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Revolutionary: Synaesthetic
This week I wanted to take on scripting for an indie game, and one that came in high regard was Synaesthete. I didn't know much about it when I first tried it out, except that it was a cross-breed of rhythm games and action shooters, and I was hopeful that it would lend itself to the Wii experience as well as the last rhythm hybrid I tried out. One level was all it took to start the script-writing cogs turning in my head, and after much experimentation, I wound up with a script that dynamically changes what makes this brilliant game so fun to play. At first, nothing about Synaesthete makes it scream out that it was born for Wii, but ultimately, the addition of Wii controls has made this game my new addiction. I truly believe that a Wii port of this title would be hailed as the "next big thing."
Wii Wheel + Balance Board = racing simulator
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_WRX_Stage_1'; Nintendo Wii Fanboy's code monkey extraordinaire, Mike Sylvester, stuns us again. His latest Revolutionary column is a step-by-step process of turning the Wii balance board and Wii wheel into a racing simulator, with the aid of GlovePIE and a PC version of Need for Speed ProStreet. Feel free to try this at home.
Revolutionary: WRX Stage 1
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_WRX_Stage_1'; The training wheel project got me thinking about what more it would take to create a Wii racing rig that's as comprehensive as a traditional wheel and pedal gaming setup. The Wii Wheel provides analog control for steering, but not throttle and braking. The Wheel shell also blocks off the expansion port, so you can't use a Nunchuk's analog stick. It seemed like there was just no way to build a full set of racing controls around the Wii Wheel, but then I got my Balance Board and the wheels started turning in my head. How about a Wii Racing Xperiment?
Rev your engines with WRX
Not to be confused with rally-bred Subarus, WRX is a new project kicking off in next week's edition of Revolutionary. Tune in on June 18th to get the full scoop, but for now get a taste with this teaser video.
Revolutionary: Balance and Options
Unlike most people, when I brought Wii Fit home for the first time, I didn't head straight to my Wii and slide the disc in to play. Instead, I tore apart the packaging to get at the Balance Board, which I then attempted to "hook up" to my computer. It took a while and a change in my method of operating, but I eventually got the thing connected and working in GlovePIE. It was at that point I started realizing what the Balance Board was really capable of, and this week I'll be sharing with you a few things I've learned about this new peripheral, so that you can start scripting for it and letting your imagination run wild.
Revolutionary: Mario Kart Training Wheel
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_Mario_Kart_Training_Wheel'; The Wii Wheel was supposed to make racing easy enough for anyone to jump right into a session of Mario Kart Wii with no prior experience with either traditional game controllers or the Wii Remote. When used properly, it works as expected. The trouble is that it's not always used properly. Watching your parents try to get through Wario's Gold Mine, you'll notice that they're sometimes holding the Wheel the wrong way, and it's making them drive off the track into chasms of eternity. This observation led me to examine how Mario Kart Wii's steering works and come up with a solution for keeping n00bs on track.
Revolutionary: Dreaming of Wii 1.5
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_Dreaming_of_Wii_1_5'; With both E3 '08 and the midpoint of this generation fast approaching, while it may be a bit premature, we wouldn't mind seeing a few changes in the Wii hardware. Within their lifetimes, the PS2 slimmed down, the Gamecube parted with a port, and the DS shed its baby phat, so it's not unreasonable to expect some sort of alterations to the Wii. A compact box that's already inexpensive to produce (and continuously remains in greater demand than supply can keep up with) may not cry out for revision, but there are a few bits that can be nipped and tucked to enhance the appeal and value of the Wii. This week Revolutionary goes Revisionary.
Revolutionary: Wii can has hard drive?
Every other week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_Wii_can_has_hard_drive'; If you're smitten with the Virtual Console, one thing we're sure you aren't in love with is having to swap games between an SD card and your Wii's internal memory, or even worse -- deleting games to be re-downloaded later. WiiWare is on its way and it's hard to imagine My Life as a King demeaning itself to share its estate with less noble games. And certainly not with it bringing microtransactions to the royal ball. And wouldn't it be dandy if some of our multiplatform ports had somewhere to store that downloadable content that everyone is raving about on other consoles? We want need more storage, and some of you have gathered to plead with Nintendo to sell a Wii Hard Drive. It appears that your cries just fall on deaf ears because they seem hardly driven to provide one. In this edition of Revolutionary, we'll examine why Wii can't have a hard drive.
Revolutionary: Capturing the Moment
Every (other) week, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. Segueing from last edition's topic: you've just built a sick Smash Bros. Brawl level, and you're ready to share it with the world. You upload it to your website and throw up some pics from the game's handy built-in photo mode. Everybody can see your creation without needing to first go through the trouble of downloading the level, putting it on an SD card, and loading it up on their Wii. Of course, your level looks like so much fun, they won't be able to resist trying it for themselves. But what if, like so many other games, there was no photo mode? How would you display your masterpiece? Or maybe seeing a still pic isn't enough to really sell the dynamics and spirit of your build. Then what? Read on as we delve into the art of video capture and photo composition -- for games!
Revolutionary: Playing. Creating? Sharing!
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. Custom level creation in console games has come a long way. It used to be, if you wanted to share a track that you built in Excitebike, you had to invite friends over to play your creation on your cartridge, until you powered off your NES and the track was lost forever. Nowadays our levels can be saved to internal storage, and shared by removable media, or across the internet to survive for posterity. It's a feature that's fully supported by all consoles this generation, and big games are highlighting it amongst their bullet points. System sellers like Halo 3, LittleBigPlanet, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl are trojan-horsing the concept of custom level creation into the consciousness of the console-consuming collective. Former Sony exec Phil Harrison popularized the term "Game 3.0," but we'll be taking a look at how it is playing out on Nintendo's platform.
Revolutionary: A Musical Revolution
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. The rhythm gaming genre, while relatively young, is already on the verge of becoming stale. Hitting buttons in time with a visual cue only remains as fresh as the accompanying song. But there's a new game that's set to turn the genre on its ear and destroy your preconceived notions of what a rhythm game can be. Today we'll be giving Audiosurf the GlovePIE treatment.
Revolutionary: Precursor Legacy
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_Precursor_Legacy'; Fans of Midway's Ready 2 Rumble Boxing series are no doubt anticipating the spiritual successor in EA's Facebreaker. When you're madly swinging Wiimote and Nunchuk in abuse of cartoony pugilists, you probably won't give any thought to how you could have been doing this nearly a decade ago. While our Nintendo allegiance may make it easy to dismiss claims that the Wii concept was outright "stolen," in Iwata's own admission, it was built from technologies already in existence. And some of those technologies had even used for gaming prior to the Wii. Read on as we examine how the Wii carries on a legacy of hardware past and dreams cast.
Revolutionary: Controller Showdown, Round 2
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_Controller_Showdown_Round_2'; Some of you may have wanted to see the Wiimote and SIXAXIS dropped on an island with explosive collars around their necks, forced to fight a deathmatch, but Battle Royale this is not. Nintendo and Sony would happily accept you placing both consoles in your entertainment center, because they offer up different experiences. Getting a DVD player doesn't require the discontinuation of cable TV service, nor does it render your iPod obsolete. But they are similar in that they are gaming input devices, so there will naturally be some overlap in possible applications. It's for that reason we're interested in seeing which controller is better at what. So with no further ado: Round 2. Fight!
Revolutionary: GlovePIE v.30, The Great Equalizer
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. So you've tuned in to Revolutionary expecting to see the dramatic conclusion of the Controller Showdown. Well, as I was evaluating games to use in the matchup, I found myself revisiting old scripts I'd put aside, and building new scripts for games which wouldn't be fit to judge the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote and SIXAXIS. I realized that because of the recently updated build of GlovePIE, my passion for scripting has been re-ignited! You see, the latest version of GlovePIE supports the SIXAXIS, Xbox 360 control pad, and standard PC control pads, on top the already robust support for Wii Remotes and attachments. There's also a new function which allows you to easily write scripts for any and all of these controllers universally. So, before we commence with Round 2, let's take a look at the GlovePIE update that will figure heavily in the big battle.
Revolutionary: Controller Showdown, Round 1
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_Controller_Showdown_Round_1'; Nintendo has recently been accused by a former game developer of copying the idea for the Wii's central point of interest, but whether or not Nintendo took inspiration from this industrious engineer is not the topic of today's Revolutionary. There have been many motion-based game controllers to precede the Wiimote, but none have been so well-received that they can pull double duty as the gearworks of a money printing machine. For the Playstation 3, Sony took a page from Nintendo's playbook and ran with it, so we'll be putting the SIXAXIS through its paces to see how it measures up.
Revolutionary: New Year's Res
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. It is the year 2008 and we've all got jet packs to carry us from our front door to the flying car in our driveway. Our friends can leave us telepathic thoughtmails when we're summering in seclusion on the dark side of the moon. Skynet fought back and the treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobots' home planet of Cybertron. Everyone is basking in the realer-than-reality goodness of their HD television sets. Wait a minute ... scratch that last bit. Not everyone's got an HDTV or even a DTV, so that broadcast switchover to digital transmission that the FCC mandated for the years leading up to 2007 wound up getting postponed until 2009. Nintendo engineers are patting themselves on the back (no doubt with fat stacks of cash) for predicting the relatively slow transition to HD, which allowed them to keep production costs down on the little white wonder. It's a point of contention to some, but seniors, girlfriends, your parents, and most Wii fanboys aren't giving it a lot of thought. Many people aren't even aware that it's not an HD console, so this edition of Revolutionary is intended to clear up any misunderstandings about the Wii's resolution ... -ary.
Revolutionary: 10 Things I Hate About Wii
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/nintendo/Revolutionary_10_Things_I_Hate_About_Wii'; The holidays are a time of giving and love, and it's high time we give the Wii a little bit of tough love. I've thrown criticisms at the console and the big N more than a couple of times, and so far, it looks like most of my gripes are being addressed. This time I'm picking nits for the most stubborn issues many of us are hoping to see rectified, but seem to be on the bottom of the power players' to-do lists.
Revolutionary: Speed Metal
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. I guess it could be said that my favorite game genres are rhythm and racing. My racing wheels, bongos, dance mats, drum kit, and guitar collection stand as testament to that being fact. So, while brainstorming new uses for my Guitar Hero III Wii Guitar, it struck me that racing might be the peanut butter to the guitar's chocolate. Yeah, I'm sure that doesn't make any sense to you, as I got the 'WTF face' plenty of times when explaining my plan to friends. But read on and I'll tell you how to shred. How to shred down NFS ProStreet.
Revolutionary: Year One
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. In this first year since Nintendo unleashed the Wii upon the masses, we've gotten a better understanding of how it plans to change the way the world feels about gaming. In this edition of Revolutionary, we'll examine some of the strides they've made and what they can do to make year two even more spectacular. The Wii has turned out to be the sleeper hit of the gaming world, following in the footsteps of its portable predecessor the DS. In the face of heavier spec'ed competitors with multimedia features up the wazzoo, Nintendo stood firm on its plan to deliver something different and focus on the fun. It has obviously paid off, with the Wii having done the unimaginable and plucking the #1 spot away from the Xbox 360 which had a 1-year head start into the now-gen.
Revolutionary: Guitar Heroes are made, not born
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. Within a few days of Guitar Hero III's release, the scripting community was already at work picking apart the Les Paul guitar shell that came bundled with it. What they discovered was that it basically functions as a remolded and remapped Classic Controller. The obvious application of this new-found knowledge would be to write scripts for Guitar Hero clones on the PC, or to even use the controller with the soon-to-be-released PC version of Guitar Hero III. With script in hand, courtesy of Mario Valenzuela, I thought I'd introduce a friend to my old favorite GH clone, Frets on Fire.
