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[citrus lump]

So,I'm not very tech savvy... please be gentle. :lol


1. with revolutions ability to download old games, could a company such as square "port " games to it like Final fantasy 7-9? I mean could revolution theoretically do that, or would that be impossible?

2. If these games are from NES, SNES,N64- and they fit on a SD card- could something be made to play that SD card on the DS?

3.And if other companies decide to go along with Nintendos' idea, what to stop them from offering the same services on PS3 and XBOX360? Is there something nintendo could do to "block"this?


Sorry if any of these have already been answered, but I don't feel like trudging through all the Revolution threads.

 

[Gio_CoD]

1.) Yes - Square could technically port any game it wanted to to the revolution and offer it for download.

2.) Yes - to a degree. The NDS could emulate Nintendo games, and could "possibly" emulate Super Nintendo games. N64 games, it could not emulate. What Nintendo could do is essentially port N64 games and a few high end SNES games to the DS infrastructure, offer them for download on the Revolution, and then you could pack them on a SD card, fit it in the potential adapter, and carry them on the go. Is this going to happen though? No. If Nintendo invested the effort into porting games to the DS, they'd just release it as a full-fledged Nintendo DS game rather than offering it on the cheap as a downloadable.

3.) There's nothing really stopping them from doing it.

 

[citrus lump]

thank you. its too bad really, the prospect of taking a huge library of games on the go is very compelling.

 

[Ruzbeh]

3) Microsoft Game Studios (editted) didn't exist in the 80s so how can they offer retro games? :lol

Besides. They already offer very simple multiplayer arcade games for like 10 and 15 dollars each. No way NES games are going to be that expensive.

And Sony wouldn't offer full PS1 game downloads because you can still buy PS1 games I think. And the PS3 doesn't come with a HDD by default.

 

[citrus lump]

3) Microsoft Game Studios (editted) didn't exist in the 80s so how can they offer retro games? :lol

Besides. They already offer very simple multiplayer arcade games for like 10 and 15 dollars each. No way NES games are going to be that expensive.

And Sony wouldn't offer full PS1 game downloads because you can still buy PS1 games I think. And the PS3 doesn't come with a HDD by default.

Actually I was talking about third party games made for the nes/snes/n64

 

[Gio_CoD]

thank you. its too bad really, the prospect of taking a huge library of games on the go is very compelling.

Oh yeah, it would have been brilliant. I had never even thought of that possibility until you brought it up. Would have been a killer app, and a truly killer use for the system connectivity features that Nintendo used to preach. Unfortunately, NDS is a little underpowered to emulate all prior (sans Cube) generations. You may yet see something like this happen though, but I imagine it would be limited strictly to NES games. Remember how Animal Crossing allowed players to download NES games onto their GBAs for short term storage? It would be very similar to that, except permanent storage in the form of SD cards.

Then again, that opens up Pandora's Box for piracy, and you know how Nintendo feels about piracy.

If I had to give odds, I'd say 10:1 AGAINST anything like that happening. Of course I'd love the hell out of it if it did.

 

[jarrod]

1. with revolutions ability to download old games, could a company such as square "port " games to it like Final fantasy 7-9? I mean could revolution theoretically do that, or would that be impossible?

Possible, but unlikely imo. They'd mave to make their own PSone emulator and CD games wouldn't be download/memory efficient. Plus it could bring litigation from Sony potentially.... just not worth the headache.

2. If these games are from NES, SNES,N64- and they fit on a SD card- could something be made to play that SD card on the DS?

Theoretically yes, but I think it's more likely that Nintendo's download service will extend to their next gen Game Boy (with GB/GBC/GBA games added).

3.And if other companies decide to go along with Nintendos' idea, what to stop them from offering the same services on PS3 and XBOX360? Is there something nintendo could do to "block"this?

Nope, but they likely don't have to worry much considering they have by a wide margin the most valuable retro library. Sony's probably not too interested given they allow PS1/PS2 playback already but I could definitely see Microsoft approaching Sega on a similar retro service for Xbox 360.

 

[citrus lump]

Then again, that opens up Pandora's Box for piracy, and you know how Nintendo feels about piracy.

really tho, saving the games to a card in general does that- and that feature has been announced hasn't it?

 

[Gio_CoD]

really tho, saving the games to a card in general does that- and that feature has been announced hasn't it?

From what I've heard, the games would be saved to the embedded flash memory. I haven't seen any confirmation that they'll be moveable to the SD cards that the system can supposedly read.

 

[citrus lump]

Plus it could bring litigation from Sony potentially.... just not worth the headache.

I'm guessing these waters are fairly muddy, but how would this differ from those retro collections that come out? Alot of those games re-released are from past systems.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

1.) Yes - Square could technically port any game it wanted to to the revolution and offer it for download.

To build on this a bit, FF VII-IX wouldn't really be decent choices for such a download service due to their size. Hundreds of megabytes for the game files, plus much more for FMV which wouldn't be easy to just cut out. Something like an FFT would be more feasible, if they actually wanted to go to such trouble.

Me, I'm more curious about things which would take even less work. Like, say, taking the FF V translation made for FF Anthologies, and putting it back into the SNES version to be made available for download. The same for Tactics Ogre and probably others that don't come to mind.

 

[citrus lump]

From what I've heard, the games would be saved to the embedded flash memory. I haven't seen any confirmation that they'll be moveable to the SD cards that the system can supposedly read.

I'm not sure why it would have the slots for the SD and Cube mem cards. One would think ninty could make an all-in-one.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I'm guessing these waters are fairly muddy, but how would this differ from those retro collections that come out? Alot of those games re-released are from past systems.

Well, Sony has been known to litigate companies like bleem! out of existence.

 

[Gio_CoD]

I'm guessing these waters are fairly muddy, but how would this differ from those retro collections that come out? Alot of those games re-released are from past systems.

Well, he's probably referring to Sony going after Connectix for it's Bleemcast and BleemPC software the emulated the technical composition of a PSX. Sony sued the hell out of them (I can't remember if they won or not), but the cost of litigation basically killed the company anyway.

If you think about it, there really aren't any compilation discs that have any PS1 games on it so far. I wonder if that's by design or coincidence.

 

[citrus lump]

Well, Sony has been known to litigate companies like bleem! out of existence.

Yes, but since the companies own the rights to the games, you'd think they could do what they like with them.


I guess instead of a straight emulator, what if certain companies tweaked the code? I mean could the revolution just run something like that, or is it too much fuss?

 

[Discharger]

1. Revolution won't have any "special" ability to play old games, it's just that Nintendo is going to allow their back catalog of games to be downloaded/played. That's the big news - the Gamecube is technically capable of emulating anything before it as well - they just didn't do that. So yes, Square-Enix could port a version of PSX FF games if they wanted to.

2. It should be technically possible. Whether or not Nintendo is going to allow that functionality is another story.

3. Legal issues would not allow this to happen unless Nintendo wished it to. If the other systems play SD cards and you were to get an enivitable mod-chip for said systems, it would be techncially possible, but someone would have to write software to do it.

 

[Gio_CoD]

Yes, but since the companies own the rights to the games, you'd think they could do what they like with them.


I guess instead of a straight emulator, what if certain companies tweaked the code? I mean could the revolution just run something like that, or is it too much fuss?

The publishers and developers wouldn't get sued. The company providing the emulation technology would get sued.

EDIT

And yeah, they could "port" the game to a fictitious piece of hardware that happens to be very similar to the original system it was designed for and then release the port.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

And yeah, they could "port" the game to a fictitious piece of hardware that happens to be very similar to the original system it was designed for and then release the port.

Well, I think the idea would be to straight port it to Revolution and skip over emulation at all... still, I don't think this is something we'll see much or at all. The idea behind Revolution's downloads seems to basically be "FREE MONEY FOR US!!" since the only new work should be in the development of the emulators and store interface. To go to the trouble of porting a more recent popular game that might run into size problems... well, just a limited disc release would make more sense.

If you think about it, there really aren't any compilation discs that have any PS1 games on it so far. I wonder if that's by design or coincidence.

My money would be on the PS2 having the vast majority of the worldwide console marketshare, so the easiest way to do such a compilation is to bundle together a few PS1 discs and let backwards compatibility take care of the rest.

 

[The Faceless Master]

didn't tecmo already do the whole 'nintendo console game emulated on microsoft system' with ninja gaiden?

 

[jarrod]

didn't tecmo already do the whole 'nintendo console game emulated on microsoft system' with ninja gaiden?

Yep. There's also MMAC on PS2/GC/Xbox which emulates PSone & SNES games. I don't think it's so much an issue with specific releases using emulated games, but the hardware provider would need to sanction (and probably develop themselves) any universal emulator of a competitor's platform for their download service. And I just don't see that happening, both Sony and Nintendo would sue the hell out of anyone who tried with their machines.

You're not going to see a universal service for NES/SNES/N64/GC games on PS3/360 or PS1/PS2 on 360/Rev or Xbox on PS3/Rev or GB/GBC/GBA on PSP. It's just not going to happen... though I think deals with companies like Sega, Atari, SNK, Bandai or NEC for their past platforms is still entirely wide open.

 

[Blackace]

1.) Yes - Square could technically port any game it wanted to to the revolution and offer it for download.

Are you sure about this? I think there is some kind of software agreement between them and Sony...but not really sure about this...

 

[Gio_CoD]

Are you sure about this? I think there is some kind of software agreement between them and Sony...but not really sure about this...

That's why I said "technically". Technically, they could do it. Legally is an entirely different beast. I don't know if Sony purchased any sort of exclusivity deal to the official numbered series when they bought a 20 percent stake in Square after the movie blowup, but I'm assuming they haven't. After all, they released 7 and 11 for the PC, and now 11 is going to the Xbox as well.