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NES (Games) Classic Games (Games) Emulation (Games) Entertainment Games

First Nintendo IQue Reviews 261

Major Payne writes "I have found two reviews for the exclusively in china released Nintendo IQue Player which is capable of emulating Nintendo64 as well as SNES Games hardwarewise. English one is located over at Dextrose.com and is a bit more technically advanced than the German one. Both reviews are very detailed though and interesting to read. I also think those two are the world first reviews for this new hardware and there is also some interesting leads on how to hack the device to make it even more interesting to the rest of the world."
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First Nintendo IQue Reviews

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 07, 2003 @01:56PM (#7654117)
    Somewhat off topic but, I was recently in the mall with a friend when we came up to a small shop thats near the food court. Some shady guy in a suit was running it, and they had 6 TV's with these little game controllers. They boasted a selection of 7200 games, which was amazing. It played just like the real game plays, new controller. What was more interesting was it seemed to have NES, SNES, and ATARI games. I just don't see how thats legal, and even more, how is it legal to sell something for $49.99 with 7 thousand titles?
  • 64Mbit flash cart? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <tomstdenis AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday December 07, 2003 @01:57PM (#7654128) Homepage
    Um, aren't most N64 games just a tad bigger than that?

    Tom
  • by kyndig ( 579355 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @02:00PM (#7654154) Homepage
    Well someone definately had their thinking cap on when they developed this idea. It'd be interesting to see if Nintendo can port that technology to their current systems sold here in the US. Being able to download a video game onto a blank cartridge for playing might just get me back into gaming. The pricing for the games are outstanding, I'd definately pay $6.00 for a game. These current prices of $40.00+ for just one game though is a definate turn off.

  • The Name (Score:2, Interesting)

    by worst_name_ever ( 633374 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @02:06PM (#7654182)
    I wonder what Garmin [garmin.com] will have to say about Nintendo ripping off the name of their existing product [garmin.com]...
  • by MilenCent ( 219397 ) * <johnwhNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday December 07, 2003 @02:40PM (#7654348) Homepage
    I didn't know that the entire system was the controller! Snap an LCD screen onto that video-out and you'd have a portible N64/SNES! Of course if they sold that the might cannibalize any market for the GBA in China.

    I'd love to own one of these, but alas, not in Chinese. And the controller is a bit clunky as well. But the possibility that it can run SNES games is really cool, and it makes real sense. I'd imagine that it wouldn't cost Nintendo very much to just throw in the entire SNES hardware, though space considerations in the controller would counteract that I suppose.

    I wonder if it's possible to buy "dumb" controllers to hook up to it in order to play multiplayer games? Dr. Mario 64 had multiplayer as a primary draw. With just two out ports (one of thise for video), I'd imagine for more than two players you'd need some sort of hub. But that could get expensive if you needed a separate iQue for each player.

    On the other hand, it'd make possible interesting games of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, in which not only did each player have his own screen, but his own graphics hardware.
  • by wud ( 709053 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @02:56PM (#7654442) Homepage Journal
    how is it legal to sell something for $49.99 with 7 thousand titles?


    Just Because its in the mall doesnt mean that its legal. The comic shop in the mall near me used to install the Play Station Mod Chips for 50 bucks, and if you knew the guy he would burn games for 10. The Funcoland had a working famicon and super famicon for you to goof around with. Plus plenty of record stores sell cdrs of live performances.

    Not everyone follows the rules, and im glad they dont.

  • by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepples.gmail@com> on Sunday December 07, 2003 @03:10PM (#7654519) Homepage Journal

    For those of you that don't know, Nintendo holds an infamous patent on the D-PAD

    What's the U.S. patent number? It's not listed in the embossed text on the back of my NES controllers, just "Nintendo controller, model no. NES-004, made in Japan", and I don't have my original NES packaging. I need to know the number in order to know when it was filed.

    Other systmes will include clumsy circles (X-BOX)

    Clumsy? The Microsoft implementation of a circular D-pad may be clumsy, but I've tried several other brands of controllers with a circular D-pad with a cross-shaped raised portion, such as the Gravis GamePad Pro USB, and they weren't as clumsy as you seem to claim.

    or individual buttons (Playstation).

    (Tepples grabs a PS1 controller.) The PS1 digital pad is actually one piece of plastic, not four like on the WonderSwan. When it's under the player's thumb, the "break" between the four raised portions of the pad feels more like a recessed area than a break because the size of the average player's thumb fills in the gap.

    "Hey, the Sega dreamcast had a D-PAD just like the Nintendo ones!". Which isn't true, you just have to flip open the controller

    Then how exactly did Sega get away with a + shaped D-pad on the Dreamcast controller? I'm too lazy to take apart my Dreamcast controller at the moment. If you're referring to the fact that the cross juts out from a disc hidden under the plastic housing of the controller, that can't be it. I've taken apart a Super NES controller, an N64 controller, and a Game Boy Advance system, and Nintendo D-pads jut out from discs as well. However, I can see that there are small sloped faces on the inside corners of the plastic of the Dreamcast D-pad. Does that have anything to do with it?

  • by greygent ( 523713 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @03:12PM (#7654538) Homepage
    It probably looks nice to the Chinese. Nintendo has a good habit of developing different case designs for specific markets.

    For example, the Japanese version of the NES was a rounded, shiny cherry red case. The US version was a more conservative boxy gray.

    The Japanese version of the SNES was an ugly... well can't even describe it. I owned one and didn't like the shape at all. The American version was much more appealing to me (an American).
  • Multiplayer? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Quobobo ( 709437 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @04:40PM (#7654953)
    Okay, okay.. I only skimmed the linked article, but I'm wondering how the iQue supports multiplayer games. I didn't see any mention of controller ports on the controller (well, the system) in the article.
  • by Wolfier ( 94144 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @05:13PM (#7655163)
    That's the thing. When I saw the US version of the SNES I went "WTF is this ugly box".

    To me the Japanese design of the SNES box is way more aesthetical.
  • by I(rispee_I(reme ( 310391 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @05:48PM (#7655337) Journal
    Check this [dcemulation.com] out!
  • DRM and Nintendo (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Dave_bsr ( 520621 ) <slaphappysal@hotmail.com> on Sunday December 07, 2003 @07:14PM (#7655850) Homepage Journal
    I think the most important thing about this whole story is that this is probably workable DRM on Nintendo's part.

    Write-once chips, downloadable content, closed "player" system. Sounds just like DRM to me. And it goes for super-cheap in China.

    I think this is a good idea on Nintedo's part. They make money (using old content that is now "free" to them) and the people in china theoretically get a cool new mini-system. Nintendo breaks into the Chinese market...

    Very interesting.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 07, 2003 @08:19PM (#7656232)
    There's person in this world who prefers the look of the US SNES? OH MY!! I do not believe it.

    The Japanese Super Famicom and European Super Nintendo are far more aesthetically pleasing.

    However, the US SNES has one advantage over the Japanese/European versions - the plastics stay grey! Quite a lot of SFC's and EU SNES consoles are turning yellow with age..
  • by Black Hitler ( 687112 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @08:50PM (#7656398)
    I've heard rumors Nintendo used a "boxy" shape for the U.S. version of the SNES/Super Famicom (instead of the rounded Japanese/European versions) because they figured players would set drinks on top of it. Supposedly they were worried that folks in the litigation-happy U.S. would accidentally spill their drinks and sue Nintendo for it; by making the system box-shaped they could claim they had already done everything they could to prevent spills and thus inoculate themselves from lawsuits. That's what I've heard, anyway -- it sounds too ridiculous to be true if you ask me.
  • by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Sunday December 07, 2003 @08:52PM (#7656418)
    "There's person in this world who prefers the look of the US SNES? OH MY!! I do not believe it."

    Personally, I liked the way the power switch and reset button worked, but the eject lever gets tired after a while.

    "US SNES has one advantage over the Japanese/European versions - the plastics stay grey! "

    Nope, ours discolor as well. They start out as white with a blueish hue and turn into something... well, about the same color as your typical Super Famicom (a beige/gray kind of color). But the really strange thing is that the different pieces discolor differently; the bottom half of mine is discolored while the top half is fine, and I've also seen ones where the cartridge door is the only part the original color. I'm still not sure how that happens.

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