The Tendo Project – Daily Nintendo News

So we’re doing this "trying something new" thing. We want you to head out this weekend with a challenge and we’ll do a different one each weekend. If they take off, we’ll start offering prizes!

Basically it’s the "Thank God It’s Friday" Challenge where we assign you, the Vooks readers, to a Nintendo-related challenge over the weekend. Now every reader of the site won’t have every game so we’re doing a retro and a modern version – but we might not stick to this specific theme.

This week’s challenge is:

We want to see how well you guys can Kart, and you’re going to be playing Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 64. We’re doing a simple time attack on Rainbow Road and want you guys to race on one of the Rainbow Roads (or both) and clock the fastest time. Virtual Console or actual N64 shots accepted.

When it comes to preservation, video games are problematic. Hardware becomes outdated and the media that houses game code becomes obsolete, not to mention the legal issues with emulation. In short, one day, there may not be a way to play Super Metroid at all, and that's a scary thought. A new paper from the International Journal of Digital Curation, called "Keeping the Game Alive: Evaluating Strategies for the Preservation of Console Video Games," suggests several ways this problem can be tackled, and the pros and cons of each approach.

First, there's what the paper calls the museum approach, which is just what it sounds like: keeping the original copies of both game hardware and software in playable form. But since most consoles feature proprietary parts that are discontinued along with the system, this is really only a temporary solution, as eventually the consoles will break down and there will be no parts left to repair them.

Magnavox Odyssey.

Another approach outlined in the piece is backwards compatibility. This process is a great way of letting players enjoy old games, but it's not designed with preservation in mind: just because I can play GameCube games on my Wii doesn't mean I can play them forever. It's also not a guarantee, as the removal of backwards compatibility from the PlayStation 3 has shown us.

So the answer seems to lie in digital preservation, and the paper outlines two different options: the migration approach and emulation. Both allow you to play old software on modern computers, but present legal issues when it comes to ownership of the original game code.

The 27-page paper does a good job of outlining the potential upsides and downfalls of each of the various strategies, and is well worth a read for anyone interested in video game preservation. The conclusion notes that the only real possible, long-term solution is emulation, and that would only be possible with the consent and cooperation of hardware manufacturers, game developers, and publishers.

Read the comments on this post

We may have found out who won the Coin Battle challenge, theres still one more competition to be won from the recent Connection Tour hosted by Nintendo of Australia. That of course is the Mario impersonator competition. There are five finalists that have been selected and its up to you to determine who is number one.

Click the image to vote!

Community input on the best Mario is heavily weighted, but the final decision will come down to the actual voice of Mario himself, the delightful Charles Martinet. The best Mario impersonator will win a Mario Prize Pack featuring a Wii, Nintendo DSi XL and a collection of Mario games and figurines. Head over to the Nintendo Australia to place your vote.

Speaking to the Japanese wing of news co. Bloomberg, Mr. Yasushi Hiroshi Minagawa has apparently indicated that the 3DS will indeed be ready to launch in the land of the rising sun this October.

It was announced earlier this week that Nintendo would be unveiling the release date and pricing for the 3DS on September 29.

Nintendo has previously said that the 3DS will launch by the end of their fiscal year. That includes anywhere from October to March next year.

If indeed true, that means we’re in for one hell of a Tokyo Game Show, which runs from September 16th to 19th. This year’s TGS precludes the September 29th announcement of the release date and price, but an earlier than expected Japanese 3DS launch means that we can expect an avalanche of software to be on show.

This report of course, all hinges on Gamespot’s interpretation of the article published in Japanese by Bloomberg. The only indication of an ‘October’ release is the mention of a third quarter release, which could mean the third fiscal quarter. As such, this may just be a mistranslation and the 3DS will in fact be shipping next year.

Source: Bloomberg via Gamespot

Speaking to the Japanese wing of news co. Bloomberg, Mr. Yasushi Hiroshi Minagawa has apparently indicated that the 3DS will indeed be ready to launch in the land of the rising sun this October.

It was announced earlier this week that Nintendo would be unveiling the release date and pricing for the 3DS on September 29.

Nintendo has previously said that the 3DS will launch by the end of their fiscal year. That includes anywhere from October to March next year.

If indeed true, that means we’re in for one hell of a Tokyo Game Show, which runs from September 16th to 19th. This year’s TGS precludes the September 29th announcement of the release date and price, but an earlier than expected Japanese 3DS launch means that we can expect an avalanche of software to be on show.

Source: Bloomberg via Gamespot

Tired of needlessly sawing off your own limbs in order to live out your most surreal fantasies of being a pirate? You can stop the self-mutilation today, as Family Pirate Party (Arc System Works, 500 points) has hit the WiiWare store. Yup, this pirate themed cel-shaded boardgame is just what self-induced scurvy sufferers nationwide have been waiting for. Roll the dice and play against three other people and see who can collect the most gold. If your pirate antics have scared all your friends and loved ones away, you’ll be able to play against the CPU, so there’s no need to put away the cutlass just yet! There’ll be a bunch of additional maps available for purchase as well.

Also sailing onto the WiiWare store is Dive: The Medes Islands Secret (Cosmonaut Games, 1000 points). It’s a diving game that will have you avoiding nasty creatures of the deep as you seek out lost treasures in sunken ships strewn across the ocean floor.

We have more incoming monster action for DSi this week as Crystal Monsters (Gameloft, 500 points) hits the DSiWare store. This new title has players seeking out and collecting monsters and training them in order to hone their skills as a Monster Breeder. Yup, zero points for originality, but there’s 160 monsters to collect, grouped together across nine different elemental types.

Virtual Console fans unfortunately get nothing. My recommendation: replay Super Metroid, ‘cause me reckons that Other M will have a release date very soon, and it’s super-fun to get hyped up for whats bound to be a great game.

The finalists from the New Super Mario Bros Wii National Coin Challenge had their grand final yesterday. The their long journey from Connection Tour winner to national champion is now complete. Nintendo says that over 1500 people entered into the competition at the Tours and these people are the best of the best.

The winners were Sandra and Andrew Dare, siblings from New South Wales, who took out the Tag Team Championship, and to Brendan Robeson from Western Australia who won the Individual Battle. Brendan is a member of this very site, and were glad to see him get up on top.

The winners dont just get a fancy trophy and title, no, Nintendo has gone all out with trips for all of them to New York, including all flights and accommodation, as well as $1000 to spend big at the Nintendo World Store!

Bravo to the winners. Look for our full battle report including pictures and video from the event – it was a fabulous day were told. Stick to Vooks for more.

Nintendo has released its quarterly earnings for the period April to June 2010. It’s more bad news than good with sales down 25% and operating income down a massive 45%. Nintendo also recorded its first loss in some time, a massive 25.22 billion yen.

So what’s the matter? Well, Wii sales are still up, but DS hardware and software sales for both consoles are down. The fact that Nintendo sells most of its wares overseas means that the weak Yen is hurting them badly.

There was some good news though, Super Mario Galaxy 2 has now surpassed 4 million copies sold worldwide. There was also some minor release date information revealed with The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword set for a 2011 release (which we already knew) for Western countries. Japan though has it set as TBA.

Nintendo pinning its hopes on the Nintendo 3DS as the Nintendo DS is now selling well, but it’s too cheap to be really profitable.

In a continuing trend of companies announcing announcements Nintendo Japan has announced via a statement to Bloomberg Japan that the release date will come on September 29th. No, we won’t be getting the device then, but we’ll be able to find out when we will be able to buy the 3DS and how much it will cost.

Prices have already been floating around the world but they’re totally speculation at this point. So here’s our tip, we think the 3DS will slot in at the current DSi XL price point. Don’t hold us to it.

Release date though? We’ll leave the speculation to you, the reader.