Nintendo-Revolution down awhile

Now, this is a brief rumour round-up, as well as my last post before E3. I have just entered into a preliminary agreement to develop a concept for and then shoot a music video (I don´t just work as a game journalist, but also as a freelance producer for various kinds of projects). Part of the clip may be shot in Los Angeles just after E3, which is the reason for having to rush a first concept and storyboard.

Despite my intentions, this clip, alongside my regular work in the newsroom, will keep me so busy over the next few weeks that I will be unable to keep running this blog. Please appreciate that this is a professional project and this blog will simply have to take second place. Thanks for understanding - see you after E3!

Andreas

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1.) (NO) END SOON

Mr. Inc´s blog is offline, finally. In a last-ditch effort they have published a silhouette of what looks like two game characters. Here is their last post in full, just for the record:

Wednesday, March 29, 2006
ATTENTION! NINTENDO VIRAL MARKETING HAS STARTED!!

I have to remove this blog within 24 hours after this post. I’ve still good connections with one member (friend)of the team which said they’ve been warned about the following thing!

ALL PAY ATTENTION TO ALL THE “APRIL FOOLES” THAT ARE COMING. THERE WILL PROBABLY BE A LOT REGARING REVOLUTION HARDWARE/GAMES, BUT ONE OF THOSE APRIL FOOLS IS ACTUALLY REAL AND IS BEING RELEASED BY NINTENDO UNDER AN ANNONYMOUSE NICKNAME AT IGN/N-SIDER NINTENDO FORUMS.

I’VE NOT BEEN TOLD WHAT EXACTLY THIS “APRIL FOOL” IS, BUT IT’S SUPPOSED TO FIT WITH MY PREVIOUS POST.

BE ALERT, NINTENDO’S VIRAL MARKETING HAS STARTED WHICH WILL BUILT UP THE HYPE LEADING ALL TO E3 2006 !!

Whether you hate me or No End Soon, the Nintendo fans will love this month.

Goodbye forever!

PS, please confirm to yourself at E3 this blog was actually REAL ->
REMEMBER AND COMPARE TO PICTURES AFTER E3 2006 !!
Look what uncle bad guy has in his hands!

[img]http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/1286/noendsoon7jx.jpg[/img]




PROBLEMS, SORRY . . . . . . .

Almost a brave decision to post a pic like that. With it, they will remove all doubt about them being impostors come May.

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2.) Dubious interview about Zelda: Twilight Princess Rev controller features

Nintendo fan site The Hylia has apparently interviewed Eiji Aonuma, Zelda: Twilight Princess producer.

The game will be released closer to the Revolution launch, making it essentially a launch title. (...) You can control the sword and shield with the unique setup of the Revolution controller, allowing the player to experience combat in Zelda like never before. When you play the game on GameCube, the fighting mechanics are based in a third-person perspective. However, on the Revolution, the battles shift into a first person mode, which allows the player to really feel like they are dueling a foe rather than playing a game. You should see some of the boss battles in this mode.

Of course, you can use the controller to aim your bow, your hookshot or your boomerang, as well as some other items. The amount of force you use while handling the controller will also determine how far or fast your items go. There are also some puzzles specially developed on the Revolution version that will require the input from the Revolution’s controller. These puzzles will be solved a different way on the GameCube. (...) We’re still considering an online Zelda, either for DS or Revolution, but I can’t speak anymore about it at this time.

However, The Hylia has been offline for more than a day and the editors have not responded to my mails so far. The excerpts are courtesy of Codename Revolution. I mailed the site´s owner and this is the response I got:

I'm not allowed to talk about it. It's no longer up, that's all I can say without any futher consequence.

Sorry.

My guess here is that it was fake. No disrespect, but it´s unlikely a site like that would be able to secure such an interview.

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3.) All the rest

This is where I am being overtaken by time constraints, unfortunately. I would have wished to be able to post in detail about Matt´s chore list in that IGN discussion and various other rumours going around, some of which are quite intriguing. But I simply can´t. Sorry. It was a pleasure serving you for so long (I only hope I have) and I am pretty sure that I can be back after E3 to tell you all about Revolution. In the meantime, please use my link list, which I believe to be rather comprehensive. And, if you would be so kind, please use the comments section to keep me up-to-date with any recent developments. Looks like the tables have turned now ;)

Sources: Mr. Inc´s blog, The Hylia, Codename Revolution
Thanks to: all of you

Revolution to have Xbox specs

The Revolution will have little more horsepower than the original Xbox, IGN reports. They have spoken to a number of studios who wish to remain anonymous. Here´s the story:

IBM's "Broadway" CPU is clocked at 729MHz, according to updated Nintendo documentation. By comparison, GameCube's Gekko CPU ran at 485MHz. The original Xbox's CPU, admittedly a different architecture altogether, was clocked at 733MHz. Meanwhile, Xbox 360 runs three symmetrical cores at 3.2GHz. (...)

Revolution's ATI-provided "Hollywood" GPU clocks in at 243MHz. By comparison, GameCube's GPU ran at 162MHz, while the GPU on the original Xbox was clocked at 233MHz. Sources we spoke with suggest that it is unlikely the GPU will feature any added shaders, as has been speculated.

"The 'Hollywood' is a large-scale integrated chip that includes the GPU, DSP, I/O bridge and 3MBs of texture memory," a studio source told us.

The overall system memory numbers we reported last December have not greatly fluctuated, but new clarifications have surfaced. Revolution will operate using 24MBs of "main" 1T-SRAM. It will additionally boast 64MBs of "external" 1T-SRAM. That brings the total number of system RAM up to 88MBs, not including the 3MB texture buffer on the GPU. By comparison, GameCube featured 40MBs of RAM not counting the GPU's on-board 3MBs. The original Xbox included 64MBs total RAM. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 operate on 512MBs of RAM.

It is not known if the 14MBs of extra D-RAM we reported on last December are in the current Revolution specifications.

"The external RAM can be accessed as quickly as the main RAM, which is a nice touch," a developer we spoke with alleged.

This news is hardly surprising - and shouldn´t make us expect any less graphics from the console when we will see games within the next few weeks (or quite possibly within days). After all, seeing how Nintendo managed to get Resident Evil 4 running on their current hardware, just think what wonders they could do with at least double that hardware power.

Source: IGN

Revolution news imminent

We will see Revolution games within the next four weeks. First of all, IGN´s Matt Casamassina has pretty much confirmed that there will be Revolution news before E3 by posting the following on an IGN Insider board, freely available through GoNintendo:

You won’t have to wait for E3 for stuff, that much I can guarantee. GDC should be decent. And you’ll learn about and even see games prior to E3.

He has since reiterated that statement on an IGN Board open to the public:

Well, I happen to know the timelines for some releases and a few are happening in April. Supposing the schedules don't change -- at this point, I'd be near-impossible to move them -- you'll start to see stuff before E3.

Thirdly, there is Nintendo Power claiming they will have "the biggest scoop of the year so far" on the next edition´s cover. Here´s a scan, courtesy of GoNintendo:


And lastly, I myself can reveal that we will see Revolution games within the next four weeks, possibly much sooner. I may have posted this under the rumour heading, but this is fact. If you ask me, about time.

Source: IGN Insider boards (through GoNintendo), IGN boards
Image source: GoNintendo