November 30, 2006

I finally received my Wii component cable, which I ordered before I even had a Wii, allowing me to run in 480p mode on my Pioneer plasma as well as providing a higher detail overall image with more accurate colors. I've taken some comparative photos of various Wii screens as seen through both the stock composite and the new component cables.

Have a look for yourself.

November 26, 2006

I love Super Mario 64. It may be the best game I've ever played. It's basically perfect.

As everyone reading this knows, SM64 debuted as a launch title on the Nintendo 64 back in 1996 and it, alone, justified the purchase of the console. Being such a big fan of the game, the first thing I did when I got my Wii was to download SM64 for its Virtual Console, just to check it out. I was also curious to see how well the Wii would handle N64 emulation in general.

Well, the game runs as smooth as glass and the audio seems perfect, which was great to see. But I noticed something else. The polygons looked a little cleaner. Were my eyes tricking me? I fired up my trusty N64 on the same TV and started switching between it and the Wii, looking at various screens to make sure. I quickly confirmed what I had suspected. Super Mario 64 on the Wii renders at a much higher resolution than on the Nintendo 64.

As is the case with most N64 games, SM64 runs in a non-interlaced 320x240 screen mode on the N64. When modern, progressive-scan TVs encounter such a signal, they double-scan them up to 480p. My 50-inch Pioneer PDP-5060 plasma display is one such television. It doesn't anti-alias or work any other such magic to smooth out the image, so the 320x240 source is rendered in all its original blocky goodness, but at 480p. The absence of said blocky goodness in the Wii's rendering of the game indicates that the SM64 engine has been modified to output at the Wii's native resolution of ~640x480 progressive. That's right - it's too clean to be general jaggy-smoothing laid onto the 320x240 feed on the way out the door.

To illustrate my point, I have taken several crude photos of the same scene in the game as rendered on both systems. The N64 is tied to the TV via s-video while the Wii is a composite source (my component cables are on back-order - damn you, Nintendo). As such, the color fidelity of the N64 should appear superior to that of the Wii. Have a look at the side-by-side photo gallery.

The nice take-away is this: Rejoyce, SM64 nuts, Mario's first (and best) foray into 3D is now here in high res!

November 26, 2006

New consoles everywhere. Playstation 3. XBOX 360. Wii.

So, I got a Wii. Yes, I got in the car at 6:30 in the morning and drove to the Bailey's Crossroads Best Buy in Arlington, VA and got in line. I was #53. They had 87 units, so I got one when the store opened at 9. It was an interesting experience. Right of passage, etc. And I took some pictures.

The controller is as good or better than I imagined it could be. Excellent stuff. I'm having fun with Zelda, Monkey Ball, Wii Sports, and Need For Speed: Carbon. What might even be more fun is the Nintendo Virtual Console that runs retro games downloaded from Nintendo. Some of the supported systems: Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, NEC TurboGrafx 16, NES, SNES, Nintendo 64. Greanted, I don't need Nintendo taking me by the hand to get retro games up and running, but it's nice how easy it makes it for lay folk.

I can't wait for Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid 3!