 points, not the 500 needed to be $5.
The thing with the cost of the games, if you think its a little high remember we don't have to pay any other fees to use the online play of the system unlike the other systems, so I think they are trying to use this to pay for the servers we are using for everything. Also I've paid 5 bucks for a Nintendo Game before(recently) that I really wanted.
About more storage space. Rumor has it that they are going to add support for USB harddrives, don't know if thats for sure though, but you are supposed to be able to store your downloads on the SD slot.
Really like the system but was really looking forward to the browser and USB keyboard being supported, but the rest of the system makes up for it.
"Some tripod action with a longer exposure would get rid of that muare."
moir?
how long dose it take to download a game?
How far away from your router can you get?
I really wish you would add Star ars : Episode 1 Racer to your Wii shop channel. The system would be Nintendo 64. Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bebel Gilberto - The Girl from Ipanema
這可是Bosa Nova的始祖呢~~~
小野麗沙也要叫阿祖~~~