During its pre-E3 press conference in May, Nintendo disappointed many by revealing little about the Revolution. Other than showing off a mock-up of the console form factor and announcing the console would play NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube games, the game giant revealed little about the next-generation console. In the months since, it has let a few details about the Revolution trickle out, the most significant being pictures of its much-vaunted controller–which has been much-derided for its resemblance to a TV remote control.
Today, though, gamers got a definite date when Nintendo will absolutely, positively reveal the Revolution in all its glory. The Mario factory sent out a “save the date” e-mail this morning saying that in “a mere 165 days to go (give or take)” it will reveal “all the incredible details about Nintendo’s upcoming games and hardware, including our next home console, code-named Revolution.”
So when will be the Revolution’s coming-out party? Unsurprisingly, it will be at next year’s E3. Specifically, the console will be unveiled at Nintendo’s pre-E3 press event, which is slated for 9:30 a.m. Pacific time on May 9, 2006. The venue will be the Kodak Theatre–home of the Academy Awards–in Hollywood, California.
Wait…that’s news to you? It’s the main reason I have been eying the the Revolution from day one. The thing that intriges me is that in the artile it state that “Revolution” is only a code name. I wonder if they plan on calling it something else once it’s released.
Likely. Gamecube’s codename was “Dolphin,” Nintendo DS’s codename was “Nitro,” Nintendo 64’s codename was “Project Reality.” They always give their systems codenames. So did Sega. IIRC, Dreamcast was codename “Neptune.”
That explains Why Game Cube Hardware have DOL on the codes like “DOL-004” for the Wavebird controller, the half that sits in your hand, BTW. (It’s above the Channel/player dial)
They also Give each Peice of Harware a 3 Letter Code, it is on every offical hardware. The GC-GB cable(DOL-011) and N64-GB (NUS-019) conncector are the Consoles code not the hand held code. For games they are Location Codes at the end. Most of mine are EUR or UKV.
I assume the system will act as a “super emulator” and convert the electronic “roms” into what format they need to be in. I may be wrong, but I believe I heard the system will also update the graphics of the old games. Can somebody confirm this.
Speaking of Revolution’s backward abilities,
1)download pricing: “we have no plans to distribute [our back catalogue] without a fee.” - Satoru Iwata
some games might be used as promotional bonuses - for example, offering a free download of an old game with the purchase of a new game, or running special marketing campaigns which allow games to be downloaded for free for a limited period. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=new&aid=9389
2)improved graphics for older games:
Older game titles can be played entirely on the Revolution’s IBM PowerPC CPU, while for newer games - presumably 3D ones from the N64 and Cube - the emulation process will also pull in the power of the new machine’s ATI-designed graphics unit.
One interesting mention in the patent is that some titles may offer updates to the original content, such as the ability to play as new characters or to upgrade the graphics of the title - although obviously, such changes will require re-coding, whereas titles which are identical to the originals will not. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=13264
