f13.net

Not going to bother with a link, just go to your favorite Nintendo news site.  The summary is that the component cables are not packed in with the Wii and will only be available from online stores, exactly like the component cables for the Cube.  The Cube cables will not work with the Wii, says Nintendo, and the cables will cost about $29.95.

I seem to recall the standard controller will be $18.  Zelda will be $50.  This means that I'm looking at dropping $348 on a single Wii.  Meanwhile, one of my coworkers says that he saw the Good 360 on sale for $400 at Best Buy.  I will be dropping by my Best Buy today to poke around again and see what I can see.

Commence the bitchin', y'all!
(http://www.yegolev.com/images/jiggle_billy__no_.jpg)

Yeah the lack of a bundled component cable is pissing me off.  I mean, they are touting the 480p, but requiring an additional $30 to achieve it.  Pfff.  There should at least be standard component out jacks on the back of the thing.  Does the 360 come with component cables?

I don't get it.  Does that Wii won't function or that you can't hook the Wii up to another device you would like to?

The Wii will come with a composite cable for hooking it up to a standard definition TV.  You can't get a progressive scan (480p) image with composite.  In order to get the higher quality image you have to fork out an additional $30 for a component cable.  Not just any component cable, but one that specifically fits the Wii's non-standard jack.

So, the console is $250 + $35 for a 2nd Wiimote + $20 for a 2nd nunchuck + $30 for a cable brings us to $335 not counting Zelda.  Not quite as sexy of a price point.  Rumor has it that a game, Wii Play, will be bundled with the additional Wiimote.  If so that helps a little.

They did the same thing with the gamecube. I still don't have the cable for that one.
Isn't that the price? I thought the one at walmart was $299 for the core and $399 for the one you want to buy.

Go to Costco to get your Xbox, its like $480, and you get 2 controllers, a remote, and 2 games. Plus the awesome Costco return policy.

I wish we had a goddamned costco around here. Seems like an actually decent employer in that market.

I guess I'm on the crack.  The crack that made me think it was $500 instead of $400.

I have a Sam's card, not sure I can get a Costco.

Yea, the Costco 360 bundle is monster awesome.

Also, this component thing was the final nail in the coffin. I am in no rush to get a Wii now. Fuck Zelda.

This is one of the things that irks me about Nintendo...  Yeah, they'll do whacky shit like try out new user interfaces, and I'm fully behind them experimenting like this, but they also stubbornly ignore blatantly obvious technological advances.  They ignored online play with the Gamecube until they were led kicking and screaming to it with the Wii.  They're ignoring HD gaming even though there is a fairly decent amount of gamers who do have an HD setup, and apparently they aren't too concerned about future-proofing their console, because I guarantee that the percentage of HDTV owners is only going to increase.

For a company to be so tech-friendly in one instance and so tech-unfriendly in a blindingly apparent that-this-is-the-future way is confounding.

I don't know about nails and coffins, but the chances of me being able to order and receive a component cable on release day are probably zippo.  No point in bothering to pick one up until I can connect it to my TV like a human being rather than some half-evolved, SD troglodyte.  I am disappointed, really because I could have sworn I saw that it was a pack-in, but it's not outside the Wii mindset to skip the cable.

Well, not to put too fine a point on things, but rendering at the highest resolutions means you have to account for, what, four times the screen resolution? I don't think that's a computationally insignificant task. Given that the Wii is supposed to be compact, cheap, and cool, there was probably more here than just flat-out "ignoring HD".

--GF

And to this I call bullshit.  The resolution required to output to the HD standard is really pretty damned low, well within the realm of the old Voodoo cards.  Shit, when my computer is outputting to my TV I have to actually step down from the resolution that I run my monitor at.  Running at a high resolution is not where the expense comes in, it's in rendering all those polys that the 360 and PS3 are currently pushing.  I'm not asking for that from Nintendo; I don't expect photorealism from them, but I do expect that my TV's picture not look like blurry washed out ass because they can't be bothered to support what's likely to become the standard very shortly.

HD won't be a standard in US households (>60% or so) for another 3-4 years. I am a tech geek, but I'm still using a 6-year-old Philips 27" CRT TV, and have no plans to upgrade any time soon, and certainly not at current prices. Currently, for the full HD experience, you need an expensive TV, an HD tuner, and/or a more expensive cable box, plus a still more expensive cable box to do HD recording (or get a ludicrously expensive HD TiVO).

Sorry, but I'm not going to spend a ton of money just for my gaming console. And I know the difference with HD, my dad has a 60"+ HD TV (rear projection I think) with HD cable. It's nice, but in my case, it isn't worth the premium... Not for TV anyway. I think we'll find that a lot of non-techies will feel similarly.

To me, HD is akin to buying a really sweet AV system. Is there a difference? Yeah, and for a small minority it is a huge, can't-go-without difference. For most though, its not enough.

What can I say about F13?  It's really my favorite website in the entire universe!  I love the irreverent banter and sly wit these keyboard jockeys produce.  And I especially love the staff, they're AWESOME.

I can't live without my TiVo, but I still have 3 crt TVs, and am not planning on buying a new HD until the price drops.

With regard to buying the Wii - you forgot to mention buying a memory card. They come in 1g and .5g sizes.

I ordered a Wii, 2nd Wiimote, a 1g memory card and Zelda.

I have heard that the gamecube controllers are plug-inable to a Wii - is that correct?

Sure is. Up to 4 ports, like the GC. I'm guessing it's the same 4 ports for the Wii remotes, just backwards compatible.

XBox360 put quite a large amount of R&D and implementation budget into HD support, and even though it's not directly measurable against, it's part of the reason for both the price tag, and the lack of profit on hardware sales. Programming against the 360's twisted (although fast as hell!) video hardware is challenging!

Wii, as has been mentioned, isn't much in the way of hardware/video at all, and I'm guessing (pure guess), that this was one of the features on the chopping block early on.

Return the Nintendo-branded SD memory card (if that is what you have). From everything I've read, their SD card reader will work with standard cards, which you can get for half the price (and up to 4GB now).

What can I say about F13?  It's really my favorite website in the entire universe!  I love the irreverent banter and sly wit these keyboard jockeys produce.  And I especially love the staff, they're AWESOME.

Actually it's not. The original Voodoo maxed at 640 x 480 resolution and the Voodoo 2 maxed at 800 x 600, neither of which are enough pixels to do 1280 x 720 for HD 720p. For comparison, NTSC is 704 x 480 interlaced.

The Wii GPU's clock speed is only slightly faster than the GameCube's (unknown how the number of pipelines compare). It does have an order of magnitude more graphics memory than the GameCube (24 MB + 3MB vs. 3MB), however it's still an order of magnitude less than what the PS3 and Xbox 360 have. So the textures should look better than the GC's but of course nowhere near as nice as the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Not really surprising since Nintendo removed component output from the GC given how few people were apparently using it (i.e. buying the component cable). You should be happy that the Wii even has component output (for now).

True "HDTV" is 1080i. That's 1920x1080. Very, very few TVs actually support true HDTV resolutions.

480p is not hdtv. It's a perk.

There's really no way to side with Nintendo on this one. One of the big selling points of Wii Zelda besides the arrow twang from the Wiimote is that they said it was 16x9 480p and the GC one wasn't. Given that it is, by far, the Game Worth Playing on the system, there's only one viewpoint on this matter.

They screwed the pooch.

No, it's not.

(P.S. people who are angry about this are the vocal minority, the majority of Wii buyers, or at least the people Nintendo is targetting, don't really care and planned on using a composite hookup anyway. Remember they're aiming for non-gamers and ex-gamers. The kind of people who dont know wtf 480p is. They're trying to not include anything that will jack up the price for the people who just dont care. I will say though, that maybe the component cable should be a bit cheaper and easier to get.)

No, the average person isn't going to care about this cable thing.  It burns me, though, for the reason Schild mentioned.  I have always told everyone that the Wii isn't being made for gamers or the tech-savvy, and the low specs and such don't bother me since I know what I am getting into.  Fact is, though, that I am a hardcore gamer and tech -savvy, and I have my limits.  If not for the financial demands of Q4, I'd be picking up a 360 since, yes, I do love me some shiny.  Shiny zombies, especially.

The thing that irritates me about this cable thing is that they made a point of the 480p+16:9 display in both the Wii specs and various software specs, and they have decided to make it harder for me to have that.  It's not an insurmountable problem by any means, but I was really hoping to just unwrap the damn thing and get going immediately.  It's all about the convenience these days (see previous whines from me about finally buying an OS instead of getting it the "usual" way), and this is simply inconvenient no matter how it falls out.  Option 1 is to get the Wii and connect it up anyway using composite cables (hell, they might only include an RF switch connector) then rewire it later, which sucks because I have to take three whole minutes to do that, and I'm just not fucking interested in shitassed cabling adventures these days.  Option 2 is to just wait for the cable to show up before I install it, which is bothersome since I won't be able to brag about my Wii in the schoolyard on release day.

From a business standpoint, I can totally see why they did this, but I think it's a rather assy way to treat [some of] your customers.  Especially when everyone except Nintendo knows that we will hear them say they were wrong about the HD thing in three or four years, just like the online play whiff of the Cube.  It just smells like a bait-n-switch and it rubs me the wrong way.  Of course, as I said, the primary target audience doesn't give a shit about progressive scan, even if they know what it is.

I'd like to know why the Cube's component cable will not work.

Have you seen that Dragonball Z game for the Wii?

I'm impressed by how it plays (as a spectator), but it looks a little complicated. I'm not even sure if I could play it well, let alone what kind of learning curve so called "ex gamers" and "non gamers" would have with it. It also makes me wonder how many other Wii games will play out like that.

Point being, in some cases, the Wii Remote plays to the strengths of seasoned/hardcore gamers. And smart kids. It isn't a game console for "grandma" necessarily.

As for technical stuff, yeah, from one perspective, perhaps Nintendo isn't as forward thinking as they could be.....But really, all of this cutting edge shit some of you cherish so much isn't going to be widely adopted for at least another 5 years. Which is about the lifespan of a game console anyways.

I don't think they're marketing to "non gamers" and "ex gamers" so much as they are marketing to.....Normal people. The kind of people who make do with factory car steroes, use CRT televisions; don't have SLI, Physics cards, and 64 bit processors in their computers; who *just* bought a digital camera, and can barely fill the hard drive of even an iPod Nano.......But still want to have fun with a new and moderately priced gaming console.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdtv (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdtv)

480p sure as fuck isn't. Which is all the GC will do, and all that the original xbox will do realistically.

I didn't say it was. However 720p is certainly "HDTV".

Wrong on many levels. HDTV = 720p, 1080i or 1080p. 1080i IS NOT 1920x1080 - it's 1920x540 every other field. 1080p is 1920x1080, and there's quite a few TV's that now support it. 720p is as "true" an HD resolution as 1080p. Both are in the HDTV spec. Finally as broadcast television is unlikely to ever use 1080p (bandwidth issues) 720p/1080i are likely to be the signal used both in OTA broadcasts and cable/satellite HD. 1080p will primarily be used for HD-DVD/Bluray (and yes HDDVD can do 1080p but it's not standardized as it is for Bluray.)

Please get informed before professing 'truths' to people. As always - http://www.avsforum.com is your best source of info - the wiki you linked to has many errors.

Actually 1080i is 1920x1080. Being interlaced or progressive doesn't change the resolution. It just means all the lines are being shown or they're being alternated (interlaced).

Regular TV is 480i.

EDTV (and DVDs) are roughly 800x600 (4:3) and 852x480 (16x9). Really though, they both run at 480. The 800x600 ones are for P&S morons.

HDTV is 1280x720 (p & i), and 1920x1080 (p & i).

Conversation over.

Edit: Also, I've ignored PAL for this post.

No. NTSC DVDs are 720x480 (p or i) for both 4:3 and anamorphic widescreen (16:9). I don't know where you are getting 800x600 from (which according to you gives 4:3 frames more detail than widescreen) but 852x480 is the square pixel equivalent of 720x480 16:9 but on the disc it's still just 720x480. I.e. those extra horizontal pixels are extrapolated by the software -- the true horizontal resolution is still just 720 pixels.

I got it from avforum and wikipedia.

Can someone please explain these arcane symbols, acronyms and numbers to me?  Small simple words help.

I have almost no idea what you are talking about.  What are component cables, and I don't care, right, since I have a crt TV?

You care. It's the difference between shitty, bleeding colors and blurry edges and how the game is Supposed to Look.

Why the hell would something as crucial as the Wii component cable ONLY be available online?  Retail stores are carrying every kind of fucking Wii lapel pin/dog tag/remote glove/dildo/skin/trinket/shit imaginable but AREN'T going to have the cable.  What explaination could Nintendo possibly have for such an idiotic decision?

Show me cause they are wrong.

NTSC =  television broadcast standard used here in the US and some other parts of the world -- e.g. Japan with some differences
PAL = television broadcast standard used in the UK and other parts of the world that aren't using NTSC or SECAM (yet another broadcast standard)

As for the "480p", "720p", etc. If you are familiar with digital cameras and understand what "megapixels" mean, it's just like that (ignoring the "i" for interlaced part for the moment). With digital cameras, all else being equal (which it usually isn't), more megapixels means a more detailed picture. The same applies to video.

So "480p" (typically) means 704 x 480 resolution or 337,920 pixels or about "VGA resolution", with the "p" meaning "progressive" (see below).
720p = 1280 x 720 = 921,600 pixels or about "1 megapixel"
1080p = 1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 or about "2 megapixels"

Note that the aspect ratio of 480p in this context is 4:3 while 720p and 1080p are 16:9 -- i.e. "widescreen".

These symbols refer both to how the source material was encoded/output and the resolution of the display device. If you have a mismatch then the image has to be squished or stretched by software to fit the display resolution. E.g. you can have something encoded in 720p being displayed at 1080p (image has to be stretched) or vice versa (squished).

With interlaced video, each "frame" (the entire image) is the same resolution as the progressive equivalent but each "field" is half the frame using alternative lines (i.e. one field has all the "even" lines, the other all the "odd") and the video is shown with alternating fields but because of the persistence on television CRT phosphors you (normally) don't see the individual fields. However, for reasons that are too complicated to get into here if the video does have a lot of fast movement between frames, the movement might not look that smooth with interlaced video. This is why some people prefer 720p for both the source and display resolutions for sports programming compared to 1080i (1920 x 1080 interlaced) source and display. In other words, 1080i is not always better than 720p even though 1080i in theory has a lot more detail than 720p.

Depends if you have component inputs or not on your TV. Most CRT TVs won't but there are some that do.

Presumably for the same reason they removed it from the GC -- they think very very few people are going to want it and they don't want to bother their retailers with yet another SKU to stock that (almost) nobody is going to want to buy.

Dog tags (http://flickr.com/photos/darcybaston/tags/dogtags/) on the other hand, are definitely worth bothering the retailers with another SKU to stock.

(http://static.flickr.com/106/275074410_eabab0f7df.jpg?v=0)

Yes, yes they are.

I blame Target.

Well, the component thing is slightly better this time around (compared to GC). It won't just be Nintendo selling them online, I read that other outlets will too... Did I misread it?

What can I say about F13?  It's really my favorite website in the entire universe!  I love the irreverent banter and sly wit these keyboard jockeys produce.  And I especially love the staff, they're AWESOME.

If these screenshots (http://previews.operationsports.com/previews.aspx?game=madden07wii) are in fact from the Wii version of Madden, then I'm rather impressed at what they are able to pull off with the hardware.

That website is the devil.

The video on the bottom of that page also demonstrates my newfound caution concerning the Wii Remote (as in the case with the DBZ game I mentioned earlier). Still seems like a cool idea, but a little complicated as well.

There could very well be an option to simply play with a classic control scheme, using a GC controller or something.

Amen. Just from what I know, if I were to upgrade my current 27" CRT to one of the same size, only with HD, I'm looking at:

About $300-$400 for the same size TV
$600 for an HD Tivo for DirecTV
$5/month for HD service

That isn't even getting into the realm of the expensive ass cables I'd have to buy to get decent pictures out of it, nor that not every channel is in HD or even has HD on the horizon. Yeah, I'd love it. But right now, it's not fucking worth it. It's just not. And for most working class folks, 3-4 years sounds about right for it being worth it to them.

A Dragonball Z is most certainly targeted to gamers, as "normal people" wouldn't give a fuck about vein-bursting bug-eyed motion-line seizuretoons. The system is targetd to non-gamers, that doesn't mean every game will be. That's like saying because Madden is on the system, the system isn't targeted for non-sports fans.

My comment is more about the control scheme than it is DBZ. In fact, it has nothing to do with "DBZ". It could apply to any fighting game. Any game more sophisticated than Wii Tennis (i.e. something that needs you to memorize at least 10 controller actions) seems like they might pose a bit of a learning curve to the "non gamers" of the world.

[edit]

Perhaps the problem is not in how many things one would have to memorize, but the difficulty in memorizing controls that don't visually mimic the actions on screen so well. With Wii Tennis or Wii Baseball, learning how to do racquet and bat swings are pretty straightforward. It might not be so straightforward with other types of games though.

I will just point out that there are HD CRT units.  I have one.  It's something of a dinosaur (no HDMI) and isn't perfect, but I won't be getting a new one anytime soon.

I have not seen the DBZ game... for any console.  Of the chances of that happening, Magic 8 Ball says: NOT LIKELY.  DBZ touched me in a bad place.  As for fighting games using the Wiimote, could they possibly be more complicated than DOA for Xbox?  I'm talking about the pressure-sensitive button bullshit.

Not worried about learning curves.  If I can learn to play Gothic, I can learn to use any control scheme for a console game.  Whether it is a good control scheme is another discussion and belongs with the "console FPS" and "zomg Gothic" and "damn Steambot Chronicles" bucket.


Yes, actually you are right.  There is a little variety in which online store you can buy the cable from.  I suppose this will help if you have a coupon or something.

Heh. Let me start over. If we, being the "gamers" that we are, run into a few snags with strange control schemes, then how much more so for the "non gamers" that the Wii is supposedly being marketed to?

My point in mentioning all of this is that the Wii really isn't being marketed to non gamers at all. It's still a gamer's machine. I think it's very unlikely that normal people will have a less difficult time with Wii Madden than they would with PS3 or 360 Madden.

I could be completely wrong though. Perhaps I've been indoctrinated with the whole gamepad paradigm for so long to not see the simplicity of the Wii Remote.

Lastly: Before anyone accuses me of it. I'm not criticizing the Wii. I still want one.

I will.  The costs for the Wii are way out of line for what boils down to Gamecube 1.5.

$250 for the console, $60 bucks for the extra Wiimote, and however much the component cable is.  Right there we're already into 360 Core territory.  If you take into account the underperforming hardware and the unproven control scheme and I'm willing to make a bet right now that a month after the Wii's release a lot of people are going to be regretting their purchase.

And I'll be waiting to resurrect this thread and gloat.   :evil:

Yea, over the last 24 hours I've gone from - I'll just order the cable online and not hook it up til I get it to "Screw this, I'm done with this system."

Yes, a $30 cable was a dealbreaker.

Cuz quite honestly, I was getting this system for Zelda. There isn't even anything else with a release date I give a shit about.

According to hearsay out on gaming web sites, a lot writers have mentioned that with games like Madden, newbies have an easier time picking up the basic controls than us gamers that have to unlearn years of button-based control.

That said, there are going to be some really crappy control schemes for the next 6-12 months. Unless that AILive stuff is all that and a bag of chips.

Of course, I'm likely getting Wii without even getting Zelda, so I am not anywhere near the rest of you's demographic. I'm figuring on playing Wii Sports, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and the VC. At some point I might get ExciteTruck, Red Steel, and probably Trauma Center.

What can I say about F13?  It's really my favorite website in the entire universe!  I love the irreverent banter and sly wit these keyboard jockeys produce.  And I especially love the staff, they're AWESOME.

I have a regular TV, own HD nothing, and have no idea what the fuck you people are even talking about.  I don't care about this thirty dollar cable, and if I were buying a Wii I'd be pleased not to have to buy it by default when it would just go in a drawer someplace.

Thanks for the explanation, Trippy.

How would I tell if I have a place to plug in a component cable? Besides asking my local AV expert (the old ball and chain).  Every so often I like to drop words on him that I barely understand to impress him with how well-rounded I am.

My TV is about 8 years old, maybe.  Panasonic, bought it at Costco, I believe.

You'll see something like this:

(http://www.pandadesigns.com/f13/component_180.jpg)

Except saying "Component Video In".

Basically three stacked RCA connectors (either horizontal or vertical) with those three colors means component input/output.

Except that the Xbox 360 Core system doesn't come with a component cable either. And it only has one controller too. Oh and it's cabled not wireless.

How about this.

The Wii costs too much for too little. A Gamecube is $59 used. Nintendo is pulling some weak shit here.

FIFY.

One of the magazines I have indicates that the smash brothers game for the wii eschews the wiimote in favor of the "classic" controller.

And the main reason to get a wii over an xbox is certainly not the hardware value if offers, it's no secret it is nothing special in that regard. But it does look like it will bring forth some interesting new gaming experiences. If all games were available for all consoles then you could choose your console just on its specs...

Well, uh, their "Live" service will be free at least.

Small potatoes in the longrun maybe? I'm not sure.

I don't disagree. I expected it to sell for $199 or $250 with two sets of controllers.

Two sets? Has any console done that? Since NES at least?

I won't have a hi def TV for a couple years, or sooner if the post OSX 10.5 24" iMac decides to build some video inputs into that sumbitch.  (Which is probably the only reason I am holding out on that gorgeous, overpriced, sexy bitch of a machine..)

Thus I could care less about component cables.

And a 250 dollar machine that runs all my Gamecube stuff (cept for the Gameboy Player stuff I honestly use maybe once every 6 months instead of my GBA or DS anyhow...), plus has oldschool stuff, plus all the nifty new stuff and a game is a pretty good deal to me.

I spend 90% of my time playing videogames alone anyhow (tabletop RPGs, boardgames, and miniatures games are my multiplayer games of choice thank you.  Federation Commander > videogames) so I won't need multiple controllers any time soon.

Shit, given the way the 360 has been, even the cheaper wired controller for it has mostly been a waste.  (Only saved by using it to play emulator games on my iMac.  All my Genesis classics with a lovely controller is a good thing.)

Ill have pretty Zelda, Excite Truck, Metal Slug Anthology, and the free pack in game to play.

I am set.  The extraneous crap some of you seem to need will be money spent on Transformers Classics & Titaniums, and Warhammer Fantasy.  My Orcs and Goblins need the new boxed set.  And my Lizzies sure could use a Stegadon since they have no artillery and my Dwarf playing friend is gonna have at least 2 cannons and the Gyrocopter I bought him as a thank you gift for getting me a birthday cake.

Well, when you have hobbies like Warhammer, which are arguably more of a money sink than black tar heroin, $250 on a console seems OK.

When your bread and butter hobby is games, $250 for a souped up Gamecube with an unproven paradigm shift in controls is goddamn extortion.

Ladies and gentlemen!  Allow me to present to you... the Nintendo Wii's target demographic!  *wild cheers*

The fact that you don't have a HD (or ED) TV is inextricably linked to your apathy toward the cable.  I'm not suggesting you buy a HDTV.  Early adoption is for chumps.


There is some subjectiveness here.  It's still not so bad that I won't have one before 2007, but of course I love Nintendo despite their shitcockery.  I like my Cube and I would like to have a Cube 2; the other junk, particularly online capability, is a bonus to me.  I just wish they would quit being Ike to my Tina.

Sam's Club has a 360 bundle for $449 that includes the controller (90% sure it's the wireless one) and some sort of play-charge thing; not sure how great of a deal that is.  I was looking for the Costco bundle info, but I find that I no longer have a Costco card.  I also don't know what the cost would be for the 360 component cable, but I can guess $35; I also expected to have to buy it separately, so no perceived burn there.  In the end, the thing that makes me want to get the 360 is Dead Rising and Saint's Row.  That's what, $605 with the cable?

I think what you'll be paying for on the X-Box Live service is a standard set of networking software and connectivity. The PS3 will just let all the different vendors do their own thing with all the networking stuff. I think it's a wash.

If it's a 'complete' (white box) system, you're basically getting the play/charge kit ($20) for free and that's about it - the wireless controllers run $50 at retail when purchased separately.  The complete system contains a set of component (but not HDMI/DVI) cables in the box, tho it's mated to a set of composite (RCA) cables with a ginormous switched dongle.

I'm a nintendo junkie who needs the Zelda needle injected directly into my largest artery, but all the stuff I've been hearing about the Wii around the edges is making me uneasy.  My new strategy is get Zelda on Gamecube, wait a few months and see if the Wii is Virtual Boy 2. 

This is pretty much how the Xbox one works, I believe.  It's a big box on one end, with the RCA plugs and optical port in there.  I could check but I don't look back there too much.

I'm still using the same painted Chaos Marines and Eldar Guardians I bought in 1994-95 to this day.   Minis gaming is only a money sink in the short term, or if you gleefully play edition whore with every new rules revision, codex, BOOK OF STUPID FEATS VOLUME 8, ect, and insist on buying it, or rebuying an army when it gets a new sculpt or something.

You can even play the collectible minis cheap provided your play venue doesn't listen to the silly retired sets TYPE 2 crap Magic pulls.
(Collectible Minis games generally stop selling once they do that.  Witness the end of Mage Knight, that Baseball game, and how irrelevant Mechwarrior Dark Age became.  Hell, the latter ended up unretiring because it was gonna kill the game.)My friend's army for Star Wars Minis are all commons/uncommons (my figures but he uses them.  Meaning he passes on the money figs!!) and its a steaming pile of evil I FEAR to play because I know I will have a fight and a half on my hands.

I've pretty much dropped buying Heroclix and my teams are still pretty solid compared to the guys who buy cases.  Hell, I won the last tourney and beat the best player we have!  (I usually place 2nd or 3rd.  Most of my pieces were 1-2 dollar singles bought off online.  Meaning mostly commons/uncommons outside of the last 3 sets.)

But ahem.

I don't think the Wii is a bad deal, and if you really do want to count a second controller that just means the 360 and PS3 cost 40-70 more as well!  (Play and Charge kits, wireless controllers, extra battery packs, XBox Live...)

Come on, Schild. You buy collector editions of games just for the art. $250 is nothing for you.

Seriously. You buy games just for the sake of buying games. You had an Atari Jaguar. Come off it.

The Jaguar had Cannon Fodder, Flashback, Tempest 2000, and Alien vs. Predator.

I admire Schild for his Kramer-like ability to spend money on many many games and yet seemingly have no occupation other than posting here  :hello_kitty:  Are the various moneysacks from devs that bribe you to mole for them really that big? 

SOE agreed to pay him by the number of posts in the resultant SWG thread if he would only give the NGE a thumbs-up.

Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs, says the component cable WILL be in retail stores at launch.
 (http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200611/N06.1103.1640.33657.htm)

We got in the Wii demo unit earlier this week, but we can't use it. We don't have the wiimote/nunchuck yet, or anything. Apparently, the rep needs to come out and activate it.

Also, apparently at Gamestop, they will be holding your CC while you demo the unit. I guess this should cut down on the number of dumbass kids using it.

I remember Perrin Kaplan was the one that said, or maybe just implied, the Wii would be region-free.  Not only does it use regions, the VC uses regions.  I don't plan on believing anyone at this point, even Iwata himself.  However, there are already Wii accessories on display at Target, namely the dogtags and Wiimote gloves plus other junk, so maybe someone at Nintendo bothered to wander outside recently.

LOL

Nintendo Online Store: (http://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?currency=USD&storeId=10001&jspStoreDir=NOASTORE&productId=117711&categoryId=63205&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&ddkey=SetCartCurrencyView)

GameStop should have the 3rd-party version of these cables on release day.