Is it me, or is the split screen feature slowly fading away from mainstream? I was reminiscing about the old days of the N64, where split screen was almost a standard for many N64 games. Getting together with your friends, popping in Goldeneye and taking turns battling it out with the loser with the least kills giving up the controller.
Soon falling suit was the PlayStation with its awkward boomerang multitap and the cult classic Dreamcast sporting the four ports on the front, then the Xbox, then the Gamecube, then the PS2 with its awkward block multitap. But it seems as if with the new generation, split screen is becoming a thing of the past.
Granted the current systems support up to four controllers (seven for the PS3, why is Sony so weird when it comes to this? I know it’s for bluetooth devices, but why the odd number?), but it seems as if everything is moving online.
Gone are the days where inviting your friends over for a four player game... More »
Nintendo is rather clearly running away with the so-called 'casual' market, but that still leaves room for Sony and Microsoft.
Chris Bateman takes the opinion that Sony has managed to squander the biggest market lead in the history of gaming, but that doesn't mean it's easy sailing for Microsoft. To quote:
"The battle is far from over, and Sony have more up their sleeve right now than Microsoft appear to be able to muster, but by stealing hardcore loyalty from their market rivals, Microsoft has gained an edge that could allow them to give Sony a seriously bloody nose this time around.
But if it came to 360 versus Wii in a battle for the mass market, Microsoft should save their warchest and call it quits – it may be the hardcore gamer’s ideal machine right now, but even in a dream scenario the 360’s installed base is probably going to top out at about 40 million (not coincidentally, roughly the size of the installed base of Sony’s... More »
Although it has arrived a bit later than expected, it’s here now. Team Twiizers has rolled out the initial release of the open-source Wii DVD access library, which allows users to read standard DVDs on a unmodified console with the homebrew-enabling Twilight Hack installed.
Download: libdi (DVDX) / MPlayer
If you have a mod-chip, you also need patchmii_core, in addition to the DVDX stub installer.
To quote: As you all know, I’ve been working on libdi (or the DVD Access library) for a while now. We had some problems getting it out to release because of the difficulties we encountered while writing the second part of this topic. The DVDX installer instead will install a small, hidden, channel on your Wii that allows you to read DVDs on an unmodified system. It is not an installer for a patche... More »
Drk||Raziel, developer of Dreamcast emulator NullDC, has issued a clarification statement in regards to the recently unveiled PSP port.
First off, he notes that due to RAM constraints, the PSP port of NullDC will be compatible with Slim units, which house 64MB RAM compared to 32MB on the previous hardware revision.
Furthermore, the author explicitly mentions that he is not making any promises concerning the speed of the emulator, only that he will attempt to get it running as fast as possible.
Certainly, we’re excited over the prospect of Dreamcast emulation on PSP, but as with the PSP version of StrmnNrmn’s N64 emulator Daedalus, don’t expect games to run at a playable speed any time soon.
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We’re going to have to say this, so just bear with us for a second, and be aware that we mean it in the best possible sense. We don’t want to indulge in any pointless console wars, and we certainly don’t want to be tarred with the inevitable fanboy brush.
Okay... deep breath. The PS3 is kinda broken.
Now we don’t mean that the PS3 will ‘red ring’ at any given opportunity, and we’re not suggesting it’s a console destined for the scrapheap – quite the opposite. When we say the PS3 is broken, we say it with the best of intentions, with a barely contained frustration towards a machine that, in its current state, will never fulfil its full potential.
We’re talking of course about processing bottlenecks, and the PS3 has a tonne of them.
The first major bottleneck is a result of the Blu ray drive. Although Blu-ray has traditionally been seen as the major selling point of the PS3 (and to a certain extent it is) at this ear... More »
Nobody can deny that the initial excitement of the Virtual Console has waned in recent months. Releases have slowed down in the shadow of Wii Ware, and the quality of the releases themselves has taken a nosedive.
Last year, we all had hope. Quality games were abounding. There was a ton of hype and everybody was looking forward to having all of their favorite old-school classics together on one console, all legally. There's a certain satisfaction to that thought: five generations of classic gaming in a tiny white box.
Sadly, that dream is starting to become tarnished by the harsh realities of business. As much as we love them, game companies exist to maximize their profits, not cater to nostalgic fans. As such, there's a lot of games (or superior versions of games) we might not be getting any time soon, if at all.
Where's My Cut? Regardless of how we may feel certain titles are timeless, companies tend to think of video game releases as being f... More »
Recently, the staff of 411Mania games got together to discus putting together our lists of top 50 games of all time. I present to you my list of the top 50 games of all time, in my opinion.
1. Maniac Mansion Nintendo Entertainment System
Maniac Mansion was one of the greatest games to ever be put on a console of any kind. This was one of the first games I ever went back and played after beating it because it offered alternative endings based on how you played the game. This was a revolutionary game that garners almost no reception or appreciation today. If you can ever find a copy of this game pick it up I promise you that you will not regret it. Here's hoping someone out there reads this and sends me a copy of it for the original NES.
2. Halo 2 Xbox
There is nothing to say about this game that has not already been said. This was the first time I ever felt that I was fully using the potential of my Xbox While I enjoyed Halo 3, it was nowhere near... More »
To celebrate the release of the Homebrew Channel tehpola, sepp256 and emu_kidid have released a Nintendo Wii build of their ever progressing port of Mupen64 a Nintendo 64 emulator for the Nintendo GameCube and Wii.
Wiin64 is the official name for the Wii build and there is currently no updated GameCube version.
Download: Wii WiiN64 Alpha r3xx
What's New?
+ glN64 Port
+ MEM2 ROM Cache for Wii (fits 32MB ROMs)
+ libfat support (Front Slot & SD Gecko now work)
- libsdcard support (RIP)
+ Save/Load on Wii Filesystem
+ Progressive video support
+ Embedded font support for Qoob users
* Threaded audio
* Various GX_gfx fixes
* Reworked input plugin
+ Modular controller input
+ Classic controller support
+ Developer Features submenu
* Toggle FPS/Debug display
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