Will The Nintendo Revolution Play N64 Games Off A USB Hard drive?

[_Zack_]

I know the revolution will be able to play N64, Snes, Nes & GB games but im just wondering how will it do it? I know there was talk of you being able to download the games from the official Nintendo website (Probably for a fee) but then what? Will the Revolution come with a built in hard drive or will you be able to use a USB Hard drive to download and play the games on?

Also any official release date for the Revolution yet?

[flowrent]

It will be released around Thanksgiving in the US.
And i think yes it will have some kind of storage for you to download games.

[BoggyB]

Current news/rumours/speculation is that it will have 512MB of flash memory for storage.

[Jaz]

Current news/rumours/speculation is that it will have 512MB of flash memory for storage.

Is that all?

[_Zack_]

Yeah that would be way too small if it didnt have support for external usb drives. Will nintendo allow you to buy & download Gamecube games on the revolution. That would be great.

[Jaz]

I can see the "extra add-on HDD" now. Why bother. Just build the bloody thing into the machine now and be done with it.

[Quvack]

Yeah that would be way too small if it didnt have support for external usb drives. Will nintendo allow you to buy & download Gamecube games on the revolution. That would be great.

I'm sure there will be support for removable type storage.

buy & download gamecube games? I doubt they'll support downloading of them, all you have to do is put the disc in and it'll play, GC games are too big for the majority of people to download like that, and they are easily/cheaply available all over the place.

[BoggyB]

Is that all?
http://www.nintendo.com/newsarticle?articleid=02ea1a40-ac09-4cdf-9548-91e5a4e78746&page=home)
According to that, it will have the flash and a SD card slot.

And 512MB is a lot when you think about it. Remember that's in megabytes, and e.g. N64 cartridge sizes are usually given in megabits. Majora's Mask is 256Mb, which is 32MB. You could fit 16 copies of it in that flash memory. I think that's the largest N64 games come, and of course SNES and NES games are a lot smaller than that.

[smcd]

I can see the "extra add-on HDD" now. Why bother. Just build the bloody thing into the machine now and be done with it.

Why? Price. Nintendo keeps the entry-level price down quite a bit compared to other consoles. Not everyone will be interested in the downloadable games aspect of the Revolution so why should they have to pay for a hard drive they'd never use?

[The_Z]

Conker's Bad Fur Day is a 512 MegaBit cart. Resident Evil 2 and Ogre Battle (is that the title?) was also 512 MegaBit carts. Dinosaur Planet and Eternal Darkness was going to be on a 512 MegaBit cart, but was moved to the gamecube.

[arnalion]

It's possible to upgrade the flash memory too.

[Clements]

Revolution will support SD cards for this purpose as well.


Conker's Bad Fur Day is a 512 MegaBit cart. Resident Evil 2 and Ogre Battle (is that the title?) was also 512 MegaBit carts.

Ogre Battle was 320Mb. There were three 512Mb carts on the N64 if you discount regional variations:

- Conker's Bad Fur Day
- Pokemon Stadium 2
- Resident Evil 2.

512Mb = 64MB.

[arnalion]

I've read that the N64 games to revolution will have updated textures...
That would probably make the games bigger (if it's true :P)

[smcd]

If it supports SD cards, I wonder if the game images will be altered digitally signed or something along those lines so people can't just pop in ROMs from the net and play for free on the console...

[BoggyB]

I've read that the N64 games to revolution will have updated textures...
That would probably make the games bigger (if it's true :P)
Probably not. Last time they did this (old Zelda games on the Gamecube), the retexturing was limited to changing the colours and names of buttons, and redoing the save system.


I wonder if the game images will be altered digitally signed or something along those lines so people can't just pop in ROMs from the net and play for free on the console...
*gazes into crystal ball*
Almost certainly, as from what I've heard Nintendo aim to sell/lease the ROMs. It'll almost certainly get broken/bypassed/cracked eventually, but if they do it right it could be very hard to do so. Look at the Gamecube: if it wasn't for Phantasy Star Online it would be very hard to get homebrew code on it.

Personally, I'm happy to pay a reasonable amount (£5-£30, depending on the game) per SNES and N64 game for the Revolution. It would be even better if I could 'transfer' games I already own to it, but I'm not sure how they'd do it securely.

[Miretank]

Probably not. Last time they did this (old Zelda games on the Gamecube), the retexturing was limited to changing the colours and names of buttons, and redoing the save system.
Have I heard EmulatorWithHi-RezPluginsToLoadTEXTUREZ? :P

You could store the textures inside the card, and load'em up when playing, like you do with Rice's Plugin.

[WhiteX]

I find it hard to happen, unless they charge you with thjose downloads.

[The_Z]

Revolution will support SD cards for this purpose as well.



Ogre Battle was 320Mb. There were three 512Mb carts on the N64 if you discount regional variations:

- Conker's Bad Fur Day
- Pokemon Stadium 2
- Resident Evil 2.

512Mb = 64MB.
Ah, a mistake on my part. Thanks.