Over the weekend, while I wasn’t working on splicing together and editing a video for work (how I got roped into doing that, I’ll never know), I dug my Nintendo Wii out of the box I had so foolishly packed it in — why I thought it would stay in there for long, I don’t know — and proceeded to install a new channel on it, the Homebrew Channel. This is a third-party channel that lets you play homebrew games, emulators, and other applications (e.g. Linux, media players, etc.) on your Wii. Yes, you can play a lot of older games without installing this hack and the emulators by buying them on the Virtual Console, but if you already own them, why pay for them again, especially if they aren’t even available on the shop (e.g. the entire Mega Man original series)? Below the fold, the nitty gritty of the hack, and a video of it in action.
Games
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A genuine blast from the past.
I moistened my proverbial panties when I saw this.
For those of you who don’t know, I love the Mega Man series, and for Capcom to come out with a new game, in 2008, modelled after the original 8-bit NES series, makes every geeky cell in my body squeal with delight.
How much do I love Mega Man? Why, this much:
Games that don’t suck
It’s been a while since I’ve played a game that’s really drawn me in. For a while I played Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and, despite its endless content (with downloadable plugins and content created by the user community), sandbox world style gameplay, and certain absolutely brilliant modifications that alter even how the game engine itself works, I eventually lost interest. It might have something to do with my being such a completist that I spent most of my time playing every single side quest and getting every single item and upgrade I could, ignoring the main plotline. That’s probably my biggest problem with sandbox games — they don’t hold my attention for long enough for me to actually get around to completing the plot. For instance, despite greatly enjoying the series, I’ve never completed a Grand Theft Auto game.
(way more below the fold…)
Late 1980s DOS games that should have been made
This makes me want to dig out my old Infocom text adventures. Or maybe Zork.
Helping you help us help you help us all
So here’s how the game goes. You wake up in what appears to be a cryogenic stasis tube in a small glass-panelled room. There are no visible exits to the room. An AI computer voice hopes that your “brief detention in the relaxation vault” has been pleasant, and informs you that the testing is about to begin. And then a portal opens up on one of the walls of your cell.
This portal doesn’t work like other video games or sci-fi, though. If you look through the portal, you can see everything on the other side of it, seamlessly. If you look through the portal from a sheer angle, you see through it at that same angle as though it was actually a window. If you step through it, there’s no indication to you that you’d done so save for a little *fwoomp* noise.