The Nights controller came out after the N64.

There was also this nonsense for the NES.

davyK wrote:

Nintendo not releasing wii is kind of saying what if Nintendo stopped being Nintendo....

True - but the wii was different. It was much less powerful (was it even HD?) to the 360 and PS3. Nintendo always evolved their controller but the wii was a real change. I'd argue a bigger change than the n64.

Nintendo to SNES -  More Power, More buttons, fair to say outside of the Neo Geo it was the top spec machine of its gen
SNES to N64 - More Power, New Control stick, and CD issue aside wasnt this more powerful than the PS1 and the Saturn? 
N64 to Gamecube - More Power, new controller style, I think the spec for the Cube and the Box are about level with the PS2 not as strong
Gamecube to Wii - A small bit more powerful, radically different approach to control, Very much behind 360 and PS3 spec wise.

I had that. Used it even less than the rapid fire unit.

You used to be able to get analogue ‘flight stick’ controllers back in the Atari/Amiga days, mostly for flight sims.

Nintendo have always believed in putting the oomph where their 1st party games needed it.

SNES was pretty underpowered - slow clock speed but it had great graphics and sound chips.

N64 was a powerhouse - its processor speed at just under 100Mhz was a beast on release. Of course it had other shortcomings such as its texture cache but it had "it" where they wanted it.

GC was probably their most conventional console. A powerful safe pair of hands.

N64 and GC both made money but aren't considered successful.

I have waxed lyrical here about the so called Nintendo difference but I always thought it was the fact that they designed the hardware & controller to match the games they wanted to do. The PS1 actually followed that plan a bit - it was designed to host 3D games from the ground up.

Sony and MS now build a generic powerhouse, Nintendo stick to their plan.

Wii was a bolt from the blue though and was a genius move. After conservative GC, they decided not to play at power games with the other two and went their own way.

mistercrayon wrote:

I have a theory that Nintendo expected the Gamecube to sell big numbers and got a good deal off IBM for the chip (explaining the relatively low price but comparable performance to xbox and PS2). The GCN fumble though meant they had chips to spare which is why they just put two of each into the Wii. Nintendo made a good deal, on similar kind of ridiculous numbers to cost ratios for the chips in the NES which is why I think the GCN, Wii and Wii U used basically the same chips for ages.

Well, we still don't know the exact chipset of the wii u, they haven't released it yet.

Here's another one: if Sony hadn't released so many SKUs of the PS3, each with slightly different feature sets and HDD sizes, would the third PlayStation have done better against the 360? I always thought it was weird that Sony kept dicking with it. I couldn't keep up and I'm an enthusiast; how the fuck is the average person going to know which PS3 will play their old PS2 games and which won't? Why add Linux support and then take it out? Why so many HDD choices when the PS3 had user replaceable hard drives?

It seems to me like they were trying to bring the cost of the PS3 down* by taking the butcher's knife to the feature set, when I reckon the money they spent doing that could have been better spent by investing in the manufacturing process to make the initial offering cheaper.


*£525 at launch! Jeebus wept.

Also the Xbox 360 had two variations out the gate and no hdmi. It’s weird how crap it was

Price was the big thing.

360 was £280 or £210 without HDD.
PS3 was £425.
Thats a huge difference.

I seem to remember the PS3 had a HDMI port put no cable in the box, given how early this was cheap cables weren't all that easy to come by so add another £20 on.

LivDiv wrote:

Price was the big thing.

360 was £280 or £210 without HDD.
PS3 was £425.
Thats a huge difference.

My brain is saying £525. I think you’re right though. I remember walking past the local GAME when the PS3 launched. They still had piles of units left.

I was one of the early ps3 buyers in Ireland, got it with motorstorm, resistance and I think an extra joypad and I have a figure just shy of 700 euro in my head.

Yes, it was a while ago and yes, I was flush and foolish with cash.

The no HD on the 360 is an eye opener but I was a bit late to the party for that console so my original white 360 was HD ready.

I had the component cable 360, it lasted a surprisingly long time considering the amount of RRODs knocking about.

Motorstorm & Resistance trilogies could both do with remasters...

Well obviously, that's the whole plot of Battlezone