8BitKid: Living Bit by Bit

Nintendo just announced plans to bring the Virtual Boy library to the Wii Virtual Console in late Q3. The much maligned (and in my opinion, misunderstood) console is going to be given a second chance. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said, “the Virtual Boy was a console that was ahead of its time. The public was not ready to experience that level of gaming. However, as we have clearly shown with the Wii, gamers are now craving a more immersive experience, and we feel that this is the perfect time to give them the opportunity to rediscover the innovation of the Virtual Boy.”

The Virtual Boy was launched by Nintendo in 1995, and provided the user with a 3D gaming experience through the use of a specialized lens system that was housed in headgear. The user would look into the unit and would control the gameplay via a wired controller. Only 14 games were released in the US. Many gamers complained about eyestrain, headaches, and about the generally poor experience it offered due to the fact that all games could only use the red as the color palette. The much-derided system had a relatively short lifespan; being discontinued the following year.

For the resuscitation, Nintendo will be selling a new set of VR goggles that will plug into the Wiimote much in the same way as the classic controller. This add-on will retail for $39.99 when the titles hit the Wii store. As an added bonus, the 5 Virtual Boy games that were only previously sold in Japan will be localized and available for the first time to US gamers as well.

Fils-Aime summarized the decision this way, “we revolutionized gaming with the Wii, and we are looking forward to leveraging that success to get the chance to frustrate a whole new generation of gamers with the Virtual Boy.”

- This article is a complete farse. Happy April Fools’ Day! Enjoy an original commercial for the system:

I am a fairly substantial Nintendo fanboy. I may have strayed from the SNES and N64, but the NES was my formative console, and I’ve had every portable they have produced (unless you count the Virtual Boy). When the Wii came out, one of my major reasons for purchasing it was the potential to play all of those back-catalogue games near and dear to my heart through the Virtual Console. It has been a joy rediscovering old favorites, and being able to play through “Super Mario Brothers 3″ again takes me back to my brother and I sitting in our family room negotiating with our mom over how many levels we could complete before we absolutely had to come in for dinner.

So, as a man who spends his life on the road, I want to be able to take this nostalgia with me. Considering the available horsepower of the DS combined with its WiFi capabilities, I am dismayed to not be able to have my Virtual Console locker be portable. My dream setup would be that I could transfer my VC titles from my Wii to my DS via wireless connectivity or have access to a DS store via WiFi for purchasing on the go. Nintendo already has licensing deals in place to provide catalogue access to systems like the Genesis, TurboGrafx 16, Neo Geo, etc., and could offer handheld consoles from the portable timeline like Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket, Game Gear, and all the rest. Additionally, Nintendo could leverage their kiosks and WiFi download locations as distribution points for VC. They have great infrastructure already in place that they could leverage to help roll out DS Virtual Console access to the masses. Nintendo could offer a unified mobile platform for all classic gaming.

Nintendo complains about the financial damages it suffers due to piracy, specifically from flash cards. For the uninitiated, a flash card is a rewritable memory card for the DS that allows gamers to run downloaded software on the DS. While these products can be used for law-abiding, non-copyright-infringing purposes liking running homebrew, I am sure that a majority of purchasers of these flash cards are using them to pirate games. However, there are people who see these cards as a way to run emulators to achieve the goal of classic gaming on the go. A DS VC would at least provide a solution for this flavor of gamers who want nothing more than to play “Megaman 4″ while stuck in line at the airport (I fall into that camp)

So, Nintendo, I implore you: please let me go retro with my DS. Let me enjoy a round of “Bomberman ‘93″ while stuck on the subway. Save me from wasting nights scouring the depths of the internet to learn about obscure emulator ports to debate whether I want to go through the effort just to play “Ice Hockey” in bed. My DS rarely leaves my side, and I would love it if Nintendo would create a portable Virtual Console so the classics can travel with me as well.

- images courtesy of nintendo.com

So on Sunday I went to celebrate Easter at my friends’, Steve and Kristin’s, house. While it for some reason involved an unusual amount of sombrero wearing, it also brought that standard excellent food, candy, and fun. In addition, they gave me my birthday present (we celebrated the week before; I was born on the “Ides of March”). Kristin made this most awesome throwback piece for me, and I was giddy when I got it. Now to find the wall space…

Every Monday I volunteer at 826LA to help kids with their homework and independent writing projects. Last week, the person I was tutoring finished all of his homework, and so we perused the book collection looking for something fun. He settled on a “Where’s Waldo?” book, and so we got to work putting our sleuthing skills to the test.

I had forgotten how much I had loved these books growing up, and so in my quest to get back in touch with my inner Waldo, found a site that has embedded a Nintendo emulator (thanks to Java) to play the NES Waldo game. Enjoy!

- Play “Where’s Waldo?” courtesy of “1980 Games”

So I have yet to make the plunge into the world of massively-multiplayer online games. I find that they are too time-consuming and the scale and scope of the genre seems a bit overwhelming. On the flip-side, I don’t find open-ended virtual worlds like “Second Life” satisfying because they lack structure. I don’t have the patience or initiative for this kind of freedom.

However, the Lego MMO, being developed by NetDevil, may be the game that finally entices me into the genre. “Lego Universe” will encourage users to explore an online world that leverages what has always made the toys fun: free-form building. Legos were a key part of my childhood; pushing my imagination and creativity as I enjoyed building whatever I could think of. My brother and I spent countless hours sifting through bins of Legos just to find that perfect piece for our creations. Now, in “Lego Universe”, not only can you build online, you can actually have those digital Lego structures sent to you as real Lego sets. How cool is that?

This game could be a crossover smash hit, and I agree with the “Wired” blog post which suggests that this could be the Wii of MMO’s. Check out the trailer below for an idea of what is in store.

Wow. I mean, wow. This is the union of two of the most important things in my life: Nerf Guns and video games. *Sniffle* (of joy). May heaven help those I work with…

- image courtesy of Shacknews

So as I have professed to previously, I am a big fan of the “Phoenix Wright” series for the Nintendo DS. Currently I am playing through the third installment, “Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations”. While working on a case the other night, I came across this particular scene:

So there is a reason that this is funny besides the reference to hemorrhoids: friends of mine are in a band called “Harlem Shakes” (check them out!). So when this bit of dialogue popped up on the screen, I had a nice chortle at the coincidence. So, “Shakes” fans, here is yet another reason to play this fantastic Capcom title.

Listen to: Harlem Shakes - “Sickos”

I came across this trailer for a Japanese puzzle-based adventure game series that will be debuting in the U.S. on February 10th. It seems to be 1 part “Phoenix Wright”, 1 part “Howl’s Moving Castle”, and 1 part “Brain Age”. Either way, I am a big fan of the point-and-click adventure genre, and between the Miyazaki-inspired art-style and use of logic puzzles it seems like a winner to and for me. Check out the trailer below.

Capcom’s “Phoenix Wright” games are an absolute blast. There is nothing quite like playing a “laywer sim” that combines the excitement of an “Encyclopedia Brown” case with a dash of “Choose Your Own Adventure”, “Law and Order,” and “CSI”. As a result of working my way through the series, I do find myself yelling “objection!” a lot more, and it has rekindled my love of old mystery shows (”Matlock”, “Father Dowling”, “Murder She Wrote”, etc.)

The newest installment is called, “Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney”, and will be landing on the Nintedo DS in February.

After the jump you can play a flash demo of the game courtesy of Capcom that gives a flavor of what we have to look forward to.

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