Nintendo Wii Video Service Coming Soon

It looks like Nintendo wants to join the online video content party.  I've never been a huge fan of video via gaming systems even with the success of the XBox 360 and PlayStation3 video streaming available today.  Throwing the Wii into the mix seems kind of silly to me when the video output is so minimal, but I guess if they focus on cartoons, television and SD quality movies and keep it cheap enough it might be a draw for the multitudes of Wii owners.

Nintendo plans on launching the video service sometime next year and will only air “cartoons and other entertainment content” exclusive to the Nintendo service.  No pricing was announced, but the press release states there will be some commercial-supported free service as well as a premium service available.

Although a set pricing model has not been announced, the original news report claims some offerings will be premium while others free but ad supported.

via FormatWarCentral and Washington Post

Walk the Streets With Your Wii Balance Board

I'm still trying to find a Wii Balance Board from the Nintendo Wii Fit package to add to my growing Wii controller graveyard. 
When I do get one though, I've found the perfect way to take an imaginary walk to go with my imaginary workout ;)  It's the Wii Balance Board Google Street Walk - check it out in the video below


via WiiBlog

Wii Twilight Hack Detailed for Homebrew and Emulators

If you've been following the Nintendo Wii news you might already know that some inventive folks have come up with a way to allow homebrew games as well as emulators on the Nintendo Wii using a copy of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess game. 

 

 

 

 

The Twilight hack isn't the easiest thing to do and I haven't tried it myself, but here's a video of a guy running a homebrew version of Tetris on his system after "installing" the Twilight Hack.

Pretty nifty - especially when you realize this opens up the Wii world to free emulator games and probably more.  Here's what has been released via the Hack so far:

• Proof of concept version of Linux for the Wii
• MP3 Player
• Super Nintendo emulator (Nintendo won't be too happy about this one)

 

There's a tutorial on getting the Wii homebrew working, but I probably won't be trying this.  It's a little too much work for me and I don't want to take the chance of breaking my Wii (that sounds bad now that I see it in words).

 

NINTENDO UPDATES TO 3.2 MENU - IT DOESN'T BREAK THE TWILIGHT HACK

Here's what my Wii screen said as I was doing the update last night:

Dear Customer,
Nintendo would like to inform you that a Wii Menu update is now available. Select the Update button on the right to update your Wii Console.
From this version of the Wii Menu onwards, Wii System Update will be displayed in the Disc Channel when you insert a Wii Disc that contains an update for the Wii Menu or for a Channel on the Wii Menu.
If the update contained on the Disc is not necessary for your Wii console, the Disc Channel will be displayed normally.
Note: if you have already updated your Wii console since 26 February 2008, you do not need to update again.
Nintendo

There was speculation that this updated would break the hack, but there has been multiple confirmations that it does not.  Looks like the update is to allow you to check Wi-Fi rankings of other people with Wii's - such as for the upcoming Mario Kart game.

via slashdot

Virtual Reality Wii Remote Hack

Whether you are a hard-core gamer or a casual gamer, Johnny Chung Lee's latest Wii hack will be of interest to you.  Late December, Mr. Lee posted this video showing off a simple, but amazingly realistic virtual reality head tracker. 

 

The hack basically turns your TV into a live window - imagine looking out of a window of a spacecraft as objects are moving and as you move around in the room, you see different things through that window.  Take the time to watch this 5 minute video.  Don't let the geekiness of it all keep you from making it to the middle of the video - I promise it's worth it.  The effect is one you just have to see to totally understand so without further discussion here it is:

I must say it would be rather easy for game console makers to incorporate this type of functionality into their games and would open up another level of reality to your video games.  You may have already seen this video since it's already been viewed over 2 Million times, but I wanted to share it with you just in case.

Lee has the software you can download on his project page and try this for your self with just a Wii remote.

To see more of Mr. Lee's Wii projects, head over to his website

Wii Consoles On Sale at Amazon Halloween Day

Still don't have a Nintendo Wii Game Console???

Seems like most of you likely already have a Wii Game console by now. If not, Amazon will be selling an unspecified number of Wii game consoles tomorrow, Wednesday, October 31st beginning at noon CST (1 pm EDT).

Check Amazon for a Nintendo Wii Console HERE

via NintendoWiiFanboy

If that doesn't work out for you try the how-to in the second half of this post.

Geek Halloween Costumes Collection

As a "tech-savvy" Halloween party-goer you are probably looking for the best Halloween Costumes for the coming Halloween Party Season.  Well today I bring you the top geek costume ideas for your reading and viewing pleasure.

Wii-mote Costume

 

Zune Costume - no photos, but why not?  If apple can have costumes, then any music player can right?

iPhone Costume - iomarch has this iPhone costume and it's pretty nice.  Includes widgets as well!

 

The always popular iPod Costume

Tivo Costume (flickr photo from jackmon)

This guy spent some serious cash on his robot costume

Rubiks Cube Costume - with a how-to photoset on flickr by mecredis

Motorola Costume by mecredis (with a how-to photoset)

Wearable Pacman Arcade Machine 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PacMan & Ghost

 

Star Wars Stormtrooper

Lego Costume

 

Ugly Betty

 

 

Powerloader?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to geek out your dog for Halloween?

How about Space Ranger for your dog!

Or a nice Darth Vader costume for fido?

 

Yoda?

 

If you want more then head over to Wired's flickr photo pool for more geek costumes

Have another some-what geekish Halloween costume idea?  Let me know in the comments.

More Halloween Themed Posts:

30 - Plus Websites for free Jack-O-Lantern Templates for Halloween

30 Halloween Themed Wallpapers / Backgrounds for your Computer

Halloween Computer Mods: Using a Pumpkin as a Computer Case

Make Your Own Halloween Hologram

A doorbell "shocker" for scaring your Halloween victims (Don't try this at home)

 

STAY UP-TO-DATE AT THE GEEK TONIC BLOG & SUBSCRIBE IN RSS READER

OR SUBSCRIBE TO THE POSTS BY EMAIL

Weekend Project: Find Worthy Nintendo Wii Games

This past Summer I scoured the internet for ways to find a Wii Console.  They were never available in my city when I looked for them.  In the end, I found them using a little trick I discovered using a back door website for Gamestop - I'll get to that later.  Anyway, here I am many months later with zero games purchased.  That's right, all I have for games are the standard Wii Sports that comes with the console.  Your mission this weekend and early next week is to help me find the best and most worthy Wii games you think I should purchase. 

Yes Wii Sports is an excellent package of games that we actually still enjoy.  Regardless, I desperately need to justify my Wii purchase and to do that I need some good games that make use of the motion sensing Wiimotes.

WII GAMES ON MY PURCHASE LIST

Here's my initial list.  I haven't tried any of them so I'm looking for your advice if you have any experience with them.  Also, please give me some recommendations in the comments below of games you'd add to the list.

• Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• WarioWare: Smooth Moves
• Super Paper Mario
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• Madden NFL 07

Help!  My list is too short and I need some advice.  If you have any recommendations - or games I should stay away from let me know.

 

HOW TO FIND A WII IN STOCK IN YOUR AREA

Back to that backdoor site for finding a Wii console at Gamestop.  I'm guessing most of you are finding Wii Consoles easier now, but if not here's how I found mine:

1. Enter the following hyperlink into your web browser - LINK

2. You should see a page like this one (screen-shot of my area)

You can see that even today, there are none in stock at Gamestops near me.  (it often does say more on the way so don't get too excited about that)

3. Now in your browser link, change the zip=64158 to your local zip code and hit ENTER

4. It should bring up a list of all the stores in your area ranked by closest to that zip code.  The second column will show if that store has any units in stock.

5. If you really want one and it shows a unit in stock.  Call the store - don't wait as they sell fast.  If they say there is one in stock head over there now - as I said the sell fast so go get one if you want one.

 

There you have it.  A call for some help from my readers on recommended Wii Games and a tip from me on how to find a Wii Console.  Happy Gaming and Have a Great Weekend!

RELATED STORIES:

Review of the wireless sensor bar

Get a Free Cushion Remote Jacket for Your Wii Remote

Wii Hacked: Play DVD's with a Wii Console

Convert Classic Nintendo Controllers to work with Wii

 

SUBSCRIBE IN RSS READER

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL

Nyko Wii Wireless Sensor Bar On Sale for $9.00

If you own a Nintendo Wii Console and would like to place your Wii console somewhere away from the TV, then you might be interested in this deal from Amazon.com

Amazon has a one-day deal for the sensor bar at $8.99 & free shipping (usual price is $19.99) today.

I did a review of this wireless sensor bar a while back and recommend it for those of you who need one.

 Get Your Nyko Wireless Sensor Bar at Amazon.com

Get a Free Cushion Remote Jacket for Your Wii Remote

Do You own a Nintendo Wii Game Machine?  Nintendo is giving away free Wii Remote Jackets for anyone who owns a wii remote.  Why you might ask?  Well I'm thinking it has something to do with lawyers worrying about people being still not attaching the wrist strap to their arm and not holding the remote securely in their hand and then having it slip out of hand into tv, friend dog etc. and then causing a lawsuit.  Silly?  Yes.  Still, I'll be ordering one for each remote I own just because.... well because it's free and hey, my WiiMote probably needs a jacket for the winter.

Head over to Nintendo's site to order your Free Remote Jacket

 

Related Stories:

Wii Hacked: Play DVD's with a Wii Console

Convert Classic Nintendo Controllers to work with Wii

Nyko Wireless Wii Sensor Bar Review

You Can Find a Wii Console IN STOCK This Weekend

 

SUBSCRIBE IN RSS READER

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL

Wii Hacked: Play DVD's with a Wii Console

Per Digg, Team Symbiote (the makers of Wii-Boss) have released a DVD player Application for Wii. To do this, you would need a mod-chip on your Wii, which I won't be doing any time soon, but it does prove that the Wii that you and I own has the capability to view DVD movies just like its more powerful Xbox and PS3 cousins.

I presume the reason Nintendo doesn't just turn this functionality on via a simple firmware update is because they don't want to fund the license fees that would be required for such a function. Hopefully they will add this eventually to existing Wii's although I doubt it since it has already been announced that Nintendo will be selling DVD enabled Wii's sometime before the year is over.Once you have your modded Wii (not recommended by this Geek Tonic Blog by the way) Simply burn the ISO to DVD, boot it in your Wii and then swap it out for a DVD Movie. That's it :)

Via Nintendo Scene digg story

How To Convert Classic Nintendo Controllers to Work With Wii Console

With the Nintendo Wii there is support for the old NES, SNES and N64 games.

To play these games you can buy a "classic" controller for about $20. But what if you already have an old NES/SNES or N64 controller? Why can't you just use those? Well Raphaël Assénat has done just that. He created an adapter that took those older controllers and adapted them to a Gamecube-type adapter (the gamecube controllers are compatible with the Wii machine.)

Here's an Nintendo 64 Controller guts before being installed

He did this with a little more technical knowledge then I have so I'll leave in his words:

Because of the complexity of the Gamecube's controller protocol, it's not
possible to build a simple conversion circuit without using programmable
components. For this project, I used an atmel Atmega8 microcontroller. Maybe
it's a little overkill, but using this chip allowed me to use my Multiuse tiny 1
PCB. Given the small size of this circuit, it's possible to fit it inside an
original controller.

Here's a video of the N64 Controller to Wii Mod in action

He has a full how-to with loads of pictures, the programming firmware and sourcecode all on his site so go check it out.

Madden 08 For the Wii Get Ready For Some Football!

Are you ready for some football on the Wii? Madden 08 for the Wii Console will be out this Tuesday, August 14th and I plan to pick this one up this week for certain.

Here are a few of the features of the Wii's Madden 08:

• Exhibition match-ups
• Online lobby with real-time leaderboards
• EA Locker features
• EA “My Profile” when online, which includes country of origin, win/loss record, defensive percentage, overall ranking, and 5-star reputation score
• ESPN ticker updates
• Promised downloadable content such as roster updates planned for late 2008, early 2009
• Friend Code Implementation: Unknown as of right now, interface will be similar from other versions. Wii players will be able to randomly play against an opponent.
• No voice chat, but will offer EA’s instant-messaging system
• Telestrator (see video for explanation)
• Camera Controls using Wii controller
• Mii Support - link your stats to your mii character
• Offline: 22 different mini-games
• Party mode, allow players to play new drills such as the 40-yard dash, football mini-games, football trivia and more. Your performance in party mode will also affect your party mode rating, which can go as high as 99. This rating is recorded via your system’s own Mii roster.
  
  If you're still not yet excited about this new game, check out the video - This game will be a big hit for the Wii as well as Xbox360 and Playstation3.
  
  

Another Madden 08 trailer video showing some gameplay is below:

For more on the Wii, check out these articles

Wii Blaster & Wii Fit News

The latest out of Nintendo is the Wii Blaster and Wii Fit. The Blaster just looks purely awesome. New Wii Games: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, and Medal of Honor will use the new Zapper for their games. Check out the video below of the new blaster with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles:

Wii Fit actually looks like it might have potential. Check the preview video out below:

Credit: NintendoFanBoy for the blaster story

Nyko Wireless Wii Sensor Bar Review

A review of the Nyko Wireless Sensor Bar for the Wii - (or) - How to use the Wii when it isn't near the TV.

This past week I spent a great deal of time helping my dad set up a home theater in his theater/game room. In this room we installed a front-projection TV, a projector screen and the components that go along with it. One of the key components in my parents eyes was the Wii Game Machine. My folks love the Wii sports game and it is a favorite when they have their friends over so it was important to them to have the Wii work with the projector. The problem with this was that their home theater components were a great distance from the projection screen. Far enough that the wii sensor bar wouldn't reach. Thus began my search for a solution.

First it is important to explain what the sensor bar really does in the first place. The sensor bar doesn't really "sense" at all. Instead, it emits infrared lights from the right and left side of the sensor bar. The wiimote "reads" the infrared from the sensor and sends that information via bluetooth to the Wii console and thus tells it where the Wii remote is pointing. Thats about all it does. The cord going from the Nintendo Sensor Bar to the Wii powers the IR lights on the sensor bar.

I considered making a diy sensor bar with the help of this site or modding the original sensor bar like this, but it looked like more work then I had time for so I decided to buy the Nyko Sensor bar for $20 at Amazon. It was just too cheap to not try it!

The Nyko Sensor Bar comes packaged in a plastic tube

The Nyko Sensor Bar looks similar to the Nintendo's wired sensor bar except it is a bit bulkier, has a battery compartment on the bottom, a switch on the back that tells it whether to auto-off after one hour or two hours and a button on top to power it on. When its powered on, a blue led light glows on the front. The wireless sensor bar is powered by four AA batteries and Nyko includes a set of four batteries in the package. Nyko says it will allow up to thirty hours of use, but I wasn't able to test the play time (although it didn't run down the batteries after several days of play). Once you press the power on button, it will run for either one or two hours depending on the setting you select with the switch. Once it runs for that period of time, it begins beeping and flashing to warn you it will turn off soon. To avoid it turning off at this point, you press the power button for another hour or two of use.

Below is a photo of the Nyko Wireless Sensor Bar in front and the Nintendo Wired Sensor bar behind. Notice the IR lights on the left & right of the wireless sensor bar. These lights only show up in a photograph and can't be seen with the human eye. The bright blue led light close to the right side is the power on light
This is the bottom of the wireless sensor bar. The compartment for the AA batteries is found here.

On the top right of the wireless sensor bar is a power button and speaker for alerting you to a pending power off.

Nyko says it's wireless sensor bar has a 25 foot range compared to the standard sensor bar's somewhat shorter range. I had no problem with sensitivity of the controller after switching to the wireless sensor bar, but I did have to adjust the sensitivity settings a little. For our projector setup we put velcro on the bottom right and bottom left of the sensor bar and on the bottom of the projection screen so we could attach and remove the sensor bar when needed.

I highly recommend the Nyko Wireless Sensor Bar for anyone who needs to have the sensor bar and tv screen to be far away from the Wii console. The price is right and it does exactly what it's supposed to.

Internet Connect Your Wii Console - Get the Browser Free until July 1st

If you have a Wii Game Machine, but haven't yet connected it to the internet. Now is the time. You probably have a high-speed internet connection at home and likely even have WiFi at home. If so, you are ready to connect your Wii to the Internet.

What Can the Nintendo Wii do Online?

• Play Free Flash Games
• Purchase and Play Virtual Console Games (Virtual Console Games are games from older Nintendo Systems)
• Hook up with other Wii users & send messages, send pictures, share the Mii you created.
  View News & Weather
• Vote in Polls
• Play Games Against Others Online (Only Pokemon Battle Revolution can do this so far, but many more are coming)
• Update the Wii's firmware for new features
• View the Internet with the Opera Web Browser.

Get The Wii Internet Browser This Week While Its Free

Speaking of the Wii Opera Web Browser, according to the Opera Website, the Wii version of the Opera web browser will only be free until Saturday, June 30, 2007. Get it by Saturday since it is free for the life of the system because beginning July 1st, 2007 it will cost you about 500 Wii points (approximately $5).

For everything you need to know about hooking up your Wii console to the internet, check out Nintendo's setup page. There are good instructions with play-by-play pictures if you need it. Remember, if you have WiFi already, you don't need to buy anything to make it work on the internet. Just input your WiFi settings on the Wii and your ready to go.

Wii in Stock at CircuitCity.com $250 Hurry Though

The Bargainist is reporting that the Wii is currently in stock for $250 at their online site. I just confirmed at 3:50pm Central Time.

Hurry though, they'll probably not last long!

LINK

UPDATE: Looks like their sold out online. You might still check to see if your store has one using in-store pick-up. There aren't any in the Kansas City area where I live, but there might be one near you.

If their already sold out by the time you're reading this, here's some other ideas on finding a Wii in stock

Wii Games Ideas: Games They Should Make For The Wii

I've had my Wii game machine for several weeks now with just the Wii sports game that came with the machine. It is still very entertaining and a crowd favorite when we have people - young and old - over for visits. It obviously appeals to more than just the typical video-gamer types and therefore needs games that are designed especially with the motion sensing Wii controller in mind. Another thing that seems to appeal to people about the Wii is the way it is an interactive experience. This afternoon after working on another non-tech project around the home, I was daydreaming about some game ideas for the Wii. These are the types of games I think would sell and do very well on the Wii console:

Sports Oriented:

• Wii Sports 2 - rumored to be Swimming, Hockey, Volleyball, and Horse Riding
• More Wii Golf like the one for Wii sports except with more Golf courses for Wii Golf & more games of course.
• A Better Baseball Game (better than the one on Wii sports I mean) - I think that game will be the Bigs coming out tomorrow!


• Volleyball - This is another sport I think would work well with the Wii controllers
• Wrestling - Regular and Sumo - The holds, the moves, the slams....
• Family Games: Frisby Golf (yep its a sport and would work on the Wii), Horseshoes (or washers), Croquet, Badmitton - like tennis, mini-golf (put-put)
• Water Sports: Water Polo, Jet Ski / Water Ski
• Dirt Bike
• Playground Games: Dodgeball, Tetherball.... Don't say I'm crazy here, it is rumored to be coming from EA.


• Basketball - I don't think there is one for the Wii yet, but with the controls of the Wii this could be really fun to play.
• Fencing - Cmon', sword fighting with your friends without fear of dying.
• Summer Olympics: Lots of possibilities here like Track & Field
• Winter Olympics

Other Game Ideas:

• Casino: Poker - Texas Hold em and "scrap" poker games, Craps (imagine throwing the dice with your remote...), Roullette, Blackjack etc.
• Shooting Games: Cmon, we need a proper gun controller and then some good shooting games. Everyone talks about duck hunt, but there are lots of good shooting games that would work with the Wii and would appeal to large numbers.
• Bar Games: Darts, Foosball, Table Shuffleboard, Bar Fight :)
• Some sort of Pitfall game - swinging from the vines...
• Star Wars with light saber fights
• Donkey Kong
• Kung Fu Fighting - Karate
• Trivia Online - like NTN that could be played online or against others on your wii console

Lets not forget that we need real online playing also. Can't wait for that to arrive. Okay, back to reality. I really do like the Wii and I was a true gamer at one time. I would have been an Xbox 360 buyer, but the Wii really appealed to my entire family and is so popular for parties for my teen daughter as well as for the wife & I, the Wii was just too much to pass up on.

If you're still looking for a Wii Machine, you might want to check out this article on how to locate a Wii Game Machine.

Links I Recommend

1. 23 Tivo Hacks - I'm fond of Beyond TV instead of the Tivo, but for you Tivo folks, this is a good list of tips
2. Cablevision gets some backup on their network DVR Legal Battle
3. The Cost of Adding CableCARD - It's Not $20
4. Review of Wireless Rear Speaker Kit
5. How To Download & Watch YouTube on Windows Mobile
6. Powerglove Wiimote
7. How to objectively judge the best picture when shopping for a new TV

Introducing the Wii Media Center HTPC

The Wii Media Center from Red Kawa:

Want to take your Wii console and use it as a Media Center of sorts? Try out the new, free multimedia server developed by Red Kawa made especially for the Wii. It allows you to stream certain types of video, music and picture files from your Windows, Mac and Linux PC to your Wii using flash. It's in its infancy, but looks pretty interesting. I'll be trying this one on my new Nintendo Wii this week for sure.

For the download and details go to the Red Kawa Site

per Hackzine

7 Friday Links

1 - Un-watermarking ITunes Plus - I don't think this is necessary, but for those of you who are paranoid....
2 - Lifehacker Top 10 Network Utilites - some of my favorite Network Utilities here
3 - Get Your DRM-Free Music From Warner While You Can - It won't last for long
4 - Who Knew That Fishermen Don't Know old Undersea Copper Cables from Important Undersea Fiber Optic Cables? funny story, but not...
5 - Inside the YouTube of Games - Kongregate is working to be the YouTube of games. I wrote about it in an earlier blog post here
6 - HTPC Media Center for $60 - Using Media Portal and an underpowered PC for watching divx/mp3's
7 - Updates on S1Digital CableCARD Enabled PC's - From Chris Lanier's Blog

Have a great weekend!
Don't forget you can find a Wii this weekend at CircuitCity and you can get DivxPro for free today.