VC (good or bad?)

[True Blue]

With the Wii and the VC around, buying old consoles, unless you're a collector, seems very pointless. Why bother?

People love the old consoles for their looks, their games, their success, the fact they came in cool plastic cartridges with styly stickers on... But thanks to the VC, to save money on the consoles, it's possible to choose to play all those games in a single one. Which is good if you don't mind playing them in a white shiny console, instead of the traditional and, by many, good old, black and gray ones. At least, the PS3 controller still reminds me of the SEGA Mega Drive or Saturn controllers.

These are not my opinions. We're not here to talk about my decision. I sometimes think like this, but its mainly supposed to be a neutral ground to discuss the VC. Good or bad? Me, I prefer to play Mega Drive games on an actual one. But if I get a Wii in the mean time, something may change.

Edited March 16, 2009 by True Blue

[JezMM]

Of course it's good. The online shops of modern consoles are just a more convenient way of playing old games. If you really want the classic experience that badly nothing is stopping you from tracking down an old console.

In fact it's thanks to services like these that old games can live on. If they didn't exist, it wouldn't change the fact that the originals are out of production now.

[True Blue]

Of course it's good. The online shops of modern consoles are just a more convenient way of playing old games. If you really want the classic experience that badly nothing is stopping you from tracking down an old console.

In fact it's thanks to services like these that old games can live on. If they didn't exist, it wouldn't change the fact that the originals are out of production now.

I see I could have mentioned that in the first post. Well pointed out.

All future posters can take that also in consideration when stating your opinions.

[Eternal EX]

Uh blue, this topic is in the wrong section.

And I don't care about the VC.

[Tombi]

It's a pretty awesome feature to have, and all of the games I've downloaded from it thus far have been emulated perfectly for the most part. I also think the ability to play games from so many systems really shows just how powerful the Wii can be.

My only gripe with it is that Nintendo have a tendency to not really do anything with it for long periods of time; whilst biding your time and making people wait for 'the good stuff' is fine, you don't want to overdo it (especially when all you get for waiting is a bunch of old obscure japanese games they dug up from who knows where ). Also, for some silly reason it won't accept debit cards when trying to add points from the Wii itself, so whenever I need a top up I need to actually venture into Gamestation hoping they have some. (And sometimes they don't, they are actually fairly rare at times.)

So yeah, hopefully with all this talk of seperate hard drives and such Nintendo might get the itch to beef up the VC's selection a bit more, but until then it's still one of the best reasons to own a Wii.

[Thirsty Pocket]

It's my favorite part of the Wii by far.

After Starfox and Yoshi's Island come out though, I don't think there's much more to look forward to, unless they put gameboy and gameboy advanced games on the list. ( Well okay, I really want EarthBound, but It's pretty much less than 1% Likely to happen now... )

Im hoping for Rampage: World Tour, but I don't know the status of that game.

There's a lot of neat games that probably won't be seen because their owners are dead or sold to another company. Data East had Joe & Mac, and Burger Time...

[Mollfie]

I love VC, but I still love playing games on their original console for the nostalgia. Though it really sucks when they break ;_;

[NeoV2]

Well VC would be alot better if they wouldnt take their sweet time putting the games up for download. I mean pokemon stadium isnt even on there

[JezMM]

Well VC would be alot better if they wouldnt take their sweet time putting the games up for download. I mean pokemon stadium isnt even on there

While Pokémon Stadium and it's sequel were fine games, is there any point? You'd be limited to using Rental Pokémon due to lack of GB transfer functionality.

The only way I could see it being worthwhile is making it a full complex port in which, via the Game Boy tower, you can access emulations of Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow (Gold/Silver/Diamond for Stadium 2... or combine Stadium 1 and 2 together and allow all six games) to play on and gain Pokémon with.

That'd be pretty awesome, though would certainly beef the price up a bit if it happened...

[Phos]

Overall, the VC has pretty bad emulation and a restricted selection of games. It's also lacking LOCK-ON TECHNOLOGY!!

[Ultimate Chimera]

The Virtual Console WOULD be awesome if not for the fact that any and all console add-ons and/or attachments seem to be unsupported.

If other words:

No NES/SNES lightgun games (no Duck Hunt...sob)

No games requiring N64 expansions (No Majoras Mask... more sob)

No Genesis 32X or CD games (Sonic CD, Knuckles Chaotix...)

And no SNES FX chip games (Yoshis Island, Star Fox...)

So, to be frank, until Nintendo can get all of the above to work, i'm sticking with my emulators TYVM.

[famicommander]

I'm a collector. I prefer owning tangible objects.

[Lucky]

It's an awesome feature to have of course, and as Jez pointed out earlier in the topic, it's a way for the classics to live on. I'm sure there are loads of people who would never discover some old gems if it wasn't for services like that.

Personally though, it's not a thing I make much use of. I mean, it's nifty to be able to do things like this from the comfort of your own home, and obviously it saves a lot of trouble of hooking/unhooking/searching for consoles, wires, etc. since you have them all on one convenient system, but if you ask me, nothing beats playing a game on the platform it was originally on. If I want to play a Mega Drive game, I'll dig an MD out, because it just doesn't feel right to me if I don't have to slot the cartridge in then sit there with a proper MD controller in my hands if I'm playing, say, Sonic the Hedgehog. I suppose I just give myself extra hassle, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of them that way, so it's worth it.

I suppose nostalgia's a pretty big part of it really.

Plus like the above poster, I have a thing about owning tangible objects, so yeah. It's just really boring for me to select something from a list on-screen. I have to have games sitting there with their box, manual, and any possible other extras at hand.

Edited March 16, 2009 by Lucky Winters

[Link451]

With Sonic I already have them all on SMC+, Gems and the likes, but it's still a good thing for people who don't have them I suppose. I'd still say overall that buying the Sonic collections is more worth it though. As it stands, I still do use VC for other games that I used to love but don't really have access to otherwise anymore, like Super Mario 64, Star Fox and Paper Mario.

[JezMM]

Overall, the VC has pretty bad emulation and a restricted selection of games. It's also lacking LOCK-ON TECHNOLOGY!!

Pretty bad emulation? The old 16-bit and below games emulate perfectly, and I'm yet to have any problems with my N64 ones... in fact the only oddity I've had is the level clear screen being a little messed up on Yoshi's Story. And Paper Mario emulates better than it does on my PC emulator.

If they can emulate it on Sonic Mega Collection, they can emulate it on VC. I'm assuming they're just trying to figure out the best way to publish it: Make it one complete game? Offer free download if you already have Sonic 3 and Sonic&K?

The Virtual Console WOULD be awesome if not for the fact that any and all console add-ons and/or attachments seem to be unsupported.

If other words:

No NES/SNES lightgun games (no Duck Hunt...sob)

No games requiring N64 expansions (No Majoras Mask... more sob)

No Genesis 32X or CD games (Sonic CD, Knuckles Chaotix...)

And no SNES FX chip games (Yoshis Island, Star Fox...)

So, to be frank, until Nintendo can get all of the above to work, i'm sticking with my emulators TYVM.

Light gun games can't be emulated, but they can be ported and designed to work with the Wiimote. It's possible.

I dunno about 32X, but CD games are just too big to download tangibly due to the high quality music files most use. When the Wii's storage is sorted out, this could be a possibility.

Expansion pack N64 games would be fine. If you can emulate it on GCN, you can do it on Wii. Each downloaded game has it's own "emulation profile" so to speak, so I'm pretty sure it only takes a tiny bit of coding within this "profile" to tell the game "Yes! The expansion pack is plugged in!", and the fact that the Wii has more than enough memory than the expansion pack ever did will solve the rest. I imagine Majora's Mask is taking a while because they might still be trying to fix that freezing bug from the GCN version.

And once again, if a standard emulator can handle FX chip games, so can Nintendo's own if they make it so. The FX chip was inside the game cartridges after all, not an add-on for the Snes itself (and even if it was it'd still be possible to emulate).

I always find it odd when people use a lack of perfection in legal emulation to justify use of computer emulators also, lol. I'm happy to give Nintendo money for my favourite games all over again because they're so good they deserve it IMO.

[True Blue]

I don't own a Wii, so I don't have much to say about the VC. I guess I'd like it.

It's an awesome feature to have of course, and as Jez pointed out earlier in the topic, it's a way for the classics to live on. I'm sure there are loads of people who would never discover some old gems if it wasn't for services like that.

Personally though, it's not a thing I make much use of. I mean, it's nifty to be able to do things like this from the comfort of your own home, and obviously it saves a lot of trouble of hooking/unhooking/searching for consoles, wires, etc. since you have them all on one convenient system, but if you ask me, nothing beats playing a game on the platform it was originally on. If I want to play a Mega Drive game, I'll dig an MD out, because it just doesn't feel right to me if I don't have to slot the cartridge in then sit there with a proper MD controller in my hands if I'm playing, say, Sonic the Hedgehog. I suppose I just give myself extra hassle, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of them that way, so it's worth it.

I agree with you on that.

Plus like the above poster, I have a thing about owning tangible objects, so yeah. It's just really boring for me to select something from a list on-screen. I have to have games sitting there with their box, manual, and any possible other extras at hand.

I feel the same way with an emulator.

Edited March 16, 2009 by True Blue

[BlitzChris]

The wii/xbox needs a megadrive controller. A SNES controller would also work well, and i'm sure microsoft and nintendo could make them wireless.

A wireless Megadrive controller would be pure heaven..and i'm talking an ACTUAL megadrive controller...not like..a cheap rip off, with different shaped buttons or some other rubbish..

[True Blue]

The wii/xbox needs a megadrive controller. A SNES controller would also work well, and i'm sure microsoft and nintendo could make them wireless.

A wireless Megadrive controller would be pure heaven..and i'm talking an ACTUAL megadrive controller...not like..a cheap rip off, with different shaped buttons or some other rubbish..

Like this one? (http://cre.ations.net/creation/wireless-se...troller-for-wii)

I was like "WOW!" when DimensionWarped showed it in another forum.

I'm not sure if it's possible to order, though.

Edited March 16, 2009 by True Blue

[Kiljoy]

I use a PC emulator which has thousands of older games, including the Master system and Genesis sonic games. It's not illegal btw, it's 5 bucks a month, totally worth it. I also use my PS3's Street fighter 4 fight pad, which feels like an old school controller - http://www.astoreastang.com/wp-content/upl...20ps3-small.jpg

[Jix Hedgehog]

VC is alright, gives the new generation of gamers a chance to explore what the rest of us were lucky enough to grow up with.

But on the other hand, who hasn't got Super Mario Bros on cartridge or a Genesis tucked away somewhere

[Blacklightning]

Well hey, if it keeps the nostaligafags happy, by all means re-release old games again. Me personally, I'd rather be breaking into new territory instead. Don't get me wrong, it's good to have especially for a nostaliga fix when you lose your original carts, but personally I find that basing success so strongly off it these days comes off as a little... lazy, imo.

[MilesDX]

If I could list the countless times I've double dipped (bought repackaged or redesigned versions of games I own) I could be listing them for hours. Even with this though I still enjoy the classic, original (or as some might say right way) to play these games.

After all, as was mentioned before there is only so much that can be emulated when updating these games for newer consoles. For example I doubt there will ever be a collection or release (especially on the VC) that would include the 3D master system games. I'm not sure if anyone has tried this but when you play those 3D games on a HD TV the 3D effect no longer exists (instead of displaying two images to be put together by the glasses the TV would put the images together for you removing the need for the glasses and 3D effect).

So there is a limit as to what can and can't be emulated. I'm not saying that if Sega (or whoever does the VC emulations for them) tried they could get problems like the 3D one I mentioned to work. Even if they did these games fall under the category of needing an add-on/accessory that isn't compatible with the Wii.

On the other hand games that needed the Activator or Nintendo's power glove could be ported if given time.

Due to issues and problems like these I prefer to get the original and save the hassle (also I agree the rate at which news games are added to the VC is terrible).

But I also enjoy releases on the VC since they play on my HD TV no problem. Luckily though I have two CRTs in my garage that I take out whenever I need them.

It really is a matter of choice. Do you enjoy playing them on an HD TV (especially if that is the only kind you have)? Or do you prefer using the hardware it was intended for, and if you have the right accessories do you enjoy the advantage? If you don't have the right or all the accessories do you still prefer the feel and the nolstagia value of playing the game on the original?